To the Editor of the “North Devon Journal”: “Sanitary proceedings at Westward Ho! – A Farce in several acts, performed for the last six years and more by local Amateur Performers. Act the last- Building a Golf Club House and objecting to its purification though attainable without cost to its Owners.” Sir. — All and every one having at heart the true interests of the new watering-place, Westward Ho!, may feel truly indebted to you, for the fair and full report of the meeting on the drainage question, held lately at its Bath-room, which appeared in a recent issue the ‘North Devon Journal,’ inasmuch that the result may be, that from the publicity thus given through the press, those who have persistently obstructed every remedy for evils by their own acts created, may regard it as their interest, now that the state of things has become more known, to abandon from henceforth their course of obstructive action. My object, however, now addressing you, is to point out one paragraph (in your generally most correct report the meeting) affecting myself, which does not correctly give that, at least, which I intended to say.
The report reads thus — “Mr. Pynsent produced a bottle, nearly full, of a thick, black liquid, which he said came from one of the tanks,” etc., etc. Now, for anyone to produce liquid taken from a sewerage tank, in order to prove that it contained sewage matter, would certainty have been a superfluous and ridiculous act, What, however, I did desire to state was this, that the black liquid contents of the bottle produced were taken from water, clear as crystal, which percolates through clay subsoil, abutting on a large cesspit immediately in front the balcony the newly erected Golf Club House, which cesspit has become denuded by the high tides of the spring and autumn of the present year, that both the Pebble Ridge and boundary fence in face the Club House are going, going, and almost gone, through greater force than was ever wielded by knock down hammer auctioneer: that, as may be seen by anyone, the redbrick ventilating shaft of the said tank has been laid bare and exposed to view through the force of the incoming waves – that the fate this cesspit is certain, its destruction by the waves a mere question time – and yet, though the schemes No. 2 and No. 3 of Mr. Ellis, the civil engineer, which my motion at the meeting recommended the choice for adoption by the Government Board, Whitehall, would have superseded these tanks, through the construction of tanks elsewhere, yet the motion was rejected at the meeting by, as reported, s majority of three of those present. A further object I had in producing the bottle was this: —Knowing that the effluvia pervading the Club House had been complained of, I considered the sight of the black liquid might afford to some members present evidence of the cause thereof, learning, as did, their complaint thereon had been made light of, and. Credat Judaeus!” its origin attributed to gas. A few words more on this unhappy Club House: Its date of erection being 1875-76 will serve to show with what lack of wisdom the world — at Westward Ho! is governed as, for example, in 1871, when the sewerage works were carried out, two cess pits for the sewage, one round, the other square, were formed, near to each other and near to the sea. Land, close thereunto, and a little more inland, has since been selected as the chosen site of the Golf Club House. The sea, however, will soon set all smooth and square by removing, at one fell swoop, tanks, border fence, and Pebble Ridge.
As to the Club House itself, certain of its members are contemplating the project removing it all, intact and entire, by aid of machinery, after the plan contemplated with respect to the Baptistery at Ravenna, submerged by Adriatic Sea and sands in the middle-ages. I apprehend, however, that the suggested plan, or if not that, the stones of the Club House, would one or both fall through. I have visited both the Baptistery and Club House. The project with regard to the former is for raising only, and not for removing to another site. Neither project do I regard, a safe or profitable investment. After all, however, there is something classical in the idea with respect to this Club House site. Ancient had its Cloaca Maxima, and its tutelary deity thereof in the Pagan goddess Cloacina. “Parvis componere magna.” Why should not Westward Ho! also? Her Cloaca greatly needed protection. When last in Rome, some two or three years since, I viewed the mouth the Cloaca Maxima, at its junction with the “Yellow Tiber.” Though dating from the time Tarquinius Priscua, well-nigh 25 centuries ago, it still performs its work; whereas alas! the Cloaca of Westward Ho! the work of A.D. 1871, in contrast with those of B.C. 688, have long since come to grief.
