"COMMEND ME TO STRATHPEFFER": A CASE STUDY OF SPA

DEVELOPMENT AND DESTINATION PROMOTION IN VICTORIAN SCOTLAND

A Thesis

Presented to

The Faculty of Graduate Studies

of

The University of Guelph

by

MONICA FINLAY

In partial fulfilment of requirements

for the degree of

Masters of Arts

May, 2011

© Monica Finlay, 2011 Library and Archives Bibliotheque et 1*1 Canada Archives Canada Published Heritage Direction du Branch Patrimoine de I'edition

395 Wellington Street 395, rue Wellington Ottawa ON K1A 0N4 Ottawa ON K1A 0N4 Canada Canada

Your file Votre reference ISBN: 978-0-494-82812-0 Our file Notre r6f6rence ISBN: 978-0-494-82812-0

NOTICE: AVIS:

The author has granted a non­ L'auteur a accorde une licence non exclusive exclusive license allowing Library and permettant a la Bibliotheque et Archives Archives Canada to reproduce, Canada de reproduire, publier, archiver, publish, archive, preserve, conserve, sauvegarder, conserver, transmettre au public communicate to the public by par telecommunication ou par I'lnternet, preter, telecommunication or on the Internet, distribuer et vendre des theses partout dans le loan, distribute and sell theses monde, a des fins commerciales ou autres, sur worldwide, for commercial or non­ support microforme, papier, electronique et/ou commercial purposes, in microform, autres formats. paper, electronic and/or any other formats.

The author retains copyright L'auteur conserve la propriete du droit d'auteur ownership and moral rights in this et des droits moraux qui protege cette these. Ni thesis. Neither the thesis nor la these ni des extraits substantiels de celle-ci substantial extracts from it may be ne doivent etre imprimes ou autrement printed or otherwise reproduced reproduits sans son autorisation. without the author's permission.

In compliance with the Canadian Conformement a la loi canadienne sur la Privacy Act some supporting forms protection de la vie privee, quelques may have been removed from this formulaires secondaires ont ete enleves de thesis. cette these.

While these forms may be included Bien que ces formulaires aient inclus dans in the document page count, their la pagination, il n'y aura aucun contenu removal does not represent any loss manquant. of content from the thesis.

1+1 Canada ABSTRACT

"COMMEND ME TO STRATHPEFFER": A CASE STUDY OF SPA DEVELOPMENT AND DESTINATION PROMOTION IN VICTORIAN SCOTLAND

Monica Finlay Advisor: University of Guelph, 2011 Professor Kevin J. James

Introduced in the mid-nineteenth century, hydropathy, a water-based cure, changed the face of health tourism in late-Victorian Britain and played a key role in the decline of the spa market. Yet, in the Scottish Highlands, Strathpeffer Spa defied this trend; indeed, the spa, a health facility based on mineral water treatments, enjoyed increasing popularity.

An examination of the promotional literature, including guidebooks, medical journals, and contemporary newspapers, reveals reasons for the spa's survival in this competitive market. Exploring recent scholarship on destination promotion, this case study incorporates and complements research on Victorian gender, health practices and recreation patterns. Specifically, this study offers a new perspective on the conceptual framework of Tourism Area Life Cycle (TALC) theory. Using this theory of resorts' historic development, this investigation considers dynamic marketing strategies, which reflected a collaborative effort between spa managers and tourists that resulted in

Strathpeffer's marked resilience as a tourist destination. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

A generous award from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council made the completion of this research possible. I am very thankful to my supervisor, Dr. Kevin

James, for his continued guidance and support at all stages of this process. I am also grateful for the thoughtful and instructive insight of my committee, Dr. Eric Zuelow and

Dr. Susan Nance, as well as the interest and advice of Dr. Alastair Durie. Lastly, I extend my heartfelt appreciation to my family and friends, especially my parents, Liz and Peter, and my partner, Aaron, for their unwavering support, encouragement, and patience. 11

TABLE OF CONTENTS

List of Tables and Graphs p. iii

List of Maps p. iv

"The Most Pleasant Recollections of Strathpeffer Spa": An Introduction to the p. 2 Case Study

Chapter One: The Valley of Bright Water: A Brief History of Strathpeffer Spa's p. 17 Early Development

Chapter Two: Healthy Competition: Spa Development in the Health Tourism p. 42

Market

Chapter Three: Selling the Landscape: Health, Leisure and Sport p. 67

Strathpeffer Spa: The Creation of a Health Resort p. 88

Bibliography p. 94 Ill

LIST OF TABLES AND GRAPHS

Table 1: Number of Guests per Season and their Places of Origin p

Table 2: Number of Guests per Season and their Places of Origin by percent of p Total Guests

Table 3: Number of total visitors overall to Strathpeffer per Season p

Table 4: Number of returning visitors compared to the number of total visitors p overall as expressed as percent of said total

Table 5: Fewest and Greatest Number of Accommodations Occupied during a p Spa Season

Graph 1: Number of Accommodation weekly in use for the 1877 Spa Season p

Graph 2: Number of Accommodation weekly in use for the 1882 Spa Season p

Graph 3: Number of Accommodation weekly in use for the 1887 Spa Season p

Graph 4: Number of Accommodation weekly in use for the 1892 Spa Season p IV

LIST OF MAPS

Map: Spas in Scotland c. 1840 p. 1 1

Fia&»itsurgh

50 km

Map: Spas in Scotland c 1840

1 A Durie, Water is Best Water is Best The Hydros and Health Tourism in Scotland, 1840 - 1940. (Edinburgh' John Donald, 2006) p. xiii. 2

"The Most Pleasant Recollections of Strathpeffer Spa": An Introduction to the Case Study

"The Scotch Summer Girl", published in a Highland newspaper in 1898, detailed a young woman's story of summer romance and adventure at Strathpeffer Spa.2 A tall, blond and beautiful woman, twenty-three-year old Miss Flora MacTosh attracted the attention of the spa guests when she arrived at the spa.3 Her grace and coquettish charm caught the interest of Percival Fitzmaurice in particular, a man of dubious character and disingenuous intentions.4 Reminiscent of Jane Austen's Mr. Wickham of Pride and

Prejudice, the opportunistic Fitzmaurice targeted and seduced wealthy and gullible, Miss

Flora. The ensuing story of their illicit courtship was set against the backdrop of the small, Highland spa at which they enjoyed the scenery of Ross-shire and the facilities of

Strathpeffer. Fortunately, the story ended happily with the arrival of Miss Flora's cousin who saved our heroine from public disgrace by exposing the character of Fitzmaurice.5

In the epilogue, we learn: "The Summer Girl. . . was by no means heartbroken. She was braced by indignation at the attempt that had been made to ensnare her . . . [but] retains the most pleasant recollections of Strathpeffer Spa".6 This story, published in 1898 in the

Aberdeen Weekly Journal, a local newspaper for the district which included the spa, provides the nineteenth century reader with an entertaining cautionary tale. To the historian, it reveals the popularity of the spa and suggests pervasive patterns of the

Victorian leisure and tourism.

2 "A Scotch Summer Girl and Her Suitor: A Strathpeffer Story", Aberdeen Weekly Journal, June 29, 1898. 3 Ibid. 4 Ibid. 5 Ibid. 6 Ibid. 3

The author's use of Strathpeffer Spa as the location of this story showed that the destination was popular and familiar to the readers. Although Miss Flora and the dastardly Fitzmaurice were fictional, the activities in which they participated were common of the spa and the period. Only three columns in length, the story incorporated many of the attractions advertised at Strathpeffer. To the readers, it would have been unsurprising that Miss Flora participated in the daily routine of the spa: "sleep, toilet, meals, attendance at the pump-room, actual or pretended sipping of mineral water". She also partook in "an occasional game at bowls or croquet, or of a Cinderella dance in the

Pavilion . . . walking, cycling, dancing; taking part in vehicular excursions to Brahan

Castle, the Lily Loch, Garve, and so on". Superficially, with the likely exception of a scandalous romance, the short story offered insight into the reality of life at the spa at the end of the century.

While the guests' experience was usual, the destination was not. Indeed,

Strathpeffer Spa was unique. "Spa culture" in Britain was dying by the mid-nineteenth century because other forms of health tourism had replaced it. While a new phase of spa development in Britain began in the early nineteenth century, its momentum petered out by the 1870s.10 This decline resulted from increased competition in the health tourism market. The popularity of established Continental spas and new health fads, such as hydropathy, contributed to what Phyllis Hembry and Alastair Durie define as the demise of traditional British spas." Yet Strathpeffer Spa, a small, northern destination, defied

7 "A Scotch Summer Girl and Her Suitor A Strathpeffer Story", Aberdeen Weekly Journal, June 29, 1898 8 Ibid 9 P Hembry, British Spas from 1815 to the Present (Madison Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 1997) p 146 , Dune, Water is Best, p 82 10 Hembry, British Spas from 1815 to the Present, p 250 11 G Weisz, "Spas, Mineral Waters, and Hydrological Science in Twentieth-Century France", Isis 92(2001) pp 454 4 this trend and successfully adapted in the competitive market. By examining the promotional literature, these sources reveal the reasons for Strathpeffer's steady development despite the overall context.

The Evolution of the Spa

Because this case study traces the development of Strathpeffer Spa amid a complicated environment, this investigation incorporates aspects of R. W. Butler's theory of the Tourism Area Life Cycle (TALC). He asserts that all resorts follow a similar progression of growth and decline. Employing a historically grounded evolutionary approach to the study of resorts, Butler divides destination development into six phases of exploration, involvement, development, consolidation, stagnation and ending with either decline or rejuvenation.12 These stages reflect change over time, indicated by host control, number of visitors and proliferation of advertisements. This study uses the same indicators of determining Strathpeffer's development. Yet at the same time

Butler's stages of development are less useful as a result of factors that already form part of a well-established critique posited by scholars from a range of disciplinary backgrounds.

Since its introduction in 1980, theorists considered its uses and issues, establishing a historiography of TALC. Much of the critique regarding TALC relates to the operationalization of the theory. When applied to an empirical study, the stages are

12 R. Butler, "The Concept of a Tourist Area Cycle of Evolution: Implications for Management of Resources", Canadian Geographic 24(1980) pp. 7. 13 Ibid. pp. 7-9. 5 not mutually exclusive and overlap.14 Key tourism theorists, Sheela Agarwal and the historian John K. Walton suggest consideration of external factors, such as market pressures, government policies, and economic trends, existing laterally to the resort evolution.15 Employing this more comprehensive approach to resort development, this study charts Strathpeffer's development in parallel with social and medical movements.

Moreover, Tim Edensor supports the assertions of Agarwal and Walton, and suggests that tourism is not a separate set of praxis but is part of a wider context informed by social constructs.16 Therefore, this interplay between destination development and wider social issues is critical to understanding the growth of Strathpeffer Spa

In addition to issues with definitive evolutionary phases, further components of

TALC are not clearly articulated. Both M. K. Haywood and Agarwal identify problems with Butler's definition of the stages in the application of the theory to empirical studies.17 Agarwal asserts that because Butler does not consider temporal and

1 R geographical parameters, he does not explicitly define the unit of analysis. Therefore, because Butler offers little discussion of what constitutes a resort, Agarwal modifies

TALC to consider the development of components of the resort, such as accommodations and attractions. She suggests that in doing so the growth and decline of its components culminate in an overall understanding of the resort.19 For this reason, using a diverse source base, this case study follows the establishment of transport links and

14 S Agarwal, "The Resort Cycle and Seaside Tourism An Assessment of its Applicability and Validity", Tourism Management 18(1991) pp 69 J Walton, "Prospects m Tourism History Evolution, State of Play and Future Developments", Tourism Management 50(2009) pp 787 16 T Edensor, "Staging Tourism Tourists as Performers", Annals of Tourism Research 27(2000) pp 341 17 M Haywood, "Can the Tourist Area Cycle of Evolution be made Operational", Tourism Management 7(1986) 154 - 167 , Agarwal, "The Resort Cycle and Seaside Tourism", pp 65 - 73 18 Agarwal, "The Resort Cycle and Seaside Tourism", pp 67 19 Ibid pp 67 6 accommodations, and the marketing of Strathpeffer's attractions, all of which illustrate the creation of the spa as a popular destination.

Butler's catalyst for resort development has also drawn criticism. He identifies the tourists as the actors of change in the unilinear progression of resort development. In doing so, Butler disregards the agency and actions of the host. In response to this omission, Edensor suggests that the interaction between host and guest causes the process of change and regeneration. By combining Walton and Edensor's study of the relationship between the host and guest in creating the changing meaning of the destination, this study focuses on the efforts of the key figures in Strathpeffer's development. The actions of the spa managers, doctors, and hoteliers affected the survival of the spa. Although this investigation of Strathpeffer follows change over time, the chief tenet of Butler's TALC, it focuses primarily on the spa managers' response to changing social pressures and how these efforts manifested in the promotional literature.

Employing TALC only as a conceptual framework and the modification made to it since

1980, this study examines the reasons for Strathpeffer's increasing popularity by considering its marketing and advertisement within a wider social context, treating them as at least partially grounded in particular local contexts. This study examines

Strathpeffer's development within the context of the large body of literature focussed on the Continental spa movement of the nineteenth century. Instead of considering only localised factors of development as suggested by TALC, this thesis incorporates a wider understanding of spa tourism as it pertains to the social movements in Britain. This context integrates pervasive ideas of health, which included alternative medicine, water

Butler, "The Concept of a Tourist Area Cycle of Evolution", pp. 5. 7 therapies, moderate diet, and exercise. Therefore, this case study consults a varied historiography of Victorian health, tourism, and recreation patterns.

Strathpeffer and the Spas in Britain

Durie's seminal work on the progress of the water cure movement in nineteenth century Scotland provides a useful context within which to place the development of

Strathpeffer.21 A comprehensive investigation into the popularity of hydropathy in

Scotland, known as "hydro mania",22 Water is Best focuses on the health movement, which posed the greatest threat to British spa culture. While Durie offers little discussion of spas, he does identify Strathpeffer Spa, along with Bridge of Allan and Moffat, as one of the few successful spas in Scotland during the height of hydropathy. Yet,

Strathpeffer is the only establishment to remain a spa by the end of the Victorian era.

Although Durie provides little explanation for Strathpeffer's popularity, he provides groundwork for a broader theoretical analysis and historical engagement with this site.

Most importantly, Water is Best inspired the original question of that inspired the present thesis. At a time when the spas of Britain were in decline, this study explores the reasons for Strathpeffer's unlikely development and survival and is therefore able to expand on

Hembry and Durie's theories. As a spa that became popular in the latter half of the nineteenth century, an examination of Strathpeffer suggests an alternative perspective to the trend of decline. In addition to Durie and Hembry's studies, this analysis offers a new approach to understanding British spas. Typically, discussion of these sites focuses on the large, eighteenth century establishments, such as Bath, Leamington, Harrogate,

21 Dune, Water is Best 22 Ibid p 42 23 Ibid p 82 8

Buxton, and Matlock, featured in the works of William Addison and Frederick

Alderson.24 Much like Hembry, who includes discussion of smaller, nineteenth century spas, this study provides a unique look into the development of a spa that was as successful as its eighteenth century predecessors.

In addition to its position in the historiography of British spas, this thesis can be integrated into a wider study of Continental spas. It draws on a broad literature addressing the development of European health destinations, in particular, the works of

John Soane, Joseph Wechsberg, and George Weisz. These studies follow the development of some of Europe's most popular and well-known health destinations, such as Aix-la-Bains, Bad Homberg, and Baden-Baden.25 These spas provide a context for

Strathpeffer's methods and success in the late nineteenth century. However, spa managers established Strathpeffer under different economic and social conditions than those on the Continent. Therefore, this longitudinal case study highlights the reasons for

Strathpeffer's success by examining the market strategies employed at the spa.

To determine what Walton calls "lateral factors", such as political, economic and social influences external to the spa's development, this study draws on a historiography of mass tourism, medical reform, and popular Victorian pastimes.

Subsequent chapters discuss each of these factors and how they relate the development of

Strathpeffer. By considering the agency of the host, the actions of several specific individuals express the correlation between the context of tourism, medicine, and

24 W. Addison, English Spas. (London: B. T. Batsford, 1951).: F. Alderson, The Inland Resorts and Spas of Britain. (Newton Abbot: David and Charles Holdings Ltd., 1973). 25 J. Soane, Fashionable Resorts Regions: Their Evolution and Transformation. (Wallingford: CAB International, 1993).; J. Wechsberg, The Lost World of Great Spas. (New York: Harper and Row Publishers, 1979),; Weisz, "Spas, Mineral Waters, and Hydrological Science in Twentieth-Century France", pp. 451-483. 26 Walton, "Prospects in Tourism History", pp. 787. recreation and the development of the spa. The spa landlord, the Countess of Cromartie and her factor, William Gunn, spa doctors, Dr. David Manson and Dr. Fortescue Fox, and the hoteliers of Strathpeffer were critical to the spa's continued popularity as a resort.

The efforts of these people established a clear marketing strategy that reflected changing social factors key to the spa's development.

How to Read Strathpeffer: Understanding the Spa through Place Promotion and Source Analysis

Beginning in the 1860s, spa managers made a concerted effort to develop and promote Strathpeffer despite the market in the late nineteenth century 27 As the story of

"The Scotch Summer Girl" attests, Strathpeffer Spa became a popular destination by the end of the Victorian era. By examining the marketing strategy used at Strathpeffer Spa, this study contributes to an existing literature on destination tourism.28 John Gold and

Stephen Ward broadly define place promotion as the marketing of a consciously constructed space to a select audience.29 Chronologically ambiguous, this is applicable to studies of both contemporary and past examples of tourism. Instead, place promotion in

Victorian Scotland relates more to representations of landscape.30 In the respective studies of John Gold and Margaret Gold, and Katherine Haldane Grenier, promoters of

27 E Richards and M Clough, Cromartie Highland Life, 1650-1914 (Aberdeen Aberdeen University Press, 1989) p 263 28 T Edensor, "Sensing Tourist Spaces", in C Minca and T Oakes, eds Travels in Paradox Remapping Tourism (Lanham Rowman and Littlefield Publishers Inc , 2006), Edensor, "Staging Tourism Tourists as Performers", pp 322 - 344 , J Gold and S Ward, eds Place Promotion The Use of Publicity and Marketing to Sell Towns and Regions (Chicester John Wiley and Sons, Ltd , 1994) p 2 , J Gold and M Gold, Imagining Scotland Tradition, Representation and Promotion in Scottish Tourism since 1750 (Aldershot Scolar Press, 1995) 29 Gold and Ward, eds Place Promotion, p 2 30 Gold and Gold, Imagining Scotland, p 4 10

Scottish tourism created a recognisable Romantic landscape. While there is evidence of the influence of Romanticism, this study shows how spa promoters physically constructed the environment of the spa with hotels and facilities as well as creating a landscape based on pervasive ideas of health and leisure.

The corpus of primary literature in this study comprises contemporary newspaper advertisements and articles, medical periodicals, and guidebooks. The analysis of these materials forms the foundation of this study and supplies insight into Strathpeffer Spa's survival and development. According to Gold and Gold, owing to the varied approaches of place promotion there has been no strict methodical study completed. However, in their study of discourse on Victorian landscape, Trevor Barnes and James Duncan suggest an examination of the language used to describe the landscape because it expresses the underlying implications of social mores and interests.33 Therefore, this source analysis draws on a qualitative approach to the language of the print material. In doing so, the correlation between marketing strategies and the context of the market becomes clear.

Contemporary newspapers offered an explicit form of destination marketing.

Strathpeffer Spa regularly featured in the advertising columns of regional newspapers.

Typical of the format, the advertisements for the spa were laconic but illuminating. Used to provide readers with necessary information on lodgings and travel arrangements, the language of the advertisements conveyed an underlying and changing promotional strategy. For example, the following advertisement from 1888 expresses the reputation

31 Gold and Gold, Imagining Scotland, p 79.; K. Haldane Grenier, Tourism and Identity in Scotland, 1770- 1914. (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2005) p. 68. 32 Gold and Gold, Imagining Scotland, p. 17. 33 T Barnes and J. Duncan, Eds., Writing Worlds Discourse, Text and Metaphor in the Representation of Landscape. (London' Routledge, 1992) p. 3. 11 of the spa, competition between accommodations and the importance of the scenery around Strathpeffer in its marketing as a destination:

Strathpeffer Hotel, Strathpeffer - This old-established and central hotel, in close proximity to the far-famed mineral wells, has been entirely redecorated and newly furnished in a style which will ensure the comfort of visitors .... The hotel is the best from which tourists can visit the many scenes and places noted in the history of the north.34

Tracing the language of the advertisements over the timeframe of this study, the focus of the spa managers' strategy reflected an adaptable model of publicity. During the initial stages of the destination development in the 1870s, advertisements outlined the building of hotels and transport links but, by the end of the century, they focused on catering to the needs and interests of the guests, such as comfortable amenities and entertaining activities.

