Posted on 10/17/2018 9:04:18 AM PDT by C19fan
In King Henry VIII’s pleasure palace, Hampton Court, there was no escaping class—not even in the loo.
The King, of course, had a luxurious place to squat. According to the Hampton Court Palace website, he and other royals sat atop a padded chair "covered in sheepskin, black velvet, and ribbons" lofted above a pewter chamber pot. This toilet was private, located in a so-called "stool room" that was attended to by a high-ranking courtier known as the Groom of the Stool. It was a privileged, well-respected gig to handle the monarch's waste. (Apparently the groom would even take notes on the sovereign's movements. In 1539, Henry VIII's groom showed a flair for euphemism by writing that the King had taken laxatives and experienced "a very fair siege.")
(Excerpt) Read more at mentalfloss.com ...
“I heard Versailles was just as bad or even worse. People would perform bodily functions anywhere in the palace.”
Just like San Francisco...
Too much information!
I will read this after lunch.
I saw a series from the UK about worst jobs in Tudor England. The Groom of the Stool made the list. That courtier would clean the Royal arse after a #2.
...attended to by a high-ranking courtier known as the Groom of the Stool
- -
Not sure I’d want that on my resume.
I remember taking a tour of a castle in either Belgium or western Germany while I was assigned to US Army Europe. One of the items on the tour was the privy/toilet on one of the upper floors. It was a narrow room with several holes in the wooden planks, like an old fashioned outhouse. One’s droppings fell into the space between the inner and outer walls of the castle.
Then you’ll feel for the poor dude reportedly tasked with carting around Prince Chuck’s personal toilet seat for Chuck.
My Grandmother did not have a Great Hall of Easement, but she did have a small hall of easement, a two holer called the out house. Out of her hearing, we called it the shit house, but excepting the difference in size, it must have been very similar to Hampton Court’s edifice.
Indoor plumbing with an indoor toilet, came to MaMa’s house in the early 60’s, so my generation was the last to experience the real thing.
At the end of the article, the job of the group of king-appointed boys known as the “Gong Scourers” is described. The “Groom of the Stool” had it easy!
Lol...well played!
A castle in London had the shitt*rs located in a small room with your back to the exterior castle wall. A hole went through that wall to the exterior. When one felt the urge to purge they would be sending the steaming plopper sliding down the exterior ediface. How unsavory.
Get another roll, you're going to be busy.
Yeah, and that coat of arms might be a little tough on the descendants.
usueless scatology
This is much of the reason why life expectancy used to be so short
This is what the castle moat was for. It was an open cesspool.
Gong scourers of sorts still exist in Haiti, where gangs of men empty privy vaults and cart the waste away. This despite the millions supposedly lavished on Haiti by the Clinton Foundation.
One I liked was Chillon Castle on Lake Geneva, same thing holes in planks but it dropped 100 feet to the lake. As a side note this is where Mary Shelly wrote Frankenstein one summer, Lord Byron was there at the same time
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.