Bath: Jane Austen's Most Hated Playground

I got off the train in Bath and I had no idea what to expect. I knew that there was a Jane Austen museum in town and old Roman bath house, but not much else. What I discovered was that Bath was the place for the elite to hobnob in the 18th century and into the 19th century.

Jane Austen was born in 1775 and grew up during the heyday of Bath's high society. Though she was raised out in the country, she'd often visit family and friends in Bath, where the gatherings at the Upper Assembly Halls and the society inspired much of her writing.

I've only read Pride and Prejudice and Emma, two of the books where the characters only visit the city and most of the story takes place out in the country, so I didn't know that Bath was such a big feature of her writing. I learned that Northanger Abbey and Persuasion took place almost exclusively in the city of Bath. So, in the gift shop, I picked up a special edition of Persuasion and plan on reading in the near future while my memories of Bath are still fresh in my head. In Persuasion Austen apparently shows her distaste for the city and the social climbers, which contrasts to the image she paints in Northanger Abbey. Persuasion was written after she'd lived in Bath.

The hot springs that rise from below provide the city with natural hot spring mineral baths. The baths are obviously where the city gets it's name from. At the time, the population believed that the mineral baths could cure all that ails you. In fact, there's a building in town (no longer in use for it's intended purpose) that was called the Royal Mineral Water Hospital. Here's a picture of the King's and Queen's Bath. You can see where the original water level was if you note the shade change from orange to cream in the picture below.


Here's a picture of the Royal Crescent. If you were the creme de la creme, you could afford a flat in the Royal Crescent or The Circus, both of which are close to the prestigious Upper Assembly Halls. Since Bath grew so fast during the 1700's, most of the city is filled with these Georgian style houses. On a sunny day, they make the hillsides glow.


Most of these Georgian houses would also have Georgian gardens in the backyard. Here is a picture of a Georgian garden. Note that there isn't any grass. This is because the lawn mower hadn't been invented yet. Thus, they'd use gravel in their gardens and the gardener would even the gravel with one of these gravel rollers.


The city lost most of it's luster during the Regency era when the ruling monarch decided that the seawater at Brighton was better for people's health than the mineral waters at Bath. Soon Brighton became the resort of choice and Bath's status began to slide. However, it appears as though the upper crust hasn't completely vacated the city.


Bath was an absolutely wonderful experience. If you happen to be in the area, I strongly urge you to stop for a day. However, I will warn you that it is a tourist trap. The price to do anything touristy is jacked up. In fact, I decided against going on the Roman Baths tour because they wanted 11.50 pounds (roughly $17.00) to look at a pool similar to the one that I took a picture of for free . . .