Esoteric London

Melton Street, London, NW1. Photo © Roger Dean 2012

Sketches of London Life and Character – Edited by Albert Smith, [c. 1849]:

COVENT GARDEN MARKET – Charles Kenney

The clients of the Bouquet-girl consist almost exclusively of the sighing herd of lovers. These, with the exception of an occasional wholesale order from the manager of a theatre with a view to some triumphant début, form the staple consumers of her wares. But among the whole tribe she has no such insatiate customer as he who is struggling in the toils of a danseuse. “If music be the food of love,” bouquets are certainly the very air upon the regular supply of which hangs its existence; and on such air does the danseuse, chamelion-like, seem exclusively to live.