THE MORNING STAR OF PADSTOW...

 The Morning Star of Padstow…

Such slow progress

Was achieved through Padstow’s

Narrow streets and alleyways

 By the sanitary cart, daily seen rattling 

On uneven cobbles and spilling 

Excrement, its stench filling

Nostrils already strained

By fish and smoke and the filthy water, drained

Along mucky gutters of cluttered, smutty lanes;

Even the horse hung its head in apparent distress…

Such a vile process

Thus aggrieved the Padstow

Tenants and troubled residents

For the gimballed barrel was seen swinging

On an axle and slewing

Faeces, its stink spewing

Onto wheels already stained

By urine and muck and with damp sand ingrained

From regular scavenging trips on Cornish lanes;

And even the horse drooped its head at the abhorrent cess…

Pete Ray

Based upon a report about a typhoid epidemic in Padstow, 1876, it appeared that ‘The Morning Star’ collected pails of ‘waste’ from outside homes and emptied the stinking contents into a gimballed barrel, meaning that the filthy container was able to rotate about a single axis.

Disinfectants were apparently provided but there is little evidence that they were either used, or even successful…

The ‘scavenger’ would then lead both horse and cart to the countryside where the contents of his collection would be used agriculturally.

The accompanying image is startling…

Great job for someone with a peg on his nose, I guess…