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This Jane Austen blog brings Jane Austen, her novels, and the Regency Period alive through food, dress, social customs, and other 19th C. historical details related to this topic.

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« Benjamin Beale’s Invention for Bathing Machines
Seaside Fashion, Regency Style »

Martha Gunn, Brighton’s Queen of the Dippers

August 12, 2009 by Vic

Martha Gunn, dipper

Martha Gunn, dipper

In a scene in 1998’s Vanity Fair with Natasha Little as Becky Sharp, she visits Brighton with her husband and friends. The film, set during the Regency era, depicted a scene in which one of the party is taken from a bathing machine and dipped into the cold waters by a large woman. The bather floats on her back with her bathing costume billowing from the trapped air. This comical scene was based on fact. Brighton during the late 1790’s early 1800’s  employed some twenty male and female “dippers”” whose jobs were to vigorously dip their clients into the sea and push them through the waves, keeping them afloat, then help them back into the bathing machine.

floating with billowing skirt vanity fair 1998Brighton’s most famous dipper was Martha Gunn, a large, sturdy woman whose fame exists to this day. Bathers were separated by sex, a restriction that remained until 1930 in Brighton, and were drawn  into the waters by horses hitched to bathing machines. The bathers would be inside the vehicles changing into their bathing costumes, or not, for, screened from the world and the opposite sex, they would enter the waters au naturel. The terminology for immersion differed for the sexes. When men immersed men into the waters, it was called bathing. When women immersed women into the waters, they were dipping.

Sea Bathing machine

Sea Bathing machine

On page 233 in a Directory of Brighton published in 1790 the bathers are listed as follows:

Martha Gunn Toby Jug

Martha Gunn Toby Jug

Born in 1726, Martha Gunn dipped seaside visitors from around 1750 until she was forced to retire through ill health around 1814. She was such a popular figure that the Prince of Wales granted her free access to his kitchens.  The dipper was known as ‘The Venerable Priestess of the Bath’ by the locals. Large and  strong, well known and respected by the townsfolk as well as the visitors, Marth appeared in comic caricatures of the times. “Life for Dippers and Bathers was not easy – standing all day in the sea even in August calls for a tough constitution and Martha Gunn’s ample size was no doubt one of the reasons for her success in the cold waters.” ( Martha Gunn) Mrs. Gunn died in 1815 and is buried in the yard at St Nicholas Church. Her portrait hangs in the tea-room of the Royal Pavilion, and her house still stands on 36 East Street. Her fellow dippers and bathers continued to perform their duties in Brighton until the mid 19th century.

[Dippers] were also technicians of the ritual process: on-site masters of the requirements of the sea-bathing treatment. They judged the waves, the state of their clients, and their daily requirements: bathing at such and such a time or for so long. Many of the bathers could not swim: Dippers, often women, were essential figures of dependable strength and assurance. This might explain the inordinate affection of them. The ritual purging and bathing, the ministrations of the Dipper, and the natural influence of the seashore itself with its salt water, sea air, and ‘ozone’ were vital ingredients in both the reality and perception of a Cure. – Ritual Pleasures of a Seaside Resort, Chris Jenks, p169.

Martha's grave

Martha’s grave

  • Regency Brighton entertainment
  • Vintage Beach Photos: Bathing Machines
  • Martha Gunn
  • Brighton and Hove
  • Benjamin Beale’s Invention for Bathing Machines

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Posted in jane austen, Jane Austen's World, Regency Customs, Regency Life, Regency Period, Regency style, Regency World, Sea bathing during the Regency era | Tagged Brighton dipper, Martha Gunn, Regency Brighton | 13 Comments

13 Responses

  1. on August 12, 2009 at 00:15 Benjamin Beale’s Invention for Bathing Machines « Jane Austen’s World

    […] Martha Gunn: Queen of the Brighton Dippers Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)Benjamine Beale’s Invention for Bathing Machines […]


  2. on August 12, 2009 at 01:24 Laurel Ann

    Too funny! Even though it appears that Martha, ‘The Venerable Priestess of the Bath’ was of a stout consitution living 88 years after standing in freezing water for 70 of them, her children did not inherit her vigor or fine health, as evidenced by their early deaths on the grave stone.

    Hard times. Thanks for the laugh.


  3. on August 12, 2009 at 02:40 Little Bits of Random: « A Rambling Fancy

    […] ~I am now adding “dipper” to the list of jobs I have no interest in trying. Read all about this truly random 19th century job over at Jane Austen’s World. […]


  4. on August 12, 2009 at 08:24 Rachel

    Who would have thought that they would have separate terminology for the sexes? Great post!! I could never do Martha’s job…..give me warm Gulf Coast waters any day!


  5. on August 12, 2009 at 10:53 Chris Dornan

    Vic you are a treasure! To live in Brighton and read this kind of thing is quite something. I am humbled and I think your blogging is awesome.

    (By the way I have shut down peaceandwisdom.org and restarted blogging at senseorsensibility.com–you could sub P&W in your blogroll; S+S is a blog devoted to the philosophy of Jane Austen, aiming to develop a particular thesis, but it will also branch off into topical issues.)


    • on August 12, 2009 at 22:40 Vic

      Thank you, Chris. Huge compliment coming from you. Is this your URL?

      http://senseorsensibility.com/about/

      I’ve been wanting to read your thoughts about Austen, but you have been quiet. Vic


      • on August 14, 2009 at 12:26 Chris Dornan

        Yes, I have been quiet indeed–busy with other matters. I have decided that trying to do a general blog like my old one is a bad idea, and also that I wanted to get my book project on JA’s philosophy moving again. Blogging the material seemed just the ticket, hence http://senseorsensibility.com (you can use this or the about page–I tend to put the home page on the blogroll but I am very happy to go with your judgement, which ever you think would be better).

        At the moment the website has a heavy philosophical tilt as I need to do the preparation, but it will always
        be quite philosophical (or at least it should be!). I am trying to work some topical posts in too.

        I am quite happy with it so far, but it is early days.


  6. on August 14, 2009 at 05:57 Malyss

    She had three children and saw all of them dead, she made a simple but hard job and finally survived in the popular memory, and we’re still talking about her today.. What a life, and what a destiny!
    And how not to think about the women who dared to go into the water with those so heavy dresses!tThey sure needed to trust their dippers…
    Living by the sea, I particularly enjoyed this post!


  7. on August 14, 2009 at 10:14 Seaside Fashion, Regency Style « Jane Austen’s World

    […] Martha Gunn, Brighton’s Queen of the Dippers […]


  8. on March 20, 2010 at 19:08 Sanditon: Jane Austen by the Seaside « Jane Austen's World

    […] Martha Gunn, Brighton’s Queen of the Dippers […]


  9. on May 4, 2011 at 00:27 Sanditon and the Development of New Settlements « Jane Austen's World

    […] Martha Gunn: Brighton’s Queen of the Dippers […]


  10. on September 17, 2011 at 15:29 Sea Dippers in Brighton « Jane Austen's World

    […] posts on this topic: Martha Gunn, Brighton’s Queen of the Dippers| Share with […]


  11. on April 27, 2013 at 10:55 The Bathing Dress: Fashion in the Georgian Era | Jane Austen's World

    […] Martha Gunn, Brighton’s Queen of the Dippers […]



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