early toilet paper

[acroutch]

what did the english use for toilet paper during the 1600's

[mata hati]

Dont know, but the Romans had a slave to do the nessacery with a sponge soaked in vinegar !

[4GS]

Taken from Wikipedia:
The 16th century French satirical writer Fran�ois Rabelais in his series of novels Gargantua and Pantagruel, discussing the various ways of cleansing oneself at the toilet, wrote that: "He who uses paper on his filthy bum, will always find his ballocks lined with scum", proposing that the soft feathers on the back of a live goose provide an optimum cleansing medium.


I imagine that it would be the same all over europe. The early Britons and Romans scraped with seashells and wiped clean with damp moss

[Octavius]

What 4GS missed beforehand, was that the first use of toilet paper in human history dates back to the 6th century AD. During the early 14th century it was recorded that in modern-day Zhejiang province alone there was an annual manufacturing of toilet paper amounting in ten million packages of 1,000 to 10,000 sheets of toilet paper each. The flushing toilet was invented in 1596.

So presuming we are talking about the arse end of England (!) and are not talking about landed gentry (i.e. only the peasants toiletry ) Prior to the availability of toilet paper, cleansing was performed with other methods or materials, such as water, rags, sand, leaves (including seaweed), corn cobs, animal furs, or sticks. Typically, toilets in the Roman home where located in the kitchen, because it was regarded unsightly to put them in the bath house. As said above, the Romans used a sponge on a stick which sat in a bucket of salt water and was (cleaned of debris and) shared for all to use. Evidence of this was found at a fort along Hadrians Wall.

As Seneca referred in his letter to Lucilius�.�there was lately in a training-school for wild-beast gladiators a German, who was making ready for the morning exhibition; he withdrew in order to relieve himself, - the only thing which he was allowed to do in secret and without the presence of a guard. While so engaged, he seized the stick of wood, tipped with a sponge, which was devoted to the vilest uses, and stuffed it, just as it was, down his throat; thus he blocked up his windpipe, and choked the breath from his body. That was truly to insult death! Yes, indeed; it was not a very elegant or becoming way to die; but what is more foolish than to be over-nice about dying?�

[parkie]

In days of old
When knights were bold
And paper wasn't invented
You'd wipe your arse
On a blade of grass
And walk away contented.