"Can you give an instance of any town in England, besides Cambridge, where carpet shaking and beating is allowed to go on all through the livelong day in the heart of the town, in close contiguity to a public thoroughfare, and in front of high class residences?

We are proud of our open spaces in Cambridge and believe that they are calculated to promote the health of the inhabitants; but when they are used for the purpose of enabling one class of inhabitants to get rid of their own dirt at the expense of those who live by the side of the open space selected by them on which to shake their carpets, the said open space becomes a very open blessing.

You will have no difficulty in identifying the spot to which I refer, viz. that portion of Parker’s Piece described as Donkey’s Common. On the east side of this space have recently been erected some good houses, the occupiers of which are called upon to the local burdens at a much higher rate than are the occupiers of houses in the town, and yet the Commons Committee permits the nuisance of carpet shaking and beating to go on infront of these houses from sunrise to sunset, disturbing the inhabitants of these houses in their sleep and smothering the houses with household dust which penetrates to the interior."

Local resident, 1875. Cited www.capturingcambridge.org