Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 2.djvu/163

 io* s. ii. AC,,, is, 1904.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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gratefully acknowledged. A Coffee Room adjoining M'here the London Papers are daily provided. Convenient Lodgings and Stables. Post Chaises and Saddle Horses to hire.''

In an old 'Guide to Margate, Ramsgate, Broadstairs,' &c., n.d., published by Braiser, Margate, is given a picture of a bathing- machine very similar to Wood's. In the adjacent letterpress is the following sen- tence :

" It may also be remarked that Margate claims credit for the invention of the convenient and com- fortable machines at present universally adopted

literally unjust if Margate did not come in for her share of the emoluments arising from bathing, having been so instrumental in their establish- ment.

Beale's machines must have been very wonderful constructions, for in * A Guide to all the Watering and Sea Bathing Places' (1803) it is recorded that they "may be driven to any depth in the sea by careful guides"! A contiguous engraving of Margate shows two bathing-machines standing in the water ready for use. See also 8 th S. iv. 346, 415. JOHN T. PAGE.

West Haddon, Northamptonshire.

Bathing-machines were used, if not in- vented, by Ralph Allen, who had one at Weymouth in 1763. A picture of them at Margate was in the Academy, 1775. Abun- dant evidence is stored in ' N. & O.,' 7 th S. ii.

W. C. B.

In the edition of ' Humphry Clinker ' in Roscoe's " Modern Novelists," which contains some of Cruikshank's best work, is an engraving representing 'Humphry's Zeal for his Master,' whom he is dragging out by the ear from the sea at Scarborough. On the beach is a bathing-machine having a large hood at the back, and several people are looking on. JOHN PICKFORD, M.A.

My brother R. W. Henderson, of Basing House, Rickmansworth, has a water-colour drawing by his great-grandfather, George Keate, of Margate, with bathing-machines, I think dated 1787. G. B. HENDERSON.

3, Bloomsbur}' Place.

The invention of the bathing-machine is usually credited to one Benjamin Beale, a Quaker, of Margate, who, sad to relate, is .said to have ruined himself in establishing his invention, while his widow died in a Margate almshouse early last century.

According to the Globe of 30 July, sub allusion to the machines at Margate occurs
 * In a Bathing-Machine,' the earliest known

in the 'Travels' of Dr. Richard Pococke, where he refers to them as curiosities, and as being used at that Kentish seaside resort in 1754.

In the Royal Academy Catalogue for 1775 is the reference to a picture described as 4 A View of the Bathing-Machines, <fcc., near Margate.'

The first bathing-machine at Weymouth was constructed for Ralph Allen about 1763. Much interesting information is contained in the above "turn-over-column" in the Globe, which I should advise your corre- spondent to see. CHAS. HALL CROUCH.

According to the ' Picture of Margate, being a Complete Guide to all Persons visiting Margate, Ramsgate, and Broadstairs' (1809),

"The merit of this invention is owing to Mr. Benjamin Beale, formerly an inhabitant of Margate : and whose widow lately died at Draper's [i.e.., at the almshouses there], but his successors, it is said, have reaped far greater advantages from these machines than himself."

I was taught swimming when a boy by John Beale, who kept a bathing establish- ment at Margate (and who was, I think, a grandson of the inventor) some sixty years ago. JOHN HEBB.

Dr. Miinzel kindly supplies the following description of the picture of the bathing- machine which is preserved in his room at Hamburg. It bears these inscriptions : On the left, "F. Russell, R.A., Crayon Painter to His Majesty, their R 1 H s the Prince of Wales and Duke of York "; on the right, " Engraved by W. Xutter "; in the middle, "London, Published by Diemar, No. 114, Strand." E. S. DODGSON.

This subject has been very fully discussed in the columns of ' N. & Q.' If your corre- spondent requires information on all the points raised in his query he should consult 7 th S. ii. and 8 th S. iv., v., in which the question has been referred to on ten different occasions. EVERARD HOME COLEMAN.

71, Brecknock Road.

COURT DRESS (10 th S. ii. 100). There is a new Buckingham Palace uniform under the present King, which has also been worn by His Majesty at Windsor. There have always been special uniforms of this description in various regal and viceregal households for instance, one at Dublin Castle, and at the Viceregal Lodge, worn by aides-de-camp, though seldom by others. D.

AMBAN (10 th S. i. 506). Amban is the Tibetan term for the representative of China