BRITISH BATH HABITS.

King Country Chronicle, Volume VII, Issue 550, 15 March 1913, Page 6

BRITISH BATH HABITS.

A doctor who resides in Bermondsey, one of the London boroughs, said recently that his district contained 130,000 people, 19,000 houses and 121 bathrooms, most of them on licensed premises. The inhabitants of Bermondsey, he added did not follow the bath habit, and in many re> spects they paid the price of their own ' and their landlords' neglect. But it appears that the poor of London are not always ready to use baths even when they are provided. Not long ago a member of the Lambeth Borough Council stated that forty model houses erected for workers were given baths, and an inspection showed that in only six houses were the tubs being used for the purposes of ablutions. Most of the tenants had stored their coal in the baths, and in one or two instances ducks and rabbits were being fattened in these convenient receptacles in readiness for the Christmas feast. A story is told of an old woman in Lincolnshire who gasped with horror when a lady visitor remarked that she "had a cold sponge down every morning." "Law, miss." said the old lady, "and does your mother know?" The reply being in the affirmative, the old woman retorted, "Well, a washes me faace ivvery daay, an' washes me neck onee a week. But a 've nivver been washed all ower since a was a babby." The unwashed dame lived to the ripe old age of ninety-three years.