3-066-047 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Hot weather sketches, 1881. '...summer warmth did really affect us in London, and generally in England, as it is said to do in foreign countries, ''only more so," because we are little accustomed to it, and our habits, our dress and diet, are not calculated for the endurance of a very high temperature...In parks and...in some of our streets, the venders of cheap ices, of lemonade, ginger-beer, and a variety of cooling refreshments, must have done a large amount of trade. Japanese parasols and fans have also become conspicuous in the hands of women, and sometimes even of boys and young men, who carried them usually with a gesture of derision, as if to mock the luxurious delicacy of the other sex...The park seats and benches have admitted drowsy folk to mid-day or afternoon slumber...There is no telling the number of cases in which a regular siesta has been taken in bed, or upon the bed, as is done in Italy and Spain...The baths, public and private, have had an unusual multitude of customers; while the Serpentine,...at certain hours of the day, [has] attracted a host of swimmers. In default of such accommodation, it has been found not a bad substitute by many to put the head under a pump, and to wash hands and feet in any tub or pool'. From "Illustrated London News", 1881.