A Stanky Subject

Fashion and wit may have been more of a priority than hygiene in the age of Enlightenment, with the subjects of Britain having a reputation for being...well, rather gross.  Casanova's sensibilities were shaken as he toured St James's Park and saw, "hinder parts of persons relieving nature in the bushes..." Casanova was rather shocked at the Bosh-like qualities of the metropolis and went on to say that people were even relieving themselves in the middles of the street rather than hiding themselves to do their business.  Visitors to the royal court would find much of the same behavior.  The French ambassador's wife was known to use the court chamber pots in view of everyone, "...at least ten times a day amongst a cloud of witnesses."  Yup, England had no shame.  The little shame that they did have could easily be covered up with powder and perhaps a few patches.

To add insult to injury, defecating in public was the least of England's hygiene problems.  Bathing tended to only include the washing of hands and the face.  Most everything else was neglected, resulting in course commentary about the sort of odors emitted from body parts.  As much as sex was enjoyed as a recreational activity, the appendages needed for the act didn't get much love from the bath tub.  Due to this transgression 18th-century lovers tended to avoid putting their mouth on anything they didn't have to, and clothing tended to stay on in the bedroom.  If that doesn't leave horrible enough images in your imagination, just ask John Wilkes who was especially harsh on poor Scottish girls,

"it is shocking how much of [the vagina] is neglected, especially in the Northern part of this Island.  The Face, the neck, the Hands, I owe are clean, but of a Whiteness which would rival Leda's lover.  All the rest, alas! is hid in mysterious Sluttishness."  

Wilkes was also known to famously say, "the nobler parts are never in this island washed by women; they are left to be lathered by men." This naturally leaves one to wonder how clean Mr. Wilkes' gentlemen-bits were.

In the last quarter of the century bath basins became slightly more widespread, at least in the homes of the more well-to-do.  Dr James Graham who would be dismissed as a quack (and was Scottish) for his work in the sexual field was a strong advocate of frequent bathing.  When childless couples came to him for help in the bedroom, a relaxing bath was usually part of the procedure.  Graham's novel advice seemed to catch on, for one of the prostitutes in Harris' List of Covent Garden Ladies's trademark was her hygiene which, "from a practical knowledge of its increase of pleasure, from motives of cleanliness, or as a certain preventative we will not pretend to say; but we know it makes her the more desirable bed-fellow."  Based on this evidence it is safe to say that there were prostitutes that were cleaner than heads of state, yikes!

Tart of the Week: Catherine Macaulay

Dear Catherine was never known for her beauty, but she was known for her spunk. In fact, she was one of the few female celebrities of the time who gained her fame, not through sexual antics, but through the venom of her pen.

Not much is known of Catherine's early life except that she was born to a land proprietor in Kent in 1731. In 1763 Catherine began causing a fuss (a habit she never broke) when she wrote A History of England (Volume 1). This shocked the public. A woman writing the history of the greatest country in the world? An outrage! But when people actually opened it up and read it, they found it to be a masterpiece. Catherine had left her mark.

Catherine continued to write and also involved herself in political activism. She loved the idea of Republicanism and wasn't afraid to tell Edmund Burke where to shove it...repeatedly. She published many pieces on how she thought the country should be run which only made her more of a celebrity. It didn't mean that she was loved by everyone though, her outspokenness earned her some criticism. Samuel Johnson and his circle openly mocked Catherine. That never seemed to stop Catherine. She openly supported the American Revolution and regularly corresponded with George Washington until her death. She even toured the new United States and stayed with the Washingtons on her trip.

In her old age Catherine finally caused a scandal, not with her writing, but with a man. Her failing health led her to try some of the wacky treatments of Dr. Graham. The quack's treatment actually seemed to work for her so she thoroughly endorsed him, which the public found to be the craziest thing she ever did. Then she shocked everyone by marrying the doctor's younger brother, William. He was twenty-one and she was fifty-two. The age gap, as well the the relationship to a known quack caused the press to go crazy. Catherine was now out of the public's favor. Despite this, the marriage appeared to be a happy one and the two were seen together often up until Catherine's death in 1791 at the age of sixty. Sadly though, her actions at the end of her life left a sour taste in people's mouth so for many years she was unrecognized for her accomplishments.

Quotables

"Gentlemen, ye are born the friends of women, not their rivals, and less their tyrants. To make slaves of them, therefore, by shewing your authority, and secluding them from your society or amusements, would be contradictory to reason, and a savage and unnatural abuse of that strength which was given you to protect them."

