\paperw3360 \margr0\margl0\ATXph16380 \plain \fs20 \f1 \fs22 Spa towns such as Bath, Buxton and Brighton became fashionable resorts in the 18th century, though the properties of
their healing waters had been appreciated by the discerning few since much earlier times. Brighton began to attract the hypochondriacs of London when an enterprising doctor discovered that sea water might cure hydrophobia and many other ills caused by t
oo much gin, too much food and an excess of cold air. Sea bathing was no pleasure since it was recommended at dawn and as late as November. Decorum was preserved by having ladies and gentlemen swimming in different parts of the beach. Drinking the sea
water was also held to be beneficial. It could be taken mixed with milk æto remove the loathing, sickness and thirst with which sea water, taken pure, is always attendedÆ. By the time the \b \cf4 \ATXht13211000 Prince Regent\b0 \cf0 \ATXht0 and his c
ourt arrived in the late 1780s \b \cf4 \ATXht11081000 Brighton \b0 \cf0 \ATXht0 had become an important spa, offering springs called æstromboliÆ and Turkish baths called æshampoosÆ. There is something a little ambiguous about these terms, and in fact sp
as got a bad name for themselves as dens of licentious behaviour. Indeed, by the early 1700s Bath itself had become the æresort of the sound as well as of the sick and a place that helps the indolent and the gay to commit that worst of murders - to kill
timeÆ, as the writer Daniel Defoe declared. However, when æBeauÆ Nash was appointed Master of Ceremonies at Bath, he cracked down on beggars and hooligans, made sure that the streets were safe at night, founded a hospital for the cure of rheumatic dise
ase and in 1706 opened the first Pump Room where people could meet æin civilised companyÆ. A little later the architect John Wood began turning medieval Bath into an superbly elegant Georgian town. Soon everybody who was anybody came to Bath for the æs
easonÆ, as much for the social encounters it promised as for the beneficial effects of taking the mineral-rich waters. \par
