By the mid-19th century the British Empire was the foremost power in the world.

By the mid-19th century the British Empire was the foremost power in the world. 

London was the Empire's capital and the largest city on the planet, but the city was poverty-stricken. The living conditions in the slums were dreadful on a scale that most people living in Britain today could only imagine. 

To scratch a living many resorted to crime and prostitution. One way to make a living was as a "sewer-hunter," also known as a "tosher."

A tosher was someone who scavenged the sewers, especially in Victorian London. They entered the sewers with a hoe or fishing net, or something similar, and searched the foul-smelling sewerage for items they could sell or use, including metal, rope, cutlery, coins and other items that had been washed down the drains. Toshers would wait for low tide before walking the rat-infested sewers for miles searching for scraps, and they apparently made a decent wage. By the mid-19th century it was illegal to enter the sewers without permission and toshers were forced to work in secret, mostly at night. It was a very dangerous job, because a tosher risked catching diseases, becoming injured, or getting lost in the maze that is London's sewer system. There were also millions of rats. According to one man speaking about the rats, “They’ve pulled men down and worried ’em, and picked their bones as clean as a washed plate.” Henry Mayhew, who wrote "London Labour and the London Poor", interviewed a sewer hunter and this is what he was told: 

“I’ve often seen as many as a hundred rats at once, and they’re woppers in the sewers … they’d think nothink of tackling a man … Do you recollect hearing on the man as was found in the sewers about twelve year ago? … the rats eat every bit of him, and left nothink but his bones.” 

The word tosher was also used for people who scavenged the shoreline and dumps. Mayhew described the toshers' appearance: 

"These toshers may be seen, especially on the Surrey side of the Thames, habited in long greasy velveteen coats, furnished with pockets of vast capacity, and their nether limbs encased in dirty canvas trousers, and any old slops of shoes… provide themselves, in addition, with a canvas apron, which they tie round them, and a dark lantern similar to a policeman’s; this they strap before them on the right breast, in such a manner that on removing the shade, the bull’s eye throws the light straight forward when they are in an erect position… but when they stoop, it throws the light directly under them so that they can distinctly see any object at their feet. They carry a bag on their back, and in their left hand a pole about seven or eight feet long, on one end of which there is a large iron hoe."

An illustration depicting a London sewer hunter who eked out a living by hunting sewers for anything he could sell (Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group via Getty Images).