Their services were no doubt sometimes appreciated: The streets during this period were mud-soaked and piled with horse manure. The poor sweepers not only had to endure the dismal conditions whatever the weather, but were also constantly dodging speeding horse-drawn cabs and omnibuses.
In the early 19th century, the only cadavers available to medical schools and anatomists were those of criminals who had been sentenced to death, leading to a severe shortage of bodies to dissect. Medical schools paid a handsome fee to those delivering a body in good condition. As a result, many wily Victorians saw an opportunity to make some money by robbing recently dug graves.
The problem became so severe that family members took to guarding the graves of the recently deceased to prevent the resurrectionists sneaking in and unearthing their dearly departed.
The "profession" was taken to an extreme by William Burke and William Hare who were thought to have murdered 16 unfortunates between and The pair enticed victims to their boarding house, plied them with alcohol and then suffocated them, ensuring the body stayed in good enough condition to earn the fee paid by Edinburgh University medical school for corpses. After the crimes of Burke and Hare were discovered, the Anatomy Act of finally helped bring an end to the grisly resurrectionist trade by giving doctors and anatomists greater access to cadavers and allowing people to leave their bodies to medical science.
BY Claire Cock-Starkey. Leech collecting was a job that, quite literally, sucked. Leech Collector Leeches were once a useful commodity, with both doctors and quacks using the blood-sucking creatures to treat a number of ailments, ranging from headaches to "hysteria. Pure finder Despite the clean-sounding name, this job actually involved collecting dog feces from the streets of London to sell to tanners, who used it in the leather-making process. We knew a case of a poor boy who soared on the wings of a conundrum into the Temple of Fame, and out of the Inner Temple, where he held the situation of clerk to a very promising junior barrister.
Avoid the printer as you would the devil; and eschew the Pierian Spring as you would the plug, when the water is rushing fiercely out of it. Having given a few directions for the guidance of all clerks in general, let us look at some Of the particular kinds, and set down a few rules applicable to each of the various classes.
The first clerk of all is the Government Clerk, whose situation is the moat difficult of all; for the filling up of the office-hours from ten till four will require a great amount of ingenuity. The newspaper will furnish conversation, and, in the early part of the month, the magazines will afford light reading that will be a relief to the dreadful monotony of doing nothing.
It need hardly be suggested, that if a stranger should enter, he must be received with a stare and a yawn, while some of the old authorities recommend the whistling of a popular air from the last new opera. The Bank Clerk differs from the Government Clerk apparently, rather than essentially. If an individual enters with a cheque to be changed, be sure not to raise your eyes from a desk at which you are engaged, in drawing some figures on a pad, probably for your own amusement; and if you are laughing or joking with a fellow clerk, do not cut short a good story to attend to an impatient fellow who comes to pay in or draw out money.
Railway Clerks are next in importance, and they should endeavour to show their dignity by declining to speak to any one who addresses them. If information is wanted, there are the printed bills to afford it; for the duty of the Railway Clerk is confined to taking the fares, and giving the tickets. If you are in this situation, you should not make yourself toe cheap, and you should therefore only be visible a few minutes before the starting of the train, when, as a crowd will have been waiting impatiently for you for some time, you will be sure at least of a welcome.
Always give the tickets very slowly; for as patience is a virtue, you should take every opportunity of teaching others to practise it.
Articled Clerks, who have paid a good premium, may imitate those in the government offices to a certain extent; but they must be guided by discretion, for people will not always put up with airs from any one in an attorney's office. The Copying Clerk can only enhance his dignity by using the word WE when speaking of the firm, and talking of his principal to other clerks as So and So, without the complimentary prefix of Mister, to his surname.
The poor fellow may also flirt with the house-servant, in the hope of getting an occasional draught of small beer or a hunch of bread and cheese when he pops down into the kitchen. We have now nothing left but the Barrister's Clerk, who derives life consequence or the reverse from the standing at the bar or the utter brieflessness of his employer.
