THE HABITS OF BATHERS [To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.]
SIS,—Your contributor on the subject of "The Habits of Bathers" puts the case for unconventionality very guardedly —some of us might feel even too guardedly.
May a couple of instances from a farm in Kent be given ? During the hottest of the hot weather two nephews of mine, gentlemen of two years old, were set to disport themselves, undraped, in a goldfish-pond in the garden. • A villager, passing by on a road from which this pond could be seen, was heard to utter the word "Disgusting," and to direct his own little daughter's attention elsewhere so that her gaze should not be contaminated by the sight of two babies bathing.
In the same group of cottages to which our moralist belonged, and duringthe same hot weather, a pale-faced boy of ten was to be seen dressed in boots, woollen stockings, breeches, woollen combinations, a shirt, a necktie (to keep the shirt well up round his throat) and a cloth cap. Is it improbable that his pallor may have been partly a result ? Is it not being a little too " judicial " to suggest that degree of clothing is still an altogether open question of taste and morals ? There is another side to the argument, urging that a mild campaign in favour of taking reasonable advantage of sunlight wherever sunlight offers (and of not regarding undraped infants as necessarily indecently exposed) might have a positive effect upon the nation's health.—! am, Sir, &e.,
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