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| The Rat-Catcher and his Dogs, by Thomas Woodward, 1824 (Tate Britain) |
I'll bet you didn't know that Rat Catcher's Day is coming up on June 26. Jack Black, Rat-Catcher to Her Majesty The Queen (Victoria), was perhaps the most famous pest control operative of all.
He dressed in white leather pants, green coat and scarlet waistcoat with a rat belt-buckle (which he cast himself). He fearlessly hunted down vermin and bore many scars as a result. Rats were plentiful in Victorian England and caused a lot of damage to food supplies and livestock and Jack Black's skills were in high demand.
In 1813, journalist and rat decrier Charles Fothergill, attempted to do the math on rats’ rapid reproduction noting disapprovingly that the beasts are “continually under the furor of animal love.” He calculated that if left to their own devices, a single pair of rats would produce three million young during their three-year lifespan.
Read more about rats and the people who caught them at Lapham’s Quarterly
Thanks Bruce!
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