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Armand
Temple Powlett
describes his first visit to a Turkish bath
A
number of well-known authors, as well as some of those involved
in setting up Turkish baths in the British Isles, had visited a hammam
in Turkey or in the Maghreb. The descriptions they wrote were
frequently either flowery, revelling in the exotic, or humorous,
concentrating on features of the bathing process calculated to raise a
smile if sufficiently exaggerated. In total contrast, the letter which
follows, was written in 1855 to his father, by Armand Temple Powlett,
a young lad based in Turkey at the time of the Crimean War.
A
19th century artist's view of the inside of the famous Cagaloglu
Hammam in Constantinople (Istanbul). We do not know which hammam is
being described in the letter, but it seems likely that a young man
might go to a smaller, and perhaps less expensive, hammam than this.
The
whole of the letter, one of a collection in the Powlett Papers, describes his first visit to a Turkish
bath in simple unsophisticated language which is neither designed to
make converts nor poke fun at customs unfamiliar to the intended
reader.
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Constantinople
28 Jan
My
dear Papa
I
beg a thousand pardons for not thanking you before
for yr letter, but I had so many to write to other members of
the
family. I will describe a Turkish bath to you. First you
enter a large hall full of Turks lying under canopies. They
have had n just had their baths and are
drying. In you go
up into the gallery and undress, they rap [sic] a towel round
your
middle and throw another over your shoulders, then you go
down again, and boys bring you pattens to wear over the hot
marble these lead you into a still hotter room, where they
take the
towels off, but this is not the bath, you then go into the
bath
room where the heat nearly suffocates you. You see no water,
like an English bath, you hear a great noise which is the
Turks
bellowing for Mahomed. There is a part raised like a terrace
were [sic] you lie and get scrubbed. Then you go into a ring
where there are three marble vases over which is a hot and
cold water
tap. You can therefore have the water as hot or cold as you
like,
also there is a copper saucer with which you throw the water
over.
yrself. All this time you are in a heavy perspiration and feel
disposed to go to sleep. The boys then come and rub you with
horse hair rubbers which clean you most effectually They then
bring
things made of sheeps wool which they soap and soap you
all over,
then they leave you to yourself.
I
amused myself with throwing water over Seymour and rolling
on the warm marble. Then went out and had dry towels rapped
round our head like a turban and lay under a canopy and
drunk coffee and lemonade and those who liked smoking take
their
Chibouge, until they are dry and then dress, and go to the
door and pay 2/6 we found our horses waiting for us it
was poor
work for we cd not get a clear path for gallop the streets are
so narrow and crowded.
Ever yr affec A.T.P.
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