The Recreations of a Country ParsonBoyd, Andrew Kennedy Hutchison
General
The Recreations of a Country Parson
Boyd, Andrew Kennedy Hutchison
Clergy -- Anecdotes; Country life -- England; Rural clergy -- England
background, was five feet deep. In a trice we were denuded of our
remaining apparel, and desired to plunge into the bath, head first.
The whole thing was done in less time than it has taken to describe
it: no caloric had escaped: we were steaming like a coach horse
that has done its ten miles within the hour on a summer-day; and
it certainly struck us that the Water Cure had some rather violent
measures in its repertory. We went a step or two down the ladder,
and then plunged in overhead. 'One plunge more and out,' exclaimed
the faithful William; and we obeyed. We were so thoroughly heated
beforehand, that we never felt the bath to be cold. On coming
out, a coarse linen sheet was thrown over us, large enough to have
covered half-a-dozen men, and the bath-man rubbed us, ourselves
aiding in the operation, till we were all in a glow of warmth. We
then dressed as fast as possible, postponing for the present the
operation of shaving, drank two tumblers of cold water, and took a
rapid walk round the wilderness (an expanse of shrubbery near the
house is so called), in the crisp, fresh morning air. The sunshine
was of the brightest; the dew was on the grass; everybody was early
there; fresh-looking patients were walking in all directions at
the rate of five miles an hour; the gardeners were astir; we heard
the cheerful sound of the mower whetting his scythe; the air was
filled with the freshness of the newly-cut grass, and with the
fragrance of lilac and hawthorn blossom; and all this by half-past
six a.m.! How we pitied the dullards that were lagging a-bed on
that bright summer morning! One turn round the wilderness occupies
ten minutes: we then drank two more tumblers of water, and took a
second turn of ten minutes. Two tumblers more, and another turn;
and then, in a glow of health and good humour, into our chamber
to dress for the day. The main supply of water is drunk before
breakfast; we took six tumblers daily at that time, and did not take
more than two or three additional in the remainder of the day. By
eight o'clock breakfast was on the table in the large hall, where
it remained till half-past nine. Bread, milk, water, and stewed
pippins (cold), formed the morning meal. And didn't we polish it
off! The accession of appetite is immediate.
Such is the process entitled the Pack and Plunge. It was the
beginning of the day's proceedings during the two months we spent
at Sudbrook. We believe it forms the morning treatment of almost
every patient; a shallow bath after packing being substituted for the
plunge in the case of the more nervous. With whatever apprehension
people may have looked forward to being packed before having
experienced the process, they generally take to it kindly after
a single trial. The pack is perhaps the most popular part of the
entire cold water treatment.
Mr. Lane says of it:--
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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