Charles Klngsley's The Water-Bables: The Spiritual and Physical Cleansing Properties of Water by •Brendan Rapple It 1s, of course, to be expected, that the theme of water 1s pervasive 1n Charles Klngsley's still highly popular 1863 child's fantasy The Water-8abies, the story of little Tom, the poor child chimney sweep who, reborn as a water-baby, experiences wonderful adventures under the water 1n the company of a myriad of real and Imaginary creatures. Indeed, a field-day awaits any scholar of English who wishes to analyse all the copious water-Imagery rampant throughout the tale. It 1s also quite understandable that the matter of this work should deal so extensively with rivers and seas and their multifarious aquatic Hfe. For this was a subject dear to the heart of the author who, though perhaps not of the stature of Gilbert WhHe or Henry Williamson, was throughout his Hfe an avid naturalist, becoming, 1n fact, a member of both the Llnnaean and Geological Societies. His greatest work of natural history, not written primarily with children 1n mind but soon appropriated by them, was the 1855 Glaucus: or, The Wonders of the Shore which, though somewhat marred for young people by theological and Uterary asides, betrays a keen appreciation of the marine world. While The Water-8ab1es 1s clearly far less scientific 1n nature than Glaucus, Its wonderful depictions of the aquatic realm are just as vivid, and H would be an odd child who falls to delight 1n all the varied river and marine creatures encountered by Tom after Ms metamorphosis Into a water-baby. It 1s also possible to consider the theme of water 1n The Water-8abies 1n a rather different light, for dominant throughout 1s the motif of water as both a physical and also a spiritual cleansing agent. Indeed, the former property of water 1s particularly emphasized by Klngsley. We are told again and again that little Tom 1s well Mgh Ignorant of the very notion of ablutions and of the Important role water generally plays 1n such an activity. He had never washed Mmself, though perhaps understandably so, as "there was no water up the court where he lived" (1). Seeing the spotlessly clean little ElHe asleep 1n her bedroom during Ms exploration of the grand Harthover House he even wonders, "And are all people Hke that when they are washed?" Then a glance at Mmself 1n the mirror reveals "a little ugly, black, ragged figure, with bleared eyes and grinning white teeth," and Tom, "for the first time 1n Ms Hfe, found out that he was dirty" (25-26). He 1s clearly even dirtier than the old cock-grouse whom he meets later after Ms flight from Sir John's House, for this bird, though there was no water about, "had been washing Mmself 1n sand, Hke an Arab" (38). In fact, the perspiration Tom exudes while climbing down LewthwaHe Crag has "washed Mm cleaner than he had been for a whole year" (50). 8ut the first true cleaning which he experiences 1s when he tumbles Into the river and the fairies bathe Mm "so thoroughly, that not only Ms dirt, but Ms whole husk and shell [were] washed quite off Mm, and the pretty little real Tom was washed out of the Inside of H" (76). Such passages, and many others, render H of little surprise that Klngsley 1s said to have had a fetish about washing and personal cleanliness —and references to this topic abound 1n other of Ms writings, besides this children's story. Moreover, he actually saw 1n water, preferably cold water, a moral agent which would help beget that bluff muscular Christian Englishman of masculine vigor, doughty spirit, and yeoman mien whom he believed was needed to save England from her Increasing effeminacy and soft ways. He even believed that cleanliness was one of the deadly enemies of drunkeness: and what 1s more than all—we wash. That morning cold-bath, which foreigners consider as young England's strangest superstition, has done as much to abolish drunkenness, as any other cause whatever. With a clean skin 1n healthy action, and nerves and muscles braced by...