THE ROYAL RATCATCHER

Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 24, 29 January 1927, Page 6

THE ROYAL RATCATCHER

War against rats, which has again been declared all over England, would in times gone past, have been organised by the Royal rat-catcher, an official who wore a gorgeous uniform of scarlet, embroidered with yellow worsted, and bearing figures of rats destroying wheat sheaves (says the Manchester "Evening News"). In 1741, the holder of this office was one Gower, whose salary was £100 a year, and who was known by the title of "Rat Killer to His Majesty," who, in that year, was George 11., whom Thackeray described as "a dull little man of low tastes." When the office was abolished is uncertain, but a pamphlet, published in 1813, had a portrait of the Royal rat-catcher on the title page. The occupation has always been regarded as honourable, and, indeed, the man who could rid the country of its rats would deserve all praise and honour. In Italy in the seventeenth century the official rat-catcher was allowed to wear a sword and carry a box of poisoned lozenges as emblems of his office. In China to-day he parades the streets with a live rat in a bag.