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Finally, they put me in the hip bath and took turns pouring buckets of water over me.

Every night the three gather onstage before the show and do a vocal warm-up, repeating the words “hip bath” as their voices drop from squeakily high to droningly low.

The hip bath is, well, a bath but not necessarily the real thing.

A day’s rest is the best thing; an hour’s sitting in a hot hip bath, replenishing the heat as the water cools, gives much relief.

The following is Mr Grantham’s formula:—Two ounces of strong hartshorn in two gallons of water, used in a hip bath.