The Mediæval Hospitals of England by Rotha Mary Clay
4. TOILET
255 words | Chapter 78
Bathing and laundry arrangements are occasionally mentioned. The
regulations for the Sherburn lepers direct a strict attention to
cleanliness. Two bath-tubs (_cunæ ad balneandum_) were supplied; heads
were washed weekly; and two laundresses washed the personal clothing
twice a week. In the fifteenth-century statutes of Higham Ferrers
matters of health and toilet are detailed. None might be received “but
such as were clean men of their bodies”; and if taken ill, a bedeman
was removed until his recovery. Every morning the woman must “make
the poor men a fire against they rise and a pan of fair water and a
dish by it to wash their hands.” The barber came weekly “to shave them
and to dress their heads and to make them clean.” When the Savoy was
officially visited in 1535, the authorities were asked [p174] “whether
the bathes limitted by the founder be well obserued and applyed.”
As to hair-dressing, “tonsure by the ears” was commonly used by the
staff. After profession at Chichester it was directed:—“then let the
males be cropped below the ear; or the hair of the women be cut off
back to the middle of the neck.” Among the instructions in the register
of St. Bartholomew’s near Dover is one about the round tonsure, and
there is a marginal note as to the mode of shaving the head. The
visitation of St. Nicholas’, York (_temp._ Edward I), showed that
formerly brethren and sisters were tonsured, but that Simon, recently
master, had allowed them to change both habit and tonsure.[106]
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