I was a god in the 18th century

Chapter 176 Water in London
Looking at the newly completed swimming pool in the backyard, Xia Qingdai had a new idea in her mind.

Since there is a swimming pool in the summer, swimming must be arranged. As a native of Jiang Province, she will definitely be able to compete in swimming, which is a must test in the high school entrance examination.

But after the high school entrance examination, she never swam in a swimming pool again.

Modern swimming pools are expensive and the water quality is not necessarily clean. In the castle, Xia Qingdai could even swim in pure water.

It costs twenty or thirty yuan to buy a large bucket of pure water, which is enough for her to swim for a whole summer. If the requirements are lower, a large bucket of pure water can be purchased for a few dollars, which makes me feel happy just thinking about it.

Xia Qingdai decided to place some swimsuit orders online later. By the way, I bought a few more toy wooden beach chairs. Anyway, they only cost a few yuan each, so it’s not bad money.

Standing by the window and looking at the fresh-keeping glass box version of the "swimming pool", Xia Qingdai had already arranged everything in her mind.

Not only swimming, but also pool parties and other things are arranged. Music, beer, swimming pool and summer are a perfect match!

Thinking of this, Xia Qingdai unconsciously raised the corners of her lips.

"Xia, what are you looking at?" Jane, who had taken a nap, also walked out of the room, saw Xia Qingdai in front of the corridor window, and asked curiously.

Xia Qingdai turned around and waved to her: "Come here and you will know after you see it."

Jian Mu walked to Xia Qingdai doubtfully, looked in the direction of her finger, and saw the small pond that had been transformed into a swimming pool.

"The water in the small pond has become clearer." Jane said.

At noon, she followed Xia Qingdai to visit the yard and saw an original small pond. The water surface was much turbid than it is now.

Xia Qingdai smiled and said: "Well, the small pond has become a big swimming pool now! The weather is so hot, we can play in the water to cool down. Jane, can you swim?"

Jane shook her head: "Unfortunately, I can't."

"It doesn't matter if you don't. I'll help you get a swimming ring and put it on me." Xia Qingdai boasted to Haikou.

The two talked about swimming for a while at the window, and then went downstairs to enjoy today's afternoon tea.

This time Xia Qingdai and Owen came to London, and they brought the cook Lily with them because the other party had been trained. The food is delicious, including the afternoon tea.

Old Mrs. Irving did not get up. Married women had the right to refreshments in their rooms. Therefore, her portion of afternoon tea was brought to her by the maid in the room.

If she didn't come, the living room would be full of young people, full of vitality.

Although one second, Connie was still worried about her cousin Anne, but the next second she drank black tea with milk and ate freshly baked sweet and waxy chocolate muffins, all her worries flew away.

The tea set for today's tea is Chinese porcelain sent by the Earl of Charlton. In Europe at this time, making tea using authentic Chinese porcelain was considered a very respectable thing.

The British royal family is very keen on promoting tea culture and holds Chinese tea parties several times every year.

At this time, Chinese screens, Chinese porcelain and Chinese-style coffee tables can be seen everywhere in the main hall of the palace, which embellishes the palace with a Chinese atmosphere.

For the British, there is nothing that a cup of black tea cannot solve. If it can, just have another cup.

The popularity of tea in Europe originated from the Age of Discovery in the 17th century. At that time, through maritime trade, the Portuguese and the Dutch brought tea from China to Europe, and it quickly gained popularity among the upper classes in Europe and became popular in Europe. The UK is the most tea-loving country in Europe. They learned from Chinese tea culture, integrated local aristocratic customs, and eventually developed their own tea culture.

However, because there were no tea trees in the UK and there was no tea-frying technology, the price of tea in the UK remained high at first, and drinking tea was equivalent to drinking money. Even their queen had to lock up the tea leaves to prevent slaves from stealing them.

It was not until the 18th century that the British secretly learned the techniques of growing and picking tea from China, cultivated tea trees in colonial India, and planted and picked them in large quantities. Only then did the price of tea drop and it became available to ordinary people.

The British really love drinking tea from top to bottom. They drink it when they get up, drink it at break, drink it before going to bed, and drink it whenever they have the opportunity.

However, the more ceremonial concept of British afternoon tea did not really become popular until the Victorian era in the 19th century.

At that time, aristocratic women would put on long dresses, gloves and hats matching the afternoon tea to enjoy afternoon tea.

Nowadays, this casual family tea party is not so elaborate. The main purpose is to satisfy the masters before the main meal begins.

In the evening they received an invitation to have dinner at the Earl of Charlton's house. For the sake of her "bird's stomach" image, a lady must eat well before going out.

Xia Qingdai does not have the baggage of being a lady, but she has no hope for Britain, a food desert. Even the dining table of the nobles was treated equally by her.

As long as she recalled the scene of people emptying toilets by the Thames, she didn't even want to drink a mouthful of water from eighteenth-century London. Of course, she had to eat and drink at home first.

But this is entirely Xia Qingdai's prejudice, because London aristocrats don't drink Thames River water at all. They drink paid water provided by the water supply company, which is clean water that has settled in the reservoir.

Water companies had been established in London as early as the sixteenth century.

The early water supply network relied on wind energy, animal power and other kinetic energy to pump water to reservoirs, and then diverted it into wooden water pipes to distribute it to residents who bought water.

By the mid-18th century, with the invention and application of the steam engine, water diversion projects also transitioned from wooden pipes to a new era of iron pipes.

Because Xia Qingdai did not live in London, and she was afraid that the hard water in the UK would cause hair loss at a young age, she always poured water directly from modern times for herself to use in the 18th century, and had no contact with London's tap water. company.

She actually didn't know much about the water used by the London aristocracy, and took everything for granted.

She only saw the servants in her mansion fetching water from the well and the river, so she thought everyone else was.

It's really because as the owner, she didn't think of opening running water to the mansion.

How could a servant be willing to spend this money on himself?

Poor people are the same all over the world. They comfort themselves by saying "I'm not clean and I won't get sick after eating." There's nothing special about it.

The cholera epidemic caused by water supply problems mostly killed poor people who could not afford clean water.

From ancient times to the present, we have been living in huge differences.

Xia Qingdai was busy with the college entrance examination before, so she didn't check much information about British customs and customs. She only briefly read some important historical information about wars, prime ministers, kings, disasters, etc.

I don’t know the details, and I’m not surprised.