The more modern works, it appears by a letter read at a recent Northam Board meeting (reported in your last), are after the manner carried out at Salisbury, I know not whether the Salisbury model comprised that carried out at Westward Ho! of commencing with pipes of 12-inch diameter, with 6-inch pipes in continuation, if so, I consider it would have been better to have followed, if not the manner of Old Sarum, at all events that of Ancient Rome. But then, it may be urged, every principle in ancient Rome had its guardian deity and every deity his or her temple, and to erect at Westward Ho! temple to Cloacina would have been costly, especially for a Joint Stock Company “limited,” and this unavoidable omission may have been the cause of failure. In Rome, notwithstanding the change from Paganism to a purer faith, the temple system still goes on. The temple of Apollo, when that worship ceased, was dedicated to the martyr Apollonaris; and that of Mars, involving also small change in name, to the martyred Martina, expressed in the well-known lines: “Mars hence expell’d, Martina, martyr’d maid, Claims now the worship which to him was paid.” A few words more, however, before quitting the Club House. Was it fair, or was it right when obtaining aid from afar for its erection, from strangers from a distance, from Scotland, London, Blackheath, and elsewhere, to withhold from them information as to what lay in concealment almost within the chosen site for the temple edifice? This the native golfers must themselves have known but did they name it? The dangers from the Atlantic waves were, of course, apparent.
I can only picture to my-self some enterprising golfer from afar, a resident in some distant town, who may have arrived at Westward Ho! to play golf, inhale ozone, with pure Atlantic sea-borne air, soliloquising thus, on the Club Home balcony — “What! I though the healthful breezes Blow fresh o’er Lundy’s Isle, When the Cloaca ‘neath our Club they cross, alas their scent is ……” To you, gentle reader, I leave it to supply a word, to furnish “reason and supply the rhyme” for this last unfinished line, premising only that the word supplied should not be redolent either of otto of roses or earn de cologne.
As, however, I have a full mile and a half to travel from west to east across the Northam Burrows to Appledore, in order to complete my narrative, I must move onwards either in poetry or prose: and as I have been prosaic enough, I fear, in what I have already written I will essay to convey my meaning principally in verse. The Poet Coleridge, being of enquiring turn of mind, when on a visit to Cologne, discovered (as reported in Murray) after careful exploration from 30 to 40 (I forget the exact number) distinct and definite perfumes in that ancient city, not one of which bore the most remote resemblance to Eau de Cologne, the far-famed special manufacture of the place. He thus immortalized his discovery in verse: – “The river Rhine, it is well known, Doth wash the city of Cologne. Tell me, ye Gods! what powers divine Shall henceforth wash the river Rhine.” Unhappily, at Westward Ho! we have no poet to celebrate the wise actions of its sanitary leaders and set forth what they have brought us. Coleridge have we, and soon, alas! may we have to deplore the loss our far famed Pebbleridge — disputed by winds and waves. A parody, however, on the above lines Coleridge having application to the cases of Westward Ho and Appledore, in absence of better, may run thus: — “Consequences which most result from sewage drains across the Burrows.” “The Taw and Torridge lave the shore, Of bright and beauteous Appledore, In progress toward the sea; Black waters — ‘l’ eau de Westward Ho! Slowly advancing, thither flow, Meandering o’er the lea. The Ebb Tide bears them toward the Main, The Flood Tide brings them back again, The Pools their ebon sweets retain, Thenceforward, for aye.” Now for a few lines after Butler’s Hudibras, and considerably after: – “Alas! alas! in such quandary – Is placed our glorious estuary, Oh! may it end next January, When down th’ Inspector comes.” In conclusion, I give you my address: – “I pen these lines at ‘ Ilfordleigh’ – In the well drain’d health resort — Torquay — And remain yours ever faithfully, THOMAS PYNSENT. December 9, 1876. N.B. — Torquay is expending £70,000 in drainage works in order to merit its well-earned title “Health resort”; whereas the sanitary leaders of Westward Ho! last week rejected both the plans submitted one involving an outlay £579 5s., the other of £375 only — providing fully for the removal of recently created nuisances.
Transcribed in whole or part from scanned originals: Presented with or without modified text and punctuation. For absolute accuracy refer to the original newspapers. Source: The British Newspaper Archive.
Referenced
GRO0835 Hennock: Thomas Pynsent: 1808 – 1887