Strathpeffer Spa consistently appeared in Scottish and English newspapers, such as the Scotsman, the Aberdeen Weekly Journal, the Glasgow Herald, the Ross-shire

Journal and the Pall Mall Gazette. Drawing on secondary literature to contextualise the date of each advertisement, this study considers the wording and focus of the advertisements to determine the changing marketing strategies of the spa promoters. In doing so, it is evident that the spa managers presented different constructions of

Strathpeffer relating to wider social movements. Owing to the frequency of the press, newspaper advertisements showed how marketing strategies changed from one season to the next.

In addition to advertisements of Strathpeffer Spa, newspaper articles provide opportunities to examine the nuanced language of place promotion. Using the same

"Hotels &c", Aberdeen Weekly Journal, June 1, 1880. 12 approach of finding the advertisements, these newspapers published articles on

Strathpeffer with less frequency than the advertisements. Offering greater scope for expressing opinion, these newspaper articles represented either promotional pieces or tourists' experiences. Reviews of the spa highlighted certain improvements introduced at

Strathpeffer by the spa doctors, hoteliers, and factor. A reviewer in the Penny Illustrated

Press described a recent holiday to Strathpeffer:

I went to enjoy a thoroughly good holiday on the hills and on the lochs, by beautiful streams that abound the district, and on the breezy golf course. . . . And then the grounds! Beautiful gardens, excellent tennis court, strange walks, one of them to a neighbouring hill, with a flag-staff on the summit.

This extract illustrates how the marketing of Strathpeffer Spa expanded to include not only the promotion of the spa but social activities and pastimes offered by the end of the century. However, issues of authorship highlighted the limitation to this source. Unlike the advertisements, which spa managers, hoteliers or rail companies posted, the authorship of the article was not always explicit. Spa managers may have written positive reviews and testimonials to emphasize improvements at the spa. Durie identifies a similar issue with hydropathy promotion.36 Therefore, to address issues of authorship, this study focuses on the spa improvements to map change over time as oppose to the opinion of the review.

In addition to qualitative data, this study included quantitative analysis of nominal lists. Combining the analysis of the language of the advertisements and articles, an examination of guest lists offered a more conclusive understanding of marketing and the

35 "Holiday Sketches - Strathpeffer Spa, a Glorious Resort for Autumn", Penny Illustrated Papers and Illustrated Times, Sat, Oct 20, 1894. 36 A. Dune, Scotland for the Hobdays Tourism in Scotland c 1780 - 1939. (East Lothian: Tuckwell Press, 2003) p. 98. 13 effectiveness of Strathpeffer publicity. The Ross-shire Journal published weekly visitor lists for Strathpeffer Spa throughout the spa season. Spanning from May to September, the newspaper printed the name and place of origin of the guests attending the spa every

Friday. Based on the impressive length and presence of the same individual from week to week, the Ross-shire Journal printed expansive lists. To determine patterns in spa attendance, guests were entered into a database. Conclusions can be drawn on the effectiveness of spa promotion based on these names. This study deliberately examines guest lists from 1877, 1882, 1887, and 1892. Not only do these dates span the chronology of this study, they also relate to the stages of hydropathy movement identified by Durie.37 Therefore, when quantified, these nominal lists help to contextualize

Strathpeffer vis-a-vis its competitors.

Yet, this source does have significant limitations that result from inaccurate or inconsistent recording, or from the complete omission of spa guests. For those individuals recorded in the weekly lists, there were several entries with ambiguous details. For example, it is unclear as to how many women account for the "Misses Stewart of

TO

Auchterneed, Perthshire", or which members accompanied "Mrs. Plumber and family,

Edinburgh"39 to the spa. This study delineates these entries as group listings from entries that provided a single name and place of origin, such as "Mr. John Forrest, Aberdeen".4

To address issues of ambiguity, the database notes instances of families and group listings, but only considers individual listings. Despite such concerns, this source shows its many uses in determining patterns of tourism. Based on analysis of this data,

37 Durie, Water is Best, p. 41 - 42, 64. 38 "List of Visitors to Strathpeffer", Ross-shire Journal, July 8, 1887 - July 15, 1887. 39 "List of Visitors to Strathpeffer", Ross-shire Journal, June 15, 1877 - June 29, 1877. 40 "List of Visitors at Strathpeffer", Ross-shire Journal, June 30, 1882. 14

Strathpeffer Spa attracted an increased number of guests from greater distances and lengthened the spa season between its initial developments in the 1860s to the end of the century.41 The impact of marketing strategies on this overall growth will be discussed in greater detail in the following chapters.

While newspaper advertisements, articles, and guest lists showed trends in tourism, as a health destination the development of the spa reflected contemporary medical discourse. Advertised as a place of healing, Strathpeffer's doctors, Dr. Manson and Dr. Fox, used journals, such as the British Medical Journal and the Lancet, to prove the merits of mineral water treatments during the popularity of water-based cures. Using the same approach as the newspaper sources, medical journals offered discussion of

Strathpeffer and the writings of Manson and Fox. By analysing the language of these sources, this forum for Strathpeffer's marketing expressed the interplay of medicine and destination in the health tourism market as well as the medical reforms of the mid- nineteenth century.

Guidebooks are the final component of the promotional literature considered in this study. Gold and Gold, Haldane Grenier and Durie identify the guidebook as the standard media of place promotion.42 This study focuses on the guidebooks written by

Manson43 and Fox44 because they offered comprehensive examples of the correlation between medicine and travel as it pertained to promoting the spa as a destination.

Providing detailed qualitative and quantitative information to the reader, they described

41 "List of Visitors to Strathpeffer", Ross-shire Journal, 1877 - 1892 42 Gold and Gold, Imagining Scotland, p 25 , Haldane Grenier, Tourism and Identity in Scotland, p 68 , Dune, Scotland for the Holidays, p 98 43 D Manson, On the Sulphur and Chalybeate Water of Strathpeffer Spa in the Scottish Highlands 5th Ed (London A and J Churchill, 1884) 44 F Fox, Strathpeffer Spa its Climate and Waters, with Observations Historical, Medical, and General, Descriptive of the Vicinity (London HK Lewis, 1889) 15 the location, accommodations, and attractions as well as the reputed medical efficacy of

Strathpeffer's mineral waters. By examining the language of these guidebooks, the role of the spa doctor in developing a marketing strategy that promoted the spa as a place of health and leisure becomes apparent.

Guidebooks, unlike daily newspapers, express the position of the spa in the 1880s, a time of great change in the water cure market. Exceeding the demand of the market, the rapid proliferation of hydros resulted in a market crash in 1882.45 The crash illustrated a change in market tastes and the remaining hydros that survived the downturn sought to consolidate in the following years.46 While Strathpeffer was not a hydro, the crash affected the water cure market and the spa management endeavoured to maintain the spa as a holiday destination by improving and expanding its attractions:

The following pages would only partially fulfil their purpose if, having shown, however imperfectly, what Strathpeffer is, they did not in addition furnish some indication of what it is becoming and is to be. Much has been accomplished; much is in progress; and much remains to be done at the Spa.47

Fox's sentiment outlined the spa's constant need for development in order to survive the competition and demise of hydropathy; Strathpeffer had to continue to evolve. The dynamic promotional strategy matched the dynamic needs of the market.

Drawing on this promotional literature, I find evidence that the marketing strategy of spa management was far-reaching and responded to the context in which the spa continued to develop and grow. Spa managers constructed a landscape that appealed to popular middle-class constructs and movements. Its broad and varied nature allowed the spa to change with the market. Incorporating the current historiography of place

45 Durie, Water is Best, p. 42. 46 Ibid. p. 64. 47 Fox, Strathpeffer Spa its Climate and Waters, p. x. 16 promotion and health tourism, this study traces the spa from early development with the construction of accommodations and transport connections to its establishment as a popular health destination. An analysis of the promotional literature articulates how the spa managers and the tourist negotiated how Strathpeffer Spa changed as a destination over time.

This case study elaborates on a broad and varied historiography of Victorian health tourism. Connecting Strathpeffer to Continental spa development expands the study of health tourism beyond a regional or national focus and considers wider international trends and fashions. Specifically this case study builds on theories of resort development that reflect the interaction of host and guests in the creation of changing meaning of the destination. By considering the resort development as both linear and lateral, this study bridges the historiography of TALC and studies of Victorian social history. 17

Chapter One The Valley of Bright Water: A Brief History of Strathpeffer

Spa's Early Development

Through extensive marketing, the spa managers created the "Harrogate of the

North",48 "the Highland Sulphur Spa",49 and "the Scottish Spa",50 a health destination that rivalled its British and Continental counterparts by the end of the nineteenth century.

Using a range of promotional literature, spa managers attracted both tourists and investors, which contributed to the development and popularity of Strathpeffer Spa. Even so, prior to the 1860s, Strathpeffer Spa did not garner such acclaim and attention. The spa had rather humble beginnings. The story of Strathpeffer began in 1819, when a man, who claimed to suffer from "certain ailments of long-standing and of supposed incurable nature", found himself completely healed.51 Thomas Morrison, an Inverness doctor, travelled twenty-five miles from his home to find relief of his symptoms. Morrison discovered this miraculous cure in the "Valley of Bright Water", or Strathpeffer. In

1820, Morrison purchased the feu for the land in which he found his miracle spring and built a cottage for himself and pump for fellow sufferers.

As Morrison told it, he discovered the cure for his aliment. This was not entirely true. The people of Ross-shire knew of Strathpeffer's reputed healing wells long before

Morrison's happy discovery. In 1772, the Royal Society of London tested the mineral springs of Strathpeffer and reported that the water had a high concentration of bitumous sulphur, a mineral component believed to have healing powers.53 Therefore, Morrison did not discover the healing wells of Strathpeffer, but spa doctors credited him with

48 M. Baddeley, The Northern Highlands and Islands. (London: Dulau and Co., 1884) p. 37. 49 "Advertisements and Notices", Glasgow Herald, April 20, 1883. 50 Fox, Strathpeffer Spa its Climate and Waters, p. 41. 51 "A Highland Spa", Aberdeen Weekly Journal, August 18, 1886. 52 Ibid. 18 establishing the future site of the health resort, with the construction of his cottage and

54 pump.

Although established in 1820, Strathpeffer only gradually attained international status through the extensive effort of its promoters. The turning point for the development of the spa came in 1861, a date that deserves greater explanation. In 1849, Lord Stafford, son and heir of the second Duke of Sutherland, married Anne Hay-Mackenzie of

Cromartie.55 Twelve years after their union, the second Duke of Sutherland died, making his son the third Duke of Sutherland and his wife, Lady Anne, the Duchess. The conference of these titles had little impact on Strathpeffer Spa, but it did gradually help draw attention to the magical waters. In her new role as a social elite, Lady Stafford, and later, the Duchess of Sutherland, held many fashionable gatherings at her husband's house in London and became involved in popular social movements and charities.56 Her charm and popularity as a hostess made her a favourite of both the Queen and of Lord

Palmerston.57 In 1861, in addition to receiving the title of Duchess, the Queen granted

Lady Anne the title "Countess of Cromartie", which restored the earldom of her ancestors to the peerage.58 Within the Earldom of Cromartie was Strathpeffer and, to the newly minted Countess, the spa represented an entrepreneurial opportunity 59 Her efforts soon made Strathpeffer a popular destination.

Given the sheer size of the combined Cromartie and Sutherland estates, the Duke and Duchess depended on their estate agents to efficiently manage their many properties.

Manson, On the Sulphur and Chalybeate Waters of Strathpeffer Spa in the Scottish Highlands 5l ed, p 100 , Fox, Strathpeffer Spa its Climate and Waters, p 9 55 "Births, Marriages, Deaths", Scotsman, June 23, 1849 56 Richards and Clough, Cromartie, p 252 57 Ibid p 254 58 "Costly Honours", Caledonian Mercury, November 13, 1861 59 Richards and Clough, Cromartie, p 272 19

For all matters pertaining to Strathpeffer, the Countess relied upon her factor, William

Gunn.60 Like his employer, Gunn shared a keen interest in the spa and, over his forty years of service to the Countess, Gunn actively participated in the spa's promotion.

Taking residence in the spa town, Gunn expressed commitment to Strathpeffer's development.61 Not only did he personally invest in the spa, he also represented

Strathpeffer in local government.62 Despite his duties to the other properties of the

Countess' estate, Gunn clearly had a special interest in the spa town.

Through their combined initiative, the Countess, her husband, and her factor established necessary amenities, such as accommodations and transportation links, critical to the spa's development. Over the timespan of this case study, the investment of the Sutherland and Cromartie estates contributed to the creation of the destination of

Strathpeffer Spa. In addition to financially supporting the spa, Gunn encouraged private companies to invest in its hotels and railway. In doing so, the Cromartie estate established the tourist infrastructure crucial to the success of Strathpeffer as a destination.

Collaborating with the Highland Railway Company, the Cromartie estate marketed

Strathpeffer as profitable to potential investors. As a result, the spa managers created

Strathpeffer as an important destination. Using promotional literature, this chapter traces the development of this infrastructure by exploring the work of the spa managers to advertise the facility to investors and visitors.

Getting There: Transportation Links to Strathpeffer Spa

Richards and Clough, Cromartie, p. 263. 61 "Births, Marriages, Deaths", Scotsman, March 26, 1915. 62 "School Board Elections", Scotsman, April 8, 1885. 20

Mineral water was the primary prerequisite for a spa. Geological resources dictated location, which meant that spas did not typically exist within established urban spaces and transport networks. Therefore, rail and steamer connections were essential to the survival of a remote spa, such as Strathpeffer. While its reputation ensured regular attendance by Highland residents, improved connections with new and existing transport networks opened the spa to a wider demographic of health-seekers and tourists. Its northern position isolated the spa from the rest of Britain, which made spa managers dependent on collaboration with rail and streamer companies to convey the spa's patrons; the relationship was critical to the site's financial survival and growing popularity.

There is little unique about the spa's dependence on transportation infrastructure.

The correlation between spa development and the railway expands on existing scholarship.63 In particular, Jack Simmons' work on the British railway and its impact on the growth of Victorian leisure patterns influenced this research.64 His study on the construction of the railway in England, Wales, and, to some extent, Scotland relates to the connection between transportation and spa promotion. Simmons showed the correlation between the two in a study of the growth of railway hotels and his work resonates with this examination of Strathpeffer Spa.65 As with mid-Victorian railway hotels, the railway not only increased the accessibility of a spa, it also made it more competitive with similar resorts.66 Although this literature connects the growth of tourism with the improvement of transport networks, historians acknowledge that the increased rail links or steamer

63 Dune, Scotland for the Holiday , Haldane Grenier, Tourism and Identity in Scotland, 1770 - 1914 , J Thomas, The Skye Railway, The History of the Railways of the Scottish Highlands - Vol 5 (Devon David St John Thomas, 1990) 64 J Simmons, The Victorian Railway (New York Thames and Hudson, 1991) 65 J Simmons, "Railways, Hotels and Tourism in Great Britain, 1839-1914 " Journal of Contemporary History 79(1984) 201-222 66 Ibid pp 203 21 service did not cause tourism in Britain, nor did they establish Strathpeffer as a destination. Transportation networks merely influenced mass tourism in Britain by facilitating a greater number of people. This is apparent in a close examination of the promotional literature of Strathpeffer Spa, as this section will show.

While spa managers and the railway company developed a train link to the spa,

Gunn's promotion of Strathpeffer initially attracted the attention of the Highland Railway

Company. In a proposal to extend the railway into the western Highlands, the company recognised Strathpeffer as a draw for rail passengers: "It will have a valuable and lucrative traffic with Strathpeffer, famous for its mineral waters, and likewise, a large

/TO tourist traffic throughout its entire length during the summer and autumn months". In this proposal, the managers recognised that the extension of the railway to Strathpeffer mutually benefitted the Highland Railway Company and the spa: The importance of this line of railway for local purposes . . . not only indicates that the time has arrived for making a vigorous movement on the subject, but affords the certainty of a remunerative return, owing to the stream of traffic which will flow to and from the west coast via the great central direct route thus established to the south.69

For this reason, the Duke of Sutherland encouraged the interests of the company in the

70 counties of Sutherland-shire and Ross-shire. As the western Highlands were largely devoid of large mineral deposits or urban centres, which would make it a natural choice for a railway line, the spa managers highlighted the importance of Strathpeffer to

Durie, Scotland for the Holidays, p. 59. "Dingwall and Skye Railway", Scotsman, July 29, 1864. Ibid. Richards and Clough, Cromartie, p. 269. 22

71 encourage investors. They successfully attracted a major investor and the incorporation of the railway into spa publicity was evident in promotional literature on Strathpeffer.

The company constructed and opened the Skye Railway to the public August 10,

1870 72 The train from Dingwall station to Strathpeffer ran four times daily during the summer and autumn months, which coincided with the spa season. While, in the absence of railway company numbers, it is difficult to discern exactly how many people used the line to reach the spa, it is clear from Strathpeffer's appearance in the Highland

Railway Company's minutes and in newspaper articles about the line that the spa evidently attracted people to the western highlands. Furthermore, the Skye Railway afforded a special express train service from Strathpeffer that connected with the main southern line in Inverness during the spa season, thus confirming its position as an important economic draw.74 Therefore, both managers of the spa and the railway promoted Strathpeffer to encourage tourism in the region.

Oddly, considering the sites impact on traffic and tourism in the region, the railway did not connect directly to Strathpeffer itself; the station was several miles north of the spa.75 For the convenience of the spa visitors, the Countess of Cromartie developed the land between the spa and the station. In the late 1870s, the Countess had a road built to connect the two, which enabled easy pedestrian and coach traffic. Despite the maintenance of the road by the Countess and regular omnibus service from the spa's pump room to the station, visitors felt that the station should be closer to their destination.

71 Thomas, Skye Railway, p 7 72 The Highland Railway Company and its Constituents and Successors (London The Stephenson Locomotive Society, 1955) p 27 73 "Dingwall and Skye Railway", Scotsman, August 22, 1870 74 Thomas, Skye Railway, p 33 75 Ibid p 34 23

By the 1880s, visitors considered this distance from the station to the spa too great of an inconvenience and the Highland Railway Company sought to move the station to

Strathpeffer.77

The Highland Railway Company submitted a petition to parliament for permission to construct not only a station but also a branch line for Strathpeffer. The

Scotsman provided the details of the petition:

Power is also sought to make a short branch line 2% miles in length to Strathpeffer - the point at which this would leave the main line being 214 miles from Dingwall Railway Station .... The company take themselves bound to complete these railways within five years from passing the Act.

7Q

Parliament accepted the proposal on September 1, 1884 and construction began.

Completed and opened on June 5, 1885, the Highland Railway Company did not require the proposed five years for construction. While the line was not particularly long, the speed at which the company completed the line - less than a year - suggests the importance of Strathpeffer as a source of revenue for the company. In the biannual shareholders meeting of the Highland Railway Company in October 1885, the Chairman confirmed the importance of Strathpeffer and suggested, that despite a reduced dividend, investors should not be concerned as the new Strathpeffer branch line had "been a great Q 1 success so far". The spa manager's efforts to promote and develop Strathpeffer economically influenced the Highlands as expressed in the continual development of the railway.

"Railway Extension in the Highlands", Scotsman, November 15, 1883. 8 "Highland Railway - Shortened Route to Inverness", Scotsman, December 25, 1883. 9 The Highland Railway Company, p. 31. 0 Ibid. 1 "Public Companies", Glasgow Herald, October 31, 1885. 24

By the mid-1890s, another petition reflected the relationship between the railway and the popularity of Strathpeffer. Spa managers and guests called for improvements to the rail service. Nearly ten years after its construction, the Strathpeffer branch line required modernisation for the comfort of the spa's more invalid guests. Spa managers believed that inadequate rail service caused southern, especially London, spa-goers to seek treatment in England or abroad. Under the Gunn's mediation, a village meeting in

Strathpeffer, attended by not only local merchants and hoteliers but spa visitors as well, addressed these issues. Gunn's presence reaffirmed the importance of the railway in maintaining the spa's popularity. Following the meeting, Gunn presented these concerns to the Highland Railway Company, which responded with service improvements and new train cars to service the line. The speed at which the Highland Railway Company addressed these concerns confirmed that Strathpeffer Spa had maintained its importance to the company.

In addition to the mutually beneficial relationship between the spa and the

Highland Railway Company, spa managers extended Strathpeffer's transportation network to include travel by water. While the expansion of the railway influenced the development of the spa, it made up only part of the transportation network of the region.

