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Spas [ Health ]

… Abstract Spa towns encompass various sizes and categories in eighteenth-century Britain. The role of health and medicine pervades social interactions in spa towns which abounded in urban spaces dedicated to sociability: … idea on the role of gender in spa societies, and their specificities as a place for soft politics. Places > Health Keywords Health illness leisure Master of Ceremonies Medicine Mineral waters pump-room Spa Because of their seasonal structure, …

Spa sociability in Bath and Pyrmont [ Health / Nature ]

… contours of a transnational spa sociability in four major aspects of ‘openness’ i.e., the interplay of sociability and health, the paradox of regulation and freedom, the transformation of the self in a specific environment and the role of celebrity in the emergence of new communities. Places > Health Places > Nature Keywords Health Open society Master of Ceremonies Spa doctor regulation Identity celebrity Spa Spa sociability is very often …

Bath (and the reinvention of spa sociability) [ Cities / Politics & Society ]

… together with the body politic.   Places > Cities Practices > Politics & Society Keywords Civitas Codes Fashion Healing Health Invalid leisure Politeness ritual Spa The transformation of Bath in the long eighteenth century occurred against a … enjoyed by a man of a ‘polite imagination’ and asserted that ‘the pleasures of the fancy [were] more conducive to health than those of the understanding.’ 3  In their periodical, read by both men and women in places belonging to the … discussed, in particular, gynaecological disorders. 9 Nonetheless, talks in the Pump Room did not only revolve around health matters or gossip, the ‘Bath chat,’ 10  but could also take in their stride political issues 11 such as the …

Gin and the Gin Craze [ Food & Drink / Eating & Drinking / Social interaction ]

… through the poorer districts of London in particular, leading to widespread concern that its deleterious effects on the health of the labouring classes could precipitate a national decline. It gained a reputation as a solitary not a sociable … indicates that already in 1714 it was associated with the poor: ‘Nothing is more destructive, either in regard to the Health or the Vigilance and Industry of the Poor than the infamous Liquor, the name of which, deriv’d from Juniper in … and friendly intimacy among a group of people who carry on their daily work while downing foaming tankards of apparently health-giving beer. In contrast,  Gin Lane , located in the slums of St. Giles, depicts poverty, squalor and human …

Toasting glass [ Food & Drink ]

… > Food & Drink Keywords Glass Tableware drinking Toasting ritual In the course of the seventeenth century, toasting, or health-drinking as it was known, evolved into a ritual that spread across all social categories. The custom of drinking … and political club which boasted leading writers and Whig politicians among its members, was famous for pledging healths to the ‘toasts of the town’, the reigning ladies of the day, including the daughters of John Churchill, first …

Beau Nash [ Fashion ]

… Character, and Manners, of the Late Mr Nash 2 and Dr George Cheyne who often joked with him about the principles of good health. In spite of his modest means, he managed to cast himself in the role of the benevolent man, in the manner of … A ‘social symptom’ ( Briggs 215) , he embodied all of the tensions inherent in the re-creation of Bath: between health and entertainment, the openness of a new society and a later trend towards privacy, and ultimately tensions …