Newspaper and magazine articles about John Hulley

1866 Jun 2 The Porcupine - Mr Hulley Will Explain
We have received several letters respecting the admission of the public to the Gymnasium. From the statements made. It would appear that there is no rule laid down by the committee, or rather Mr Hulley, (for the latter seems to include the former,) upon the matter, the consequence is, that Jacks in office take upon themselves to select who shall or who shall not visit the strangers Gallery. "A Working Man” says: --

"Having a desire to see the performances of Mr Hulley's pupils, and learning from a friend that the public were admitted to what he called the strangers’ gallery, after having divested myself of my working clothes, and made myself presentable, I took a stroll down as far as the Gymnasium this (Monday) evening, and, stepping inside the building, looked round me for the way leading to this gallery. I had, perhaps, been in the building a minute, when I was somewhat sharply accosted by a military official, (commissioner I think it's the name,) and told that I could not stand there. I asked to be directed to the strangers’ gallery, when he told me that he could not admit me. I expressed my surprise, saying that I had been told by a friend, who had been a few evenings previously, that the public were admissible. He replied that they were sometimes. I said, then I presumed that this is a special occasion, to which he replied that it was, but in so hesitating a manner as to lead me to doubt whether the man was speaking the plain truth or not. I thanked him, and walked out. May I say that I felt hurt at my reception, as even the working man is not devoid of feeling and self-respect; and I must say I find it difficult to rid myself of the idea that there is snobbery somewhere. If you could furnish me with the key to the above I should feel obliged."

1866 Jun 9 The Porcupine - Mr Hulley Explains
Mr Hulley, in reply to the complaint of a working man, which we inserted last week, states that the following paragraphs, has appeared in the Mercury for the last five months: -

Liverpool Gymnasium, Myrtle-street - By permission of the Gymnasiarch, ladies and gentlemen are admitted to the galleries to witness the class exercises, every evening, between the hours of seven and nine o'clock. (Children not admitted.)

We presume, from this curt reply, that Mr Hulley did not consider our correspondent "a gentleman," or must have thought him a baby. He further states that "the Gymnasium was never intended for the artisan class." Fine feathers make fine birds, and since Mr Hulley -- we beg his pardon -- the Gymnasiarch of Liverpool, has thought it becoming to imitate the Town-hall flunkeys by covering himself with gold and lace, his notions of gentility and respectability are considerably altered. We would respectfully suggest that after this he should alter his motto. Instead of “a sound mind in a sound body," it would be more consistent if he said a weak mind, and fancy clothing.

1866 Jun 16 The Porcupine - Mr Hulley at Llandudno
From our Special Special
You will no doubt have heard that Mr John Hulley, the working man's friend, otherwise known to himself as the Gymnasiarch of Liverpool, has purchased Llandudno as a summer residence. He has taken possession of his new purchase, and can be seen parading himself on the shore in the costume of a Field Marshal. He allows that the present occupiers of the place to remain in the vicinity during the summer months, but will turn them all out of house and home as soon as the weather becomes implement, so as to allow the poet, who wrote Nathan and Co.’s circular to compose a second "Deserted Village." This party has already commenced his poem, and succeeded in producing the following:
                                  Llandudno, loveliest village of the plane,
                                  The pride of nations and the azure main;
                                  I think I'll be wherever I may go –

Here, he has stopped, having come to a standstill for a rhyme to go. he has written to his late employers, and they have suggested –
                                 For Hulley-sea-garments to Nathan and Co.

Colonel Walmsley, objects to this, and wishes the following to be inserted:
                                 ‘Twill never do to give thee up so, oh!