A Barrister's Clerk should never expose the professional secrets of his master; but if a client should come with even a simple motion of course, the clerk should search a large book containing an imaginary list to see whether We - for the Barrister's Clerk usually says We - are retained for the other side. If your master's practice is so notoriously nominal that this "dodge" could not by any possibility succeed, you, who are his clerk, will probably be a boy, and you will require juvenile recreation.
For this purpose there is the whole of the Temple, where pitch-and-toss may be played at all reasonable hours with any other juvenile clerk who may be disposed for the pastime alluded to. One of the greatest accomplishments of a Barrister's Clerk consists in knowing how to shirk attendance at chambers, and what notices placed on the door are the best adapted to lull suspicion.
So that when you know he is either fishing or shooting in the country, and is sure not to come back and find you out, you may put up the notice alluded to with credit to all parties. Punch, Jul. His only holiday is when he is sent into the country to serve a writ.
He has a "fine bold hand," and can "fair copy" two brief sheets an hour. He does not throw up his salary because he is too proud to engross skins of parchment; on the contrary, he has a pair of false sleeves like umbrella-cases for the purpose. He knows exactly the legal price of everything, from a savage assault to a breach of promise of marriage. He is not fond of taxing, and is ready to cry if not allowed his "Letters and Messengers" every Term.
His great delight in an action is to "get costs. He has no patience with people who come to beg for time - he is very sorry, he has but one duty to perform. His soul is in his master's pocket, and he always appeals or has a rejoinder ready, or a new bill on the file, if the client can only afford it. He is cautious as he is zealous - keeps a copy of every letter, almost dislikes saying, "How d'ye do" without a witness, has a horror of giving promises on paper, and always tries to inflate 6s 8d.
He would blush to take any of the office paper home with him. He understands perfectly when a client has called to complain of delay; in which case, "MR. He takes but half-an-hour for his dinner, and only allows himself ten minutes for his tea. When he serves you with a writ, he hopes "you will not be offended - it is his most painful duty. By half-starving, the strongest self-denial, little agencies from friends he has recommended to the office, and the Christmas Boxes of a long range of years, he saves a hundred pounds, and, working upon half salary in lieu of a premium gets articled to his master.
He buries all ambition in his "pad," takes to copying after office hours, in order to gain a few pounds, when his fingers can no longer hold a pen, and ultimately resigns his desk to some young man, who, like himself with a strong constitution, and probably a generous heart, sells himself to lose both, for the matter of eighteen shillings and "a rise" as a LAWYER'S CLERK. He is a friend of a Director, or the cousin of a large Shareholder. Business with him is quite a secondary consideration.
He opens his little trap-door five minutes before the train, and closes it the minute the clock has struck. He will take your money if you want a ticket, but mind, he is not answerable for any mistake. He has no time to count change, or answer questions about trains, or attend to stupid people who come inquiring about the persons who were killed by yesterday's accident. It is not his business. He cannot attend to every one at once, and he runs his diamond fingers through his rich, Macassared hair.
It a really no fault of his if you lose the train - you ought to have come sooner; and then he whips off, with a very pretty penknife, a sharp corner that pains the symmetry of one of his filbert nails. What should he know about dogs? You can write to the newspapers by all means, if you like: the newspapers don't pay him.
The parcels are not in his department - the porters perhaps can tell. He is very sorry he has no change for a five pound note - he has no doubt you can get it round the corner. The sanitary conditions were dire; filth and disease were commonplace, and the city was blighted by several cholera epidemics.
Rat catching was big business, and the rodents proved highly saleable, especially to publicans who operated rat pits where they would make rats and dogs fight. Rat catchers caught rats by hand, attracting them by rubbing a mixture of sweet-smelling oils on their hands and rummaging around in haystacks. Rats don't appreciate being manhandled by humans and they'd bite their captors, infecting many catchers. Rat catchers would make their own poisons and sell them at local markets.
To demonstrate the efficiency of their poisons they would retrieve a rat from a cage and kill the unfortunate rodent in front of the crowd. Children as young as six or seven would be sent up chimneys to clean away the soot. They didn't often get paid, and received meagre food for their efforts. The chimneys were very narrow and children would often get stuck in them. Children would also develop respiratory problems due to long term exposure to soot, and would die as a result.
