Sleeveless errands on All Fools’ Day

Chambers found the first of April given over to harmless tricks on unsuspecting neighbours, mostly by the young. A knowing boy would send his little brother to watch a statue step down from its pedestal at a set hour, and servant girls would send a simple lad to the bookseller for the History of Eve’s Grandmother, to the chemist for a pennyworth of pigeon’s milk, or to the cobbler for strap oil, which earned him a strapping. Street children called to passers-by to look at their coat tails. Most of the fooling was done around breakfast, before people had remembered the date.