The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1900-03-25
OLD LONDON STREET.
How the City Got Its Ideas OF
Cleanliness.
New York Press.)


How London got rs first ideas Of
cleanliness is as interesting as how an
infant gets fits first ideas of speech. In
the very old days the first street regu-
lations referred only TO preserving or
der. These were made in the reign Of
Edward, and those who went about
after c1rfew We're pulled in." as we
modernS say. Just about 800 years ago
the first regulations were made regard
ing the cleaning Of the streets. It was
enacted that every one should keep
clean the front Of his own tenement,
"tllat so the streets should be delivered
from all encUmDrances. 4 week S
grace only was even before the reg J.
lation came into force, and after This
interval the owner Of any house was
liable to be fined half a mark. At the
same time it was ordered that all pig
stves should speedily be removed and
that any swine found IN the streets
should be forfeited.
In the reign of Edward II (1309) a
pvOclamatiOn was made that, as the
tOwns-people had got inoo the habit
of carrying the filth that had collected
in their houses to the streets and lanes
instead of taking il 10 the Thames or
elsewhere out OF town, and as the
streets and lanes were more cucumber
ed than they used TO be, the corporation
forbade any person to permit filth, af-
ter it had collected in his house, to be
carried into the kings highwaya Any
one breaking this regulation was liable
to be fined on the first conviction 40d.
and afterward half a mark for each
conviction, and he was, moreover, CON-
PEELED TO remove the dirt at his own
expense.
A regulation made the owner Of a
house responsible for the state of the
street, whether the nuisance was caus-
ed by himself or not. A penalty was
incurred by any citizen before whose
house dirt should be found, if after il
Lad been placed there he did not imrne-
diately give information by whom it
had been brought there. It seems to
have occurred to those who framed the
regulation that this enactment might be
omen to abuse. and they, therefore, in
the same proclamation provided against
such a contingency. It was enacted
that if any person should have any filth
carried or removed to the front of the
house Of any other citizen, he should
he compelled to have it carried imme-
dfately from thence to within his own
house, there to be kept a day and a
night on pain of a fine.
The refuse in the streets caused great
trouble in the middle ages, and the
method adopted of simply putting it
into the Thames naturally caused a
nuisance on the river banks, so that in
the reign Of Edward III the king made
a, complaint on the matter to the mayor
and sEeTiffs Of the city. His majesty
remarked that the accumulation Of filth
in divers places, not only in the city,
but also on the banks Of the Thames,
caused fumes ana other abOminable
stenches from the corruption, by which
If tolerated, great peril would ensue as
well to the persons dwelling within the
city as to the mobiles and others pass
ing along the river. Wishing to take
precautions against such dangers and
to preserve the honor and decency Of
the city, the king commanded that the
banks Of the river and the streets Of
the city should be cleanSed without de-
lay and kept clean in the future, and
If any persons thereafter were found
brea king this regulation they were to
be chastised and punished, so that fear
might prevent others from committing
e. like offense, "and this" the royal
order says. "aS YOU would preserve
yourself safe and would avoid our
heavy indignation you are in no wise
to omit" This writ was proclaimed on
the Thursday after the Feast of the
Decollatfon of st. John, Aug. 90, 1857.
In the reign of Richard II the CON-
mon council, by the advice of the may
or. aldermen and commonalty, ordained
that the ordinance in force against the
accumulation of filth should be enforced
strictly; that no one should throw
rubbish into the kenneIs Of the city in
time Of rain, and that every officer
should have the power to take the carts
which brought in gravel and sand and
load them at their departure with the
filth gathered from the kennels. so
that it should be carried out of the
city. This process Of communicating
was. however, 10 be applied only to the
vehicles which carted sand, gravel and
loan into the city.