Cigarette card with a colour image of a man carrying a white cloth wrapped bundle full of hot peas under one arm, entitled 'Hot Peas' Number 23 in a set of 25 cigarette cards entitled 'Cries of London'. Issued by John Player & Sons, a branch of the Imperial Tobacco Co. Ltd. Text on reverse reads:'Hot green peas have been sold in the streets of London since about 1400, for the poet Lydgate in his poem London Lack-penny, mentions the cry - “Hot peascods!” peas being then cooked in their shells. The sellers of “Hot green peas”, of a later date, carried them in a tin pan, often wrapped in a cloth to retain the heat. Salt and pepper were supplied, and a flavouring of butter and bacon. '
