Degraded as the occupation of the scavenger may be in public
estimation; though “I’d rather sweep the streets” may be a common
remark expressive of the lowest deep of humiliation among those who
never handled a besom in their lives; yet the very existence of a large
body who are public cleansers betokens civilization. Their occupation,
indeed, was defined, or rather was established or confirmed, in the
early periods of our history, when municipal regulations were a sort
of charter of civic protection, of civic liberties, and of general
progress.
The noun _Scavenger_ is said by lexicographers to be derived from the
German _schaben_, to shave or scrape, “applied to those who scrape and
clear away the filth from public streets or other places.” The more
direct derivation, however, is from the Danish verb _skaver_, the Saxon
equivalent of which is _sceafan_, whence the English _shave_. Formerly
the word was written _Scavager_, and meant simply one who was engaged
in removing the _Scrapeage_ or _Rakeage_ (the working men, it will be
seen, were termed also “rakers”) from the surface of the streets. Hence
it would appear that there is no authority for the verb to scavenge,
which has lately come into use. The term from which the personal
substantive is directly made, is _scavage_, a word formed from the verb
in the same manner as _sewage_ and _rubbage_ (now fashionably corrupted
into rubbish), and meaning the refuse which is or should be scraped
away from the roads. The Latin equivalent from the Danish verb _skave_,
is _scabere_.
I believe that the first mention of a scavenger in our earlier
classical literature, is by Bishop Hall, one of the lights of the
Reformation, in one of his “Satires.”
“To see the Pope’s blacke knight, a cloaked frere,
Sweating in the channel _like a scavengere_.”
Many similar passages from the old poets and dramatists might be
adduced, but I will content myself with one from the “Martial Maid” of
Beaumont and Fletcher, as bearing immediately on the topic I have to
discuss:--
“Do I not know thee for the alguazier,
Whose dunghil _all the parish scavengers_
Could never rid.”
Johnson defines a scavenger to be “a petty magistrate, whose province
is to keep the streets clean;” and in the earlier times, certainly the
scavenger was an officer to whom a certain authority was deputed, as to
beadles and others.
One or two of these officials were appointed, according to the
municipal or by-laws of the City of London, not to each parish, but
to each ward. Of course, in the good old days, nothing could be done
unless under “the sanction of an oath,” and the scavengers were sworn
accordingly on the Gospel, the following being the form as given in the
black letter of the laws relating to the city in the time of Henry VIII.
“_The Oath of Scavagers, or Scavengers, of the Ward._
“Ye shal swear, That ye shal wel and diligently oversee that the
pavements in every Ward be wel and rightfully repaired, and not
haunsed to the noyaunce of the neighbours; and that the Ways, Streets,
and Lanes, be kept clean from Donge and other Filth, for the Honesty
of the City. And that all the Chimneys, Redosses, and Furnaces, be
made of Stone for Defence of Fire. And if ye know any such ye shall
shew it to the Alderman, that he may make due Redress therefore. And
this ye shall not lene. So help you God.”[14]
To aid the scavengers in their execution of the duties of the office,
the following among others were the injunctions of the civic law. They
indicate the former state of the streets of London better than any
description. A “Goung (or dung) fermour” appears to be a nightman, a
dung-carrier or bearer, the servant of the master or ward scavenger.
“No Goungfermour shall spill any ordure in the Street, under pain of
Thirteen Shillings and Four Pence.
“No Goungfermour shall carry any ordure till after nine of the clock
in the Night, under pain of Thirteen Shillings and Four Pence. No man
shall cast any urine boles, or ordure boles, into the Streets by Day
or Night, _afore the Hour of nine in the Night_. And also he shall not
cast it out, but bring it down and lay it in the Canel, under Pain
of Three Shillings and Four Pence. And if he do so cast it upon any
Person’s Head, the Person to have a lawful Recompense, _if he have
hurt thereby_.
“No man shall bury any Dung, or Goung, within the Liberties of this
City, under Pain of Forty Shillings.”
I will not dwell on the state of things which caused such enactments
to be necessary, or on the barbarism of the law which ordered a lawful
recompense to any person assailed in the manner intimated, only when he
had “hurt thereby.”
These laws were for the government of the city, where a body of
scavengers was sometimes called a “street-ward.” Until about the reign
of Charles II., however, to legislate concerning such matters for the
city was to legislate for the metropolis, as Southwark was then more
or less under the city jurisdiction, and the houses of the nobility on
the north bank of the Thames (the Strand), would hardly require the
services of a public scavenger.
As new parishes or districts became populous, and established outside
the city boundaries, the authorities seem to have regulated the public
scavengery after the fashion of the city; but the whole, in every
respect of cleanliness, propriety, regularity, or celerity, was most
grievously defective.
Some time about the middle of the last century, the scavengers were
considered and pronounced by the administrators or explainers of
municipal law, to be “two officers chosen yearly in each parish in
London and the suburbs, by the constables, churchwardens, and other
inhabitants,” and their business was declared to be, that they should
“hire persons called ‘rakers,’ with carts to clean the streets, and
carry away the dirt and filth thereof, under a penalty of 40_s._”
The scavengers thus appointed we should now term surveyors. There
is little reason to doubt that in the old times the duly-appointed
scavagers or scavengers, laboured in their vocation themselves, and
employed such a number of additional hands as they accounted necessary;
but how or when the master scavenger ceased to be a labourer, and how
or when the office became merely nominal, I can find no information.
So little attention appears to have been paid to this really important
matter, that there are hardly any records concerning it. The law was
satisfied to lay down provisions for street-cleansing, but to enforce
these provisions was left to chance, or to some idle, corrupt, or
inefficient officer or body.
Neither can I find any precise account of what was formerly done
with the dirt swept and scraped from the streets, which seems always
to have been left to the discretion of the scavenger to deal with
as he pleased, and such is still the case in a great measure. Some
of this dirt I find, however, promoted “the goodly nutriment of the
land” about London, and some was “delivered in waste places apart
from habitations.” These waste places seem to have been the nuclei
of the present dust-yards, and were sometimes “presented,” that is,
they were reported by a jury of nuisances (or under other titles), as
“places of obscene resort,” for lewd and disorderly persons, the lewd
and disorderly persons consisting chiefly of the very poor, who came
to search among the rubbish for anything that might be valuable or
saleable; for there were frequent rumours of treasure or plate being
temporarily hidden in such places by thieves. Some outcast wretches,
moreover, slept within the shelter of these scavengers’ places, and
occasionally a vigilant officer--even down to our own times, or
within these few years--apprehended such wretches, charged them with
destitution, and had them punished accordingly. Much of the street
refuse thus “delivered,” especially the “dry rubbish,” was thrown into
the streets from houses under repair, &c., (I now speak of the past
century,) and no use seems to have been made of any part of it unless
any one requiring a load or two of rubbish chose to cart it away.
I have given this sketch to show what master scavengers were in the
olden times, and I now proceed to point out what is the present
condition of the trade.