ON arrival at a friend’s parents’ house in the deepest Massif Central, the writer John Cornwell summoned up his best prep-school French to ask discreetly for les toilettes. Taking him straight back out of the front door, his hostess exclaimed, with a dramatic sweep of her arm over the surrounding landscape: ‘Mais vous avez toute la France!’
That was the 1970s, when French plumbing (indeed, foreign plumbing of any persuasion) provoked much English sniggering, squeamishness and outright dismay. The horrors of the pissoir, petit coin and other cabinets of horrors remain part of the stock repertoire of British travellers’ tales for anyone over the age of 45.
British plumbing was still resting on its 19th-century laurels, having reached its apogee of comfort and convenience during the Regency, according to architecture historian Mark Girouard. Then, the English nobility were the envy of their Continental contemporaries, enjoying flushing water closets, bathrooms en suite and hot and cold running servants at the touch of a mechanised bell-pull.
Inventor and locksmith Joseph Bramah had patented an improved version of a water closet with valve and S-bend in 1778, which made him a household name for the best part of 100 years, until a flurry of innovations later in the 19th century by firms that are still familiar today. Dent & Hellyer’s Optimus (1870) boasted a quieter flush and illustrious patrons, including assorted British royals, the Tsar of Russia and the King of Siam.
Denne historien er fra November 18, 2020-utgaven av Country Life UK.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
Allerede abonnent ? Logg på
Denne historien er fra November 18, 2020-utgaven av Country Life UK.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
Allerede abonnent? Logg på
Happiness in small things
Putting life into perspective and forces of nature in farming
Colour vision
In an eye-baffling arrangement of geometric shapes, a sinister-looking clown and a little girl, Test Card F is one of television’s most enduring images, says Rob Crossan
'Without fever there is no creation'
Three of the top 10 operas performed worldwide are by the emotionally volatile Italian composer Giacomo Puccini, who died a century ago. Henrietta Bredin explains how his colourful life influenced his melodramatic plot lines
The colour revolution
Toxic, dull or fast-fading pigments had long made it tricky for artists to paint verdant scenes, but the 19th century ushered in a viridescent explosion of waterlili
Bullace for you
The distinction between plums, damsons and bullaces is sweetly subtle, boiling down to flavour and aesthetics, but don’t eat the stones, warns John Wright
Lights, camera, action!
Three remarkable country houses, two of which have links to the film industry, the other the setting for a top-class croquet tournament, are anything but ordinary
I was on fire for you, where did you go?
In Iceland, a land with no monks or monkeys, our correspondent attempts to master the art of fishing light’ for Salmo salar, by stroking the creases and dimples of the Midfjardara river like the features of a loved one
Bravery bevond belief
A teenager on his gap year who saved a boy and his father from being savaged by a crocodile is one of a host of heroic acts celebrated in a book to mark the 250th anniversary of the Royal Humane Society, says its author Rupert Uloth
Let's get to the bottom of this
Discovering a well on your property can be viewed as a blessing or a curse, but all's well that ends well, says Deborah Nicholls-Lee, as she examines the benefits of a personal water supply
Sing on, sweet bird
An essential component of our emotional relationship with the landscape, the mellifluous song of a thrush shapes the very foundation of human happiness, notes Mark Cocker, as he takes a closer look at this diverse family of birds
