Marrowbones and cleavers

Among the London poor it was an old institution for butchers’ men to serenade a wedding with marrowbones and cleavers, as Hogarth showed in his picture of the Industrious Apprentice’s marriage. They gathered outside the house with a cleaver each, tuned to a note, and struck it with a marrowbone; a full band of eight gave a whole octave and could sound like a peal of bells. In the evening they wore clean blue aprons and white paper wedding favours, and kept playing until a crown or half-crown was paid. The men of Clare Market were the best performers, and by Chambers’s day the custom was dying out.