The “Big Dipper” Meant Sun and Fun in the Regency

Long summer days lounging on the beach, digging your toes in soft, warm sand, luxuriating in gentle breezes with seawater gently lapping at our feet. If that’s you, then you’d get along just fine with the folks living during the Regency. No different than today, people would flee to seaside resorts to escape the heat and relax.

One of the most popular coastal resorts during the Regency was the town of Brighton. Brighton’s transformation from a tiny, struggling fishing village to a fashionable seaside resort all started in 1750 with the publication of Dr. Richard Russell’s Dissertation in the Use of Seawater in the Diseases of the Gland . After the book was published, people began flocking to Brighton to get a good dose of seawater for its purported health benefits, and the town started growing. It was during this phase that George, Prince of Wales, visited and was taken with the town, which led to it becoming a fashionable among the ton.

As you can imagine, going to the beach was a bit different then. Not only did the opposite sex not swim together, but they even had separate swimming areas. People used bathing machines to enter the water, which were essentially wooden wagons with wheels that drawn into the water by horses or bathing attendants. While men and women could change into their bathing costumes inside the wagons, often people swam in the nude since their fellow swimmers were all the same sex.

Once splashing around, people employed as bathing attendants to help them through the waves, help them float, and later give them a hand when they returned to the bathing machines. Many of the swimmers, particularly the ladies, couldn’t swim. It’s interesting to note that men “bathed” while women “dipped.” Accordingly, the male attendants were called “bathers” and the female attendants were referred to as “dippers.“

Brighton’s most famous dipper (known as the “Venerable Priestess of the Bath”) was a woman by the name of Martha Gunn. She was a large, robust women who helped ladies dip from 1750 until 1814 when she retired due to heath issues. She was so well known and beloved, that the Prince of Wales allowed her free access to the kitchens at the Royal Pavilion, among other privileges. Quite step up for a commoner!

Martha Gunn passed away in 1815 at the age of 88 years. She is buried with her husband in St. Nicholas’s Churchyard.