Where the Famous Slim

Southland Times, Issue 22731, 6 November 1935, Page 5

Where the Famous Slim

A FORTRESS FOR A HOSPITAL. In one of the most remarkable castles in Britain, famous people are paying from fifteen to thirty guineas a week to be deprived of nearly everything they like. When the castle was built in 1281, it was called Rhudd-ddin —the Red Fortress, states an exchange. It is still a fortress, but in a twen-tieth-century way. Its arrangements are a book of rules, its enemies, disease, and the temptations of late nights and rich food. Many of its patients go there to be diagnosed and treated for illness, but some go simply to be slimmed. Luxury and indulgence are put away and rigid diets are planned and strictly abided by. At noon and 6 p.m. the flock of sixty well-to-do men and women goes meekly to its room and lies down for an hour. At 10 p.m. everybody must be in bed. No alcohol is allowed unless prescribed by a doctor. Hearty men who are used to oysters, lobsters and saddles of mutton, public men who eat fivecourse lunches and seven-course dinners, women who cannot resist cream, all go to Ruthin Castle to eat halibut, green salads, and dry biscuits and drink lemonade for a month or more. Each patient has a diet chart in the kitchen, and each meal is separately “designed” and the calories are weighed. There are compensations. The castle looks out on three sides to the lovely hills of Wales, and on the fourth, to the gentle Vale of Clwyd And the local “pictures” are not banned—up to ten o’clock at night.