In addition to the many railway extensions and improvements that featured Strathpeffer, steamships also played an integral part in the transportation network in the western

Highlands according to Durie and Haldane Grenier. By capitalising on the improvement to passenger steam-shipping, spa managers offered visitors alternative

82 Thomas, Skye Railway, p 90 83 Ibid 84 "Railway Facilities to Strathpeffer Spa", Scotsman, June 19, 1894. 85 Thomas, Skye Railway, p. 90. 86 Durie, Scotland for the Holidays, p. 59.; Haldane Grenier, Tourism and Identity in Scotland, p. 58. 25 routes to their destination. In the initial proposal for the Skye Railway, the company acknowledged the importance of water travel for ferrying visitors to the spa from the western islands and southern Britain as well as commercial interests such as fishing and trade.87 At the western terminus of the line, the Highland Railway Company recognised

Kyleakin's strategic position for steamship operation: "All steamers to and from Glasgow as well as the whole shipping on the west coast, pass and repass [Kyleakin] . . . and from its position, will form the point on which the whole traffic of the Western Highland and

OQ Islands [Railway] must concentrate". After the completion of the Skye Railway,

OQ steamship companies advertised their services in connection with the line's schedules.

The Highlands Railway Steam Vessels Act of 1877 cemented the role of steamships in the transportation network of the western Highlands, as it "conferred on the company powers to own and operate steamboats".90 By 1890, newspapers and other promotional literature expressed the connection between Strathpeffer and steam-shipping.

Critical in promoting tourism to the spa, steamship companies posted regular advertisements in the regional newspapers. For tourists travelling from south-eastern

Scotland: The Aberdeen, Leith, and Moray Firth Steam Shipping Company Limited Passenger Season - Increased Sailing 1890. The S.S. Earnholm (lighted with electricity) and the SS James Hall sail from Leith to Aberdeen . . . every Monday to Buckie, Cromartie, Invergordon (for Strathpeffer), Inverness.91

As with the railway, steamship companies recognised the draw of Strathpeffer Spa by specifically naming the destination in passenger routes. The spa and its relationship with

87 "Dingwall and Skye Railway", Scotsman, July 29, 1864. 88 Ibid 89 "Dingwall and Skye Railway", Scotsman, August 22, 1870. 90 The Highland Railway Company and its Constituents and Successors, p. 29 91 "Increased Sailing 1890", Scotsman, August 6, 1890. 26 passenger steam shipping further confirmed the symbiotic nature between destination and transportation service. By the end of the nineteenth century, the passenger steamship industry had reached its zenith, with tourism services making up a greater proportion of its revenue. Strathpeffer's position within the regional and national transportation networks expressed these advances of steamship travel for tourism at the end of nineteenth-century.

The improvement and expansion of rail and steam travel connected Strathpeffer to the rest of Britain. The spa managers recognised the importance of the spa's accessibility for attracting Strathpeffer to tourists. Working with the Highland Railway Company and steamship lines enabled spa managers to promote the spa to tourists outside of the

Highlands. Guest lists posted in the Ross-shire Journal reflected the direct influence of improved transport links on increasing the number of spa visitors. In addition to growing clientele, spa promoters attracted an increasing number of guests from outside of

Scotland and Britain. While attracting guests outside of Scotland reflected the successful promotion of the spa, Scottish visitors who lived outside of Ross-shire also benefitted from improved access to spa.

Table 1: Number of Guests per Season and their Places of Origin United Total Number Year Scotland World No Origin Listed Kingdom of Guests 1877 3,931 335 90 13 4,369 1882 5,437 846 160 79 6,502 1887 6,650 1,397 138 396 8,581 1892 8,018 3,658 392 735 12,803 Source: "List of Visitors to Strathpeffer", Ross-shire Journal, 1877 - 1892.

Table 2 presents these totals as percentages.

Haldane Grenier, Tourism and Identity in Scotland, p. 60. 27

Table 2: Number of Guests per Season and their Places of Origin by percent of Total

These numbers illustrated the importance of efficient transport links to Strathpeffer Spa's survival. Dr. Manson, one of the spa's resident physicians, succinctly noted this trend:

The Spa has been much resorted to by health-seekers, chiefly from the more northerly counties of Scotland; but as facilities for travelling by railway have increased, it has become frequented by visitors from all parts of England, Scotland, and Ireland, indeed from all parts of the world . . . forcing it more and more on the attention of those in quest of health.93

By taking into consideration both growing number of guests as well as their diverse places of origin, it is apparent that efficient rail, steamer, and coach service was necessary for the business of the spa. Developed in tandem, the correlation of between the success of transportation companies and the success of the spa was unmistakable.

Staying There: Accommodations at Strathpeffer Spa

Lord Elcho: "Where is Strathpeffer?" Mr. Matheson, M.P.: "It is a small village, in which there is a mineral spring." Lord Elcho: "How many houses are there?" Mr. Matheson, M.P.: "I do not wish to deprecate Strathpeffer, but it is not a large place." Lord Elcho: "Is there a hotel there?" Mr. Matheson, M.P.: "There are two hotels." Lord Elcho: "What is the size of those hotels?"

Manson, On the Sulphur and Chalybeate Waters of Strathpeffer Spa in the Scottish Highlands, 5 ed., p. 1. 28

Mr. Matheson, M.P.: "They are moderate-sized houses".94

This exchange between Lord Elcho, the Earl of Wemyss, and Mr. Matheson, the representative for Ross-shire, took place during a commission meeting regarding the game laws in Scotland. Despite the commissioner's questions, Mr. Matheson implied that Strathpeffer was not worth his attention. Based on this report, this disinterest stemmed from the small size of Strathpeffer, which Matheson linked to the number of its houses and hotels. At the time of the report, the spa managers were not yet able to boast the numerous hotels, boarding houses, villas, and cottages that existed by the end of the century. In 1872, the Cromartie estate had only begun to establish the guest lodgings of

Strathpeffer.

As with the correlation between the spa and expanding transportation networks, the construction of accommodations at Strathpeffer coincided with the establishment of hotels across Britain. Indeed, the British hotel market experienced a boom in the late nineteenth century. Durie noted a dramatic increase in tourist amenities in the late nineteenth-century, which included 190 hotels constructed or expanded in Scotland between 1840 and 1900.95 The boom in hotel development related to the improvement of transportation networks which made destination more accessible to tourists. This connection between the construction of hotels and transportation paralleled the development of Strathpeffer and had a profound effect on its survival. By the 1880s, lodgings at health resorts, such as Strathpeffer Spa, accounted for over half of the

Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Reports from Committees Game Laws, Juries Bill, Kitchen and Refreshment Rooms. 1872. Vol. x. p 390. 95 Durie, Scotland for the Holidays, p. 132 96 Haldane Grenier, Tourism and Identity in Scotland, p. 62. 29 accommodations advertised and offered a clear context to the construction of hotels at the

97 spa.

Despite Mr. Matheson's indifference, Strathpeffer Spa enjoyed an annual increase in popularity, prompting the need for more accommodations. In response to this need for lodgings, the Countess and Gunn developed promotional strategies to attract hoteliers and investors, and to ensure the continued attendance of the spa's seasonal clientele. As part of her plan, the Countess leased the land around Strathpeffer to encourage the building of new hotels and cottages for spa-goers. To attract investors, Gunn used regional no newspapers, such as the Scotsman and the Aberdeen Journal, to advertise the Countess' offer: "Strathpeffer Spa on the property of Her Grace the Duchess of Sutherland and the

Countess of Cromartie. To be feued, desirable building sites immediately adjoining the celebrated mineral wells of Strathpeffer".99 By promoting the reputation of the spa,

Gunn endeavoured to attract investors and hoteliers to Strathpeffer. Gunn intimated to potential hoteliers the profitability of Strathpeffer by emphasizing the growing number of seasonal visitors: "The demand for lodging accommodation being annually on the increase, every encouragement will be made to induce building".100 This initial advertisement formed one aspect of Gunn's strategy, which relied on the proliferation of newspapers for promoting the spa. In addition to the Countess' offer, Gunn found other ways to encourage the construction of hotels at Strathpeffer through this medium.

In the same year of the commission report, Gunn actively sought to expand

Strathpeffer by establishing hotel companies. In 1872, based on research conducted of

Haldane Grenier, Tourism and Identity in Scotland, p. 63. "Advertisements and Notices", The Aberdeen Journal, February 23, 1870. "Ross-shire - Strathpeffer Spa", Scotsman, June 24, 1870. 30 other Highland hotels, Gunn determined that a joint-stock hotel company would be a successful addition to both the growth of the spa and the company's investors.1 ' Despite the enthusiasm of the Countess' factor, the Duke of Sutherland did not provide the capital

Gunn required for such a project until 1876.102 However, Gunn successfully marketed this venture, which resulted in the establishment of the Spa Hotel as a premier hotel in the

Highlands. In addition to creating a joint-stock hotel company, Gunn's use of the newspaper to advertise the Countess' offer for land paid off. A correspondent of the

Dundee Courier notes: "Hotels are well-filled and so are most of the lodging houses.

Some of the latter are new, handsome, commodious and extremely comfortable". As expressed in the local media, Gunn's efforts to increase accommodations at the spa were effective.

The increasing presence of Strathpeffer lodgings in regional newspapers illustrated the success of the Countess and Gunn's marketing campaign. Although Gunn and the Countess attracted hoteliers and investors, Strathpeffer's rapid increase in popularity meant that the two major hotels, the Strathpeffer Hotel and the Spa Hotel, were not sufficient to house the growing number of visitors to the spa. Spa managers acknowledged the need for a third hotel and posted a call for, "Mason, carpenter, slater, plaster, plumber, bell-hanger, ironmongery, and painter works of [a] new hotel at

Strathpeffer".104 Through the efforts of a joint-stock company, the Ben Wyvis Hotel opened in 1879 and became the largest hotel in Strathpeffer. The continued promotion of the two established hotels and the construction of various lodgings, especially another

101 Richards and Clough, Cromartie, p. 276. 102 Ibid. p. 279. 103 "Letters to the Editor - Strathpeffer Spa", Dundee Courier and Argus, June 28, 1873. 104 "Hotels, Hydropathics, &c", Scotsman, November 25, 1876. 105 "Hotels, Hydropathics, &c", Scotsman, June 14, 1879.; "Strathpeffer Spa", Aberdeen Weekly Journal, September8, 1880. 31 hotel, all within the first decade of the spa's connection to the railway showed the rapid rate at which Strathpeffer became the health destination for the western Highlands.

Despite the success of their promotional campaign to both investors and visitors, the Countess and Gunn continued to encourage the expansion of Strathpeffer. In addition to the improvement of the hotels, the Countess of Cromartie continued her efforts in developing the land around the spa in the interest of its guests. She renewed her offer for feuing land in 1877:

Strathpeffer Spa, Ross-shire - The property of the Duchess of Sutherland, Countess of Cromartie - to be feued in perpetuity, desirable building sites, in the immediate vicinity of the Spa. The demand for lodging being greatly on the increase, every encouragement will be given to induce building, and superior sites will be granted on most favourable terms.

The Countess of Cromartie's inducement for building and the media attention expressed that the demands of accommodation continued to exceed the amenities of the spa.

Within the first decade of actively promoting and improving the spa, spa managers responded to an annually increasing number of guests. The demand for accommodation correlated with the increasing popularity of Strathpeffer as a health destination. This need to add to the number of accommodations around the spa is supported by a trend that shows not only an increasing number of guests in Table 3, but an increasing number of guests per season.

Table 3: Number of total visitors overall to Strathpeffer per Season Year Total Number of Visitors 1877 4,369 1882 6,502 1887 8,581 1892 12,803 Source: "List of Visitors to Strathpeffer", Ross-shire Journal, 1877 - 1892.

"Hotels, Hydropathics, &c", Scotsman, October 10, 1870. 32

Note: The length of Spa season differed between the four listed years with the season length increasing chronologically. This should be considered when viewing these totals as it will influence the overall totals, as longer seasons would allow a greater number of visitors.

During each of these four seasons, it was evident from the weekly visitors list that there were guests who remained at Strathpeffer for an extended period. To facilitate the quantification of data, this study identified these individuals in two or more consecutive weekly listings as returning guests. By comparing the number of total guests in a season to the total number of returning guests who remained for two weeks or more, Table 4 shows a clear pattern of an increasing popularity in prolonging one's stay at Strathpeffer.

Table 4: Number of returning visitors compared to the number of total visitors overall as expressed as percent of said total. Percentage of Total Number of Total Number of Returning Visitors of Year Returning Visitors per Visitors per Season the Total Number Season Overall 1877 4,369 2,355 53.90% 1882 6,502 3,593 55.26% 1887 8,581 5,060 58.97% 1892 12,803 7,951 62.10% Source: "List of Visitors to Strathpeffer", Ross-shire Journal, 1877 - 1892.

The presence of these returning individuals indicates a trend of lower weekly guest turn­ over at the lodging houses per season, which meant that these accommodations had to maintain an increasing number of returning guests as well as to provide enough space for new guests. In Table 5, the increasing number of lodging houses built or residences converted for commercial needs reflected the growing clientele. The accommodations listed in the weekly guest lists determined the number in use throughout the season. 33

Table 5: Fewest and Greatest Number of Accommodations Occupied during a Spa Season. Fewest Number of Greatest Number of Year Accommodations Accommodations Occupied in a Season Occupied in a Season 1877 7 35 1882 17 41 1887 23 48 1892 27 57 Source: Ross-shire Journal, 1877- 1892.

These numbers also reflect at which time in the season the Spa was most popular. The highest number represented peak weeks in attendance while the lower number typically reflected the end of the season, as seen in Graphs 1, 2, 3, and 4.

Graph 1: Number of Accommodation weekly in use for the 1877 Spa Season

60

=> 50

I 40 •a o E E 30 o u •S 20

/A /A A\ /A /A A\ /A /A /A /A A\ /A /A /A /A /A

x 0 x x x V a> ^ > & \°

Source: "List of Visitors at Strathpeffer", Ross-shire Journal, 1877. 1/3 O o*t c Number of Accommodationsi n Use "-i Si » O ^5. (-> NJ LO .£> in en •a er <%, ooooooo ST U> r !V <> to LO r%*> 2 o e -h = 3 < w 3 a" a* "&>^> re O re w o l-»o 5 v*>- • osc o -s re B Vfc • o 3" o 3 0) 3 3 3 ^^ - © -I o -&> a Sai S3 Si O %^4o - to 5" to o" i s to s 3 S- re re TO re 7T ^ M ^ s 3 „ ^*> - t/eI OO e re /V^ « Koo> 3? "3e - S» "c1 ^^cPo - »*• ^>% cr H-re1 00 oo ^- 00 •-4 00 m •7m3 •a ss Si m m re %- re s: J ss o«> O s s 35

Graph 4: Number of Accommodation weekly in use for the 1892 Spa Season

60

=3 50

I 40 TO •D O E E 30 o u u ^ 20

.a E 10

-i 1 1 1 1 1 1 1- n 1 1 1 1 1 c# (# <& q^ q^ a^ <# <# <# q^ <& <& <& <& q^ <# q?^ q^ q^

^x <^x aT o*>N #X ^X -\>X Vs <& \VN V ^ ^ <& ^ ^0>X "?X OAX N*X

Source: "List of Visitors at Strathpeffer", Ross-shire Journal, 1892.

These graphs show the pattern of accommodation over a given spa season. The common trend throughout these graphs is an arc of use, in which the beginning and end of the season show fewer accommodations in use than the middle, or peak, of the season. The later seasons show more steady use throughout the season excluding the first and last weeks.

The expansion of Strathpeffer's hotels not only met the needs of its guest, but is also part of a larger movement of hotel building in Britain with the rise of tourism and holiday-making. The continued growth of accommodation at Strathpeffer was critical to its survival in a market of well-established and larger spas and resorts.107 In fact, in keeping with its Continental rivals and showing it was on par with the famous spas of

Germany, several of the villas built around the spa in the last decades of the nineteenth

Hembry, British Spas from 1815 to Present: A Social History. 36

1 OR century mimicked Bavarian-style architecture. Establishing the reputation of its lodgings was essential to Strathpeffer's overall marketability. Despite competition from other destinations, spa managers and hoteliers successfully incorporated the quality of its accommodations into the creation Strathpeffer's reputation to rival other British and

Continental spas.

The Main Attraction: Improvement to the Spa facilities

While the transportation networks of Britain and the rapid construction of accommodations were important to Strathpeffer, they were nothing without a main attraction. The Countess and Gunn encouraged the building of rail and steamer links and lodgings to exploit the popularity of the mineral wells. Without these wells, the efforts of the spa managers would have been fruitless. As the catalyst of infrastructural development, Gunn recognised the necessity of improving the spa facilities to garner the attention of the spa-going public and investors. While the spa's reputation initially attracted the attention of hoteliers and transportation companies, such as the Highland

Railway Company, the growing number of visitors ensured that the spa continued to grow in order to survive in a competitive market.

Only three years after the construction of the Skye Railway, spa managers made their first major improvement to the spa facilities. In 1873, Gunn called for the renovation of the pump room, where spa-goers met regularly to "take the water". He had the taps, which connected the pump room to the sulphur and chalybeate springs, cleaned

Hembry, British Spas from 1815 to Present- A Social History, p. 209. 37 and extended.109 Gunn expanded the structure of the pump room to meet the needs of an increasing clientele:

The ground floor has been extended so as to include among other additions a consulting for the resident medical practitioner and a new waiting-room. A second story has been added which comprises a hall to be used as a recreation and reading-room, and eight new bath and dressing rooms.110

Funded by the Duke of Sutherland, the personal investment of the landowners in these renovations expressed the importance of the mineral wells.111 Maintaining the main attraction of Strathpeffer ensured the attraction of both tourists and investors.

Despite these renovations under the auspices of the Duke of Sutherland, the spa facilities required constant maintenance and improvements. By 1880, a visitor described the pump room as cramped: "The pump room nearly all parts of the day, but especially morning and noon, is the resort of numberless health-seekers and loungers, crowding to drink the waters".112 These observations would foreshadow more improvements to the pump room. Damage to the pump room in the mid-1880s hastened the need for improvements. In 1885, a fire started in the furnace of the pump room and, although spa

i i n workers and tourists managed to control the blaze, the building demanded repairs. In addition to serious damage caused by the fires, the pump room, as the hub of the spa, needed constant work to meet the needs of increasing visitors.

In August 1892, after the discovery of a new well, spa managers expanded the pump room once again. This new well was the fourth mineral well discovered in

Strathpeffer and chemical analysis determined it to be the strongest well on site with the

109 "Strathpeffer", Scotsman, June 26, 1873. 1,0 Ibid. 111 Richards and Clough, Cromartie, p. 269. 112 "Strathpeffer Spa", Aberdeen Weekly Journal, September 8, 1880. 113 "Strathpeffer - Fire at the Pump Room", Glasgow Herald, July 6, 1885. 38 greatest concentration of sulphur.114 Much like her encouragement in developing accommodations, the Countess of Cromartie also promoted the enhancement of the spa as an attraction through projects such as incorporating the waters from the new well into the pump room:

A neat pump room was erected . . . and prior to its opening yesterday a crowded meeting of the visitors at the Spa was held in the large pavilion. Mr. Gunn, factor for the Countess of Cromartie, presided. Dr. Fortescue Fox gave an account of the progress and development of the springs at Strathpeffer, and the Countess formally declared the pump-room open.115

Their attendance at the opening of new well expressed the commitment of Gunn and the

Countess to the promotion of the spa and meeting the needs of its guests.

In addition to the increasing number of accommodations and improved spa facilities, the Countess and Gunn expanded the non-medical buildings of the spa. When they were not taking the water and on days of bad weather, patients needed space to socialise and relax. Owing to the increasing seasonal visitors, the spa managers acknowledged that the second storey of the pump room did not provide sufficient space for shelter and entertainment.116 To appeal to the social needs of the guest, the Countess and Gunn unveiled a large purpose-built hall in 1881: "Yesterday a handsome new pavilion, erected at Strathpeffer as a reading and recreation for visitors, was formally opened by the Duchess of Sutherland (Countess of Cromartie)".117 The construction of the Pavilion illustrated the needs of the guests directly influenced spa development and promotion. After 1881, the Pavilion had many uses including a reading room, a

114 "Opening of a Pump Room at Strathpeffer", Scotsman, August 9, 1892. U5Ibid. n6"The Strathpeffer Spa- Opening of the New Pavilion", Aberdeen Weekly Journal, August 11, 1881. 117 "Strathpeffer Spa", Scotsman, August 11, 1881. 118 Manson, On the Sulphur and Chalybeate Waters of Strathpeffer Spa in the Scottish Highlands. 5th ed., p.6. 39 concert and dance hall,119 and a meeting place for town discussion concerning the spa.1

At its opening, the speaker stated the Pavilion was another example of the efforts the

Countess of Cromartie made in improving the properties of her estate and, "[We] gratefully acknowledge the deep and practical interest which the noble families of

Sutherland and Cromartie have long taken in the welfare of all who attend this health- giving resort".121

In 1888, Lady Anne, the first Countess of Cromartie, passed away. She was instrumental in developing the spa for a wider British and international market. Her obituary in the Scotsman recognised her commitment to the development of the spa and that her involvement as one of the reasons for her popularity, "The Duchess will be much

1 99 missed where she was best known, particularly in Ross-shire". Although an expensive venture, her continued interest in Strathpeffer established the spa as the most profitable of her properties: Of the Duchess' estate, the property at Strathpeffer is the most valuable. It is yearly increasing in popularity and importance as a watering-place and has been vastly improved in the last twenty years. A return recently presented to the Crofters Commission showed that a sum of £64,000 had been expended on buildings 1 9^ and other contracts on the estate.

