After a little break from writing, my brand new article about the discomforts and embodied experience of travelling by carriage in the 18th century is now available open access on the Social History of Medicine website: @uniofexeternews.bsky.social academic.oup.com/shm/advance-...
academic.oup.com
Abstract. This article explores the embodied experience of coach travel in England, c. 1660–1820, focusing on motion, discomfort, and sensory engagement. U
"A barrage on the senses."
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Jack El-Hai
Currently doing some work on feelings of bodily discomfort while travelling. One common affliction was a sore bum caused by long journeys on horseback. One 18thc vicar noted that his backside was so sore that he dipped it into the river for relief. What must passers-by have thought?!
A question for fashion/ historians: I’ve come across a reference to “cordibecks for travelling” in an 18th century advertisement. I think these might be hats. Can anybody confirm or correct?!.
Looks like Del Boy and Rodney were up to their tricks earlier than we thought. This from 1798…’Trotter’s Oriental Dentifrice’!
Until today, I didn’t know that the word ‘habiliments’ existed, meaning the trappings or clothing linked to someone’s job, status or way of life.
Jolted and Jumbled: Riding in a Sedan Chair in the 18th Century
If there is one form of transport that perhaps typifies the 18th century more than any other, it is a sedan chair. Recently I have been doing some work on stage coaches, and the experience of what it was actually like to travel in…
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If anybody has any references in letters or diaries to cuts or rashes caused by shaving in the 17th and 18th centuries, I would be very grateful if you wouldn’t mind sharing them.