"David Hill" wrote in message
...
".......... We had one of those when I was a kid - an Elsan? I thought we
fed it formaldehyde and crap not Jeyes fluid. It was an improvement on the
earth closet that the previous owner of the house used .........."

The old Elsan toilet used to use Elsanol, specially made, but now it is
Elsan perfumed .

Properly used an Earth closet works better than anything and is hygienic
and
odour free, as I said, used Properly.
David Hill
Abacus nurseries
www.abacus-nurseries.co.uk


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Re earth "middens", - here's an amusing, (perhaps), anecdote from way back.
When my Dad , born in Grange-over Sands was a lad at the turn of the last
century most of the houses were still rusticated and had earth toilets at
the bottom of the garden which usually was on the edge of a field..
At the house of a widowed elderly lady my Dad and two pals saw her going
down the back path so they pulled a wild blackberry branch off the hedge,
and, quietly lifting up the rear hatch lid, stuck the blackbum branch
inside, pointing upwards.
Screams of terror as the genteel lady hastily secured her elastic and fled.
The miscreants promptly rushed round to the front and knocked on the door,
When the door was opened they were full of concern , - "We heard screaming
Ma-am can we be of help".
"Oh dear!, I've had such a fright, do come in"
"It must be those ruffian youths form below the railway line " the boys
vouchsafed.
" Oh! - such kind boys you are!, - here, do have this tea and my home-made
biscuits and cakies."
Later, as the "nice boys" were being shown out of the front door each was
presented with a sixpence for their kindness.
Incidentally, my Grandmother had a shop on main street and my Grandfather
was a Master Builder and Sculptor and built most of |Grange, including the
shop facade, most of the big houses and hotels as well as nursing Homes, so
my Dad was not a scruff from the other side of the railway line. His
Father's best known building is now the Netherwood Hotel characterised since
yonks ago by the front ancient topiary which is rows of evergreen
bushes.always clipped to a square shape.
His only known sculpted work was two lions on the hotel's front-drive gates.
They were stolen many years ago . His only other remaining work is in the
small ballroom, - a fireplace with the Owner's motto carved in an arch,
"Strike Deacon, - the Devil's in the hemp", sculpted long before the turn of
1900.
Doug.
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