Not as fun as Mary Poppins makes it look, really. We know a lot about the menial jobs Victorian Londoners did because of the meticulous work of Henry Mayhew, described as a clever journalist by some, and the father of sociology by others. Collector of liquor taxes. One who gages gauges ; specifically, an officer whose business is to ascertain the contents of casks and other hollow vessels.
Owner or worker of a fish trap. In coal-mining, the agent of the crown having the power to grant gales to the free miners. A harvest worker, usually female. The method of winnowning was also used to remove weevils or other pests from stored grain. A person who improved old saws by deepening the cuts. Often used in dentistry and insulation. A labourer who conveys coal from the work face to the horseway. Also pertaining to whaling and is the man who takes charge of the boat after the whale has been struck.
For example; banks up earth with a spade to form hedge foundation; plants branches of hawthorn and other hedge plants; prunes hedge at appropriate seasons and repairs it by inserting bundles of cuttings from pruned hedge into gap; closes gaps in hedge with barbed wire or wood; ditch making.
May also assist in estate work, including forestry. Agricultural worker. One in charge of two horses and alloted a house on a farm. It was hard, hot and sometimes dangerous work if they had to hold the rivets in place above their heads.
A frame usually enclosed the globes to allow inversion of the hourglass to start the flow of sand again. The person was responsible for handling the hounds and organising the day's hunting as required by the Master of the Hunt. He would be assisted by whippers-in, who helped him look after the hounds in the kennels. During a day's hunt, he was the man who helped to keep the hounds together, counting them and relocating any that get separated from the rest of the pack.
A young boy or girl employed in a coal mine to drag baskets or small wagons full of coal from the coal face where it was mined, up to the surface. The lathes were driven by a belt attached to a pulley wheel on a line shaft up at ceiling level which was driven by an engine.
The 'Turners' turned machined cast iron, brass and bronze castings. One who contracted to clean out privies; a scavenger. One that works by the piece piecework or at odd jobs. A middleman in the exchange of stocks and securities among brokers.
One who does small jobs or chance work - for example farm work. A person who of anything. One who keeps control of the quantities of ore and fuel, regulated the blast and tapped the molten metal from the furnace. One who installs lagging.
These thin strips of wood would often be used for lath and plaster walls, to form lattice-work, or for blinds or shutters. The legger would lie on his back on a piece of wood on the boat with his feet reaching to the tunnel wall, and walk it along.
A shirtmaker. A person that creates or maintains lists. Usually highly skilled decorative work, sometimes including artwork gilding. It a term used historically in the 19th century to describe a midshipman who had passed the lieutenant's exam and was eligible for promotion to lieutenant as soon as there was a vacancy in that grade.
Coal miner. A quack doctor. The former were termed insucken multurers, the latter outsucken multurers. This could be done by grinding the oats between two stones older method- miller or by heating the oats and then spinning them in a container to remove the hulls newer method s. Either could be on census. The latter method could be done at home. Huller - a person who removes the hulls OILMAN One who deals in oils; one who is engaged in the business of producing or of selling oil.
One who sold oil specifically used for lamps. A retailer who sells vegetable oils, and food preserved in oil. As such these men were considered not to be as skilled as an Able Seaman, who was qualified in seagoing ships.
Later, Ords served at sea, under training. ORRA MAN Scottish and North of England term ; a skilled handyman on a farm who did odd jobs that did not fall strictly within duties of shepherd, ploughman, thatcher, cattleman etc. Also refers to a casual female worker on a farm, thinning turnips, planting potatoes, haymaking, who lived in immediate neighbourhood. One who educates, guides, or instructs PEEL OR PADDLE MAKER A peel maker made the long handled shovels known as peels that were used and still are to slide bread dough in and out of an oven quickly and efficiently to avoid losing too much heat from the oven and, for deeper ovens, to allow for easy delivery and collection from the farthest corners of the oven.
A keeper of a turnpike gate.
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