Bathing machines, which, judging by recent events at Cowes, seem destined soon to become obsolete, have never been popular on the Continent. They were first seen at Margate ju 1763, and their use rapidly spread to other English watering-places. Humphry Clinker" (published 1770) has a mention of them at Scarborough. Dr, Johnson used a bathing machine at Brighton," and enjoyed the novel experience so heartily that as he rubbed himself down therein he roared Latin hexameters in a voice which carried to Thrale's house on the cliff. George III. found that the invention of bathing machines enabled him to bathe with due pomp and circumstance Weymouth, the royal machine being attended by another one filled with musicians who played the National Anthem as his Majesty waddied into the sea. A visitor to Brighton towards the close of the eighteenth century remarks that although bathing machines abound there "the supply is not equal to the demand.
ch man runs to a machine ladder og it is drawn out of the sea and scuffles who shal] first set foot thereon. Some send their foot-men and contend by proxy; others go out in boats or on horseback to meet the machines, so that a tolerably modest man has generally some hours for contemplation on the sand, to the detriment of his shoes as well as the diminution of his patience.' The rights of bathing machine proprietors were then jealously guarded at Brighton, for persons who bathed from the beach were liable to a fine of five guineas,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.