Through the development of the spa and her encouragement in building accommodations and transport connection, the late Countess made the spa attractive to visitors and investors.

119 "Holiday Sketches Strathpeffer Spa " Penny Illustrated Paper and Illustrated Times, October 20, 1894 120 "Railway Facilities to Strathpeffer Spa, Glasgow Herald, June 18, 1894 121 "The Strathpeffer Spa - Opening of the New Pavilion", Aberdeen Weekly Journal, August 11, 1881 122 "Death of the Duchess of Sutherland", Scotsman, November 27, 1888 40

While Gunn remained factor of the Cromartie estate, the death of the Countess marked the end of the initial development of Strathpeffer. The Duke of Sutherland oversaw the maintenance of the spa, but the Duke and his children lacked the Duchess' enthusiasm for Strathpeffer. Financial troubles on the Sutherland estate meant that

Gunn's promotion of Strathpeffer lacked financial support. Noted in the Countess' obituary, the development of the spa had been costly. Improvements, such as the building of the pump room and pavilion, had resulted in an annual deficit for the Duke of

Sutherland. With unfortunate timing, the Duke of Sutherland preceded the death of his son, the Earl of Cromartie, by a year and left the management of Strathpeffer to Sibell

197

Lilian Mackenzie, the second Countess of Cromartie. At only fifteen-years-old upon inheriting her title after the unexpected death of her father in 1893, the promotion of 198

Strathpeffer was not a priority for such a young woman. However, despite the reduced involvement of the Cromartie Estate, the first Countess and her factor had initiated interest in the spa from tourists and investors.

Establishing the Destination: Strathpeffer's Tourist Infrastructure

Gunn and the Countess established the necessary amenities to transform Dr.

Morrison's mineral wells into a popular health destination. A transportation network, the building of lodgings and hotels, and improvements to the spa itself contributed to the creation of a tourist infrastructure at Strathpeffer. Through these contributions, the

Countess and Gunn were instrumental in expanding the reputation of the spa to attract

124 Richards and Clough, Cromartie, p. 269. 125 Ibid. p. 364. 126 Ibid p 365. 127 "Death of the Duke of Sutherland", Scotsman, September 23, 1892.; Richards and Clough, Cromartie, p. 365. 128 Richards and Clough, Cromartie, p. 383. 41 many investors and companies. Continual improvements to the amenities of Strathpeffer

Spa ensured an increasing number of visitors each spa season. The importance of not only regular, but growing, yearly attendance was critical to the spa's survival.

Gunn and the Countess established the foundation for spa promotion. By developing the spa facilities, accommodations and transport links, the spa managers physically constructed the space of the spa and provided the necessary amenities of the destination. Within this framework, the context of the spa's development influenced the meanings associated with the landscape of Strathpeffer. Market conditions, which formed the lateral factors, and the changing needs of spa visitors influenced the marketing strategies employed by the spa managers. This was especially true as the development of Strathpeffer coincided with the craze of hydropathy. In order to succeed as a small, Highland resort in the face of this competition, a strong and well-established tourist infrastructure was essential. 42

Chapter Two Healthy Competition: Spa Development in the Health Tourism

Market

When Victor Priessnitz, an Austrian farmer, invented a unique new form of hydropathy, it had a widespread impact on health tourism in Britain during the latter half of the nineteenth century. Priessnitz's therapy used various hydrological treatments to 1 9Q cure illnesses and it created a health craze that attained huge popularity. Brought to

England by Captain Richard Tappin Claridge, a rheumatic, gout-stricken teetotaller anxious to discover non-surgical treatments for his ailments abroad, hydropathy made its debut in 1842.130 By the end of the century, entrepreneurs anxious to capitalize on the fad established twenty-one hydros—places that practiced hydropathy—in Scotland alone, all based on the methods of the medically untrained Priessnitz. The rate at which

Britain accepted hydropathy reflected changing conceptualisations of medicine and dynamic social movements, which culminated in a health tourism juggernaut.

Strathpeffer Spa was not, nor was it ever, a hydropathic centre, and yet it thrived as hydropathy devotees established hydros as one of the dominant and most favoured health destinations in late-Victorian Britain. The growth of hydropathy affected the development of Strathpeffer both positively and negatively. As a pseudo-medical establishment based on treating illness with water, Strathpeffer benefitted from the hype pervasive in Victorian health awareness; however, the speedy construction of hydros across Britain also created greater competition. Consequently, the continued success of the spa was dependent upon an expertly marketed reputation and its legitimacy as a curative practice, which expressed continued development and growth. 129 R. Claridge, Hydropathy, or the Cold Water Cure as Practised by Victor Priessnitz at Grafenberg. 3rd Ed. (London: John Madden and Co., 1842) p. 3. 130 Durie, Water is Best, p. 3. 131 Ibid. p. 2, 42. 43

Established as a health destination when the hydropathy market expanded in the last decades of the nineteenth century, promotional strategies were especially important to the spa's success. While the construction of the Strathpeffer branch line and investment of hotel companies were part of a wider context of tourism expansion across

Britain, the mineral waters of Strathpeffer were the cause and catalyst for this growth at the local level. Between 1870 and 1900, as the tourist infrastructure of Strathpeffer improved, the development of the spa was essential to building a reputation that would ensure not only continued attendance, but also a growing annual clientele. As the first

Countess of Cromartie and Gunn were to the economic foundation of the spa, the spa doctor was to its standing in health and medicine. Credited with creating a name for

Strathpeffer as a place to attain good health, the spa doctors at Strathpeffer between the

1860s and the end of the century were Dr. David Manson and Dr. Fortescue Fox. In addition to their position as administers of spa treatments, Manson and Fox played an integral role in destination promotion and marketing the spa, which ensured continued infrastructural improvement and investment, and the all-important steady stream of seasonal visitors. Their impact on the spa's reputation is primarily evident in their guidebooks but is also seen in newspaper articles and medical journals.

In addition to convincing the public of the merits of the Strathpeffer Spa, the spa doctors also established the spa's reputation within the medical community. Throughout the nineteenth century, medical practice was evermore regulated and was increasingly organised into a profession based largely on surgical and pharmaceutical treatments. The basis of this professionalization of medicine had implications for all treatments that followed these tenets. This new classification divided therapies into alternative or 44 heterodox remedies when compared to orthodox or chirurgical practices. The standardisation of medicine either integrated alternative therapies into acceptable courses of action, or denounced them as quackery.132 Therefore, to prove the relevance of balneology, the science of bathing and water treatments, spa doctors participated in medical forums, such as medical journals, conferences, and societies. This was another form of spa promotion by which Manson and Fox sought to legitimise and gain acceptance of their methods through established and standardised medical means.

Using dynamic marketing strategies, the spa doctors were responsible for promoting the spa to two audiences. Guidebooks and newspaper advertisements targeted both health-seekers and tourists. This promotional literature reflected a clear form of marketing strategy intended to convince the reader that the quality of the water justified the journey to Strathpeffer. Using these materials, the spa doctors compared and differentiated Strathpeffer from its competition as a way of ensuring regular visitors. By investigating the promotional literature, especially Manson's On the Sulphur and

Chalybeate Water of Strathpeffer Spa in the Scottish Highlands and Fox's Strathpeffer

Spa its Climate and Waters, with Observations Historical, Medical, and General,

Descriptive of the Vicinity,134 the spa doctors' effort to adapt Strathpeffer to a changing health tourism market was evident.

Strathpeffer Spa and Hydro Mania135: A Context of Competition in the Saturated Market of Hydrological Cures

R. Porter, Health for Sale Quackery in England, 1660-1850. (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1989) p. 231. 133 Manson, On the Sulphur and Chalybeate Water of Strathpeffer Spa in the Scottish Highlands. 5th Ed. 134 Fox, Strathpeffer Spa its Climate and Waters. 135 Durie, Water is Best, p. 52. 45

Rapid construction of new hydros and the conversion of old spas to hydropathy in the 1860s marked "hydro mania", the market in which Strathpeffer Spa was developed.

Even Moffat and Bridge of Allan, Scotland's premier spas and direct competition to

Strathpeffer, both adopted hydropathic practices in the mid-nineteenth century. Owing to this direct competition, the marketing success of the spa doctors in attracting both visitors and investors was more imperative and impressive. The influence of hydropathy on the rest of the water-based cure market was undeniable and formed an obvious lateral factor to Strathpeffer. This connection between Strathpeffer and hydropathy was complex as the success of the movement both helped and threatened the existence of the spa. Manson and Fox manipulated the popularity of hydropathy and its nation-wide recognition to parlay into promotion of the spa as a water-based cure while maintaining the differences between the two treatments.

The type of water used in treatments was the main determinant in spa versus hydro status. While hydros and spas used hydrology and balneology in treating various ailments with water, the type of water and its uses denoted the difference between

Strathpeffer and hydro mania. Founded on the use of pure, cold water, hydropathy was also known as the cold-water cure,1 whereas spas like Strathpeffer used mineral waters at varying temperatures. Because hydropathy was entrenched in health tourism, the success of Manson and Fox's promotion of the mineral wells at Strathpeffer was critical to the spa's status as a destination in this market. To do so, Manson and Fox established the benefits of mineral water during the craze of the cold-water cure.

Durie, Water is Best, p. 27. Ibid. p. 38. 46

The spa doctors advertised the unique properties of the mineral waters at

Strathpeffer, which differentiated the spa from the many pure-water hydros constructed during its development. In addition to promoting the advantages of mineral water,

Manson and Fox sought to prove its superiority over cold-water hydropathy. To this end,

Manson and Fox presented their assertions to the medical profession and health tourists that the chemical compounds in the mineral water were beneficial to the body. As a means of countermining the popularity of pure water, the spa doctors directly compared what they perceived to be the merits of mineral water. Dr. Fox addresses the use of plain water relative to the effects of mineral water on the body:

As this question of the internal use of water thus lies at threshold of any inquiry into the use of mineral waters, it must be here adverted to. Pure water, when carried into the stomach, very soon leaves that organ. It is carried away by the veins, and yet it has no appreciable effect in increasing the fluid contents of the blood.. . . The imbibed [mineral] water then rapidly distributes itself among the tissue of the body, and stimulates the circulation of the fluids.

According to Fox, Strathpeffer's water had a greater lasting effect on the body when used in the same manner hydropathy employed pure water. Fox, and Manson, who believed in the importance of mineral absorption for efficacious water treatment,140 held that plain water merely flushed the body while chemical compounds in mineral waters remained and cured the system of its ailments. Public announcements of this nature were necessary in establishing Strathpeffer Spa as a place of healing that differed from hydropathy but remained competitive in such a market.

In addition to differentiating water by chemical components, Manson and Fox also explained how cold water was less effective than water treatments at varying

139 Fox, Strathpeffer Spa its Climate and Waters, p. 48 - 49. 140 Ibid. p. 46. 47 temperatures. As a means to enhance the body's ability to absorb the minerals, spa treatments used heated mineral water. Both resident physicians offered examples of how mineral water at varying temperatures benefitted the body. Manson provides one such instance in discussion on the use of hot sulphur-water showers in treating rheumatism:

"Hot sulphur-water douches to the thickened joints, in such cases, act as valuable auxiliaries, by stimulating the circulation of the blood in the parts, and so favouring the absorption of the morbid deposits".141 As shown here, the principal differences in the treatments of hydros and spas were in the type of water and its temperature. As hydropathy used only cold water, Manson and Fox employed varying temperatures that they believed to have greater curative properties than the cold water cure.

Because of the perceived advantage of varying temperature of mineral waters,

Fox and Manson improved the spa facilities to offer a range of temperatures as befitting a patient's needs. This was evident in the various spa apparatus that Fox introduced at

Strathpeffer, such as steam rooms and a heating system for the baths. Manson describes the differing temperature of treatments offered at Strathpeffer: "There is a well- arranged and superior sulphur bath establishment at the Wells, where ordinary hot, cold and shower baths may also be had".143 Unlike the cold-water cure, the spa doctors marketed these improvements in conjunction with the many reputed uses of the mineral water at Strathpeffer. The promotion of these different treatments made Strathpeffer unique from the many hydros established in the late nineteenth century.

141 Manson, On the Sulphur and Chalybeate Water of Strathpeffer Spa in the Scottish Highlands 5m Ed., p. 38-39. 142 Fox, Strathpeffer Spa its Climate and Waters, p. 11. 1 3 Manson, On the Sulphur and Chalybeate Water of Strathpeffer Spa in the Scottish Highlands 5th Ed., p. 18. 48

The differences between hydropathy and spa treatments extended beyond water use and application into a wider social context. The popularity of hydropathy reflected an underlying concern for social reform. Notions of purity, which formed the basis of the cold water cure, naturally linked hydropathy and the temperance movement. Durie, in a conference presentation entitled "Almost Twins by Birth: Hydropathy, Temperance and the Scottish churches, 1840 - 1914", describes the connection between the health craze and social movement. Hydropathy was not only a cure based on water treatments, but it also encouraged a healthy lifestyle of a plain diet, exercise, and abstinence from alcohol and stimulants.144 This association between hydropathy and the populist movement resulted in a negative reception of the old European spas.

As hydropathy and its associations with temperance became popular, long- established spas, such as Bath and Baden-Baden, did incorporate these ideas of moderation, which contributed to the overall decline of late-Victorian spa culture. By the mid-nineteenth century, the social appeal of the destination, such as Bath and the major

European spas, eclipsed the health reputation of the spas.145 The benefit of their water was now secondary to casinos, concert halls, and assembly rooms, which appealed to upper-class clientele.146 Connected with a pure and moderate lifestyle, hydropathy acted as the counter movement to the spa culture in Victorian Britain.147 Underpinned with

Puritan values, behaviour and outward appearance expressed respectability. Individuals

A. Durie, "Almost Twins by Birth: Hydropathy, Temperance and the Scottish churches, 1840-1914." (Paper presented at The Scottish Church History Society, University of Glasgow, Scotland, November 27, 2001) 145 Wechsberg, Lost World of Great Spas, p. 24. U6Ibid. p. 24,49, 51. 147 Durie, "Almost Twins by Birth: Hydropathy, Temperance and the Scottish churches, 1840-1914." 49 were to dress modestly, speak softly, behave politely, and be both chaste and sober.

The acceptance of hydropathy reflected its association with middle-class social movements. Manson and Fox were conscious of these pervasive sensibilities in advertising the spa.

While spa doctors, like those at Strathpeffer, encouraged a plain diet and exercise, they did not necessarily share the same zeal for the temperance movement. This said, both Manson and Fox believed that their patients should avoid alcohol during treatment.

Fox notes that alcohol could be detrimental: "the majority of cases do far better at spas without alcohol. The few who persist. . . generally discover to their cost that the alcohol has defeated any benefit they might have gained".149 Manson and Fox encouraged abstinence instead of fully supporting temperance. While patients were discouraged from consuming alcohol, Strathpeffer Spa applied and acquired a license to serve wine, beer, and spirits in 1875.150 The exclusion of this information from the doctors' guidebooks showed an awareness of social movements.

While supported by popular movements, the hydro craze ended in 1882, which signified the turning point for water-based cures following the hydropathy market crash.151 Quite simply, the number of hydros built between 1860 and 1880 exceeded demand.152 The resulting period for the surviving hydros marked a time of consolidation and dynamic advertisements to keep hydropathy relevant to the public.153 Within this context, the adaptability of Manson and Fox's marketing strategies was vital to the

148 L Davidoff and C Hall, Family Fortunes Men and Women of the English Middle Class, 1780-1850 (Chicago University of Chicago Press, 1987), p 25 , S Mitchell, Daily Life in Victorian England (Westport, Conn Greenwood Press, 1995) p 262 149 Fox, Strathpeffer Spa its Climate and Waters, p 92 150 "Licensing Courts", Scotsman, April 21, 1875 151 Dune, Water is Best, p 53 152 Ibid 153 Ibid p 64 50 continued success of the spa, as suggested by the guest lists in the Ross-shire Journal.

Often advertised in the Scotsman's "Hotels, Hydropathics &c" column, the marketing strategies integrated Strathpeffer into the popularity of hydropathy. Owing to the differences between spas and hydros, particularly in the rigidity of hydro treatments,

Strathpeffer was better equipped to adapt to the sudden change in the market.

Strathpeffer Spa and the Medical Profession: Establishing the Relevance of Balneology

The social and medical movements supporting hydropathy were only part of a wider context that affected the promotion of Strathpeffer Spa. During the Victorian era, the medical profession underwent major changes, which influenced the acceptance of alternative therapies like the treatments employed at spas and hydros. This medical reform directly affected not only the promotion of Strathpeffer Spa but had serious implications for its continued existence. While Strathpeffer Spa faced competition from hydropathy, the spa doctors also had to contend with a changing conceptualisation of medicine. The mid-nineteenth century witnessed the professionalisation of medicine and a dispute over what constituted acceptable treatments. A tenuous context for the early development of Strathpeffer, the spa doctors negotiated the increasingly rigid understanding of medicine in its place promotional strategies to ensure the continued success of their facility.

Before the introduction of hydropathy, there were outbreaks of cholera in Britain and Europe, which influenced British medical practitioners and their methods. A particular outbreak in the 1830s created a new sense of urgency for significant hygienic 51 and medical reform under the British Medical Association.154 The management of the spread of disease caused this bureaucratic body to investigate common medical practices.

This inquiry created a division between orthodox methods, which defined the standard treatments as a combination of pharmacology and surgery, and heterodox methods, which were the alternatives to these treatments.155 Owing to differences in treatment, this era of medical reform denigrated many of the alternative treatments offered in the nineteenth century as quackery.156 Conversely, water treatments, like hydropathy and balneology, were unique in that they were both heterodox and orthodox. They were heterodox in that they provided an alternative therapy to surgery and were anti-drug, yet spa doctors and hydropathists followed similar diagnostic procedures of orthodox practitioners.

Therefore, despite the ratification of the Medical Act in 1858, which organised the orthodox practitioners into a standardised profession, water treatments did not cease to develop.158 Because of the similarities in training and procedure, hydrology and balneology were able to flourish on the fringes of orthodoxy, which clearly influenced the development and promotion of the spa at Strathpeffer.

According to key historians of hydropathy, James Bradley, Marguerite Dupree and Durie, many orthodox practitioners saw the commercial potential in establishing

British hydros, evident from the boom in construction across the country in the late

154 P Clark, The Cambridge Urban History of Britain, 1540 - 1840 Vol 2 (Cambridge- Cambridge University Press, 2000) p 511 , R Huch, "The National Association for the Promotion of Social Science Its Contribution to Victorian Health Reform, 1857 - 1886" Albion A Quarterly Journal Concerned with British Studies 77(1985) pp 279 155 J Bradley, M Dupree and A Dune, "Taking the Water-Cure The Hydropathic Movement in Scotland, 1840 - 1940", Business and Economic History 26(1997) pp 428 156 Ibid 157 J Bradley and M Dupree, "A Shadow of Orthodoxy7 An Epistemology of British Hydropathy, 1840 - 1858 " Medical History 47(2003) pp 175 158 M Weatherall, "Making Medicine Scientific Empiricism, Rationality, and Quackery in mid-Victorian Britain " The Society for the Social History of Medicine (1996) pp 176 52 nineteenth century.159 In his seminal work on Scottish hydropathy, Water is Best The

Hydros and Health Tourism in Scotland, 1840 -1914, Durie coins the term "hydro mania" to describe the popularity and growth of hydropathy.160 Several historians, including Durie, note that the spa market was in decline as hydropathy gained popularity.

Durie theorises that the spas of Britain could not compete with those of the Continent or the popularity of hydropathy.161 Joseph Wechsberg suggests that this decline in the popularity and patronage of British spas resulted from the organisation of the medical profession in the mid-nineteenth century. He posits that orthodox doctors found it more profitable to encourage patients to stay at home to take their cure and amend their lifestyle than to travel to a spa to seek treatment. Despite this competition, spa doctors promoted Strathpeffer Spa as a health destination.

Strathpeffer proved to be an exception to the general trend in British spas primarily because of the acceptance of hydropathy as a quasi-orthodox health practice.

The inclusion, or at least toleration, of water-based treatments within orthodox medicine was crucial to the promotion of Strathpeffer. The survival of the spa in such adverse market conditions illustrates the critical importance of Strathpeffer's spa doctors. The continued existence of the spa was a product of Manson and Fox's canny manipulation of hydropathy's popularity. The spa doctors marketed Strathpeffer as medically acceptable within the newly standardised conceptualisation of medicine. While the spa used the heterodox methods of balneology, the spa doctors followed recognised orthodox forums

Bradley, Dupree and Dune, "Taking the Water-Cure", pp 429 , Dune, Water is Best, p 14 160 Dune, Water is Best, p 52 161 Ibid p 82 162 Alderson, The Inland Resorts and Spas of Britain, p 77 53 to prove its relevance. To this end, Manson and Fox integrated medical journals, conferences, and societies into the promotional literature of Strathpeffer.

