![]() The king acknowledged the brave deed and invited the chimney sweep to be a special guest at his daughter’s upcoming wedding. A chimney sweep bravely risked his own life to shove the king to safety. In 1066, the King was in a clear path of danger, with a horse and carriage rushing toward him. One of the most famous chimney sweep legends involves King William of Britain. ![]() There are many symbols of good luck, and chimney sweeps are among them. This code was frequently used if the customer refused to pay the amount demanded by the sweep.įorget the Rabbit’s Foot – Kiss a Chimney Sweep! If a Chimney Sweep Master yelled up the chimney to a climbing boy or girl, “Be sure to pike the lew, my lad,” it meant to leave the top of the chimney full of soot. One was to identify others who may be able to help with getting away with some type of questionable activity. If the other person had been in the industry long enough to know the slang, the answer was, “Oh, yes, I know nix is nothing and a penny roll is a win buster.” The veteran chimney sweep said, “Can you patter cant?” (This meant: can you speak slang?) The way of determining whether a chimney sweep was a novice or a seasoned expert was with this exchange: In long ago times when climbing boys and climbing girls did the work for Master Chimney Sweeps, there were slang words that were used only by sweeps. In Former Times, Chimney Sweeps Could Patter Cant There are quite a few women in the chimney sweep industry these days, most of whom have affirmed at one time or another that they don’t mind dealing with soot on a daily basis. There is hardly a need to get dirty at all, what with modern-day methods involving vacuums that keep the mess off of furniture and floors. Thankfully, there are effective tools which do the job of cleaning chimneys nowadays. The vast majority of those who were forced to work as chimney sweeps were climbing boys, but it should be remembered that there were climbing girls, as well. In the 1700s and 1800s, however, there were girls between the ages of 4 and 12 who were either sold by their impoverished parents or were obtained from orphanages for the purpose of climbing inside of chimneys 364 days out of the year. Perhaps the following trivia will be news to you.Ĭhimney sweeping in times past was a very dirty business in more ways than one, and it’s only natural to think females would want nothing to do with being smeared with soot. As interesting as chimney sweep trivia is, not all of it is common knowledge. A closer look at some of Blake's poems, featuring their original illustrated pages, from the Tate organization, which holds a large collection of Blake originals.Did you know that the chimney sweep industry has a very interesting and colorful history? The sometimes dark and sometimes light-hearted stories surrounding chimney sweeps have been told for centuries. Here Sinclair discusses Blake's radicalism. An interesting comparison of this poem with its partner in Songs of Innocence. How the poem looked when Blake originally published it-produced through the process of illuminated printing. Full text in which "The Chimney Sweeper" is collected, from Project Gutenberg. ![]() Writer Iain Sinclair on Blake's religious visions.įull Text of Songs of Innocence and Experience
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