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Mon, 19 May 2008 20:55:27 -0400
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Discussion of research and writing about Virginia history <[log in to unmask]>
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"Lyle E. Browning" <[log in to unmask]>
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In a similar vein, when Queen Elizabeth II visited Australia many  
years ago, she was to meet some Aborigines. They had a socially  
acceptable way of having a poop while maintaining conversation with  
the group. They were given a "suggestion" that it was not the done  
thing when conversing with QEII.

Social customs and the inadvertent crossing of cultures are wonderful  
things.

Lyle Browning

On May 17, 2008, at 2:22 AM, Stephan A. Schwartz wrote:

> At Versailles  the clothing women wore to social events at the  
> palace was so complex that during a ball there were servants with  
> chamber pots covered with towels, who would pass through the  
> ballroom, catch a signal from a lady, and thrust the chamber pot up  
> under their gown so they could urinate. There are accounts of this  
> happening while the lady in question continued to participate in an  
> ongoing conversation.
>
> -- Stephan
>
>
> On 16 May 2008, at 23:44, Lyle E. Browning wrote:
>
>> On May 16, 2008, at 10:44 PM, Elizabeth Whitaker wrote:
>>
>>> Even at the highest ranks of European society, personal  
>>> cleanliness as we define it was somewhat lacking. For instance,  
>>> the royal palace at Versailles had no ...ah... restrooms as such.  
>>> There must have been chamberpots in the bedrooms, but the hordes  
>>> of nobles, servants, etc. at the palace couldn't and didn't spend  
>>> all their time in and near their sleeping places.
>> Queen Elizabeth I was reckoned in her time a clean freak because  
>> she bathed 2x/year.
>>
>> Versailles has, from the tour I had and from other folks who had  
>> the tour in different years, a remarkable oral history to be  
>> related. There were no restrooms as that concept was a couple of  
>> hundred years in the future. What they did have was chamberpots,  
>> which were placed behind doors that were open, creating a small  
>> triangular space. That was where all did their business and it was  
>> judged quite normal. So, apparently there was a protocol for  
>> determining if the space was occupied or not. Probably not on the  
>> order of "Yo, Louis, you back there" but something a bit more  
>> refined. A chamber pot with the lid on is not exactly an airtight  
>> container so the combined pong at the end of the day must have been  
>> amazing. No wonder perfume was invented by those worthies. And no  
>> wonder the handkerchief was the first gas mask, doused in perfume  
>> and held close to mask said pong.
>>
>> As an oral history, this one would at least be verifiable. If the  
>> original floorboards, skirting boards, or frames are still in  
>> place, then testing for uric acid would find spatter patterns  
>> merging into one pungent disk of material.
>>
>> That was done on soil samples for a tavern for which, if memory  
>> serves, had been reduced to rubble in a plowed field. Soil tests  
>> showed high concentrations of phosphates at the front corners of  
>> the buildings, corresponding to recorded practice of gents  
>> relieving themselves around the corners on the walls. The modern  
>> concept of privacy while performing natural functions is definitely  
>> not the historic mode. In the medieval period, it was apparently  
>> considered perfectly normal for gents to turn to a wall along a  
>> busy street, or at least there are illustrations of the top 2%  
>> doing that (of course those folks are aberrations anyway so who  
>> knows;)
>>>
>>>
>>> I'm a member of that age cohort who hit the teen years in the  
>>> early '70s. I remember how odd our parents thought we were for  
>>> washing our hair _every_ day! "Older ladies," for instance,  
>>> usually had their hair washed and set once a week at the local  
>>> "beauty parlor."
>> I got the same thing in Britain in the 70's because I took a daily  
>> bath. The Brits thought that was odd. They also did not wear  
>> deodorant, nor did about half the ladies shave their armpits, nor  
>> did they shave their legs. Now all that is commonplace (daily  
>> baths, deodorants and shaved pits and legs). Most of the time, one  
>> simply did not notice anyway as only a few folks were decidedly off  
>> in their personal hygiene. We did have kids who'd grown up so poor  
>> that they were allowed baths once a fortnight (2 weeks) due to the  
>> cost of heating water and who did laundry once a month. Those we  
>> set straight as to what was expected, but politely. Personal habits  
>> in group dynamics were an interesting conflict to watch and to have  
>> to deal with.
>>
>> Lyle Browning, RPA
>>
>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Elizabeth Whitaker
>>>
>>> Melinda Skinner wrote:
>>>>> From my readings and research about colonial Virginia and 16th  
>>>>> and 17th-century England,
>>>> most people were pretty filthy and smelly.  I would think that  
>>>> any household slaves/servants
>>>> would be about as clean as their employers/masters.
>>>> --
>>>> Melinda C. P. Skinner
>>>> Richmond, VA
>>>
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