Badbesvär (och lite annat)

Så här såg 1870-talets badmode för herrar ut om man ska tro bilden från tidskriften Punch. Jag fortsätter med Francis Kilvert och hans dagboksanteckningar från 1870-1879.

I juni år 1874 besökte Kilvert Isle of Wight och badade i havet vid Shanklin. Hans "badedräkt" var inte lika "solid" som den här ovan och han hade vådliga besvär där i vattnet.

"At Shanklin one had to adopt the detestable custom of bathing in drawers. If ladies don't like to see men naked why don't they keep away from the sight? Today I had a pair of drawers given me which I could not keep on. The rough waves stripped them off and tore them down round my ancles. While thus fettered I was seized and flung down by a heavy sea which retreating suddenly left me lying naked on the sharp shingle from which I rose streaming with blood. After this I took the wretched and dangerous rag off and of course there were some ladies looking as I came up out of the water."

Holman Hunt - Our English Coasts (1852)

Kilvert fortsatte sin resa till London och besökte flera muséer (bland annat). Mäkta förgrymmad blir han över ett konstverk av Holman Hunt "Shadow of Death". Målningen (en Kristusbild) finns att beskåda på Wikipedia .  Teatralisk och avskyvärd var Kilverts omdöme och helt fel har han inte, tycker jag.

Chanctonbury Ring (foto: Jamie Kitson)

Chanctonbury, sweet Chanctonbury, thou wilt always be a green and beautiful spot in my memory.
 (anteckning från 11 augusti 1874).

Chanctonbury Ring hittar man i västra Sussex och den här fortifikationen har rötter ner i järnåldern. Jag minns en annan vandring till Chanctonbury Ring- den kan man läsa om i Galsworthy's "The Forsyte Saga"

The Down dipped and rose again toward Chanctonbury Ring; a sparkle of far sea came into view, a sparrow-hawk hovered in the sun's eye so that the blood-nourished brown of his wings gleamed nearly red. Jon had a passion for birds, and an aptitude for sitting very still to watch them; keen-sighted, and with a memory for what interested him, on birds he was almost worth listening to. But in Chanctonbury Ring there were none--its great beech temple was empty of life, and almost chilly at this early hour; they came out willingly again into the sun on the far side. It was Fleur's turn now. She spoke of dogs, and the way people treated them. It was wicked to keep them on chains! She would like to flog people who did that. Jon was astonished to find her so humanitarian. She knew a dog, it seemed, which some farmer near her home kept chained up at the end of his chicken run, in all weathers, till it had almost lost its voice from barking!

Det här stycket är ett av de mest romantiska i hela detta stora verk- och när den filmatiserade versionen (den från 1960-talet) visades var nog inget öga torrt. Ung kärlek- fylld av hopp.