Critical to the spa's survival, the spa doctor divided their marketing strategy equally between attracting tourists and appealing to the medical profession. In order to gain the attention and acceptance of the medical profession, Manson and Fox published information on the balneological uses of mineral water in the prominent medical journals.

The articles typically discussed the benefits of certain treatments and improvements to the spa facilities. For example, Manson discusses the improvements to Strathpeffer in the

British Medical Journal:

Besides, therefore, Strathpeffer possessing sulphur springs, among the strongest of their class in Europe, as well as recently established facilities for the inhalation of sulphureted hydrogen vapour, it will now have the advantage of a first-class acidulous chalybeate, to enhance its attraction as a Highland health resort.163

This article demonstrates Manson's effort to advertise new technology. Regular publicity of the spa in these journals helped establish the reputation of the spa as a premier place of healing on par with other larger and more fashionable destinations just as it reflects his improvement of spa amenities and spa treatments.

Like his predecessor, Fox wrote numerous articles and delivered many presentations. Many of these papers further developed Manson's legacy in the spa's reputation. Others discussed the general tenets of Strathpeffer's treatments, such as the merits of balneology and hydrology. In his effort to promote the spa, Fox presented papers on Strathpeffer to interest groups and major medical organisations throughout his career as spa doctor. For example, Fox presented papers on Strathpeffer at the Hunterian

163 D. Manson, "A New Effervescing Chalybeate at Strathpeffer Spa, N B ", British MedicalJournal 1 No 1220 (May 17, 1884) pp. 948. 54

Society, the British Balneological and Climatological Society, the Royal Physical Society as well as to the British Medical Association, the profession's bureaucratic body.1 4 His articles, many of which were published in the British Medical Journal and the Lancet, discuss the use of Strathpeffer water in the treatment of arthritis and diseases of the skin, the liver, the kidneys, and the nervous system.165 These publications and presentations shared the benefits of Strathpeffer Spa with a wider audience and legitimised Fox's treatments in the two premier medical journals of the day.

Fox's activity in medical forums did not end with articles and presentations. He was also a member of two groups that claimed membership from across Britain. The first group to which the hydrologist was a member was the Royal College of Physicians to which he was elected in 1893.166 A significant honour, this fellowship offered Fox legitimacy as an orthodox or professional doctor, and, in doing so, gave greater credence to the type of treatments he offered at Strathpeffer. In relation to the practices used at the spa, Fox was also an active member of the Balneological and Climatological Society.

The purpose of this organisation was:

To provide means for the association of medical practitioners connected with British health resorts, and to promote good fellowship amongst themselves and with members of other branches of the medical profession; to encourage the theoretical and practical investigation and study of balneo-therapeutics and medical climatology; to advocate and sustain within the

164 "Medical News", British MedicalJoumal 1 No 1786 (Mar 23, 1895) pp 679 - 681 , "The British Medical Association Sixty Third Annual Meeting", British Medical Journal 1 No 1799 (Jun 22, 1895) pp 1412 , "British Balneological and Climatological Society", British MedicalJoumal 1 No 1844 (May 2, 1896) pp 1102 , "The Royal Physical Society", Scotsman, April 16, 1891 165 F Fox, "Quinsy and the Rheumatic Diathesis", British Medical Journal 1 No 1306 (Jan 9, 1886)pp 67 , F Fox, "Observations on the Etiology of Eczema", British Medical Journal 1 No 1373 (Apr 23, 1887) pp 875 , F Fox, "The Treatment of Apoplexy", The Lancet 135 (Mar 29, 1890) pp 723 , F Fox, "Peat Baths at Home and Abroad", British Medical Journal 2 No 1544 (Aug 2, 1890) pp 306 , F Fox, "The Varieties of Rheumatoid Arthritis", Lancet 146 (July 13, 1895) 74 - 89 166 "The Royal College of ?hys\cmns", British Medical Journal 1 No 1674 (Jan 28, 1893) pp 183 55

profession the interests and claims of British balneology and climatology.

Established in 1895, Fox was one of the founding members. In addition to regularly participating in the society's meetings, Fox acted as president in 1898.169 It was evident that he had a clear passion and conviction in the treatments offered at Strathpeffer. As an active member of the medical community, Fox kept Strathpeffer in the current medical discourse. This was particularly important owing to the context of Strathpeffer's development. The creation of a society dedicated to the advancement of balneological practices reaffirms that, despite the division of medicine into orthodoxy and heterodoxy, the methods employed at Strathpeffer reflected a wider acceptance of water-based alternative therapies.

The acceptance of balneology as a curative practice within the late-Victorian medical discourse enabled Strathpeffer's doctors to improve the spa following the 1882 market crash. The marketing of diversified spa treatments ensured that Strathpeffer remained competitive. Fox lists recent improvements: "A new system of heating the baths; several large reservoirs for the storage of sulphur water; douche rooms fitted with various apparatus; the introduction of massage; and also, by recent decision, of the Peat

Bath".170 This motivation to keep the spa competitive by adding these amenities in a short time, Fox explains was in response to a general trend in the market: "The impulse of development which in recent years spread like a wave over the health resorts of this

171 country, was nowhere more powerfully felt than at Strathpeffer". These innovations

167 "British Balneological and Climatological Society", British MedicalJournal 1 No 1828 (Jan 11, 1896) pp 107 168 Ibid 169 "Reports of Societies", British MedicalJournal 2 No 1976(Nov 12, 1898) pp 1495 170 Fox, Strathpeffer Spa its Climate and Waters, p 11 171 Ibid 56 maintained Strathpeffer's reputation as a small, northern spa that was able to provide the same calibre of medical treatments offered at the larger spas of the south.

Perhaps the most innovative of treatments that made Strathpeffer unique, was the

Peat Bath, which was a product of Fox's resourcefulness and enthusiasm. Introduced at a time when Strathpeffer could not rely on the Sutherland estate for financial support, this treatment drew on the principle natural resource in the region.172 Fox recognised the popularity of peat and mud treatments at the spas on the Continent, and using the resources available to Strathpeffer, unveiled the Peat Bath in 1889.173 The potential of

Strathpeffer's location was obvious to Fox:

To no place is the Peat Bath more appropriate than Strathpeffer, where nature has richly supplied the requisite materials. The disintegrated peat, which exists in enormous deposits on the shoulders of Ben Wyvis, will be conveyed to the Spa and reduced to a course powder. ... It is employed as a thermal agency in obstinate skin affections, and more especially for its effect in promoting the absorption of exudations in affections of the joints.174

Owing to Fox's innovation, the Peat Baths at Strathpeffer were entirely new in Britain and their addition at Strathpeffer influenced the national spa market. Fox asserts: "The want of this bath at the home Spas has long been felt; and indeed, no small discredit has attached to them for obliging medical men to send their patients to Germany for a bath

1 7S that should long ago have been forthcoming in this country". Advertised to doctors, this marketing strategy sought the support of orthodox practitioners in advising their patients to seek their treatments at Strathpeffer. Fox's innovations and additions to the

Richards and Clough, Cromartie, p. 369. Fox, "Peat Baths at Home and Abroad", pp. 306. Fox, Strathpeffer Spa its Climate and Waters, p. 71. Ibid. p. 70-1. 57 spa treatments continued the efforts of Manson, and ensured that Strathpeffer gained recognition as a premier spa in the British and European health destination market.

"No spa is better than its reputation": Promoting Strathpeffer to the Health Tourist176

Between negotiating the spa's medical legitimacy and the market pressures from hydropathy, the spa doctors' publicity was critical to the facility's survival. It was essential that the spa doctors established a reputation that could weather economic, social, and cultural change. To this end, the marketing plan had to reflect the dynamic social context of the late nineteenth century. To compete against hydropathy, the spa's survival was dependent on Manson and Fox's consideration of both medical relevancy and popular health tourism trends. Owing to the necessity of publicity, their role in providing treatment to spa-goers was secondary to their ability to advertise the quality of the spa's facilities to a wide audience. Using their credentials and authority as trained medical professionals, the spa doctors advertised the healthful benefits of the mineral waters in their guidebooks.

Utilising common forms of place promotion media,177 Manson and Fox provided detailed information in guidebooks to the British public. While spa guidebooks often had descriptions of the healthful air and rural setting,178 the focus of the spa doctor was to relay information on the most important component of treatment, the mineral waters.

Using techniques and language befitting the era of medical reform, information on

176 Wechsberg, Lost World of Great Spas, p. 6. 177 Gold and Gold, Imagining Scotland, p. 25. 178 Fox, Strathpeffer Spa its Climate and Waters, p. 99-159., W. Keddie, Moffat Its Walks and Wells, with Incidental Notices of its Botany and Geology. (Glasgow: Blackie and Son, 1854) p 1-55 ; Manson, On the Sulphur and Chalybeate Water of Strathpeffer Spa in the Scottish Highlands. 5th Ed., p 69-100 58

Strathpeffer's water included detailed medical explanations and quantitative tables.

Throughout, the spa guidebook reminded the reader of the spa doctor's qualifications, legitimising his claims within the book as an expert on mineral waters and the promotion of the spa as a trained medical practitioner. Based on the social and medical climate in which Strathpeffer expanded, promotional strategies emphasized the credentials and expertise of Manson and Fox.

The crux of Strathpeffer's promotion in guidebooks relied on establishing medical relevancy and legitimacy to the reader, which was common in promoting health destinations. Prominently displayed at the outset of the guidebook, the spa doctor's qualifications reinforced to the reader the infallibility of the details given within its pages.

Many spa doctors included the notation of their degrees and training following their name. Examples of this practise were present on the covers of guides for spas all across

Britain, as evidenced on On the Harrogate Spas and Change of Air by "G. West Piggott,

M.A., M.D. Cantab.", of Yorkshire179 to the guide, A Practical Dissertation on the

1 SO

Waters of Leamington Spa, of "Charles Loudon, M.D. Physician" of the Royal

Leamington Spa in Hampshire. In keeping with this trend of self- and spa promotion, the authors displayed their credentials on the guidebooks of Strathpeffer Spa, as "D. Manson,

M.A., M.D., CM."181 on On the Sulphur and Chalybeate Water of Strathpeffer Spa in the

Scottish Highlands and "Fortescue Fox, M.D. (Lond.), Fellow of the Medical Society of 1 89 London" on Strathpeffer Spa its Climate and Waters. Based on the language and

G Piggott, On the Harrogate Spas and Change of'Air (Harrogate P Palhser, Post Office, 1856) p i 180 C Loudon, A Practical Dissertation on the Waters of Leamington Spa (Leammgton Spa Sharp and Fairfax, 1828) p in 1 ' Manson, On the Sulphur and Chalybeate Water of Strathpeffer Spa in the Scottish Highlands 5* Ed , p l Fox, Strathpeffer Spa its Climate and Waters, p in 59 evidence provided, the pages within the guidebooks further enforced the authority of the author as a medical man.

During his tenure, Manson saw the spa through its formative years as he worked to create a reputation that would stand up against the large, fashionable spas of Britain and Europe and the increasing popularity of hydropathy. Credited with being the first to write a treatise on the spa's water for the medical profession in 1866, Manson tirelessly promoted the spa's reputed healthful benefits apparent in his published work. With the aid of the recent expansion of rail and steamer links, he sought to make Strathpeffer a health destination for suffering Britons despite its northern position. To this end, Manson converted his 1866 treatise into a book in 1869 with the intention of convincing the lay reader to make the journey to the western Highlands for his spa treatments.184 Within the volume, Manson discusses the medical properties of the spa, the healthy benefits of its location and the recreational attractions at the spa and its neighbourhood. As his volume was reprinted several times, Manson was evidently successful in his aim of attracting an interest in Strathpeffer and undoubtedly were paramount to establishing Strathpeffer as a health destination.

Manson devoted the first half of his guide to discussing the medical efficacy of

Strathpeffer waters. The detail, which Manson offered on the chemical components of the mineral wells, was dense but it was essential to legitimising his claim as appropriate to use in medical treatments. Manson's use of a chemical breakdown of the mineral water components was not uncommon; using great detail to prove the medical value of a

Fox, Strathpeffer Spa its Climate and Waters, p 11. 184 Manson, On the Sulphur and Chalybeate Water of Strathpeffer Spa in the Scottish Highlands 5th Ed , preface 60 health destination's resource was typical for spas and hydros.185 By providing these tables of chemical components and an ability to explain what it meant to healing the body, spa doctors impressed upon the reader both their credibility as trained and knowledgeable practitioners and the beneficial use of mineral waters. The use of these synopses stemmed largely from the debate over the legitimacy of alternative medicines, such as hydrological and balneological treatments.186 Therefore, by establishing the quality of the water by scientific means, Manson confirmed to the reader that Strathpeffer

Spa was a genuine health facility.

To prove the legitimacy of the spa as a place of healing, Manson referred to the testimonies of scientists and doctors on Strathpeffer. For example, he used the analyses by Dr. Murray Thomson, a lecturer of Chemistry at the Edinburgh Medical School, and

too

Dr. Stevenson MacAdam, of the Analytical Laboratory of Surgeon's Hall, Edinburgh, to confirm Strathpeffer's place among prominent European spas. Not only would the credentials of these doctors prove the spa's authenticity to the reader but these doctors had also conducted chemical analyses of other British spas. For example, Dr. MacAdam also reported on the waters of Moffat, another Scottish spa. The inclusion of this data by Manson was two-fold in establishing the reputation of Strathpeffer Spa.

Firstly, Manson used the reports of Thomson and MacAdam to advertise the use of Strathpeffer water in the treatment of certain ailments. Shown in many examples

185 A Granville, Spas ofEngland and Principal Sea-bathing Places The North Vol 1 (Bath Adams and Dart, 1841), Appendix A "A Chemico-pneumatic and Thermometncal Table of Thirty-Six Mineral Springs Visited by the author of "The Spas of England" 186 Dune, Water is Best, J Bradley and M Dupree, "Opportunity on the Edge of Orthodoxy Medically Qualified Hydropathists in the Era of Reform, 1840 - 1860 " , Bradley and Dupree, "A Shadow of Orthodoxy'' An Epistemology of British Hydropathy, 1840-1858 " Manson, On the Sulphur and Chalybeate Water of Strathpeffer Spa in the Scottish Highlands 5 Ed , p 56 188 Ibid p 63 189 Ibid p 66 61 throughout this section of the guide, Manson notes the connection between chemical components and treatment. One was provided in Manson's discussion of constipation:

"Being sulphureted and sulphated, it acts as a stimulant to the involuntary muscular movements of the stomach, and to the involuntary muscular, peristaltic, or worm-like motion of the bowels, by which their contents are propelled".190 While Manson offered many examples of the use of the water in treating afflicted organs, he asserts that the water provided holistic healing to all bodily systems:

Passing successively the liver, the right side of the heart and lungs, it enters the arterial system acting as a general arterial stimulant. By causing a more energetic arterial circulation ... it reaches the kidneys and skin in which it chiefly acts as a stimulant to its own elimination from the system. It can thus be taken in considerably and oft-repeated quantities, acting as a diluent to the whole blood system.191

Clearly, Manson believed that the Strathpeffer water could treat specific diseases as well as benefit the whole body in a holistic manner.

In addition to using the testimonials of accredited doctors to confirm the medical uses of the water, Manson included these chemical analyses as a means to compare

Strathpeffer with the waters of other spas. The water at Strathpeffer, based on its high concentration of sulphur compounds, was classified as a sulphur spa, putting it in the same category as other fashionable spas such as Harrogate in Yorkshire, Moffat in

1 09

Dumfries and Galloway, and Aix-la-Chapelle of France. As a result, Manson sought to show the reader how the small spa compared to these larger, more established spas in terms of the quality of mineral waters. Therefore, as well as including the reports of

Manson, On the Sulphur and Chalybeate Water of Strathpeffer Spa in the Scottish Highlands 5' Ed , p 21 191 Ibid p 26 62

Thomson and MacAdam on Strathpeffer, Manson offered the reader the reports of Dr.

Hoffman on the waters of Harrogate, MacAdam's synopsis of Moffat and Baron Leibig's analysis of Aix-la-Chapelle.193 Including analyses of these three sulphur spas allowed

Manson's readers to see how Strathpeffer fared against its competition.

From this comparison, Manson was able to establish Strathpeffer among some of the more well-known spas of the nineteenth century. Manson's use of data on other

British spas, especially Harrogate, created somewhat of a rivalry. Owing to its medical acclaim, Manson used Harrogate as Strathpeffer's measuring-stick. Guidebooks, like

Manson's, and newspaper articles frequently made the comparison between Strathpeffer and Harrogate when advertising the spa to English spa-goers.194 This was an effective tactic as many spa-goers would have been familiar with the long-established reputation of

Harrogate.195 Therefore, when Manson or the spa's managers claimed the spa's superiority, the average spa-goer would understand this claim. Indeed, it made sense for

Strathpeffer to compete openly with the better known resort.196 Based on this comparison, Manson proves that Strathpeffer water had the highest sulphur content and bested Harrogate in this regard:

By atomic calculation the writer finds there exist altogether in the water of the Strong Well, the sulphates taken into consideration, a little over thirty grains of sulphur to the imperial gallon. In the strongest sulphur-water of Harrogate, the quantity of sulphur is some eight grains to the gallon.197

Manson, On the Sulphur and Chalybeate Water of Strathpeffer Spa in the Scottish Highlands. 5' Ed., p. 64-68. 194 Manson, On the Sulphur and Chalybeate Water of Strathpeffer Spa in the Scottish Highlands. 5th Ed., p. 12.; Fox, Strathpeffer Spa its Climate and Waters, p. 37.; "The Ben Wyvis Hotel, Strathpeffer Spa, Ross- Shire", Scotsman, May 1, 1880. 195 Addison, English Spas, p. 101. 196 Durie, Water is Best, p. 80; Granville, Spas of England and Principal Sea-bathing Places: The North. Vol. 1., p. 61. 197 Manson, On the Sulphur and Chalybeate Water of Strathpeffer Spa in the Scottish Highlands. 5th Ed., p. 12. 63

This quantity of sulphur possessed by Harrogate made it less efficient than Strathpeffer in curing certain ills according to Manson.

Manson elaborated on the comparison between Harrogate and Strathpeffer by considering the effectiveness of the water in treating different ailments and its effects on the body. Overall, he claims that owing to chemical components of Harrogate water, the treatments offered at this spa were less effective than those at Strathpeffer:

The total saline ingredients in the waters of Strathpeffer are very much less than in those in Harrogate. ... On this account, they are easily digested, their special tendency to be absorbed by the stomach and intestines, and received through the liver into the general system ... the tendency of Harrogate waters on the other hand being, by acting as aperients, to pass through the bowels.198

According to Manson, the cleansing quality of the Harrogate water did not remain in the stomach long enough to be absorbed and therefore had little chance of benefitting the whole body. Throughout his guide, Manson included many more examples of the greater efficacy of Strathpeffer's mineral wells than those of Harrogate. Manson concluded on the quality of Strathpeffer water by stating: "The water being among the strongest in

Europe in sulphur, and among the weakest in saline ingredients, is peculiarly suitable both as an external and internal remedy".199 All of this discussion of chemical properties, testimonials and comparisons sought to establish Strathpeffer within the context of medical reform and health tourism.

Dr. Fox also adopted this promotional tactic in attracting visitors to the spa.

Within his guidebook, Strathpeffer Spa its Climate and Waters, with Observations

9 Manson, On the Sulphur and Chalybeate Water of Strathpeffer Spa in the Scottish Highlands. 5 Ed., p. 14. 199 Ibid. p. 18. 64

Historical, Medical, and General, Descriptive of the Vicinity, Fox outlined the efficacy of Strathpeffer's mineral waters through similar means as Manson. By way of proving the use of mineral water treatments, Fox incorporates illustrative cases of past patients, of both sexes and varying ages. For example, in Case XI, a seventeen-year-old woman suffered from:

Digestive derangement. . ., an attack of acute catarrhal jaundice, with high febrile reaction and great prostration. A fortnight afterwards, having been brought to Strathpeffer, she commences, with great caution, a mild course of sulphur water. In spite of digestive delicacy, this is exceedingly well borne; with the result that after three weeks the jaundice has entirely disappeared, and a healthy strength and colour returned. It would be impossible to conceive a case more suited than this to sulphur waters.201

Another patient of Fox was: "A gentleman of stout habit, in later middle life, who had seen much service in tropical countries. He complained of indigestion and lumbago, and was found to have some enlargement of the liver and a weak action of the heart; but

909 benefitted greatly by three weeks of the water". By including examples of differing ages and sexes suffering from varying ailments, Fox intimates that Strathpeffer was an appropriate medical facility for a wide demographic of invalids. He concludes: "No impersonal description can quite so well illustrate for the invalid the many important practical points arising in the course of each case; or can, for the general reader, furnish 90^ so true an estimate of what may be called the sanative capacity of the place". Fox uses these cases to personalise the treatments at Strathpeffer and to show that it deserved the reputation he promoted.

