For the folks down voting the parent post: Charles Babbage spent a considerable portion of his later life railing against street musicians. Street musicians, at

For the folks down voting the parent post: Charles Babbage spent a considerable portion of his later life railing against street musicians. Street musicians, at the time, ran a sort of extortion scheme. They'd show up in the early morning hours outside your house and play loudly until you paid them to go away. So Babbage worked to try to pass legislation to ban street music (don't remember off the top of my head if he was successful). And hurdy gurdies were a popular instrument for street musicians in Babbage's day.