History is resplendent with artifacts that help us better understand what life was like in bygone days. The object to the left looks like a chair… but it isn’t. It is a ‘chamber horse.’
For those of you who are fans of Jane Austin, you may have run across this line and wondered… ‘what does it mean?’
“…and I have told Mrs Whitby that if anybody enquires for a chamber horse, they may be supplied at a fair rate (poor Mr Hollis’s chamber horse, as good as new); and what can people want more?”
The chamber horse was sort of a forerunner of today’s modern gym…. and critics say that it was used as infrequently then as many home gyms are today. The ‘horse’ was developed by a doctor named George Cheyne in the early 1700’s. The poles are for hanging onto as you bounce on the series of padded springs… yahoo!
A nice article appears on NEW Scientist which I leave for your reading entitled: “Dr. Diet’s recipe for Health.” Dr. Cheyne’s call for chicken and vegetables no hard alcohol except for wine was well ahead of his time. I also checked out the used booksellers to see how Dr. Cheyne’s works were trading… and since I don’t have several thousand dollars to spend…
Continue reading “Ride Dr. Cheyne’s wild ‘Chamber Horse’! Yeee-hah!”