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Secret History of English Spas, The (Hardcover)
Loot Price: R662
Discovery Miles 6 620
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Secret History of English Spas, The (Hardcover)
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English spas have a long and steamy history, from the thermal baths
of Aquae Sulis in Bath to the stews of Southwark, the elegant pump
rooms of Cheltenham and Buxton to the Victorian mania for
hydrotherapy and Turkish hammams. 'The Secret History of English
Spas' is an informative but light-hearted social and cultural
history of our obsession with drinking and bathing in spa waters.
It tells the stories of the rich, the famous, the poor and the
sick, all of whom visited spas in hopes of curing everything from
infertility to leprosy and gonorrhoea. It depicts the entrepreneurs
who promoted these resorts - often on the basis of the most dubious
scientific evidence - and the riotous and salacious social life
enjoyed in spa towns, where moral health might suffer even as
bodies were cleansed and purged. And yet English spas also offered
an ideal of civility and politeness, providing a place where social
classes and sexes could mingle and enjoy refined entertainments
such as music and dance - all part of the fashionable pastime
referred to as 'taking the waters'.
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