Narrative

3. Ballad-sheets were sold in printing shops, to the trade and by hawkers for one halfpenny or one penny. Earlier ballad-sheets were often large folio sheets; more common in the early-nineteenth century were narrower strips, or sometimes quarto-sized sheets. As in chapbooks, woodcut images often adorn the ballad-sheet. There is no music printed, although there is sometimes a line beneath the title referencing a popular tune. Hawkers would sing to the appropriate tune, which was probably well known to readers more interested in the new words.