-Dr. James Graham

Book Review: Doctor of Love

After I wrote about the ever-interesting Dr James Graham last month, I was kindly alerted to a copy of Lydia Syson's new book, Doctor of Love: James Graham and His Celestial Bed. I instantly dove into it, as there are many conflicting accounts of Graham's celestial bed, or even Graham himself. I was hooked at once but I must admit I was totally won over when Syson explained a contraption Benjamin Wilson designed with a Star Wars reference,

"Wilson disposed of this difficulty in just the way George Lucas did when filming the opening of Star Wars exactly two hundred years later, moving the camera rather than the spaceship…"

Yes, I know that is an extremely superficial reason to enjoy a book but I commend Syson for stepping out of the normal constraints to better explain something on the academic level. Of course that's not the only reason I enjoyed Doctor of Love! Syson has a talent for creating an atmosphere with her detailed descriptions. This skill turns out to be an essential aspect needed for successfully explaining to contemporary readers the ostentatious contraptions that Dr. Graham invented. His mix of theatrics and medicine are hard to conceive in our modern minds but are colorfully described so as you feel like you are indeed walking in his Adelphi temple among the sparking golden dragons to the soft sounds of a glass harmonica.

Because I usually get caught up in the frivolities of London ton life, it is rare for me to read up on the medicine (or lack thereof) of the times. This book is chuck-full of 18th century theories and developing theories on medicine and healing. Since Dr Graham advertised himself as an expert in sexual healing there, of course, is a abundance of interesting information of theories of procreation. For instance, some believed that both men and women had to orgasm and ejaculate in order to produce a child. I can only imagine those powdered wigs heatedly debating that topic!

One of the most utterly amusing things in the book is the documentation of Graham's self-promotion. Although Syson will give him credit where credit is due, you feel as if she is laughing with you on the bloated poems Graham would write and publish about himself and his love of using CAPITAL LETTERS to express his points (Anyone who has read James St James should appreciate that). But then again how could you not laugh at a quack's shameless self-promotion?

I recommend checking out this book which hits shelves 2 October. Not only do you learn about a central and essential celebrity figure in 1780's London but because of Graham's connections and travels you find yourself reading about a plethora of interesting facts. This includes, medical colleges; celebrity relations and, of course, scandals; and even some tidbits about life in the American Colonies right before the Revolution. It is apparent how much research went into this but the transitions take you from one topic to the next harmoniously that the research flows together nicely which makes for a book that is hard to put down.

Dr Graham and The Sex Machine

There have been many quack doctors in the past but the most notorious of the 18th century is arguably Dr James Graham. It’s hard to even know where to start with this character so I will just introduce him as a typical celebrity. Like our contemporary celebrity doctor, Dr Phil, Graham didn’t entirely know what he was talking about, and people didn’t necessarily believe him yet he still had flocks of people flooding to his practice, mostly the rich and celebrities.

The Scottish doctor had a rather nomadic start. After going to medical school (notice I didn’t say ‘graduating’) he moved to the American colonies where he learned some electricity basics from Ben Franklin’s friend. He turned his tail and ran at the first hint of revolution and ended up in a variety of European cities, gaining a name for himself along the way. His specialty: sex therapy.

TEMPLE OF HEALTH
By 1779 Graham had acquired enough press and money and in 1780 he was able to open his infamous Temple of Health. It cost a crown for admittance and modest ladies were given masks at the door so their privacy was preserved and gossip could not be spread about infertility. Among gaudy gilded decorations and soft playing music, guests would listen to Graham’s pretentious lectures in his auditorium. This usually ended with a sharp electric jolt from their seat which was supposed to cure impotence and infertility. Graham employed lovely assistants as his ‘Goddesses of Health’ and they dressed scantily in Classical drapery. It has been rumoured that Emma Hamilton was one of these Goddesses but her biographer Flora Fraser argues against this gossip.

THE CELESTIAL BED
The Temple was a success and allowed him to build the Temple of Hyman in Pall Mall which in 1781 housed his invention, the Celestial Bed. The electro-magnetic bed was available to desperate couples attempting to conceive who could afford the £50 charge; about £3,000 today. Gilt dragons adorned the bed along with the saying (in Latin) “It is a sad thing if a rich man has no heir to his property.” To the sounds of music, a couple would make love on the bed while “magnetic fire” was pumped into the room. While the couple watched themselves copulate from the mirror on the bed’s canopy a tilting inner-frame helped position them in the best stance for conceiving.
Of course on top of using this bed, customers were urged to buy Graham’s special products to further aid in conceiving an heir.

CELEBRITIES
Celebrities were drawn to the temples like moths to the flame. Even ones like the Prince of Wales, who obviously didn’t need any help conceiving, were known to frequent Graham’s creations. It was just the “in” thing to do. After years of miscarriages Georgiana and the Duke went to the temple in hopes of producing an heir, to no avail. Other celebrities who were associated with the temples were Charles James Fox, Elizabeth Armistead, the Duke of Richmond, and John Wilkes. Mary Robinson’s reputation began to disintegrate after it became public knowledge that she was a patron of the quack. Not because he was a quack but because he was a sex-quack!

Like with most celebrities, what comes up must come down and this was the case with Graham as well. He went bankrupt in 1782 with the help of The Morning Herald and James Gillray’s campaigns against his quack-practice. Plus it probably didn’t help that his methods didn’t actually work either. He was imprisoned for debt and then went insane and died in 1794.


In this satirical print, Graham is flanked by his famous customers including Fox (center), Mary Robinson and Grace Ellitot (top)