Fox, Strathpeffer Spa its Climate and Waters. 1 Ibid. p. 86. 2 Ibid. p. 84. 3 Ibid. p. 77. 65

If the case studies were not enough to convince his audience, Fox provided a comparison of Strathpeffer with its perennial rival and benchmark, Harrogate. He affirmed what Manson had initially stated regarding the quality of Strathpeffer water versus that of Harrogate. He states, "The Transaction of the Royal Society ... in which treatise it is said that by adding a little salts to this water, it is at least equal, if not superior, to that of Harrogate".204 Once again, Fox targets the saline concentration in

Harrogate's water to prove its inferiority to the efficacy of water at Strathpeffer:

The Strathpeffer Sulphur Baths contain hardly a trace of mineral that is of saline, constituents. In this important respect they differ from the bath of Harrogate, which, in addition to sulphur, contain a large quantity of chloride of sodium. The latter is the main constituent of sea-water and of brine baths, such as those of Droitwich; and baths so impregnated have, as a matter of experience, an exciting and irritating effect on the skin unknown 90S

to the pure sulphur bath.

Like Manson, Fox provides examples as to how Strathpeffer surpassed its competition of sulphur spas owing to its mineral components. Through his guide, Fox was able to reach the British health tourists.

Using a common form of place promotion media, Manson and Fox provided the reader with information on Strathpeffer Spa and established a reputation critical to the spa's survival. The style of the guidebooks reflected the social movements of the era.

Owing to the inclusion of scientific analysis and terminology, issues relating to medical reform clearly influenced the description and presentation of details on the spa. Situated within a competitive and changing health tourism market, the spa doctors compared the spa with its competition in order to prove to the reader that Strathpeffer rivalled the hydros of Britain. Fox, Strathpeffer Spa its Climate and Waters, p. 6. 205 Ibid. p. 64. 66

The Spa After the Crash: The Promotion of Strathpeffer at the end of the Century

The place promotion of Strathpeffer Spa, developed by Manson and Fox, targeted two audiences. The spa doctors employed various forms of media to attract seasonal visitors and appeal to the medical profession. Guidebooks and newspaper articles advertised the spa to the health-conscious tourist, while articles in medical journals connected Strathpeffer to a wider audience of practitioners. The marketing strategies reflected competition in a medical context. Both hydropathy and the encompassing medical reform of the nineteenth century clearly influenced the development of the spa as lateral factors. In response to the dynamic market of water-based health cures, Manson and Fox proved that adaptability was essential to the spa's survival. Owing to the changing tastes of the tourist and the organisation of the medicine profession, a multi- approached promotion plan was increasingly critical for Strathpeffer by the end of the nineteenth-century.

Throughout the late nineteenth century, the spa doctors promoted varying treatments, which kept the spa competitive. In keeping with the context of its initial development, Manson and Fox advertised every treatment offered at Strathpeffer as in some way benefitting the body. Following the market crash, they also expanded the promotion of the spa to incorporate the activities of the guest. Manson and Fox promoted certain activities as healthy as the majority of which included physical activity to some degree. From a marketing standpoint, the inclusion of these activities, endorsed by the spa doctors, expanded the attractions of the spa and increased its appeal to Strathpeffer's visitors. 67

Chapter Three Selling the Landscape: Health, Leisure and Sport

Adaptability in the period of consolidation following the market crash of 1882 determined the survival of Strathpeffer Spa. Durie notes that this period extended to

1914, when World War One disrupted tourism in Britain, and was marked by an increased overall effort of hydro and spa management to diversify attractions to appeal to

90r» a moneyed clientele. During this time, initial efforts to promote Strathpeffer emphasized and maintained the spa's position as a health destination. As the main attraction, place promotion centred on the mineral waters of the spa. For instance, the spa doctors endeavoured to attract patients by diversifying the spa treatments on offer at

Strathpeffer by introducing Continental techniques and technology. Despite these efforts, the crash of the market represented a shift in taste. In a sense, the tourist had spoken; the crash marked a turning point in promotional strategies. Evident in advertisements, newspaper articles and guidebooks, following 1882, marketing focussed less on what the spa could do for the visitor but more on what the visitor could do at the spa. During the last decades of the nineteenth century, a more diversified market participated in tourism, primarily for recreation and relaxation.

The crash meant that the spas and hydros of Britain were no longer a niche market in which to compete amongst each other; they were now placed within the British mass tourist market. The British people enjoyed various forms of tourism strictly for the purposes of leisure, such as daytrips, railroad excursions, and holidays at the seaside.207

Seaside resorts, such as Brighton and Blackpool, were popular holiday destinations in the

Victorian period. Based on similar tenets as spas, of pure air and water, the increasing 206 Dune, Water is Best, p 87 207 P Horn, Pleasures and Pastimes in Victorian Britain (Stroud, Gloustershire Sutton Publishing Ltd , 1999)p 124 68

90S popularity of the seaside resort was a threat to surviving spas and hydros. Owing to its simultaneous development, seaside resorts were a lateral factor in Strathpeffer's improvement and expansion. According to John K. Walton, the range of activities available at the seaside appealed across the social spectrum but became increasingly associated with working class holidays. This meant that the inland spas competed for the same middle and upper class clientele. Accessibility to inland spas, especially one as far north as Strathpeffer, made these destinations more exclusive, which appealed to these groups.

In order to survive in a wider market of tourism, the remaining spas and hydros of

Britain sought to appeal to the tourist utilizing promotions and highlighting activities that would attract members of the respectable classes. For many health destinations, the clientele consisted largely of the middle class,210 but for Strathpeffer Spa, guest lists also 9 1 t included members of the aristocracy. An awareness of leisure and recreation trends dictated the success of spas and hydros during the last decades of the nineteenth century.

As a result, the marketing strategies employed at Strathpeffer Spa adapted to meet more than just the medical needs of its clientele. As the spa managers integrated treatments into a wider range of attractions that would appeal to its guests, Strathpeffer became a destination for both the health-seeker, who needed treatment, and the pleasure-seeker,

J Beckerson and J Walton, "Selling Air Marketing the Intangible at British Resorts", in J Walton, Ed , Histories of Tourism Representation, Identity and Conflict (Toronto Channel View Publications, 2005) p 55 209 J Walton, "The Demand for Working Class Seaside Holidays", Economic History Review 34(1981) pp 250 210 Dune, Water is Best, p 87 211 "List of Visitors to Strathpeffer", Ross-shire Journal, 1877 - 1892 , B Hill, "Strathpeffer as a Health Resort", The Lancet(May 3, 1884) pp 794 , Between 1884 and 1900, Pall Mall Gazette frequently posted the activities of the Queen's court, including visits to Strathpeffer Spa 69 who wanted both recreation and leisure. A different approach to place promotion was necessary.

During the period of consolidation, Manson and Fox expanded the scope of their efforts to incorporate a wider understanding of place. Initially, managers advertised

Strathpeffer as a spa, situated in a context of medical organisation, social reform, and alternative therapies. By the end of the century, promotion also included the nearby landscape and health-giving climate. Developers rendered the surroundings as desirable as the famed waters in hope of enticing a steady stream of seasonal visitors. This recasting of Strathpeffer reflected popular trends of recreation and landscape aestheticism.

Since the dawn of the Romantic Movement, during the second half of the eighteenth century, visitors appreciated the wild landscape of mountains and moorland

919 available in Scotland. The middle-class was well attuned to such a view and nineteenth century tourism developers worked hard to exploit a constructed imagery of Scotland based largely on landscape.213 Closely related, regular royal visits to the area increasingly called "royal Deeside", beginning in the early 1840s, soon inspired legions of tourists to come north. Queen Victoria's popular diaries provided readers with a vision of wild landscapes, intrepid highlanders, and exciting traditions.214 For many, Scotland 91^ embodied a royal playground, a process often referred to as "Balmoralisation". For spa doctors and hoteliers, drawing on such traditions made sense. Aestheticism

212 Gold and Gold, Imagining Scotland, p. 62. 213 Haldane Grenier, Tourism and Identity in Scotland, p. 9. 214 Ibid. p. 56-57. 2]5Ibid.p. 161. 70

916 encouraged not only viewing but experiencing and immersing oneself in nature. It follows that by the end of the nineteenth century, the promotion of Strathpeffer Spa centred on the consumption of this landscape through sport and games.

Healthful Exercise: Combining the Landscape with Spa Treatments

Evident in the guidebooks of the spa doctors, the construction of a healthy landscape around Strathpeffer was present in the early stages of the diversification at the spa. At the forefront of the spa's promotion, Fox and Manson both knew of changing trends in medical treatments and after 1882, popular holiday activities. The adoption of additional attractions for the spa's guests was evident in spa guidebooks published by both Manson and Fox. They each divided their guides into two parts, with the first section in both books focussed on the qualities of the spa and the efficaciousness of the mineral water.217 The second halves of both guidebooks outlined general information about the surrounding neighbourhood.218 Manson's guide suggested walks and places of interest around the spa. Similarly, Fox included a chapter on excursions as well as discussion of the botany, geology, and history of the region for the benefit of the guests.220 These sections signified that both Manson and Fox recognised the necessity of promoting the non-medical aspects of Strathpeffer and illustrated the inclusion of landscape into marketing strategies.

216 Gold and Gold, Imagining Scotland, p 63 217 Manson, On the Sulphur and Chalybeate Waters of Strathpeffer, p 7 - 67 , Fox, Strathpeffer Spa, Its Climate and Waters, p 1 - 95 218 Manson, On the Sulphur and Chalybeate Waters of Strathpeffer, p 69 - 100 , Fox, Strathpeffer Spa, Its Climate and Waters, p 99-158 219 Manson, On the Sulphur and Chalybeate Waters of Strathpeffer, p 69-79 220 Fox, Strathpeffer Spa, Its Climate and Waters, p 99-158 71

While these sections suggested that Fox and Manson sought to expand their promotion of the spa, discussion of excursions in the surrounding neighbourhood were not devoid of a mention of health. Using the framework in which Manson and Fox established the spa's reputation as a place of healing, they suggested walks and outdoor activities for both enjoyment and good health. Throughout these guidebooks, the spa doctors encouraged walks and physical interaction with the flora and fauna of the region as healthy and increasing the efficacy of spa treatments. The inclusion of exercise with the spa treatments, the spa doctors constructed Strathpeffer as a healthy space in conjunction with promotion of the spa. Fox believes, where applicable and given the fortitude of the patient, that spa-goers should spend their days outdoors when not in treatments:

The cool, fresh, early hours of the summer's day or the crisp clear morning in October are to be enjoyed out of doors, with as much walking exercise as may be suitable to the case. This, as has been wittily remarked, greatly assists the digestion of the water, on the principle of solvitur ambulando.221

For Fox, the best health results for the patient stemmed from a combination of exercise and spa treatments. As an active promoter of balneology, he encouraged any activity that would increase the efficacy of the mineral water.

Fox connected the combination of exercise and treatment into a wider study on the impact of how certain natural qualities benefitted the body and improved the effectiveness of the mineral water. In his guidebook, he detailed the impact of natural qualities such as solar radiation, temperature, and barometric pressure on how the body responded to mineral waters.222 Fox summarises his focus on climate as such: "For

1 Fox, Strathpeffer Spa its Climate and Waters, p. 91. 2 Ibid p. 13-35. 72 climatic conditions may, and do, impede or aid the use of waters, and especially of baths; they modify the effects of the treatment in every particular, and they are often so commanding as in themselves to render a place suitable or unsuitable for certain classes of cases". His inclusion of Strathpeffer's climate and landscape in its promotion as a health facility expressed Fox's hypothesis of the interplay between climate and balneology.

Fox was not alone in his theories of health and climate. Other destinations, particularly the seaside, promoted the holistic effect of temperature, purity of air and clean water. The qualities promoted by Fox were also in use at other destinations.224 The emphasis on fresh air was a response to the urban pollution from which many tourists sought to escape.225 Climatology and geography had been incorporated into notions of healthful landscapes at inland spas and seaside resorts in that the air of a location, much like the water, was commoditised.226 It was evident that this form of promotion was rooted in the period's medical discourse, much like Fox's theories, which connected rural spaces with health. Influenced by medical reform, he established a foundation for expanding the spa's attractions to include physical and outdoor activities. It enabled the spa doctors and hoteliers to appeal to a wider market while maintaining Strathpeffer's status as a health destination.

The dual strategy of expanding Strathpeffer's non-medical attractions under the guidance of good health both maintained its reputation and its clientele base. The financial motivation for incorporating this discussion to the spa's guidebooks was

Fox, Strathpeffer Spa its Climate and Waters, p. viii. Beckerson and Walton, "Selling Air: Marketing the Intangible at British Resorts", p. 55. Ibid. p. 56. 73 evident. By describing the walks, hikes, and the physical landmarks of the region around

Strathpeffer, the spa doctors not only encouraged outdoor activities in pure air and bracing climate, they displayed how Strathpeffer was unique from other destinations.

During the period of consolidation, the commodification of the landscape became prominent. The following advertisement by Dr. Manson clearly expresses that the incorporation of excursions not only benefitted the health of the visitor; it also maintained

Strathpeffer's competitiveness:

Persons requiring change of air, or the use of such waters as those of Strathpeffer, and who are strong minded enough to weigh between fashion and fact, and to whom time, money, and long journeys are a consideration, would do well before rushing abroad, to make trial of this powerful picturesque, and now 997

easily accessible spa.

In this statement, Manson combined the importance of Strathpeffer's regional climate and mineral waters to promote travel. It was apparent that the purpose of this sentiment encouraged spa-goers to not only choose a home spa to save money, but also to holiday at

Strathpeffer Spa above all other health destinations. Published immediately following the crash, it was evident that Manson hoped to convince the British public to use their good sense in choosing Strathpeffer over the other water-based establishments, which were struggling to survive following the market crash of hydropathy.

Promoting the consumption of the surrounding scenery through walks and excursions proved successful as guests noted them in the regional newspapers. One visitor to the spa described the trails around the spa grounds, "Every road and bye-path is filled with loungers at all hours of the day, mostly oppressed with having nothing to

Manson, On the Sulphur and Chalybeate Water of Strathpeffer Spa in the Scottish Highlands. 5X Ed., p. 1. 74 do". Based on this guest's observations, visitors participated in outdoor activities but with apparently less physical intensity than Fox and Manson prescribed. Evident from the sentiment of this guest, the walks did not provide enough entertainment for spa visitors: "There are many delightful walks in the neighbourhood, but the grounds about the Spa are too contracted, and there is great want for social games in which the visitors may engage".229 Despite the spa doctors' efforts to outline and describe various walks around the neighbourhood, according to this guest, this was not sufficient entertainment.

Clearly, visitors now expected more of a social experience when visiting Strathpeffer.

Because of this shift in focussing on the expectations of the spa's guest, Strathpeffer's promoters sought to keep them entertained.

Fun and Games: Recreational Trends in the Leisured Landscape

In keeping with the trend of expanding and improving the attractions of the spa, in the years following 1882, spa managers added a range of attractions to the spa town purely for the leisure and entertainment of its guests. By examining the activities featured at the spa, it was evident that the marketing strategies targeted a certain social class. For example, by the end of the nineteenth century, hoteliers offered their guests bowling, billiards, tennis, croquet, and golf, which were activities that were popular with the middle and upper-middle classes.230 According to historians of recreation and leisure patterns, certain pastimes had distinct gender and social implications.231 The inclusion of these activities reflected a deliberate construction of space determined by class and

228 "Strathpeffer Spa", Aberdeen Weekly Journal, September 8, 1880. 229 Ibid. 230 M Huggins, The Victorians and Sport (London: Hambledon and London, 2004) p. 41 ; Horn, Pleasures and Pastimes in Victorian Britain, p. 154 231 R. Holt, Sport and the British A Modern History. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1989) p. 95. 75 gender. By recasting the space around the spa to incorporate popular middle-class pastimes into the advertisement of the spa, Strathpeffer ensured the continued attendance of its seasonal guests.

While not a universal maxim, middle-class Victorian morality was a pervasive ideology that dictated modest and steady behaviour in leisured pursuits. Based on this social normative ideology, the activities listed above were suitable pastimes for the upper-middle and upper classes. These games leant themselves to quiet, gentle exercise which was unlikely to descend to vulgar and boisterous displays.234 Therefore, the nature of these activities was suitable for the participation of both men and women as the behaviour of the individual was unlikely to oppose accepted gender norms. In keeping with this social ideal, spa managers organised the grounds of Strathpeffer for specific activities. In particular, the hotel lawn offered a space in which women were able to participate in tennis and croquet, games that did not jeopardise their femininity and moral status.235 Hoteliers also allocated space for male activities, such as billiards and bowling.236 By the end of the nineteenth century, billiards, the most popular indoor game, was common in exclusive gentlemen's clubs in Britain, thus reinforcing the notion of gendered space.237 These activities and corresponding spaces on the grounds of the spa appealed to both male and female guests, providing both with socially appropriate entertainment.

232 P. Bailey, Leisure and Class in Victorian England. (Toronto. University of Toronto Press, 1978) p 74.; Davidoff and Hall, Family Fortunes, p. 25.; Mitchell, Daily Life in Victorian England, p. 259 233 Huggms, Victorians and Sport, p. 41.; Horn, Pleasures and Pastimes in Victorian Britain, p. 154. 234 Huggins, Victorians and Sport, p. 41. 235 Huggins, Victorians and Sport, p. 80.; Mitchell, Daily Life in Victorian England, p 221. 236 Huggins, Victorians and Sport, p. 103. 237 Holt, Sport and the British, p. 190-191. 76

Croquet, tennis, bowling, and billiards experienced increasing popularity among the leisured classes and by the end of nineteenth century, represented activities of gentle exercise and sociability. During the latter nineteenth century, Strathpeffer's hoteliers expressed an awareness of recreational trends through the advertisement of these activities. Around the time of the market crash, the Scotsman advertised the Ben Wyvis

Hotel, not in relation to the spa, but in terms of the entertainment provided to its guests:

"It stands within its own grounds, which comprise bowling, croquet, and lawn tennis greens, is surrounded with grand scenery".238 Throughout the 1880s, the hoteliers improved their amenities for the purpose of entertainment: "The principal hotel, 'The Ben

Wyvis' now opens for the season. Splendid new drawing and dining rooms. Private apartments en suite. Billiard and recreation rooms, bowling and tennis greens, amidst scenery unsurpassed in Scotland".239 Based on this advertisement, hoteliers actively contributed the creation of Strathpeffer as a landscape of leisure.

The activities advertised at the spa clearly reflected the popular pastimes of its clientele. Because both men and women could participate in tennis and croquet, the hotels provided a greater opportunity for socialising at the spa. These games, while considered gentle exercise, with the exception of billiards, ensured that spa-goers received the benefits of the pure air and invigorating climate at Strathpeffer. Somewhat unique to Scotland was the game of golf which, until the end of the nineteenth century, was not widely played in England.241 Opened in 1888, the Strathpeffer Spa golf course

8 "The Ben Wyvis Hotel, Strathpeffer Spa, Ross-Shire", Scotsman, May 1, 1880 9 "Hotels, Hydropathics, &c " Scotsman, June 25, 1887 0 Mitchell, Daily Life in Victorian England, p 215 ' Huggins, Victorians and Sport, p 103 77 afforded both men and women to learn and enjoy the game.242 Spa managers advertised the game as an engagement with the landscape and climate of Scotland and a reflection of social norms. While used by both sexes, the clubhouse at the spa golf course was not a gender-neutral space. Both the clubhouse and course was gender-divided space, with change rooms and tees allocated by sex.243 Despite this division of space, the golf course provided guests with yet another opportunity for socialisation in a healthy landscape.

Strathpeffer was not alone in advertising to a specific clientele with the promotion of social games. Many hydros and spas listed these activities among their attractions.244

For example, other health destinations established golf clubs throughout the late nineteenth century, including the Malvern golf club in 1880, the Moffat Golf Club in

1885246 and, Strathpeffer's rival, the Harrogate Golf Club in 1892.247 The continual expansion of games and entertainment at the spa expressed the need to sustain seasonal visitors. The inclusion of a golf course ensured that the spa remained competitive with other holiday destinations, as golfing became increasingly popular in the late-nineteenth century.248 In addition to the healthful games, the addition of varying forms of amusements to occupy guests was critical to Strathpeffer's continued success.

