Female Alliances by Amanda E. Herbert

Author:Amanda E. Herbert
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780300177404
Publisher: Yale University Press

Figure 4.4. Detail, Johnson's “Baths.”

Figure 4.5. Detail, Johnson's “Baths.”

Spas were certainly seen as sites of youthful fun and play, and children themselves were visible and active spa patrons, both in and out of the water. Shepheard's practice of “diving for farthings” was apparently de rigueur among young spa-goers; male visitors to Bath wrote of paying to have boys dive for coins in the depths of the large pools, a diversion which was enjoyed by John Leland as well as by Pepys.58 Johnson's work documents this, showing the figure of an elite man carrying a walking stick and a sword who is flipping a coin from his fingers while naked children clamber to retrieve it (fig. 4.6). Yet the drawing portrays many children in the spa pools, and not all of them are represented as amusing wealthy men by diving for coins. Several children are shown swimming in company with adults. In one vignette two small children cling to the buoyant shoulders of an adult swimmer. Nearby, another small child clutches at the back of a swimming adult, receiving a ride through the pool (figs. 4.7, 4.8).

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