Unofficial Christ's Hospital Forum

"I dom't seem to remember any "Naughty Bits " then..."

I think you will find that you were working on a heavily expurgated version. All the "dirty/rude" bits reappeared in 1951 with a modern translation by someone called Coghill.

Oh Drat ! but I probably wouldn't have understood the Un-expurgated ------ It was all in a foreign language anyway !

The settles were sold off via an Old Blues' Day some years ago - I bought one - the sloping back nests just right behind the sofa. Invaluable for scooping infants' bits into.

There's an old (?Ackermann?) print of one of the London wards which seems to show them at the end of the beds. I do believe the settles, along with the beds, were brought down from London in 1902.

Jude wrote:
Now I wish I had a settle!
As I'd never need a kettle
for the things inside my settle
would be fine
as the items they would settle
inside my wooden settle
and all the things inside it would be mine!

Love the verse Jude

Now, I really do need a settle. Placed on the port side of the bed, they were, Oh!, so convenient for dropping clothes in as one undressed - except the Housey coat of course; that hung inside out by the middle button (fastened) from a hook at the head of the bed. Otherwise, out with the pyjamas, and in, sequentially, socks, shirt, bands, breeches and boots (shoes - but they don't alliterate) and, last of all, vest and that extraordinary flannel undergarment fastened by one button around the waist placed above a large gaping aperture. Oh! the trauma should that button become severed - it is no wonder that Housey boys are alleged to walk around with a hand lowered through the pocketless slit in the housey coat and strategically placed inside the breeches! (see elsewhere on this forum - there is a thread somewhere.)

Anyway, old habits die hard. If I have fortunately abandoned the comforting warmth of the hand inside my trousers (dyputrens, in any case ruled this impossible), my clothes are still dropped with an habitual lack of ceremony in the place where the settle should be, just on the port side. Constant nagging from Judith over the years has failed to remedy the situation so, some years ago, I sought resolution by an attempted acquisition (there had been a sale of settles once for which I was too late), but alas! without success. The settle, which was believed to lurk in the garage of a departing member of staff, apparently lurked no more and, without adequate containment, socks and pants continue to explore the darkest reaches of the bedroom floor. In short, I am still looking for a settle.

Foureyes wrote:I think that I may have found the earliest reference to the settle, which appears in The Canterbury Tales:

"For I wol telle a legende in fine fettle
Of Chriſt’s Hoſpital and the boys’ ſettle
Wherein their garments were ſtor’d,
Blue coatſ, breecheſ and hoſe in yellow,
And by their slepping place ykept,
So guarded it was as they Å¿lept."

Brilliant!

michael scuffil wrote:There were two lengths of bed when I was there. On the longer ones I could stretch out at my present height, so they must have been 6 ft 6. But they were narrow. If it weren't for that, I'd have one tomorrow if any were going, and put a futon on the boards.

I will forgive the mis-spelling, but if you did, they would surely break.

Foureyes wrote:I think that I may have found the earliest reference to the settle, which appears in The Canterbury Tales:

"For I wol telle a legende in fine fettle
Of Chriſt’s Hoſpital and the boys’ ſettle
Wherein their garments were ſtor’d,
Blue coatſ, breecheſ and hoſe in yellow,
And by their slepping place ykept,
So guarded it was as they Å¿lept."

Verse 2

ahem ...

For which legende, forsoothe, shal be
About a yonge childe's repofitry
For mickle clothes hath he therein kept
Sic hofen,breechen (as above yclept).
Eke made, in very troth, of wode and mettle,
May he who hath, now place with me his fettle.

And to think that all we had as a repofitry was a basket under the bed and an unexciting locker. Huh!

For I will tell a legende as is asked
Of Chrift's Hofpital and the girles bafket
Bubblebathe, their flipperf and a nightie
Were ftor'd, guarded from fighte
Except from mistresse when a prying
O grief! O furye and muche fighing.

You people need looking at!!

no Gerrie, publishing

englishangel wrote:no Gerrie, publishing

Bit of a niche market somewhere, you think?