To think that Victorian rain was much more malevolent than contemporary rain?

[squoosh]

Whenever a character in a Wilkie Collins novel goes for a walk in the rain they either get pneumonia resulting in near death or develop sudden onset rain related delirium and then die. In Pride and Prejudice Jane Bennett's illness meant she was confined to Netherfield for a week after hoofing it over in the rain.

Am I alone in my disappointment with our weedy modern rain that doesn't even provoke a sneeze much less madness and pneumonia?

Once, when I was a teenager and lived most of my life vicariously through Victorian novels, I came down with a cold and decided I would experiment by bathing in ice-cold water twice a day to see if it would make the cold move to my chest. It did, and I felt jolly ill. I appreciate though that this is not very scientific.

didn't Cathy in Wuthering Heights catch a nasty chill after gallivanting about on the moors as well? And then she left her window open and that was that. silly girl

So, Goddess, did you catch a man? Or just a cold?

My grand uncle died of TB. I didn't know him as he died a few years before I was born but he wrote a lot about it. He first caught it at 21 and suffered for his entire life with it up until he died at 63. He was madly in love with a beautiful woman but he wouldn't marry her because he couldn't bear the thought of leaving her destitute with a pile of children. His writings about it are heartbreaking because he always believed he was on the edge of death and couldn't really let himself enjoy life. He was quite a famous poet but I can't say who he was because it would totally out me.

In The Moonstone, the family doctor, can't think of his name, gets caught in the rain, develops a fever almost instantly and then lives out his twilight years as a gibbering wreck. That's some bad ass rain.

I think you need to extend your hypothesis. As recently as 'Just William', Mrs Brown caught a cold in the rain and had to go to bed for a whole week...for a cold. I'm pretty sure that nothing short of dying would get my family to allow me to stay in bed for a week.

cailin that reminds me - my dad told me that his teenage brother died after getting wet in the rain. He came home, had a headache so went to bed and died

My mum used to tell me I mustn't wash my hair if I had a cold.

Apparently having wet hair would turn my cold into "my death."

After I had laughed in her face a dozen times she conceded that it was probably a relic of her childhood, where there was no central heating and no hair dryers and if you went round with wet hair when you were already ill you could find yourself worse.

I do sometimes covet the Pride and Prejudice hairwashing routine. Y'know - sitting in a big white nightie brushing your hair interminably in front of a roaring fire, all the time being very naice with your sister about the arrogant arsehole who wants to marry her.

I used to dry my hair in front of the fire when I was little. It was a good excuse for staying up late to watch tv, though the danger of losing focus and ending up extra crispy was ever present. Very exciting.

my mum still says that about wet hair and catching a cold ...and wet hair causes spilt ends somehow according to my mum
she also says that plants will burn if you water them on a hot day and folk on here told me that she was right!

No men, I'm afraid. The youth with whom I was infatuated at the time was surpremely uninterested in my picturesque sufferings.

And while we are on old words for diseases;

Is "ague" flu?

Also "la grippe" ? ( I think that was in Gone With The Wind.)

On that subject, has anyone been made to feel better by a handkerchief soaked with eau to cologne held to their forehead?

I guess it might make me spring up exclaiming: "Christ! What's that smell?!" I suppose which is a cure of sorts.

In the Amazing Mr Bumble, Diana Doors tries to kill the poor little children by leaving their windows open and such.

Oh CailinDana I think I know who you are referring to.

"La grippe" is the French for flu but I have no idea was "ague" is.

rain is pretty terrible in folk and country music.

driving rain inevitably means you are going to fall in love with a man, get pregnant out of wedlock, and then find him with another woman/ dead / gone to sea/ encounter the devil ...or some combination of these...

I think so too!

If you mention his initials squoosh I shall confirm or deny.

"In the Amazing Mr Bumble, Diana Doors tries to kill the poor little children by leaving their windows open and such."

according to my mother, my dad has been trying to commit murder by this method for many years....

BTW I changed details ever so slightly when talking about him to prevent googling

Did his first name begin with an S?

Ague is malaria, common in Western Europe until relatively recently.

Yup squoosh

Your user name gave me a hint