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
In sultry weather, when indolence seems the only resource, a sitz
of ten minutes at noon will suffice to protect against the enervating
effect of heat, and to rouse from listlessness and inactivity.
If two or three hours have been occupied by anxious conversation,
by many visitors, or by any of the perplexities of daily occurrence,
a sitz will effectually relieve the throbbing head, anil fit one
for a return (if it must be so) to the turmoil and bustle.
If an anxious letter is to be mentally weighed, or an important
letter to be answered, the matter and the manner can he under
no circumstances so adequately pondered as in the sitz. How this
quickening of the faculties is engendered, and by what immediate
action it is produced, I cannot explain, and invite others to test
it by practice.
I have in my own experience proved the sitz to be cogitatory,
consolatory, quiescent, refrigeratory, revivificatory, or all these
together.
Thus far Mr. Lane. The Brause-bad is thus described by our old
military friend:--
At eleven o'clock I went to the Brause-bad. This is too delightful:
it requires a day or two of practice to enable the patient to enjoy
it thoroughly. The water at Marienberg is all very cold, and one
must never stand still for above a few seconds at a time, and must
be ever employed in rubbing the parts of the body which are exposed
to the silvery element. The bath is a square room, eight feet by
six. The shower above consists of a treble row of holes, drilled in
a metal vessel, about one foot long, and at an elevation of eight
feet from the floor. There is, besides, a lateral gush of water, in
bulk about equal to three ordinary pumps, which bathes the middle
man. When I entered the bath, I held my hands over my head, to break
the force of the water; and having thus seasoned my knowledge-box,
I allowed the water to fall on my back and breast alternately,
rubbing most vigorously with both hands: the allotted time for
this aquatic sport is four minutes, but I frequently begged the
bademeister to allow me a minute or two more. At my sortie, the
bademeister threw over me the dry sheet, and he and his assistants
rubbed me dry to the bone, and left me in full scarlet uniform.
After this bath I took at least three glasses of water, and a most
vigorous walk.
One of the least agreeable processes in the water system is being
sweated. Mr. Lane describes his sensations as follows:--
At five o'clock in walked the executioner who was to initiate me into
the sweating process. There was nothing awful in the commencement.
Two dry blankets were spread upon the mattress, and I was enveloped
in them as in the wet sheet, being well and closely tucked in
round the neck, and the head raised on two pillows. Then came my
old friend the down bed, and a counterpane.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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