This has reference to Mr Hulley's purchase of the place, the gallant Colonel feeling himself aggrieved at having to give up his rights to the Gymnasiarch. How the affair will end, we are at a loss to imagine: all we know at present is, that the despoiler walks about the shore, gnashing his teeth and glaring at the little boys building sand castles. Previous to the destruction of the place, certain sports, as our readers are aware, are to take place, and already five millions of visitors have arrived to witness the proceedings. Indeed, so great is the immigration that Mr Hulley has ordered the great Ormeshead to be excavated, and a cave for the accommodation of the people. The Isle of Man expanding steamer, however, has been put on the station, so as to meet the exigencies of the occasion, and everyone is wondering where passengers will be put on their arrival.

"Such is life," said the brave Gymnasiarch, when he heard the intelligence: “What is life? ‘tis a beautiful flower, even as one of those I can purchase at St John’s Market for twopence. I saw men - bronzed, bearded men – moved to tears when they heard these simple but impressive words. The exertions of this great man - meaning the Gymnasiarch - are truly astounding. The feats he intends in accomplishing at the Festival are truly surprising. He purposes swimming a mile with his hands and feet tied, propelling himself with his upper jaw; he will run a hundred miles in a similar number of minutes; and will crack a boulder with his front teeth, and tie himself into a "Tom fool’s knot. These are only a few of the feats he promises: what he will do on the day in question, time only will show.

There is one great feature about the Gymnasiarch all would do well to imitate, and that is his modesty. All the time he's toiling and moiling for the benefit of the human race, he never for one moment seems to give a single thought to himself. He sees around him men pushing and striving to gain a bubble reputation; but he follows not in their track, being satisfied with the thought that he is doing good to his fellow-beings, and trying to get the working man into the Gymnasium, while the gentlemen are working. I must not forget to mention, before I close this communication, a very pretty and novel idea Mr Hulley purposes carrying out. He intends to carve the lesser Ormeshead into a likeness of himself, with movable eyes, composed of crimson lights. He very naturally says it will be useful to the "travellers by the sea" in that neighbourhood. The fishermen object, and say that such an object will frighten the fish; but who ever heard of fishermen being satisfied?

1866 Jun 23 The Porcupine - Mr Hulley "in the Middle of a German Band"
We read in the Llandudno Herald that a party of Germans chartered a steamer from Liverpool, and proceeded to Llandudno a few Sundays ago. Mr Hulley, although he is not a German, was one of the party, and no sooner did he land on the coast, and he raised a banner, and joined in the popular ditty "A Life on the Ocean Wave," which the young German gentleman indulged in. In addition to this the party, we hear, dined at the Adelphi Hotel, and waked the town from its propriety by shouting and singing.

We see no reason why Mr Hulley should plant a standard on the shores of any watering-place he may visit because he wears a field-marshal’s sash; or join in Sabbath-breaking with young gentlemen, who are celebrated for exuberance of spirits, because he is a Gymnasiarch. The editor of the Herald condemned this Germanic invasion, and Mr Hulley resented the reproof in language more remarkable for muscularity than delicacy. And further to show how much Mr Hulley respects liberty of the press, the Herald is not permitted to have a reporter at the meetings connected with the Festival.

1866 Jun 30 The Porcupine – The Festival at Llandudno
From our Special Special
"Hulley is the man that we do admire,” worth of chant the dwellers at Llandudno, in their native guttral, as night after night, they serenade him, led by the Welsh editor (Tydian,) who is known to be so partial to German music; but the great man heeds them not, although he always treats them with the greatest respect. I saw him the other night, after the fatigues of the day and indulging in German sacred music after dinner, step into the balcony of his hotel, and bow to the multitude who had assembled below to do homage to him. He simply bowed. It was a fine sight to see the great man standing humbly in the pale moonlight, bowing his mute acknowledgement of the enthusiasm he had created.

