No. 140 The Trusty Servant
Caught Tubbing
John Freeman( Coll, 64-68) writes: Suzanne Foster’ s interesting article in the latest Trusty Servant reminded me of the fun we used to have with naumachias( ναυμαχίαι for anyone inclined to be pedantic about the plural form)... and of yet another occasion when Martin Scott( CoRo, 62-86; 2M, 62-79) distinguished himself by enlightened non-interference.
Robert Moser( Coll, 63-67) and I decided one afternoon to go a step beyond the naumachia, and launch a pair of bidets on the Logie brook.( They were tied together with cord to make them float higher in the water, a good thing on a cool autumn day). Whichever of us was in this vessel at the moment, we saw with some alarm, coming through Non Licet Gate, Martin Scott, accompanied by what were obviously a pair of prospective parents. I have no idea how he explained our apparition to them, because we never heard a word back from him ourselves.
By the way, there is a good illustration of a bidet( College sense, not the French one) in a picture by Degas.
There will be letters about this, we hear the Trusty Servant squeal, but on investigation, it seems that Degas had a penchant for tubs and bidets. Does John mean this( above), which does look like a bidet? There are several Degas pictures, not many of them suitable for display on these pages, of another type of tub that was in use in several houses( below).
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