News bulletins in the UK deal almost exclusively with the weather at the moment. Snow and ice are once again bringing the country to a virtual standstill. Side roads in towns and country lanes are impassable, many schools are closed, airports out of action and, worse than any of that, Christmas shopping has been put on hold.
Last night's temperature was minus eleven round here. You think you have it bad?
That's nothing. Just read what the Rev Francis Kilvert wrote in his diary for Christmas Day 1870:
As I lay awake praying in the early morning, I thought I heard a sound of distant bells.
It was an intense frost. I sat down in my bath upon a sheet of thick ice which broke in the middle into large pieces whilst sharp points and jagged edges stuck all around the sides of the tub like chevaux de frise, not particularly comforting to the naked thighs and loins, for the keen ice cut like broken glass.
The ice water stung and scorched like fire. I had to collect the floating pieces of ice and pile them on a chair before I could use the sponge and then I had to thaw the sponge in my hands for it was a mass of ice.
The morning is most brilliant. Walked to the Sunday School with Gibbins and the road sparkled with millions of rainbows, the seven colours gleaming in every glittering point of hoar frost. The Church was very cold in spite of two roaring stove fires.
Bettws Clyro Church where the Rev Kilvert preached.
The Reverend Francis Kilvert was Curate of the parish of Clyro, near Hay-on-Wye, the famous book town, over the border from us in Powys, from 1865 to 1872. He began to keep a diary in 1870 in which he described the people he met and the places he visited in fascinating detail.
Many of his journals were destroyed, but some were later published and became famous as Kilvert's Diaries because they gave a rare picture of country life in the late Victorian years.
Friko, you are making me so happy with these Christmas postings. I just left a warm bath and was feeling sorry for myself until I read about Rev Kilvert's bath.
ReplyDeleteAh yes remember reading them with great enjoyment when I was a student. You have to wonder though who left water in his bath long enogh for it to freeze and why didnt he pour hot water form the kettle on to it, what sort of a plonker doesnt realise that if you sit in a tub of ice with a bare behind it is going to cut like glass? Do you think he was doing it for the good of his soul?
ReplyDeletefriko - oh wow what a bath!!! last night i rode home through the snow and ice on my bike and got into a warm bath to bring feeling back into my extremities. the process was slightly painful but not as excruciating as this poor chap's experience! steven
ReplyDeleteWe do have so much for which to be grateful. It gives me pause to reflect on how lucky I am!! Thank you! Cathy
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing this, Friko. Rev. Kilvert's bath episode immediately prompted questions. Like her at home I also wondered why the bath water was already in the bath. Since cleanliness is next to godliness I cannot imagine that the reverend would be using his bath water more than once. And surely he would have noticed that ice had formed in the bath. True mortification of the flesh! What a picture is conjured up by the description of the naked reverend piling shards of ice on a chair.
ReplyDeleteBeing thoroughly distracted by the bath episode has not prevented me from enjoying the whole post. Warm wishes.
An ice bath.. I think I would have passed on that. It was probably too cold to smell offensively anyway. Brrrr. I am so grateful for central heat.
ReplyDeleteDear Friko: Amazing! I love the quote; always puts into perspective what it must have been like for those during that time frame. Prayers and blessings to the snow bound in the UK. Remember, Canada is quite use to all the snow, having been deluged every year for 6 months of the year (at least). Snow is falling now, but it is the wet variety. Did you know Inuits have thousands of words for snow? "Ugh" is one of my favourites!
ReplyDeletebrrr - i think i'd've stayed dirty that day
ReplyDeleteI believe I would have foregone the bath if the tub had a thick layer of ice on it.
ReplyDeleteIt was really -11ยบ? OK, that puts a damper on any fantasy of living in an English village.
I'm loving these Advent posts Friko - making me feel Christmassy! After reading that little piece from Rev Kilvert's diary - my little episode with frozen water pipes a couple of days ago, I don't know I'm born!!
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed this post, Friko, as I have the others that are part of this series. Like the other commenters, I can only wonder what Rev. Kilvert had in mind as he sunk his body into that bathtub of ice. I could have found a number of better alternative, including doing without a bath. All of this brings us, of course, to the realization that we have much to be thankful for these days.
ReplyDeleteOh my! I'm afraid I would make do with a "spit bath," as my grandmother called it, by washing only the most important areas (!!) and venturing out!
ReplyDeleteAs I child we lived in a two story house with only a coal burning cook stove in the kitchen and a coal burning stove in the living room. Since they didn't last all night, mornings were c.o.l.d! We learned to grab our clothes, run down the stairs and dress beside the cook stove that Dad had risen early to light. That's as close (or closer) than I ever want to be to the good Reverend's condition!!
Wow. People were so tough then, amazing.
ReplyDeleteStay warm!! Rilke makes me warmer, always. Roethke, too.
Nice to "meet" you. xx
And, as a child, I used to think ice on the inside of my bedroom windows was bad enough!
ReplyDeleteThank you for another wonderful advent post. I'm glad to be sitting in our warm house and only reading about that icy bath!
ReplyDeletei read this earlier and i will be honest...i was unsure what to say...but what stuck with me is the ice bath followed by the beauty he sees in the midst of the bitter cold...and i hope i can keep eyes like that...smiles.
ReplyDeleteWere your temps 11 degree F,
ReplyDeleteor 11 degrees below zero, which
is what minus 11 degrees means
here in the Colonies. Or are you on
Centigrade over there; sorry about'
my ignorance and confusion.
Great Advent tie in though.
Imagine being married to a man who
ReplyDeletea) saved the bath water for later
b) thought it a good idea to bath amongst the shards of ice
Well that silly man, sitting in a tub of ice!! I love old diaries, getting a tiny glimpse of what life was like all those years ago. Thanks for sharing that!
ReplyDeleteRev. Kilvert sounds like an early American, puritanical curate, as well. They may have believed that heavenly rewards were for self-denial. Or maybe the plumbing to his home wasn't adequate... It would be interesting to hear more! You are lucky so much has been preserved, including the church.
ReplyDeleteIt sounds like Rev Kilvert was mortifying more than the normal amount of flesh by placing his nuaghty bits where they could have been a la castrato.
ReplyDeleteMore to this than meets the eye.
Love this series, Friko!
XO
WWW
Thanks for discovering my blog so I could discover yours. I think the idea of a post for each day, like an Advent Calendar, is a great idea - and I intend to keep opening "virtual" calendar doors each day
ReplyDeleteAnother wonderful Advent post! Love the picture of the good Rev. piling ice shards on the chair.
ReplyDeleteI enjoy reading all memoirs and I am sure this one would be very interesting. But such a cold bath… I know it gets cold in England because when I was going to school there in winter my room, unheated, was icy cold and there was an heavy sheet of ice on the windows – from the inside too!
ReplyDeleteMortification of the flesh is a strange concept , at the best of times .
ReplyDeleteHe , presumably , chose to bathe in icy water . I wonder what the living conditions were like for the old chap who lit and tended the roaring stoves in the church ?
Sounds unbelievable yet I can remember washing in a freezing cold bathroom with the window iced up on the inside. It seemed to me that I had troubles with a tide-mark on my neck all winter! They were not the happiest of times.
ReplyDeleteFunny how a cold shower sounds delightful after reading this passage! It would be worth it to see the frost glittering as described.
ReplyDelete