They call him here Ap Gal Llan Rilbaldi, or of the Garibaldi of the North. I must confess that I, like the natives here, am so lost in admiration of the Gymnasiarch's greatness and simplicity that I neglected my legitimate business to gaze upon him. I am forgetting to speak of the band of gallant youths who had gathered round his banner to struggle for their leader. It is a charming sight to see the hero, surrounded by his followers, walking up and down the Ormes: His dress is gorgeous, being one mass of gold and crimson. But I have already described it, and have only to add that, in addition to the articles of clothing already enumerated, he wears an antique Roman sword. The sports, from first to last, have truly rivalled anything that ever took place in the ages when men thought wild beasts no unworthy adversaries, and objected to dance around a prize-ring. The youths have struggled with a will that would have excited enthusiasm in the breasts of the poorest. Dozens have succumbed to the exertions, and have had to be carried off the field in a fainting condition or had to stay in the final heat, and sit in the brook to cool themselves. The noble Gymnasiarch says nothing as he sees his champions carried away before him. "’Twas so at Rome," I heard him mutter, as he calmly sheathed his sword, - "when we are there, we must do as they do. Palmam qui Meruit ferat.” The great-hearted creature forgot for the moment that he was not at Rome.

The sports are now over and the prizes have been given, and I shall return from the Gymnasiarch's head-quarters today, a wiser and a better man. Wiser, for I have seen exercises that I never dreamt of, and better, for I have listened to the Rev. Nevison Loraine's sermon on the mount. I have seen dumbbells of gigantic size raised above the heads of the operators, - I have seen Indian clubs whirled around with the rapidity of lightning, - I have seen the champion of England put on the gloves with an amateur, - the expert diver, sink himself below the azure main and remain below till the grapnells of the Humane Society had to be sent for, - I have seen the friend of Havelock surrounded by the fairest of the fair, adjudicating on the heights of Llandudno, - and last, but not least, I have seen the Gymnasiarch flashing his antique Roman sword in the sunshine.

All these things have I seen and more, for I have seen the distribution of prizes, and the gallant Drinkwater receiving a prize he hadn't won and offering to return it. I saw him take the chalice from the friend of Havelock, and also saw the thousands of anxious eyes that were cast upon it, looking as if they could drink water or any other beverage out of it, the sun had parched them so. It was a gratifying sight to see the commodore raise the cup to his lips and exclaim, "Here's your good health and your family's good health, may they live long and prosper -- this don't count."

All these things and more have I seen faithfully chronicle for your pages, in the hope that your readers may thoroughly appreciate the festival, which is now numbered amongst the things that have been.

1866 Jun 30 The Porcupine - Commemoration Day at the Gymnasium
Mr Hulley has often been the subject of PORCUPINE’S light jests -- called by the vulgar "Chaff". Perhaps he may again adorn the sporting paragraphs in these columns. Let that be that as it may. On the present occasion, however, our object is to do justice to the great public services of Mr Hulley - we wish he would not call himself the "Gymnasiarch."

At a time when all the friends of athletic development are in doleful dumps as to their prospects in this town Mr Hulley alone was hopeful - even cheerful. He saw that there was a great public work to be done, and he put his shoulder to the wheel and did it. Not, however, without discouragements, without disappointments, nor, Sooth to say, without some degree of snubbing. But he has pulled through at last, and, as the fruit of his labours, presents us with the establishment in Myrtle-Street, - its perfect organisation, and complete adaptation to the purposes of the physical education of the young men of the town. We have never been slow remarking that the intellectual education of the Liverpool hopefuls had been fearfully neglected. However, we are in expectation that when Mr Hulley, with his physical education, has provided them with the corpus sanum, they will be more open culture and the development of the mons sana.

On Tuesday, the Gymnasium presented what may, without exaggeration, be called a great sight. In the first place, several hundred gentlemen were met together to celebrate the complete and triumphant success of physical education and its future. A year ago, as Mr Melly said, the Gymnasium was looked upon simply in the light of an experiment. Few people, with the exception of Mr Hulley himself, regarded the project as likely to be successful. It has, however, realised the hopes of its parent - if we may use such a term - in an abundant degree. It has paid a good dividend. It has nearly two thousand active members, and fine members they are , if we may judge from what we saw on Tuesday. The exercises were gone through in the completest manner, and the dexterity of the practice was not less remarkable than the display of capacity for physical endurance.

