Green’s Dictionary of Slang

wandering ballad-singer; beggars who make their demands in a sing-song or versifying manner.

1869		Star 25 Oct. 2/4: There was a mock-litany scoundrel or vagabond ballad-singer.
1870		Manchester Times 1 Oct. 7/1: Little interest was manifested in the speakers, the mock litany reciters and song sellars [sic] obtaining the largest audience.
1871		Star 1 Aug. 2/4: A markeed feature [...] was the ‘Mock litany’ ruffians, who [...] drowned each others’ voices in chanting the abominable trash in which they dealt [...] the ‘Mock litany’ men thus obtained a good start.
1874		Exeter & Plymouth Gaz. 6 Feb. 8/1: Mr Gladstone [...] sinned against every cannon [sic] of good taste, by quoting a wretched Catnach election squib, which was being sold about the streets by the ‘mock litany’ men for the ‘low price of one ha’penny’.
1882		Huddersfield Chron. 7 Jan. 3/3: The Mock Litany-mongers who abound at such gatherings, and [...] spout their blasphemies with impunity.
1883		Graphic (London) 31 Mar. 15/2: Hyde Park Corner may in some way repel the stump orators and mock-litany men who troop out periodically as the champion sof popular interests.
1909		J. Ware Passing Eng. of the Victorian Era.