Hot Codlins

Charles Cooper Henderson (1803-1877) produced several watercolours of street sellers some of which are in the Museum's collection.

In this watercolour an elderly woman is shown selling hot codlins which were hot roasted apples. She is wearing layers of old clothes with an old basket on her head containing a lighted brazier in which the apples were roasted. Wearing men's boots she also has a green umbrella under her arm.

The entertainer Joseph Grimaldi popularised the figure in a popular song about an old lady who sold hot codlins and drank too much gin. 'A little old woman, her living she got by selling codlins, hot, hot, hot. And this little old woman, who codlins sold, tho' her codlins were not, she felt herself cold. So to keep herself warm she thought it no sin to fetch for herself a quartern of ........'

The audience shouted out the last word with glee, as Grimaldi would look at them and say 'Oh! For Shame!'. This song continued to delight pantomime audiences over the years and was requested at his farewell benefit performances.