A MAGNIFICENT story from the D&S Times of 150 years ago this month: “A newly-married pair, who arrived on their honeymoon trip at a celebrated watering place not a hundred miles from Darlington at a time when accommodation was at a premium, had a mattress spread for them by a compassionate innkeeper in one of his baths.

“In the middle of the night, the house was alarmed by loud shouts proceeding from the nuptial chamber. What was the matter?

“Well, the young bride, wishing to ring for a maid, had caught hold of what she supposed to be the bell rope, and pulled it smartly.

“Unhappily for her and her spouse, it was the cord of the shower bath, above their heads, and forthwith down plumped such a deluge of cold water as would throw a damper upon the most devoted of honeymooning couples.

“Her husband in his dismay caught frantically at another cord on his side of their extemporised couch, but the only response was an equally liberal deluge of water, this time nearly boiling hot.

“The unhappy pair then screamed in unison, and the bride, in the excitement of the moment, uttered sentiments anything but complimentary to her fond spouse.

“When the servants came they were just in time to rescue the unlucky pair from drowning, for the room was already half full of water, and the wife was perched like a monkey on her husband’s back, uttering lamentable cries, while her good man was fumbling in the dark trying to find the door.”

The D&S concluded: “Let us trust that the subsequent wedded life of this unfortunate couple may be happier than its commencement.”