8.8

Kathe. Tip.

In 1617 we find considerable, trouble with a certain Katherine Strong, (Vide Memorial of Sir James Carroll to Thomas Wentworth, Viscount Strafford, Viceroy. Harleian MS. 2138, British Museum.) a widow, who inherited from her deceased husband the post of city Scavenger, and a grant of tolls for performing the duties of that office. (Calendar of Ancient Records of Dublin. Sir John T. Gilbert) The lady in question seems to have been much more active in collecting her dues than in removing the abundant filth of the city, notwithstanding the oath which the city scavengers were bound to take, as follows: 'You shall cause the streets within your warde to be kept cleane from time to time. And also you shall cause each inhabitant within your warde to have the streets well and sufficiently paved where there is any defect or want, so far as each of their howses extendeth, uppon the chardge of the said inhabitants. Theise and all other thinges belonging to the office of a Scavenger, you shall well and truely perform and doe to your power. Soe helpe you God.' (In 1635, during an unusually severe winter, an effigy in snow was erected of Katherine Strong bearing in her hand a representation of the unpopular 'toll' measure.)Amongst the tolls or customs in the fish market of Dublin we find exacted 'of every woman retailer sitting in the street with a basket, for the week, one farthing, to be applied to cleansing the street at the stalls.' The women retailers still sit in many of the back thoroughfares with their baskets, but the fee is no longer demanded.

Dublin: A Historical and Topographical Account of the City.
Written by Samuel A. Ossory Fitzpatrick.
Illustrated by W. Curtis Greene.
First published 1907.

Tip:

Chiefly British.

An area or a place for dumping something, such as rubbish or refuse, as from a mine.
To empty (something) by overturning; dump.
To dump (rubbish, for example).