138 



BATHING. 



the winter as a working place for the park men^ or any 

 other labourers employed about. In it they could make 

 broomS; prepare wood^ paint hurdles^ make labels and pegs, 

 and many other things that are in constant use. Of course 

 this should only be done in bad weather. In all places 

 where a number of workmen are employed in winter, there 

 is generally a difficulty in providing men with work unless 

 there are large sheds : such to the sagacious manager prove 

 a great boon. They might also be advantageously used as 

 winter storehouses for seats, boats, and other things which 

 must be used in our recreation grounds, if we are to alFord 

 the people sufficient amusement and attraction therein. 

 But their chief use would be in making it possible for 

 people to bathe at all times. How many summer, spring, 

 and autumn days are there on which bathing would be a 

 delight, but when showers of rain forbid it in the open air ! 

 Of course men cannot strip and bathe and then get into 

 wet clothes ; and, like other exercises, bathing, if not 

 regularly practised, is not productive of much good. Those 

 sheds would aflPord a place where the clothes could be kept 

 dry, and then rain, light or heavy, would not produce any 

 difference — a swim would be as enjoyable in the heaviest 

 of rains as at any other time. Partial bathing, such as that 

 practised in the Serpentine during the mornings and even- 

 ings, merely meets the wants of a few persistent morning 

 bathers, and a host of the roughest of the great unwashed 

 in the hot summer evenings. 