For the less active visitors to the spa, the pavilion provided much of the more sedentary entertainment and opportunities to socialise. The purpose-built hall, constructed in 1881, housed dances and concerts, thus emphasizing the importance of

242 "A New Golf Course for Strathpeffer", Scotsman, June 8, 1888.; One Hundred Years of Strathpeffer Golf Club. (Strathpeffer: The Club, 1988) p. 7. 243 W. Bruce et al. Strathpeffer Spa Medical Guide. (Strathpeffer and Dingwall: George Souter, 1906) p. 42. 244 Haldane Grenier, Tourism and Identity in Scotland, 1770 - 1914, p. 63. 245 "Club Directory", Golfing Annual 7(1887-1888) pp. 184. 246 Ibid. pp. 186. 247 "Club Directory", Golfing Annual 73(1900) pp. 285. 248 Huggins, Victorians and Sport, p. 107. 78 social interaction among guests.249 The pavilion was integral to Strathpeffer's promotion of non-medical attractions in competition with other spas. In the first year of its construction, the pavilion held concerts, which, once again introduced a comparison with its rival: "Now Strathpeffer is not inaptly called the Harrogate of Scotland".250 This association related to the established concert and theatre schedule at Harrogate. By 1890, the popularity of Harrogate's musical entertainment sparked a proposal to include admission to concerts with spa tariffs:

The lessee of the Spa (Mr. C. F. Dawson) has determined to open the season at the Spa at Easter. Mr. Dawson originally proposed that if a sufficient number of residents would subscribe an additional 3s. to their half-guinea tickets, he would give a series of nightly entertainments from Easter to June 101 (when the season concerts commence), to which entertainments the 3s. would entitle to admission.

While Strathpeffer could not boast a season of scheduled concerts, it did hire a Hungarian band to play daily during the spa season. Including music and concerts in the spa's growing repertoire of attractions illustrated dynamic marketing, which shifted focus to social and non-physical forms of entertainment to appeal to the spa's clientele.

Choral and instrumental music were widely popular and enjoyed in music halls across Britain.253 Music was accessible to all social strata; however, at Strathpeffer hoteliers invited guests to showcase their musical talent: "In the evenings, there are concerts, sometimes in the public pavilion, sometimes in the hotel, taken part in by

249 "The Strathpeffer Spa - Opening of the New Pavilion " Aberdeen Weekly Journal, August 11, 1881. 250 "Strathpeffer Spa". Scotsman, August 11, 1881. 251 "Harrogate Spa Season". Leeds Mercury, February 24, 1890. 252 "Hotels, Hydropathics, &c", Scotsman, September 19, 1893.; Fox, Strathpeffer Spa, Its Climate and Waters, p 156. 253 Horn, Pleasures and Pastimes in Victorian Britain, p. 180. 79 visitors".254 This participation would have suited the guests at Strathpeffer, as music was common in most middle- and upper class homes. Proficiency in playing a musical instrument, especially the piano was part of the education of young women of this social standing. The entertainment provided at the spa clearly complemented the interests and social expectations of its guests.

Despite competition from other spas and hydros, the various attractions of

Strathpeffer attracted some famous names, which indicated the successful marketing of the spa. The Pall Mall Gazette and the Scotsman provided a detailed weekly report of the activities of the court, which included the travel plans of those closest to Queen Victoria.

This strategy provided Strathpeffer with a certain prestige. The list of high-ranking guests included the queen's cousins, Duke and Duchess of Teck,256 and German royalty, the Prince and Princess of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach.257 From the numbers reported in the

1890s, forty-nine members of the Queen's court visited Strathpeffer.258 The importance of such guests proved that the promotion of Strathpeffer's medical and non-medical attractions confirmed its position as a popular destination.

It is not entirely clear why members of the queen's court chose to visit

Strathpeffer rather than one of the many other potential holiday destinations. Based on the listings in the newspapers, few outline the nature of the individual's stay. Of the forty-nine elite visitors, only five of that number reportedly stayed at Strathpeffer for spa treatments. For example, "Constance, Marchioness of Lothian, is taking at Strathpeffer a

254 "Holiday Sketches: Strathpeffer Spa." Penny Illustrated Paper and Illustrated Times, October 20, 1894. 255 Mitchell, Daily Life in Victorian England, p. 226. 256 "The Pall Mall Gazette Office", Pall Mall Gazette, August 26, 1895.; "The Court". Scotsman, September 10, 1895. 257 "The Pall Mall Gazette Office", Pall Mall Gazette, September 8, 1894. 258 "The Court", Scotsman, 1890-1900; "The Pall Mall Gazette Office", Pall Mall Gazette, 1890-1900. 80 course of water and bath".259 Similarly, "Adeline, Duchess of Bedford is taking the waters at Strathpeffer Spa, Ross-shire". Scotland's wealthiest landowner also stayed for treatment: "The Duke of Buccleuch is staying at Strathpeffer Spa for the benefit of his health". In addition to spa treatments, the climate, on which Fox expounded, also benefitted the high-ranking guests: "Lord and Lady Brabourne have quite recovered from the effects of their carriage accident, and are now at Strathpeffer, the air of which place is

(says to-day's Daily Telegraph) doing Lord Brabourne a great deal of good".262 While more of these guests may have sought treatment, it was not listed. However, those who stayed at Strathpeffer for their health affirmed the spa's reputation as a health destination.

While it seems only a few courtly visitors required the ministrations of the spa doctors, the elite guests enjoyed the other attractions offered at Strathpeffer. This suggests the successful recasting of Strathpeffer as a leisure destination. Based on the information provided in the reports of court activity, it was evident that many of these high-ranking visitors attended Strathpeffer as holidaymakers to enjoy the social life of the resort. For example, Lord Sempill, who was listed as visiting Strathpeffer in 1900, also visited Strathpeffer five years earlier.263 In August, 1895, the Glasgow Herald described the Strathpeffer Highland Games at which there were races, games, activities, and music.

According to the report, "the pipe music and dancing competitions were in the charge of

Lord Sempill". This example illustrated that Strathpeffer provided these elites with social interaction as a holiday destination.

259 "The Court", Scotsman, September 23, 1890. 260 "The Court", Pall Mall Gazette, September 13, 1899. 261 "The Pall Mall Gazette Office", Pall Mall Gazette, September 3, 1900. 262 "The Court", Scotsman, September 5, 1890. 263 "The Pall Mall Gazette Office", Pall Mall Gazette, July 3, 1900.; "The Pall Mall Gazette Office", Pall Mall Gazette, August 15, 1900. 264 "Strathpeffer Highland Gathering", Glasgow Herald, August 20, 1895. 81

The promotional literature expressed greater attention to the social needs of the spa guests and showed that clever marketing had recast Strathpeffer and expanded publicity beyond the mineral water. The inclusion of games and pastimes in the spa's place promotion reflected the popular trends of recreation and expressed awareness in the spa doctors and hoteliers of these patterns. The advertisement of certain activities and constructed space expressed representations of gender norms and social codes pervasive in the classes of the guests. This varied marketing approach meant that the reputation of

Strathpeffer Spa now reflected a landscape designed for health and leisure. While games and social activities expressed new promotional efforts, sporting exemplified the landscape of Strathpeffer.

Sporting and the Spa: Promoting Strathpeffer in the Context of Masculinity and the Highlands

Between 1880 and 1900, Scotland became increasingly popular to English sportsmen owing to the geography of the Highlands. Strathpeffer's position made it an ideal location from which to offer sporting activities and gendered leisure ultimately proved vital to the spa's continued existence. Based on regular newspaper advertisements, hoteliers sought to capitalise on the popularity of sporting in the

Highlands by offering various outdoor opportunities. Using the popularity of sporting as an expression of recreational and normative masculinity, Strathpeffer Spa advertised to a specific group of tourists. The moors and mountains provided a challenge for the English sportsmen to prove his masculinity while in pursuit of red deer and grouse.

Haldane Grenier, Tourism and Identity in Scotland, 1770- 1914, p. 108. 82

As noted Scottish historians Durie and Katherine Haldane Grenier point out, this connection between sporting and tourism showed a primarily male-oriented pastime, as it was associated with Victorian gender norms.266 Gender historians, especially John Tosh and Nancy Fix Anderson, both of whom have written on the conceptualisation of nineteenth century masculinity, also studied the popularity of Victorian sporting.267

Within the framework of historical gender theory, sporting has been viewed as providing the British male with a means to affirm certain notions of masculinity through the camaraderie and competition with other men. The popularity of sporting holidays reflected the intersection of Victorian middle and upper class masculinity and mass tourism.

Initially a mark of status among the aristocracy, sporting in the Highlands gained popularity among the middle classes in the last twenty years of the nineteenth century.269

In keeping with the popularity of sporting in the Highlands, spa managers modelled

Strathpeffer as a gateway to the sporting grounds of Ross-shire. This new marketing angle expanded on the conceptualisation of Strathpeffer as a healthful and leisured landscape. Through sporting, physical exertion and the successful bagging of the

Highland quarry proved endurance, strength and bravery, inherently linked the Highland landscape with expressions of masculinity.270 A popular quarry of the sportsmen was the red deer because it provided an appropriate challenge through the rugged terrain of the

266 A Dune, "Game Shooting An Elite Sport c 1870 - 1980", Sport in History 25(2008) pp 437 , Dune, Scotland for the Holidays , Haldane Grenier, Tourism and Identity in Scotland, 1770 - 1914 267 J Tosh, Manliness and Masculinities in Nineteenth Century Britain Essays on Gender, Family and Empire (London Pearson Education Limited, 2005), N Anderson, The Sporting Life Victorian Sports and Games (Santa Barbara Praeger, 2010) 268 Tosh, Manliness and Masculinities in Nineteenth Century Britain, p 113 269 Haldane Grenier, Tourism and Identity in Scotland, 1770 - 1914,p 111 270 Ibid 83 landscape and allowed the sportsmen to prove these manly traits.271 Commonly found on

Ben Wyvis, upon which Strathpeffer Spa was located, Manson identifies the red deer as being in close proximity to the spa:

Vast home of antlered monarchs proud the western hills of Ross, standing up as onwards to the sea, fringing with their dark blue heights in craggy line the occidental sky; while to the east the quiet waters of the Moray Firth winding and widening outwards away into the ocean blue, touch with their rippling crests the eastern sky.272

Using poetic language to express the landscape, Manson sought to entice the sporting tourist to Strathpeffer in search of his prey. While he provided this flowery description of the red deer on Ben Wyvis in a section meant to describe the "many beautiful views of the valley of Strathpeffer",273 Manson's mention of the red deer at a time of sporting popularity in the Highlands should not be considered coincidental.

At first, newspaper advertisements referenced to Strathpeffer Spa in discussions

• • • 974 of sporting estates in Ross-shire, as it was a well-known destination by this time. As the 1890s progressed, the managers of Strathpeffer's hotels made the spa town more central to the sporting tourists. This was evident in the length at which several hotels extended the spa season. By 1892, the Ross-shire Journal maintained its hotel registry of

Strathpeffer guests until mid-October. Increasing the length of the spa season in terms of hotels remaining open into the Fall, suggests that Strathpeffer hotel managers noted the lucrative opportunities of the sporting season which followed the spa season.

271 J. Bertram, Out of Door Sports in Scotland, Their Economy and Surroundings Deerstalking, Grouse Shooting, Salmon Angling, Golfing, Curling (London: W. H. Allen and Co., 1889) p. 53. 272 Manson, On the Sulphur and Chalybeate Water of Strathpeffer Spa in the Scottish -Highlands. 5th Ed., p. 77. 273 Ibid. p. 76. 274 "The Court", Scotsman, August 15, 1890. 275 "List of Visitors to Strathpeffer", Ross-shire Journal, 1892. 84

Of the three leading hotels in Strathpeffer, managers of the Spa Hotel targeted sportsmen. Originally built to house spa-goers, in the 1890s, the management of the Spa

Hotel adopted a new angle for promoting the hotel. In September 1893, the Spa Hotel advertised, with no mention of the famous mineral water, "Shooting; good mixed". By the following year, the hotel had been completely recast as catering specifically to the needs of the sporting tourist in Scotland, "Strathpeffer, Spa Hotel - the sporting hotel of the Highlands".277 In September 1897, the hotelier reiterated the centrality of the Spa

Hotel in the Highlands for sporting pursuits,278 and two years later, the Spa Hotel listed the popular Scottish quarry: "Excellent sport for October; pheasant, partridges, snipe,

97Q woodcock, hares, rabbits, roe deer, &c; terms including keeper and dogs". By 1900, the Spa Hotel was established as the sporting hotel in Ross-shire. Not only was it convenient lodgings for accessing the sporting estates of the Highlands, the Spa Hotel also provided sportsmen with the necessary equipment and sporting dogs for hunting pursuits.280 The hotel managers actively participated in converting the hotel for the use of sportsmen by offering a shooting estate that was, "well stocked and preserved, including red deer, mountain hares, cock grouse, pheasant, snipe, duck, rabbits &c. . . .

Shooting over 10,000 acres, finest winter shooting in the north". In only a decade, the management of the Spa Hotel recognised popular recreational trends in Britain and responded to ensure continual visitors.

The Spa Hotel was not the only hotel at Strathpeffer to capitalise on the popularity of sporting. The Ben Wyvis Hotel also sought to appeal to sporting tourists. While the 276 "Hotels, Hydropathics, &c", Scotsman, September 19, 1893. 277 "Hotels, Hydropathics, &c", Scotsman, July 16, 1894. 278 "Strathpeffer Spa Hotel", Scotsman, September 6, 1897. 279 "Strathpeffer Spa Hotel - Shooting", Scotsman, September 27, 1899. 280 "Hotels, Hydropathics, &c", Scotsman, November 15, 1900. 281 Ibid. 85

Spa Hotel offered shooting, the Ben Wyvis Hotel promoted fishing to its visitors. In

1889, the Ben Wyvis began to advertise opportunities for fishing to its guests:

"Strathpeffer Spa: the principal hotel - The Ben Wyvis Hotel, amidst delightful scenery, and with free fishing". By 1892, the Ben Wyvis Hotel catered specifically to the sporting tourists: "Strathpeffer Spa, Ross-shire - The principal hotel, the "Ben Wyvis", now open for the season. Superior salmon and trout fishing free".283 For sportsmen,

9S4- salmon and trout were particularly valued catches. Based on these advertisements, the

Ben Wyvis Hotel, much like the Spa Hotel, had been promotionally remodelled.

The hoteliers of both the Spa Hotel and Ben Wyvis Hotel clearly responded to the recreational trends and market needs of this time to remain competitive. In particular, the complete recasting of the Spa Hotel from accommodations for invalids to sportsmen in only a decade, illustrated a clear shift in marketing strategies to construct a Highland landscape to reflect expressions of gender. Despite this new approach to hotel marketing in a spa town, the underlying notion of health remained. Sporting was viewed by contemporaries as having a restorative quality, which allowed the sportsmen to leave work to reconnect with himself and nature. Participating in sporting rejuvenated the mind and body. Contemporary newspapers and sporting guidebooks reiterated this sentiment. Particular importance was placed on the opening of the sporting season and emphasized the twelfth of August, which was the first day of the grouse season, as the first day of holidays for sporting tourists: Blessed be Saint Grouse! It calls the jaded legislator away from the precinct of Westminster, and sets him talking about bags and dogs and cartridges, in place of tariff reform and the woes of the

282 "Hotels, Hydropathics, &c " Scotsman, July 5, 1889 283 "Hotels, Hydropathics, &c " Scotsman, May 18, 1892 284 D Birley•, Sport and the Making of'Britain (Manchester Manchester University Press, 1993) p 133 86

unemployed. It silences the voice of litigation for the time being, and closures the most eloquent advocates in our Courts of Session.285

Newspapers equated sporting with an act of pilgrimage as it sportsmen benefitted from travelling away from urban, industrial centres to the Highlands of Scotland:

The acerbities of political strife are put away and forgotten, for a time at least. Ruffled tempers are soothed. The wrinkles of anxiety and care yield to the charm of the pilgrimage, and give place to a quiet smile of contentment. Worry vanishes and comfortable fatigue closes each well spent day.

Based on this contemporary conceptualisation of sporting, it was unsurprising that the spa hotels promoted fishing and shooting. The spa hoteliers deliberately constructed the landscape around Strathpeffer to meet the needs of the sportsmen by recognising the popular connection between masculinity and the Highlands. While this inclusion of sporting in the place promotion of Strathpeffer reflected trends of recreation, it also reinforced the notion of Strathpeffer as a destination for healing.

A Holistic Landscape: Place Promotion by Health and Leisure

Strathpeffer Spa adopted a dynamic strategy in response to the changing needs of the market, which ensured its continued success. By shifting focus away from medical treatments to a more holistic, restorative approach to tourism, the spa maintained its reputation as a healing destination while fulfilling the needs of a particular social class.

In doing so, Strathpeffer had once again recast itself as part of a niche market. Its isolated location in the Highlands provided its guests a retreat in which to enjoy the many outdoor activities Strathpeffer offered. The games and sporting promoted at the spa, as

"The Shrine of Saint Grouse." Scotsman, August 12, 1905. 87 well as an impressive guest list, showed that Strathpeffer adapted to the market crash by constructing a landscape of health and leisure to provide relaxation and entertainment to the upper classes. Gentle exercise, rejuvenating sporting and social gatherings combined health and exclusivity, which ensured its continued success following the market crash of

1882.

Strathpeffer's promoters, both the spa doctors and hoteliers, responded to market trends while maintaining its reputation as a place that benefitted the visitor's health. This balance between managing the spa's reputation before 1882 and expanding attractions post-crash was best described by a series of reviews entitled "Holiday Sketches" in the

Penny Illustrated Papers and Illustrated Times:

Of all the places of holiday resort within the British Isles, commend me to Strathpeffer, the noted health resort. . . There I have just spent one of the most delightful holidays which it has ever been my lot to experience. I did not go to drink the health- restoring waters. . . . No; rather I went to enjoy a thoroughly good holiday on the hills and on the lochs, by beautiful streams that abound the district, and on the breezy golf course.287

The mineral waters' reputed benefit was maintained but the spa had diversified to include the consumption of scenery, the social experience of games and capitalised on the popularity of Highland sporting, all within in a framework of health.

"Holiday Sketches: Strathpeffer Spa." Penny Illustrated Paper and Illustrated Times, October 20, 1894. 88

Strathpeffer Spa: The Creation of a Health Resort

Primarily through the efforts of David Manson and Fortescue Fox, but with the support of the Sutherland estate, spa doctors at Strathpeffer created a dynamic promotional strategy that reflected the changing market of the late nineteenth century.

Highlighting the natural resources and location of the destination, they constructed

Strathpeffer as a place of health and recreation in direct response to the interests of its guests and wider cultural currents. Out of necessity, spa managers expanded the amenities at Strathpeffer, which included continuous development of the spa treatments, accommodations, and social activities. In a competitive market, spa doctors and the

Sutherland estate incorporated innovative health therapies and popular pastimes to construct a destination meeting the needs of its guests. The advertisements of attractions for the visitors' entertainment and amusement transformed the spa town of Strathpeffer into a popular tourist destination. In a period of stagnation and decline for other British spas, the increasing number of visitors to Strathpeffer evidenced successful marketing and destination development. This made Strathpeffer distinctive. Owing to the efforts of spa managers, Strathpeffer Spa had transformed into a health resort by the end of the century.

This idea of the development of a resort was perhaps most apparent in the advertisements of accommodations. In a study that resonates with this investigation of

Strathpeffer Spa, A.K. Sandoval-Strausz traces the development of the American hotel and the social conditions that shaped its history. His discussion of resort hotels was particularly pertinent to examining Strathpeffer at the end of the century. Sandoval-

Strausz notes that the resort hotel was a self-contained building, which provided guests

288 "List of Visitors to Strathpeffer", Ross-shire Journal, 1887-1892. 89 with both comfortable and familiar lodgings with the appeal of a rural setting, typically situated near water or mountains.289 While his study focuses solely on the evolution of the American hotel industry, similarities can be drawn from Strathpeffer's hotels. Unlike the railway hotel or urban hotel, the location of the resort hotel meant it was the terminus of the tourist's journey as was the case with the spa.290 While the accommodations at

Strathpeffer reflected the criteria of Sandoval-Strausz's resort hotel, the landscape of the spa town relates to a broader idea of the resort.

Tourism theorist Tim Edensor defines the resort as a space that expresses social

901 constructs within clear boundaries, physical or imagined. For Strathpeffer Spa, spa managers created a space of health and leisure that reflected notions of gender and class.

The landscape of the destination articulated the negotiated meaning of Strathpeffer between the management and the spa-goers. Edensor describes the resort as mutually codified and commoditised by both host and tourist.292 This interaction defined the spa 7Q-5 as closed or enclavic, which dictated certain expected behaviours. As the spa management advertised Strathpeffer to a middle-class market, with attractions and amenities suited to this group, the guests expressed notions of respectability in their interaction with and within the space.

By the end of the nineteenth century, advertisements of the spa included the term

"resort" in publicising the destination.294 Initially billed in promotional literature as "a

289 A K Sandoval-Strausz, Hotel An American History (New Haven Yale University Press, 2007) p 90 290 Ibid p 92 291 Edensor, "Staging Tourism Tourists as Performers", pp 329 - 330 292 Ibid pp 328 293 Ibid pp 327 294 "Holiday Sketches Strathpeffer Spa " Penny Illustrated Paper and Illustrated Times, October 20, 1894 , "New Editions", Scotsman, June 10, 1896 /'Strathpeffer Spa Hotel", Scotsman, September 6, 1897 , "New Books and New Editions", Pall Mall Gazette, July 10, 1896 90 watering place" and "mineral well", the image of Strathpeffer evolved with the market into a health resort by the end of the Victorian era. Its development progressed through stages of establishment, expansion and consolidation, similar to those outlined by

Butler's TALC. However, unlike Butler's stages of evolution that implied teleosity, the spa management continued to recast the meaning of the landscape of Strathpeffer by incorporating lateral factors. Adapting Butler's theory, scholars assert that tourism is a continual process of regeneration.299 While acknowledging the uses of Butler's theory, tourism historian Walton observes that the stages of evolution discount the differing contexts in which individual resorts develop.300 By conducting this research employing case study methodology, this investigation of Strathpeffer Spa considers the complex social factors of health, recreation and tourism which influenced the spa's development.

