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Full Description
CLEAN AND DECENT, says the author, 'is meant to entertain, even if scholarship does keep breaking through'. Subtitled The Fascinating History of the Bathroom and the Water-closet, and of sundry Habits, Fashions and Accessories of the Toilet it is a fascinating excursion into the household's most private room. Who would have supposed that the Romans had lagged hot-water pipes? That Queen Elizabeth I had a valve water-closet? That Louis XIV had cushions in his bath? This informative and hilarious book leads the reader to believe that more may be learnt about the past from bathrooms rather than battlefields, and that patterns of social history are mirrored in the bathwater or found locked in the water-closet.
Contents
Man becomes house-trained; "omnia commoda"; the odour of sanctity; "every satyrday nyght"; Bath Knights and bagnios, conduit and quills; dirty days; fecundating springs; lieux a l'Anglaise; bason, bidet and pot; baths and buggs; the cholera years; the water cure; was health worth it? "the benison of hot water"; "the subject is a peculiar one"; plumber's progress; toilet sundries; millions of baths. Short bibliography. Illustrations - sources and acknowledgements.
