BATHING-PLACES AND MACHINES.
[TO THE EDITOR OP TVS " SPECTATOR."]
• hope your interesting article upon this subject will meet the attention it assuredly deserves. It must make authorities and private individuals consider what they can do to make of value the water supplies, at hand and in the neigh- bourhood, of rivers and streams running by them nnutilized, 1 have been a bathing enthusiast the best part of a long life, and to an extent it ran in the family, through, I suppose, having been brought up by the side of a lake. Our house was not two hundred yards from the lake, and from early spring till the water was slightly skinned with ice in November my three sisters bathed every morning at 6.30 to 7 a.m., and the _six brothers at 7 to 7.30, by an island sheltered with trees, and with the aid of the trunks of two trees cut down across the stream for diving and landing, And when we grew older and moved to another country hoase near Sutton Coldfield several of i's used to bathe in a deep pool when we were visiting my father, for the whole Of the Christmas week, and we thought the air was more chilly than the water. The most charming bathe I ever enjoyed was on a very hot day in a torrent river at Dalmally, and again in that lovely blue water at Bray, Wicklow, but the coldest water lever dived into was the Clyde at Lamlash Bay. Authorities could make many sea and river bathing-places remunerative as baths, and certainly add to the attractions of their neighbourhood. You give so many methods of dealing with the subject that it is somewhat difficult to add to them, although with genius other methods could be thought out. Much depends upon rock elevations and harnessing the tide or stream. You speak of the old pattern of bathing machines —here again there is great room for improvements in methods and fittings and brightness, but there is difficulty iu getting the old bathing-machine men and women to move. Some fifteen years ago, disliking the drab, ugly machines at Llandudno, I suggested that they would give a cheeriness to the shore by painting them red, white, blue stripes, and red, white, and green. They could not see it. However, at last I got one man to let me have three painted at a cost of fifteen shillings each. They were put on the shore early in June, but in a month or so I saw them in a back field, as though a failure, and, if I recollect aright, the owner said the colouring did not add to his take. Nevertheless, I feel sure pretty colouring adds to the look of the shore, though I could see that if the machines were painted, in consequence of the salt air, they would require varnishing as well, or the colour soon discolours. I trust your suggestions may be followed up.—I
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