Bellmen were watchmen, but also had responsibility for public safety and order, for ensuring that street lamps were lit and to watch for signs of fire. They called out the hours and ‘All’s well’ during the night.

Bellmen’s verses were distributed each year at Christmas by bellmen (or criers) and also by lamplighters in the expectation of a tip. The verses, which followed a set formula, would be modified to reflect current concerns, in this case the exile of Napoleon, the Congress, the slave trade, the militia, the property tax and the Tenth Hussars. This is an annotated printer’s copy. The verses marked ‘L.H.’ were written by James Henry Leigh Hunt (1784-1859), essayist, critic and poet, when in prison for the attack on the Prince Regent in The Examiner, a politically independent newspaper he ran jointly with his brother (who was also imprisoned).

The John Johnson Collection has a fine collection of such verses. Many, as in this example, are printers’ copies of verses printed by several generations of the Reynell family from 1791 to 1869.