It was quite impossible too to have a bath.

I announced to the family one day that I was going to take one.

Murdoch MacDonald provided some kind of large tub which he filled with dishes of steaming water.

Instead however of the fact that I was about to have a bath acting as a deterrent to the visits of the ladies, the announcement seemed to have the opposite effect.

So great were the activities of the family in the cellar and round the churn that I had to abandon the idea of bathing altogether.