"We have great pleasure in observing that the Right Worshipful the Mayor and Chamber, have enacted a Bye Law, to oblige the inhabitants of this city to sweep the pavement in front of their houses, every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday morning, before nine o'clock in the winter and eight o'clock in summer, under the penalty of twenty shillings for every omission.
"Scavengers are also appointed to attend regularly with carts, for the purpose of carrying away the dirt thus swept together.
"We hope this will prevent the many nuisances, which constantly shock the eye and nose of every passenger who walks through the streets of this city."
Two hundred and twenty two, (222) years have flown away since the passing of this bye-law was reported in The Exeter Flying Post (25th September 1800).
True, Exeter these days smells more salubrious than in the time of Farmer George but there is still plenty of rubbish to shock the eye. We continue to have, but we don't call them scavengers, council workers with carts to carry rubbish away but no sooner have they passed by than the plastic &c. flows again, like lava from Vesuvius, onto our High Street, Queen Street and where not? Some rule that would constrain shopkeepers and citizens to keep their 'fronts' free from rubbish might be a good idea. I seem to think they have laws like that in Germany. But there has long been something curious about Exeter bye-laws! They are like snowball-hitches, - they are no sooner made than they begin to melt in the sun.
A scavenger (scaveger) used to be a kind of tax-collector but for centuries meant someone who keeps a place clean. Today, for some reason, it sounds very negative. It is a pity that so many grand old English words lose their dignity.
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