In the speeches that were made after the so-called "assault - at - arms," we were heartily glad to hear the complete justice that was done to Mr Hulley's efforts and abilities. Everyone candidly acknowledged that the undoubted and eminent success of the institution was solely due to the untiring exertions of Mr Hulley. We see that that gentleman is now agitating the public mind on the questioning of swimming. The importance of the subject must at once be acknowledged in such a place as Liverpool, and we hope to hear that some measures have been devised for making a knowledge of swimming more extensive than that it is. PORCUPINE, in taking leave of Mr Hulley for the present, presents him with the thanks of the whole community -- at least of the sensible portion – for his great services to the town.

1866 Jul 7 The Illustrated London News – The Olympic Festival at Llandudno
The pleasant and the fashionable watering-place of Llandudno, on the coast of North Wales, possessing as it does
the natural attractions of the picturesque and dramatic scenery of Great Orme’s Head, has been enlivened this summer, as it was in the summer of 1865, with a series of public entertainments. The festival was got up mainly by the efforts of Colonel Hugh Walmsley, a gentleman by residing in the neighbourhood, with the aid of Mr Hulley, the able and popular conductor of the Liverpool Gymnasium; Mr W. B. Hughes, M.P.; and an influential local committee, having also exerted themselves in a common cause.

The Athletic Society of Great Britain, established in 1860, had arranged to hold its fifth meeting, called an Olympic Festival, at Llandudno on this occasion. The proceedings, which included a regatta, with a yacht-race from Liverpool, a variety of gymnastic performances, and a sort of Venetian carnival to crown the festivities, took place on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday week. All passed off with an entire success.

1866 Aug 29 Liverpool Mercury – Llandudno – The Gymnasiarch of Liverpool on Civilised Bathing
An address on the above subject was delivered on Monday on the Llandudno parade by Mr John Hulley, before a large assemblage of ladies and gentlemen. The speaker opened the proceedings by stating that an incident had just happened which had a forcible bearing on the subject in question. A lady, bathing on the ground set apart for the ladies, had ventured a little too far out, and although not more than 10 yards from the shore, was on the point of drowning. A bathing machine proprietor -- whom Mr Hulley introduced to the audience, stating at the same time, his belief that this was the only man connected with the bathing machines, who could swim - had gallantly swum out to her assistance, and had fortunately succeeded in saving her. The man, who appeared in his wet clothes, was loudly cheered.

Mr Hulley then read a letter he had just received from the chairman of the board of commissioners: --

To MR JOHN HULLEY
Llandudno, Aug. 27, 1866
Dear Sir, -- Being engaged at the commissioners' meeting here and petty sessions at
Conway this morning, I shall not be able to be present at your discussion on the
subject of bathing. I do hope that the visitors will take part in it, and, by condemning
the old plan of bathing in a state of nudity, support the authorities of the town, who
are most anxious to put a stop to such a practice and do all they can to make this
watering place second to none in the kingdom. -- yours truly,
W. S. CHAPMAN,
Chairman of the Board of Commissioners.

Mr Hulley then delivered his address, which was as follows: --
An outcry has arisen on the subject of bathing indecencies, which might have been well re-echoed from every seaside resort in the kingdom -- an outcry, which encourages us to hope that the British public do begin to see the objectionableness of their present customs, though hardly yet persuaded to adopt the only effectual means of remedying it.