The progress of Strathpeffer Spa was characterised by linear progression and lateral influences throughout its development. Therefore, this research complements and fits into the existing discourse of resort development.

By using the spa as a case study, this study shows how Strathpeffer's development sat at the intersection of contemporary social movements and recent scholarship on health tourism. One application of this study is connecting the marketing strategy of the spa management to a wider investigation of middle-class Victorian marketing. From this research, niche markets such as water therapies can be situated within a wider context of social movements. There are several angles in which to further

295 G. Anderson and P. Anderson, Guide to the Highlands and Western Islands of Scotland, Including Orkney and Zetland. (Edinburgh: Adam and Charles Black, 1863) p. 618. 296 "Ross-shire, Strathpeffer Spa", Scotsman, June 24, 1870.; "Strathpeffer Hotel", Scotsman, July 18, 1870. 297 Butler, "The Concept of a Tourist Area Cycle of Evolution", pp. 5 - 12. 298 Ibid. pp. 9. 299 Edensor, "Staging Tourism", pp. 323.; J. Walton, "Prospects in Tourism History", pp. 785 - 786. 300 Walton, "Prospects in Tourism History", pp. 785. 91 expand this study of Strathpeffer Spa. By examining the promotional literature, the management incorporated aspects of class, gender, health, and leisure into a multifaceted marketing strategy. As a result, this investigation of a small Highland spa during the late nineteenth century has wider implications in connecting Scottish tourism to research exploring Victorian social constructs of middle-class gender and patterns of acceptable pastimes.

The promotional strategies that ensured the survival of Strathpeffer Spa can be included into a study of the evolution of modern marketing. The spa managers' effective use of print advertisements and the media speaks to this wider study. Roy Church identifies the proliferation of mass literary media as the beginning of this movement.

Much like the promotional literation of Strathpeffer, early forms of modern media began to express common social rhetoric and reinforced notions of Victorian gender and class.302 As Edensor recognises that tourism is not a separate set of praxis but is part of a wider context informed by social constructs, the connection between marketing and tourism is undeniable. By the late nineteenth century, hydros and spas relied on newspaper advertisements and articles, periodicals and brochures for place promotion.

Owing to the importance of these materials in destination marketing, this case study of

Strathpeffer Spa complements scholarship of mass marketing at the end of the nineteenth century.

More specifically, this thesis supports and expands on existing research of water- based cures in the nineteenth century. As Strathpeffer existed as a spa and health

301 R. Church, "Advertising Consumer Goods in Nineteenth Century Britain: Reinterpretations", Economic History Review 53(2000) pp. 627 - 628. 302 J Coffin, "Credit, Consumption and Images of Women's Desire: Selling the Sewing-Machine in Late Nineteenth-Century France", French Historical Studies 75(1994) pp. 763., A Kidd and D. Nicholls, eds., Gender, Civic Culture and Consumerism Middle-class Identity in Britain 1800 - 1940. (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1999) p. 18. 92 destination in the age of "hydro mania", it can be applied to the work of Hembry, Durie,

TAT

Dupree and Bradley, among others. For Hembry's comprehensive examination of

British spas, which culminates with the general demise of home spas, this study sheds new light on how existing spas survived the conditions of the British health market in the late nineteenth century. This study also presents a contrasting perspective to the research of Durie, Dupree, and Bradley in demonstrating how mineral spas and hydropathy developed in tandem. By combining this thesis with the body of scholarship on hydropathy to which they have contributed, a more complete picture of health tourism in Victorian Scotland is apparent. This is important because the study of tourism in

Scotland has been, until recently, a neglected research focus. Yet, studies of tourism provide new perspectives of social and economic history.

Because spa managers continually recast the meaning and uses of Strathpeffer, this study can be continued into the twentieth century to understand changing marketing patterns in tourism. Further research into this destination would show how spa doctors and hoteliers appropriated social movements in adapting the spa to maintain the favour of its guests. As the spa doctors navigated medical reform, competition and the market collapse, the continuation of this study would show how they dealt with disruption of mass tourism with the advent of the World War One. This thesis establishes a foundation by which to examine how the resort's popularity fared with new generations of tourists and changing social interests. While this thesis considers the spa's initial development and the establishment of the resort, the presence of the spa in twentieth century 303 Hembry, British Spas from 1815 to the Present, Dune, Water is Best, Bradley and Dupree, "A Shadow of Orthodoxy7 An Epistemology of British Hydropathy, 1840 -1858 ", Bradley and Dupree, "Opportunity on the Edge of Orthodoxy Medically Qualified Hydropathists in the Era of Reform, 1840 - 1860 ", Bradley, Dupree and Dune, "Taking the Water-Cure The Hydropathic Movement in Scotland, 1840 - 1940" 304 Hembry, British Spas from 1815 to the Present, p 241 93 guidebooks of Ross-shire suggest that the management continued the process of

305 regeneration.

305 A. Welsford, Strathpeffer Official Guide to the Spa and Neighbourhood. (London. Railway Guides Co. Ltd , 1908 ).; N Macrae, Ross and Cromartie Official Guide. (Dundee- Simmath Press, 1920); Complete Guide to Ross-shire What you Should see and All About It (Dingwall: George Souter, 1920); Strathpeffer Spa Holiday Guide. (Strathpeffer' Tourist Association, 1950).; Dingwall and Strathpeffer Official Guide. (Inverness: Highland Advertising, 1955). 94

Bibliography

Primary Sources

Books:

Anderson, G. and P. Anderson, Guide to the Highlands and Western Islands of Scotland, Including Orkney and Zetland. Edinburgh: Adam and Charles Black, 1863.

Anon., Complete Guide to Ross-shire: What you Should see and All About It. Dingwall: George Souter, 1920.

Dingwall and Strathpeffer: Official Guide. Inverness: Highland Advertising,

1955.

Strathpeffer Spa Holiday Guide. (Strathpeffer: Tourist Association, 1950).

Baddeley, M. The Northern Highlands and Islands. London: Dulau and Co., 1884.

Bertram, J. Out of Door Sports in Scotland, Their Economy and Surroundings: Deerstalking, Grouse Shooting, Salmon Angling, Golfing, Curling. London: W. H.Allen and Co., 1889. Bruce, W. et al. Strathpeffer Spa Medical Guide. Strathpeffer and Dingwall: George Souter, 1906.

Claridge, R. Hydropathy, or the Cold Water Cure as Practised by Victor Priessnitz at Grafenberg. 3rd Ed. London: John Madden and Co., 1842.

Fox, F. Strathpefcfer Spa its Climate and Waters, with Observations Historical, Medical, and General, Descriptive of the Vicinity. London: H.K. Lewis, 1889.

Granville, A. Spas of England and Principal Sea-bathing Places: The North, vol. 1. Bath: Adams and Dart, 1841.

Keddie, K. Moffat: Its Walks and Wells; with Incidental Notices of its Botany and Geology. Glasgow: Blackie and Son, 1854.

Loudon, C. A Practical Dissertation on the Waters of Leamington Spa. Leamington Spa: Sharp and Fairfax, 1828.

Macrae, N. Ross and Cromartie: Official Guide. Dundee: Simmath Press, 1920.

Manson, D. On the Sulphur and Chalybeate Water of Strathpeffer Spa in the Scottish Highlands. 5th Ed. London: A and J Churchill, 1884. 95

Piggott, G. On the Harrogate Spas and Change of Air. Harrogate: P. Palliser, Post Office, 1856.

Welsford, A. Strathpeffer: Official Guide to the Spa and Neighbourhood. London: Railway Guides Co. Ltd., 1908.

Journals:

Anon., "British Balneological and Climatological Society", The British MedicalJournal 7 No. 1828 (Jan. 11,1896): 107-108.

"British Balneological and Climatological Society", The British Medical

Journal 1 No. 1844 (May 2, 1896): 1102.

--. "Club Directory", The Golfing Annual 7(1887-1888): 184.

. "Club Directory", The Golfing Annual 73(1900): 285.

. "Medical News", The British MedicalJournal 1 No. 1786 (Mar. 23, 1895): 679 -681. . "Reports of Societies", The British Medical Journal 2 No. 1976 (Nov. 12, 1898): 1490-1497.

_ "The British Medical Association Sixty Third Annual Meeting", The British MedicalJournal 1 No. 1799 (Jun. 22, 1895): 1412 - 1416.

"The Royal College of Physicians", The British Medical Journal 1 No. 1674 (Jan. 28, 1893): 183.

Fox, F. "Observations on the Etiology of Eczema", The British Medical Journal 1 No. 1373 (Apr. 23, 1887): 875.

. "Peat Baths at Home and Abroad", The British Medical Journal 2 No. 1544 (Aug. 2, 1890): 306.

"Quinsy and the Rheumatic Diathesis", The British Medical Journal 1 No. 1306

(Jan. 9, 1886): 67.

. "The Treatment of Apoplexy", The Lancet 135 (Mar. 29, 1890): 723.

. "The Varieties of Rheumatoid Arthritis", The Lancet 146 (July 13, 1895): 74 - 89. Hill, B. "Strathpeffer as a Health Resort", The Lancet(May 3, 1884): 793 - 794. 96

Manson, D. "A New Effervescing Chalybeate at Strathpeffer Spa, N.B.", British Medical Journal I No. 1220 (May 17, 1884): 948.

Newspapers:

"A Highland Spa", The Aberdeen Weekly Journal, August 18, 1886.

"A New Golf Course for Strathpeffer", The Scotsman, June 8, 1888.

"A Scotch Summer Girl and Her Suitor: A Strathpeffer Story", The Aberdeen Weekly Journal, June 29, 1898.

"Advertisements and Notices", The Aberdeen Journal, February 23, 1870.

"Advertisements and Notices", The Glasgow Herald, April 20, 1883.

"Births, Marriages, Deaths", The Scotsman, June 23, 1849.

"Births, Marriages, Deaths", The Scotsman, March 26, 1915.

"Costly Honours", The Caledonian Mercury, November 13, 1861.

"Death of the Duchess of Sutherland", The Scotsman, November 27, 1888.

"Death of the Duke of Sutherland", The Scotsman, September 23, 1892.

"Dingwall and Skye Railway", The Scotsman, July 29, 1864.

"Dingwall and Skye Railway", The Scotsman, August 22, 1870.

"Harrogate Spa Season". The Leeds Mercury, February 24, 1890.

"Highland Railway - Shortened Route to Inverness", The Scotsman, December 25, 1883.

"Holiday Sketches: Strathpeffer Spa." The Penny Illustrated Paper and Illustrated Times, October 20, 1894.

"Hotels &c", The Aberdeen Weekly Journal, June 1, 1880.

"Hotels, Hydropathics, &c", The Scotsman, October 10, 1870.

"Hotels, Hydropathics, &c", The Scotsman, November 25, 1876.

"Hotels, Hydropathics, &c", The Scotsman, June 14, 1879. 97

;'Hotels, Hydropathics, &c", The Scotsman, June 25, 1887.

^'Hotels, Hydropathics, &c", The Scotsman, July 5, 1889.

'Hotels, Hydropathics, &c", The Scotsman, May 18, 1892.

'Hotels, Hydropathics, &c", The Scotsman, September 19, 1893.

;'Hotels, Hydropathics, &c", The Scotsman, July 16, 1894.

'Hotels, Hydropathics, &c", The Scotsman, November 15, 1900.

'Increased Sailing 1890", The Scotsman, August 6, 1890.

'Letters to the Editor - Strathpeffer Spa", The Dundee Courier and Argus, June 28, 1873.

'Licensing Courts", The Scotsman, April 21, 1875.

'List of Visitors to Strathpeffer", The Ross-shire Journal, 1877 - 1892.

'New Editions", The Scotsman, June 10, 1896.

'New Books and New Editions", The Pall Mall Gazette, July 10, 1896.

'Opening of a Pump Room at Strathpeffer", The Scotsman, August 9, 1892.

'Public Companies", The Glasgow Herald, October 31, 1885.

'Railway Extension in the Highlands", The Scotsman, November 15, 1883.

'Railway Facilities to Strathpeffer Spa, The Glasgow Herald, June 18, 1894.

'Ross-shire, Strathpeffer Spa", The Scotsman, June 24, 1870.

'School Board Elections", The Scotsman, April 8, 1885.

'Strathpeffer", The Scotsman, June 26, 1873.

'Strathpeffer - Fire at the Pump Room", The Glasgow Herald, July 6, 1885.

'Strathpeffer Highland Gathering", The Glasgow Herald, August 20, 1895.

'Strathpeffer Hotel", The Scotsman, July 18, 1870.

'Strathpeffer Spa", The Aberdeen Weekly Journal, September 8, 1880. 98

"Strathpeffer Spa". The Scotsman, August 11, 1881.

"Strathpeffer Spa Hotel", The Scotsman, September 6, 1897.

"Strathpeffer Spa Hotel - Shooting", The Scotsman, September 27, 1899.

"The Ben Wyvis Hotel, Strathpeffer Spa, Ross-Shire", The Scotsman, May 1, 1880.

"The Court", The Scotsman, August 15, 1890.

"The Court", The Scotsman, September 5, 1890.

"The Court", The Scotsman, September 23, 1890.

"The Court", The Scotsman, September 10, 1895.

"The Court", The Pall Mall Gazette, September 13, 1899.

"The Pall Mall Gazette Office", The Pall Mall Gazette, September 8, 1894.

"The Pall Mall Gazette Office", The Pall Mall Gazette, August 26, 1895.

"The Pall Mall Gazette Office", The Pall Mall Gazette, July 3, 1900.

"The Pall Mall Gazette Office", The Pall Mall Gazette, August 15, 1900.

"The Pall Mall Gazette Office", The Pall Mall Gazette, September 3, 1900.

"The Royal Physical Society", The Scotsman, April 16, 1891.

"The Shrine of Saint Grouse." The Scotsman, August 12, 1905.

"The Strathpeffer Spa - Opening of the New Pavilion." The Aberdeen Weekly Journal, August 11, 1881.

Other Publications:

Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Reports from Committees: Game Laws, Juries Bill, Kitchen and Refreshment Rooms. 1872. Vol. x. p.390.

Secondary Sources

Addison, W. English Spas. London: B.T. Batsford, Ltd., 1951. 99

Agarwal, S. "The Resort Cycle and Seaside Tourism: An Assessment of its Applicability and Validity", Tourism Management 75(1997): 65 - 73.

Alderson, F. The Inland Resorts and Spas of Britain. Newton Abbot: David and Charles Holdings Ltd., 1973.

Anderson, N. The Sporting Life: Victorian Sports and Games. Santa Barbara: Praeger, 2010.

Anon., One Hundred Years ofStrathpeffer Golf Club. Strathpeffer: The Club, 1988.

Anon., The Highland Railway Company and its Constituents and Successors. London: The Stephenson Locomotive Society, 1955.

Bailey, P. Leisure and Class in Victorian England. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1978.

Barnes, T and J. Duncan, Eds., Writing Worlds: Discourse, Text and Metaphor in the Representation of Landscape. London: Routledge, 1992.

Beckerson, J. and J. Walton, "Selling Air: Marketing the Intangible at British Resorts", in J. Walton, Ed., Histories of Tourism: Representation, Identity and Conflict. Toronto: Channel View Publications, 2005.

Birley, D. Sport and the Making of Britain. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1993.

Bradley, J. and M. Dupree, "A Shadow of Orthodoxy? An Epistemology of British Hydropathy, 1840 -1858." Medical History 47(2003): 173 - 194.

"Opportunity on the Edge of Orthodoxy: Medically Qualified Hydropathists in the Era of Reform, 1840 - 1860." The Society for the Social History of Medicine (2001): 413-437.

Bradley, J. et al., "Taking the Water-Cure: The Hydropathic Movement in Scotland, 1840 - 1940", Business and Economic History 25(1997): 426 - 437.

Butler, R. "The Concept of a Tourist Area Cycle of Evolution: Implications for Management of Resources", Canadian Geographer 7(1980): 5 - 12.

Church, R. "Advertising Consumer Goods in Nineteenth Century Britain: Reinterpretations", The Economic History Review 55(2000): 621 - 645.

Clark, P. The Cambridge Urban History of Britain, 1540-1840. Vol. 2., Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000. 100

Coffin, J. "Credit, Consumption and Images of Women's Desire: Selling the Sewing- Machine in Late Nineteenth-Century France", French Historical Studies 75(1994): 749-783.

Davidoff, L. and C. Hall, Family Fortunes: Men and Women of the English Middle Class, 1780-1850. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1987.

Durie, A. "Almost Twins by Birth: Hydropathy, Temperance and the Scottish churches, 1840-1914." (Paper presented at The Scottish Church History Society, University of Glasgow, Scotland, November 27, 2001)

. "Game Shooting: An Elite Sport c.1870 - 1980", Sport in History 25(2008): 431-449.

. "Medicine, Health and Economic Development: Promoting Spa and Seaside Resorts in Scotland c.1750 - 1830", Medical History 47(2003): 195-216.

. Scotland for the Holidays: Tourism in Scotland c. 1780 - 1939. East Linton, East Lothian: Tuckwell Press, 2003.

~ Water is Best: The Hydros and Health Tourism in Scotland, 1840 - 1940. Edinburgh: John Donald, 2006.

Edensor, T. "Sensing Tourist Spaces", in C. Minca and T. Oakes, eds. Travels in Paradox: Remapping Tourism. (Lanham: Rowman and Littlefield Publishers Inc., 2006).

"Staging Tourism: Tourists as Performers", Annals of Tourism Research 27(2000): 322-344.

Gold, J. and M. Gold, Imagining Scotland: Tradition, Representation and Promotion in Scottish Tourism since 1750. Aldershot: Scolar Press, 1995.

Gold, J. and S. Ward, eds. Place Promotion: The Use of Publicity and Marketing to Sell Towns and Regions. Chicester: John Wiley and Sons, Ltd., 1994.

Haldane Grenier, K. Tourism and Identity in Scotland, 1770-1914. Aldershot: Ashgate Publishing Ltd., 2005.

Haywood, M. "Can the Tourist Area Cycle of Evolution be made Operational?", Tourism Management 7(1986): 154- 167.

Hembry, P. British Spas from 1815 to Present: A Social History. Madison: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 1997. 101

Holt, R. Sport and the British: A Modern History. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1989.

Horn, P. Pleasures and Pastimes in Victorian Britain. Stroud, Gloustershire: Sutton Publishing Ltd., 1999.

Huch, R. "The National Association for the Promotion of Social Science: Its Contribution to Victorian Health Reform, 1857 - 1886." Albion: A Quarterly Journal Concerned with British Studies 77(1985): 279 - 299.

Huggins, M. The Victorians and Sport. London: Hambledon and London, 2004.

Kidd A., and D. Nicholls, eds., Gender, Civic Culture and Consumerism: Middle-class Identity in Britain 1800 - 1940. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1999.

Mitchell, S. Daily Life in Victorian England. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1995.

Porter, R. Health for Sale: Quackery in England, 1660-1850. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1989.

Richards, E. and M. Clough, Cromartie: Highland Life, 1650- 1914. Aberdeen: Aberdeen University Press, 1989.

Sandoval-Strausz, A. Hotel: An American History. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2007.

Simmons, J. "Railways, Hotels and Tourism in Great Britain, 1839-1914." Journal of Contemporary History 79(1984): 201-222.

. The Victorian Railway. New York: Thames and Hudson, 1991.

Soane, J. Fashionable Resorts Regions: Their Evolution and Transformation. Wallingford: CAB International, 1993.

Thomas, J. The Skye Railway, The History of the Railways of the Scottish Highlands - Vol. 5. Devon: David St. John Thomas, 1990.

Tosh, J. Manliness and Masculinities in Nineteenth Century Britain: Essays on Gender, Family and Empire. London: Pearson Education Limited, 2005.

Walton, J. "Prospects in Tourism History: Evolution, State of Play and Future Developments", Tourism Management 50(2009): 783 - 793.

. "The Demand for Working Class Seaside Holidays", The Economic History Review 54(1981): 249 -265.

Weatherall, M. "Making Medicine Scientific: Empiricism, Rationality, and Quackery in 102

mid-Victorian Britain." The Society for the Social History of Medicine (1996): 175-194.

Wechsberg, J. The Lost World of Great Spas. New York: Harper and Row, Publishers Inc., 1979.

Weisz, G. "Spas, Mineral Waters, and Hydrological Science in Twentieth-Century France", Ms 92(2001): 451 - 483.