History identifies those who equate swimming in the confined and tamed water of an indoor swimming pool with a sea plunge as having lost sight of what it is on which their humanity is predicated; namely, a descriptive use of sensory resources.

Oliver Goldsmith summed up what sea bathing entails and pool swimming can't when, in 1774, he contrasted the "naked savage standing on the beach of the ocean, trembling at the tumult of the sea" with he "who has exercised his mental prowess and has learnt to find his own superiority".

Goldsmith was associated with the intellectual elite who bathed as house guests of Mr and Mrs Thrales from their West Street, Brighton, residence. He was aware of the capacity of all who are fully-realised persons to use the sensations and bodily impressions going with being engulfed by the rough and tumble of the waves to furnish themselves with knowledge of the pattern of their play and to be safe with them.

served to "assist the industry and enlarge the sphere of enjoyment" of whoever did so.

than his bathing attendant believed he possessed the know-how to cope with because of his eagerness to demonstrate his quality of mind".

of what the sea has to teach.

Although robbed of my mobility by arthritis, the challenge of bathing in the sea, whatever the weather, opens the door to the realm of mind I am only too grateful to have access to.

between fully-realised self-awareness and sensory responsiveness than was first formulated way back in the early-18th Century.

-DR Sawyers, Kensington Place, Brighton