Isle of Wight Observer September 1 1860
THINGS TO BE SEEN AND BOUGHT ON THE ESPLANADE
There are no things perhaps for which fashionable promenaders have such unmistakeable horror and dread, as they have for itinerant vendors of articles, and the disgusting exhibitors of white mice and Guinea pigs. Then how often must those who frequent the Esplanade be subject to such horror-striking agency? For there, in fine weather, almost every person whose appearance betokens him or her to belong to the “gentle” class, is assailed most importunately by female beggars, male hawkers, and boys with families of the little animals alluded to above. We will give a list of a few of the commodities to be purchased at this newly made market place. To begin with, the pin and cushion made lace. If the person to whom it is offered for sale declines purchasing, a tale of woeful widowhood with nine children is delivered; and this appeal to charitable feeling is generally successful in procuring what the merits of the lace had failed to command. The travelling “Brummagem jeweller” may also be here found, but he generally seeks a dupe among the numerous nursemaids or other servants who might be there walking. Some women, taking advantage of the fern mania, may be seen with large baskets of that plant for sale; others with dolls’ crochet, parasols, jackets, &c.; men with cane garden chairs, parrots, sweetmeats, model ships, deaf and dumb alphabets, sponge, air balls, &c. Altogether the Esplanade, at certain hours of the day, may be justly called “a fancy bazaar”, although the “exquisites” will persist in denouncing it as “something more than a fancied boaw (bore) to be taken for a pwatical philanthwopist when one has one’s intended on one’s awm.”
