THIC BATHROOM. 



101 



i ;n. si.\xnix&amp;lt;; on INTO 



fact of how large a part bathing played in the life of the 

 Roman, and Sir Alma Tadema s pictures give one a vivid 



idea of what their bathing establishments were like. 



Wherever they went, too, they carried their good habits 



with them, and the Roman bath in the Strand and at 



Bath are instances. The habit of bathing, though, was. 



perhaps, less of a virtue in tiie sunny climate of the 

 Mediterranean than in our own bleaker one the famous 



baths of Maria de Padilla at Seville, which form part 



of the Alcazar, were originally open to the sky, sur 

 rounded by orange and lemon trees, and here Pedro s 



favourite disported herself. It was a mark of gallantry 



for the knights of the Court to drink the waters after 



Maria hail performed her ablutions, and Mr. Calvert in 



his book on Seville tells a tale of how the King noticed 



that one of his knights refrained from so doing, and on 



being questioned replied, &quot; 1 dare not drink of the water, 



lest, having tasted the sauce, I should covet the 



partridge.&quot; In this note of the baths at Seville mention 



may be made of the Moorish occupation, which terminated 



m 1248 after over live hundred years, during which time 



all Mussulmans bathed in accordance with the teachings 



of the Koran. 



It should not be forgotten that the bath has its 



own order of chivalry, instituted with us at the Coro 

 nation of Henry IV. in i .;()&amp;lt;), and again revived in 1725. 



It received its name from the candidates for the honour 



being put into a bath the preceding evening to denote 



a purification or absolution from evil deeds A bath 



opened in 1670. in Bagnio Court off Newgate Street is said to have been the first used for hot 



bathing in Kngland, while Turkish baths did not appear till 1860. The first public bath was opened 



in the neighbourhood of the London Docks in 1844. Having thus delicately touched, on the subject 



of how our forbears did not bathe, it will, perhaps, be fitting to consider how best one can do so to-day, 



and the first and most vital need is an adequate supply of really hot water. One s bath may be of porphyry! 



and the bathroom lined with onyx if the water is lukewarm the result is unsatisfactory. Taking the 



ordinary small house as an example, the usual method is to have a boiler attached to the kitchen range. 



If this is to be effective, the lire must be lowered, the boiler damper withdrawn and the oven ones pushed 



in, so that all the heat of the tire is 

 directed through the arched Hue under 

 the boiler. These simple details are 

 generally known and yet just as gene 

 rally neglected. 



Should there be more than one bath 

 in a house, it is essential that an inde 

 pendent boiler with separate furnace be 

 used. At first sight this may appear 

 to be an unnecessary and extravagant 

 arrangement, whereby two fires are 

 needed. This is not the case, though, 

 as the same boiler will be used for all 

 sinks and lavatory basins, and the range 

 then need only be alight when cooking 

 is in progress. Being assured of a 

 sufficient quantity of hot water, the 

 question of the cold supply presents 

 little difficulty, and generally consists 

 of connecting to the water main and 

 storing water in a cistern at a level 

 above the highest fitting. In the 

 country the same system of storage in 

 cisterns obtains, the tanks being &quot;filled 



131. BATH ON BASE : TILED WALLS. 



