Horrible and Bar-bari-ous Murder of Poor Jael Denny, the Ill-fated Victim of Thomas Drory; Murder of Captain Lawson. (A "Cock".)

Double-sided sheet of engraved illustrations. On one side is a scene, based on a real murder, of Thomas Drory kneeling over the body of a prostrate Jael Denny as he tightens a cord around her neck, against a backdrop of a simple rural scene. The other side shows a scene of an imagined murder - a room setting with a female figure (Mrs Guard) thrusting a knife into the chest of a male figure (Captain Lawson), who has seduced and then deserted her. These simple wood engravings were published in Henry Mayhew's 'London Labour and the London Poor: The condition of those that will work, cannot work, and will not work', Vol. 1., 'London Street-Folk', first published in 1861. They were included by Mayhew as examples of 'street art', produced by cheap wood engravers to illustrate ballads, criminal broadsheets and other street literature sold by running patterers and other street sellers. Running patterers favoured papers relating to seduction and murder. If an account of a genuine murder was not available for selling, they would resort to crime fiction or 'cocks'. The double sided page has the heading 'Illustrations of street art no.I' on one side and 'Illustrations of street art no.II' on the other.