There are two things to be done before British bathing will be as decent, as moral, as enjoyable as bathing on the continent. The first is to get men and women to wear decent bathing dresses; and the second is, to induce them to be in company. I do not mince matters, because I am sure there is no other way of removing the evil, which is every year complained of, and every year are allowed to go uncured. Any one who will think about the matter must agree with me in this; for what, after all, can be done unless we adopt the radical change I suggest? You cannot remove the ladies' bathing places far enough from the men's without rendering one or other so inaccessible, as almost to discourage bathing altogether. Even then you are almost sure to leave one or other of the bathing places within easy range of parades and dwelling houses, in many cases but a few yards off; and I confess myself at a loss to decide whether it is more unpleasant to see ladies staring at altogether nude men, or men watching for intermittent revelations of the female form from beneath the sloppy pretence of drapery which it is the indecent fashion to wear -- whether it is more indelicate to calmly enjoy these forbidden sites with one's natural organs, or to peer at them with the assistance of telescopes or opera glasses. I do not care to notice the argument that if people behaved properly they would not stare. It suffices that people do stare, and that a certain proportion of people always will stare. What is required, therefore, is a system by which the temptation to gaze can be removed, or by which gazing can be rendered innocuous, or even invited, by tasteful dressing, without any reproach, whatever.

Contrast with these practices -- which I am sure you will admit I do not in the slightest degree exaggerate -- the elegance, the ease, the unembarrassed purity of the great French watering places. At Biarritz, the favourite resort of the Emperor and Empress of the French, where the latest improvements have been adopted, instead of bathing machines. They have one long moresque building, in which are comprised suites of elegant dressing rooms, with two general entrances -- at the one end of the ladies, and at the other for gentlemen, two very good sketches of which appear in the last two numbers of the Illustrated London News. From this building, along the front of which runs an ornamental corridor, the bathers descend to the sand by flights of steps, nearly running down to the water, but leaving, except in very high tides, an ample and agreeable promenade. Here the separation between the sexes ceases, and the complete absence of embarrassment is sufficient evidence of the appropriate and delicate character of the costume. The "walloping indecencies" of our seaside life are all committed under an impression of not being seen, which, though utterly delusive, is powerful enough to perpetuate them.

As an illustration of this curious inconsistency, I may mention an incident which was witnessed on the beach of a northern watering-place the other day. Several ladies were bathing, and a gentleman, quite unknown, was calmly watching their evolutions from about 3 yards behind their machines. Presently one of the ladies got out a little too far, was panic-stricken, began to flounder about, and eventually appeared in danger. The spectator walked calmly in to rescue her, but no sooner had he stepped into the water than the ladies, who now had been apparently quite at their ease under his searching gaze, scurried into their bathing machines, with the greatest trepidation.

This must be admitted by everybody to be perfectly absurd. Why should English ladies be content to bathe in public in a dress in which were anyone to appear in France they would be promptly interfered with by the police? Where is our posted morality, if young ladies cannot, without reproach, bathe openly in close proximity to men in puris naturalibus, while young men -- and old ones, too, for that matter – are enabled to criticise ladies on the promenade with the advantage of having studied their forms in the worse than absolute unity of the bathing hour? It is hard to hard to speak of pure-minded English girls as if they've voluntarily sought insult, when one knows they only follow a custom supposed to be ordained from motives of propriety; but the axe must be laid to the root of the tree, and fathers, brothers, and husbands must be made to realise that such are the deplorable and indelicate results of the system, which is only beginning to disappear in favour of that which prevails in France.

My argument is simply this -- women, and now wear dresses because decency forbids them to be nude. But the dresses they wear do not ensure decency. The rule, therefore, which compels them to dress, should be made more stringent, and compel them to dress effectively,. Then, for the sake of decorum and morality, the men should be compelled to dress also. Those of them who preferred not to dress should be compelled to bathe at a distance and beyond observation. Having thus enforced dress upon all men and women who bathe in sight of one another, or within range of parades or houses, the next step is to have the dresses made presentable.

