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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Gavin Richardson, post: 2712926, member: 83956&quot;]I’m really getting far afield from the OP post. Sorry. But where else can I share the (in)famous “Old English Toilet Letter”?</p><p><br /></p><p>Ælfric, writing ca. 990 A.D., tells “Brother Edward” that he has heard that rural women will eat while they are in the privy. He condemns the practice as being really gross, and he instructs Brother Edward to admonish them to quit eating while on the toilet!</p><p><br /></p><p>Perhaps the combination of the Ostian public toilet images and this Anglo-Saxon letter demonstrates that ancient and medieval persons were much less fastidious about the body and its functions than we are.</p><p><br /></p><p>The translation comes from Swanton, ANGLO-SAXON PROSE (Penguin). An OE text can be found here: <a href="http://www.oenewsletter.org/OEN/print.php/essays/clayton40_3/Array" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.oenewsletter.org/OEN/print.php/essays/clayton40_3/Array" rel="nofollow">http://www.oenewsletter.org/OEN/print.php/essays/clayton40_3/Array</a></p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]613041[/ATTACH][/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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