Begging

Begging (or panhandling) is to request a donation in a supplicating manner. Beggars are commonly found in public places such as street corners or public transport, where they request money, most commonly in the form of spare change. They may use cups, boxes or hats to collect the donations.

History of Begging
There are few current techniques for begging which have not been used for hundreds of years, or are not based on older techniques, adapted to modern technology. Beggars rarely recorded their techniques, and often used to disguise their own communication. What is known of them is largely from records of law enforcement, penitential or rogue literature.

From early modern England the best examples are Thomas Harman, and Robert Greene in his coney-catching pamphlets. There is no reason to suppose that what he recorded was new. There are similar writers for many European countries in the early modern period.

In a 1786 James Gillray caricature,

the plentiful money bags handed to

King George III are contrasted with

the beggar whose legs and arms were amputated,

in the left corner