The organ in the court

An illustration of a barrel organ, operated by an organ grinder, from 'London: a Pilgrimage' by Blanchard Jerrold and Gustave Doré, 1872. The barrel organ was a form of mechanical musical box, containing a limited number of tunes, operated by turning a handle. Some people viewed the noise as a nuisance, but Jerrold writes that: 'The barrel organ is the opera of the street-folk: and Punch is their national comedy theatre. I cannot call to mind any scene on our many journeys through London that struck the authors of this pilgrimage more forcibly than the waking up of a dull, woe-begone alley, to the sound of an organ. The women leaning out of the windows - pleasurably stirred, for an instant, in that long disease, their life - and the children trooping and dancing round the swarthy player!'