Whenever Jane Austen came to visit London, her ears would have been assaulted by the din of London street noise. This would include the distinctive cries in the evening from street vendors such as the pie men shouting, “Pies all ‘ot! eel, beef, or mutton pies! Penny pies, all ‘ot–all ‘ot!”
In 1851, Henry Mayhew published London Labor and the London Poor, Vol 1. This social history described the venerable but humble occupation of the ‘street pie men’ and ‘the street-sellers of pea-soup and hot eels.’ These pie men sold their hot food to poor working class families at an affordable price. At one time, over 600 pie men roamed London to sell meat, eel or fruit pies in streets, taverns, summer fairs and at the races. By the time of Henry Mayhew’s history, only about 50 remained, selling their pies from 6 (in the evening, I presume) and staying out all night. The best time for selling pies was between 10 p.m. and 1 a.m.
Cornish Pastry
Eel sellers, however, largely sold their wares from stalls. Around the mid-19th century, these two trades went into a decline when penny-pie shops were established. Some street pie men did not seal off their pies properly, whereas the new shops sold food that was generally safe. Instead of selling pre-made pies, they sold live eels or food with good nutritional value for families to take home and cook. Within a few years the street sellers had almost disappeared.
Read more about this topic in the following links, especially Henry Mayhew’s. He interviewed actual working pie men and wrote down their observations:
Jane Austen's World 
For anyone who wants to taste the American version: the southern Wisconsin town of Mineral Point http://www.mineralpoint.com has preserved the stone cottages built by early 19th-century Cornish immigrants
http://www.wisconsinhistory.org/pendarvis/. The area still has strong ties to Cornish culture and restaurants serve traditional Cornish food. They were the best Cornish pasties I’ve ever had.
It is a nice tourist town — known for it antiques — that has a lot of information about the early mining history including these “fun facts”: 1. the pasties are wrapped this way so that they can be tucked under their jackets and keep them warm during the cold mornings in the mines before they are eaten at lunch; 2. one can still see “badger holes” dug into the hills for surface ore and — for the poorest of the miners — for shelter; 3. calling the immigrant Cornish miners “badgers” started out as a slur but, as is common, they turned it into a term of distinction and it is the origin of Wisconsin’s nickname, the “Badger State” as well as the state University’s mascot, Bucky Badger.
Moving up a century in history (from Jane Austen to Jay Gatsby): if you make a trip to Mineral Point be sure to also visit Frank Lloyd Wright’s Taliesen in Spring Green.
I’m sorry about all of the errors in that post. I was trying to get too much information in a small space and didn’t proofread it enough!
Thanks for visiting, Trixie. It’s nice to know you’ve already found this blog. What a great comment about the Cornish immigrants and the explanation of the origin of the term “Badger State.”
I’d always associated the word with the animals, not the miners.