This is already done by our French neighbours, who show as much taste and variety in its as in every other sort of dressmaking; and I am happy to say that that at this watering place a modification of a dress, called the "zonaverine” -- the alteration, consisting of a skirt, which I have suggested as adding, if possible, to its propriety of contour -- has been purchased within the last few weeks by about a hundred persons. Now, presuming a number of the ladies of fashion in a watering-place to appear in these dresses, as they are beginning to do here and as everybody does in France, including, as I can avouch, many English ladies who go prepared to disapprove, but at once induced by the gaiety and propriety of the scene to follow the French mode, the next step would immediately follow. There would at least be the option of bathing together; and while one part of the bathing ground was devoted to men only, and another portion exclusively to women (proper dresses being required in both), the central portion should be common to both, and should be the scene of that family and social enjoyment, backed "Society in the Sea," by which the French have so greatly added to the pleasures and refinement of the practice, which, as a hygienic expedient, we were the first to introduce. From this it would speedily follow this spread amongst ladies of a knowledge of swimming. No one needs to be told how the ability to swim adds to the pleasure of a bath -- no one is ignorant, that swimming is impossible without absolute exposure in dresses up the present awkward and entangling fashion.

Everyone is aware that the majority of ladies are too timid to learn without help; while the amount of assistance by which a male friend may teach a lady to swim is of the slightest and most delicate character. All argument, therefore, is in favour of a knowledge of swimming among ladies, and I am well pleased to know from a gentleman, who has done me the honour to republish, with remarks of his own, my letter to The Times from Biarritz last year, that the Duchess of Cambridge is strongly and publicly encouraging the movement, while the princesses have adopted the dress and been taught in it by a man to swim. My own experience abroad encourages me to hope great things in this respect, for I have often succeeded in teaching female friends of my own to swim, in a single lesson. Women, being more buoyant than men, learn to swim with much less difficulty. The positive advantages of the French system are very great, the gaiety of it, and the greater facility it affords for bodily exercise in bathing, adding greatly to the healthy the effects of sea-side sojourn. And the negative effects are not less remarkable. It is surely an advantage to avoid the practice of hiring bathing gowns, which must, I should think, be very repulsive to ladies, who would feel a delicacy in borrowing bonnets, or other articles of wearing apparel, even from friends, though custom induces them to wear next to skin these horrible garments, which are scarcely ever washed, and which are hired promiscuously by people of all grades and physical conditions. There are a few objections, which I think need to be anticipated.

For those men who think they would not thoroughly enjoy swimming in bathing dresses, I would say, first, that their fears are wholly groundless; and, secondly, that they may find places to bathe naked in, where they are not overlooked -- as they ought to do, indeed, at present -- while the option of wearing a dress will enable them to enjoy sociable bathing without the consciousness of contributing, by complying with the present indecent customs, to vulgarise a delightful and a restorative recreation. To those who think that the practice of bathing together would lead to greater familiarity than is desirable amongst unintroduced strangers, I would say that there is decidedly less chance of this in water and on the beach, where all meet now with, I venture to say, the recollection of previous bathing scenes to stimulate fastness and impropriety in many minds. In point of fact, the new system tends to keep families more together, and will enable fathers, sons, mothers, daughters, and friends to enjoy together the pleasures of bathing without the least awkwardness of either appearance or a manners, and with more gratification than has ever yet been attained.

In conclusion, I would only say that I am more than ever convinced that on the adoption of the system I advocate depends a very great advancement in the refinement, morality, and pleasurableness of English leisure, and that the first watering-place which thoroughly adopts it, and at the same time provide due facilities in the way of dressing rooms, boats, rafts, ladders, and arrangements for safe swimming and diving, will immediately obtain the lead amongst our summer and autumnal resorts. The customs which give their charm to Biarritz and other places where the representatives of the utmost refinement of every country in Europe yearly assemble and commingle cannot be adopted in this country without carrying the pleasures of the Seaside to a pitch of civilisation never yet conceivable by those who have not travelled abroad.
.
At the close on the address, discussion was invited, but, with the exception of two gentlemen who spoke in favour of Mr Hulley's case, no discussion was entered upon.

The question was then put to the meeting whether the views advocated were such as met the approval of those present, and was carried unanimously.

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