Into the cold sea

Text 1: My First Dip, by Charlotte Ainsley

An original diary written in a nineteenth-century voice; a period simulation, not an archival document.

Thursday, 14th August. Today, at Mamma’s insistence and Dr Pell’s recommendation, I bathed in the sea for the first time. I was conveyed to the water in a bathing machine, a sort of wooden hut upon wheels, drawn by a melancholy horse, and I sat within it in my flannel gown feeling exactly as I imagine a prisoner feels upon the way to Newgate.

When the door opened I found below me the sea, grey and heaving, and a large woman named Mrs Gubbins standing waist deep in it with her arms held out. She is called a dipper, and she does not wait for one’s consent. Before I could protest, I was seized and plunged under, once, twice, three times, and came up gasping so violently that I could not even scream. The cold went into my very bones.

And yet, when I was back in the machine and wrapped in a towel, I found that my whole body was glowing and that I was laughing for no reason whatever. Mamma says I have a better colour than I have had all summer. I believe I shall go again tomorrow, though I shall not tell Mrs Gubbins so.

Text 2: Why I Swim in the Sea in October, by Leah Thornbury

An original contemporary blog.

My friend Jo had been nagging me for months to join her dawn swimming group, and in the end I agreed mainly so she would stop. At seven o’clock on a Saturday in October I stood on the shingle in a borrowed swimming costume, watching a dozen women in woolly hats walk calmly into a sea the colour of wet slate. I felt like I was queuing for my own execution.

The rule of the group is that nobody hangs about at the edge. Jo took my hand and simply walked, and before I could change my mind the water was at my chest. The cold was not like cold. It was like being slapped all over at once. I could not breathe properly for about thirty seconds, and I think I made a noise like a startled goose.

Then something odd happened. My skin started to fizz, my head went completely clear, and by the time I was back on the beach with a flask of tea I could not stop grinning. I felt better than I had in weeks. I have been back every Saturday since, though I still complain all the way in.

Both writers describe swimming in the sea for the first time.

What are the similarities between the writers’ experiences of entering the sea?

Draw on evidence from both texts to support your answer.