Turkish Baths

110 THE TURKISH BATH:
of a bath in an Oriental style, as
hitherto such attempts
have only been made in a half-hearted manner ;
and in
many
smaller commercial baths the unskilful use of
the style has vulgarised it to no small extent*
Considering that the old Romans brought
the bath
to a great pitch of excellence far, very far, I should
be inclined to say, in advance of our present knowledge
of the subject their style of architecture would seem
fitted to its design at this day ;
and for large public
baths, larger than any yet erected in this country, one
can imagine that a very interesting design
made in the Roman style, founded on a study
could be
of the
old baths, and, for the sake of the interest attaching to
them, reproducing many of the original mosaics, pictures,
details, &c., of the public baths of the time of the Empire.
In
a like manner in the Moorish style one could obtain
a very elegant effect by a careful
study of old baths in
Eastern countries,! drawing, perhaps, some inspiration
from the courts of the
palaces of the Moors, with their
pleasant retired air, for the frigidarium. I have often
thought, when looking at the late Owen Jones' splendid
model at the Crystal Palace, what an admirable frigidarium
the Court of the Lions would make, with its
* I do not know of any building bath or otherwise, civil or domestic
in this country where the true spirit
of Oriental colour decoration has
been grasped. One of the chief principles which seems to have been
missed is that in real Saracenic art the colours are employed in very
small portions only, and no colour becomes insubordinate to the general
effect.
+ Here is a branch of architectural design absolutely unstudied. Few
architects visit the East, and none enter the baths there, either in Egypt,
Turkey, or Morocco. The ordeal of the true Oriental shampooing
doubtless deters the few who might be curious about these buildings.