ggm 4 days ago

I thoroughly recommend the Dover books reprint of Henry Mayhew. "London Labour and the London poor" it is absolutely fascinating. People who had a brass farthing to rub together could enjoy eating 2 day old leftovers from the posh banquets, sold on the streets. (2 days because much of it was premade and so a day or so old by the time it hit the banquet table) Trifle and Lobster for anyone. Clothes rental was a thing. Dirt collecting had specialities with "pure" dog dung fetching extra prices for leather tanning.

I think Mayhew may have fed into Sydney and Beatrice Webb which in turn much later leads to Labour party policy, and ultimately the Beveridge report and birth of the welfare state.

Also, if you enjoyed Doctor Doolittle by Hugh Lofting you will be familiar with Matthew the cats meat man.

  • colechristensen a day ago

    >Trifle and Lobster for anyone.

    In 1851 lobster was still cheap food for the poor, you'd not find it at a fancy banquet.

    • heinternets a day ago

      In London it was a different story to the USA.

dctoedt 2 days ago

I love the ambiguity of "The Cat's Meat Man" — my initial thought before reading the rest of the title was, "and to whom does he sell cat meat?"

ashoeafoot 2 days ago

Terry pratchett would be loving this

JamesAdir 2 days ago

Thank you for sharing this wonderful gem. It was a splendid read!

SideburnsOfDoom 2 days ago

IIRC, Neutering pets wasn't common until the mid 1900s.

So unwanted and stray animals could be a problem in this era. Unlimited feeding would mean a population explosion.

  • kjkjadksj a day ago

    In this era you’d rather have too many cats than too many rats.