* * * * * LONDON STREET CRY (6th S. viii. 348).--Was not this really a "tormentor for your _flies_"? The mouse-trap man would probably also sell little bunches of butcher's broom (_Ruscus_, the mouse-thorn of the Germans), a very effective and destructive weapon in the hands of an active butcher's boy, when employed to guard his master's meat from the attacks of flies. EDWARD SOLLY. * * * * * LONDON STREET CRY (6th S. viii. 348, 393).--The following quotations from Taylor, the Water Poet, may be of interest to Mr. TUER:-- "I could name more, if so my Muse did please, Of Mowse Traps, and tormentors to kill Fleas." _The Travels of Twelve-pence._ Yet shall my begg'ry no strange Suites devise, As monopolies to catch Fleas and Flyes." _The Beggar._ Faringdon. WALTER HAINES. * * * * * I notice a query from you in _N. and Q._ about a London Street Cry which troubles you. Many of the curious adjuncts to Street Cries proper have, I apprehend, originally no meaning beyond drawing attention to the Crier by their whimsicality. I will give you an instance. Soon after the union between England and Ireland, a man with a sack on his back went regularly about the larger streets of Dublin. His cry was: "Bits of Brass, Broken Glass, Old Iron, Bad luck to you, Castlereagh." Party feeling against Lord Castlereagh ran very high at the time, I believe, and the political adjunct to his cry probably brought the man more shillings than he got by his regular calling. H. G. W. P.S.--I find I have unconsciously made a low pun. The cry alluded to above would probably be understood and appreciated in the streets of Dublin at the present with reference to the Repeal of the Union. * * * * * LONDON STREET CRY. 88, FRIARGATE, DERBY. DEAR SIR,-- The "Tormentor," concerning which you inquire in _Notes and Queries_ of this date, was also known as a "Scratch-back," and specimens are occasionally to be seen in the country. I recollect seeing one, of superior make, many years ago. An ivory hand, the fingers like those of "Jasper Packlemerton of atrocious memory," were "curled as in the act of" scratching, a finely carved wrist-band of lace was the appropriate ornament, and the whole was attached to a slender ivory rod of say eighteen inches in length. The finger nails were sharpened, and the instrument was thus available for discomfiting "back-biters," even when engaged upon the most inaccessible portions of the human superficies. I have also seen a less costly article of the same sort carved out of pear-wood (or some similar material). It is probable that museums might furnish examples of the "back scratcher," "scratch back," or "tormentor for your fleas." Very truly yours, ALFRED WALLIS. * * * * *