An odd request arrived from Léo Woodland: “I’m looking into the claim that ‘in 50 years, every street in London will be buried under nine feet of manure’. It was cited last year in The Times, where it was said to have appeared first in 1894. But I have not been able to turn up the original reference or name the author. I’m sure The Times wouldn’t misquote itself, so would you have a moment to help me in my research?”
Happy to oblige, I had a look in the archive for manure-related items from that year. Total failure. I then forwarded the request to Nick Mays, chief archivist of News UK, in the hope that this might turn out to be a famous,