Taking the Waters at Bath

Bath was famous for its mineral waters since Roman times, hence the name Bath. Drinking and bathing in the waters was, and still is, considered good for the health in many such spas around the world. At the mineral pools, people would don long gowns and wade about. I found a photo of a bathing gown used by Martha Washington during her visits to Warm Springs at Berkeley, West Virginia. The Washington family frequented the springs, mainly for the benefit of her daughter Patsy, who suffered from epilepsy. Martha's gown is made of a blue and white checked yarn-dyed linen, with small lead weights sewn into the hem to keep it from floating up. 

Poor Patsy (Martha Parke Custis), began having seizures when she was 11 and her condition grew worse as time went on. The Washingtons tried everything known to current medicine to help her, with no effect. In 1773, when she was 17, Patsy died during a severe seizure. George Washington was devastated by her death, having been her doting stepfather since she was a toddler. 

So much is made of Bath as a fashionable spa destination, where people went to see and be seen, but I often think of all the truly ill people hoped against hope that they could find relief. It reminds me of the desperate crowd around the Pools of Siloam and Bethesda in Jerusalem, described in the Gospel of John.

A Tea Room at Bath

Bath is a famous seaside resort, mainly due to Jane Austen's novels. Austen frequented Bath and the town is a favorite destination for Austen fans today. Dolly and Minerva are having a cuppa at a quaint tea room, and while in the midst of one of their eccentric conversations, notice that other women are listening intently to what they have to say. Despite their love of current novels, they have no idea that the three women are, front left to right, Fanny Burney, Jane Austen, and Maria Edgeworth.

JADG - Gout and Decrepitude

The caricature prints of the Regency Era really make a feast of the infirmities of the older generation, particularly if they are rich. Thomas Rowlandson's prints, The Comforts of Bath are full of fat, gouty men being hauled to the Pump Room in sedan chairs or handcarts to take advantage of the supposed health-giving quality of the mineral springs. And then stuff their faces with the rich food and wine that made them fatter and goutier. My dad has had periodic bouts of gout, and it sounds like a very painful condition. I showed him this print, and he said it was pretty spot on. Fortunately,we have medication today that deals with the cause.

Those people who managed to live to a ripe old age, were often much less than "ripe". It was a rare individual who was not plagued by all sorts of infirmities and no medical help available. One's prime was over very quickly in those days. Young women in search of a good husband lived in fear of some aged wreck taking a shine to them. Among the nobility or those who aspired to raise their standing, a proposal from a wealthy and titled old man was a prospect too good to pass up when they had a marriageable daughter.

Poor Evelina is being pursued by the obnoxious Dr. Syntax, a man who is impervious to hints or even blatant refusals. Dr. Syntax was a character created by the artist Thomas Rowlandson and the poet William Combe, a ridiculous elderly curate who set off on his horse to tour the countryside, falling into one absurd situation after another. The poems and prints were shown to Rudolph Ackermann, who was quite enthused and, after removing a few of the more racy pictures, agreed to print them. The Three Tours of Dr. Syntax was extremely popular in the early 1800s.