Tag Archives: Bath Somerset

August 10, 2011 · 10:14 pm

♥ More about Bath



As a teenager I was much addicted to reading the romantic novels of Georgette Heyer and in early adulthood I fell in love with Jane Austen’s works, so when I was in Bath last week it made perfect sense to make a beeline for the Assembly Rooms in the Upper Town.  The rooms were at the heart of fashionable Bath society in bygone centuries; Georgette Heyer’s heroines, Jane Austen (when she lived in Bath) and characters in her Bath novels (Northanger Abbey and Persuasion) visited the rooms to dance, listen to music, play cards or drink tea.



The elegant rooms are on view to the public but as they are empty except for a few pieces of furniture and the splendid chandeliers, it was difficult to imagine what they were like back in the day when, candles flickered after dark, young women were chaperoned in public places and Beau Nash ruled society in Bath.



Bath’s Fashion Museum is housed in the lower ground floor of the Assembly Rooms and when I visited there were two special exhibitions on, the first Dressing the Stars (until 29th August) which showcases the work of British costume designers who have won Academy awards and the second The Enduring Romance of the Wedding Dress (until the end of the year) in celebration of this year’s Royal Wedding.  While the exhibitions at the Fashion Museum in Bath may lack the lustre of the set pieces put on by major museums, I nonetheless spent a good two hours happily viewing them and the museum’s permanent collection.  The permanent collection has clothes and accessories dating from the 17th century to the present day. (The pictures above show costumes from The Duchess and the dresses worn by the actresses who played the young Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret in The King’s Speech)



The outfit I would most liked to have walked away in, came from the contemporary section of the permanent collection, it was a very wearable high-low mix of a vintage Chanel jacket worn with chinos and a white blouse from The Gap, accessorized with a Mulberry bag.



After my visit to the Assembly Rooms I strolled to the magnificent perfectly proportioned Royal Crescent where I stopped to have tea and homemade biscuits in the sunlit garden of the Royal Crescent hotel.



I am sad as I write this, as the television is on in the background and I am listening to news and discussion about the violence, rioting and looting in parts of England over the last three days. It’s very difficult to take in, in total contrast to the serene England I saw a week ago and a shocking reminder of the lurking darkness that can cast gloomy shadows around the heart of any civilized society.

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August 6, 2011 · 9:29 pm

♥ Meet the Romans



When I visited the Roman Baths, in Bath, I met two helpful and very knowledgeable ‘Roman’ stonemasons Brucetus and Veracundus and from them I gleaned the following information.

The invading Romans arrived in the area in the 1st Century and stayed to the early part of the 5th Century.  The native Celts had already discovered the hot spring that daily gushes up one million litres of water heated to 46°C.  The hot spring fascinated the Romans and they believed it was the work of the Gods.  Initial hostilities between the two races evaporated when the Romans built the baths and a temple for worship of a deity named Sulis Minerva (a unification of the Celtic goddess Sulis and the Roman one Minerva).



The Romans may not have found gold in the hills encircling Bath but they did find stone (00litic limestone) with which to build the baths plus the temple and lead which allowed them to lay the pipe work that channelled the hot water from the spring into a series of baths and the overflow into the river Avon.  The stone is apparently very easy to work with and the fine dust that is created when it’s chiselled was used as a face powder by Roman women.  The settlement became famous, an ‘It Spa’ of its day, possibly because of the reputed curative powers of the spring’s water and attracted many visitors from other parts of the Roman Empire.



Limestone is still mined in the Bath hills which are now honeycombed with tunnels; these tunnels came into their own during the World War Two when they were used  to store art treasures and as an underground space where aircraft parts could be made without fear of the ‘factory’ being bombed.

The Roman Baths are splendid and so worth a visit if you are in or near Bath, the cost of admission (£12.50) includes an audio guide and some of the commentary on this guide is by Bill Bryson.

To Brucetus and Veracundus if you ever get to read this, gratias vobis ago, which I hope means thank you in Latin.

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August 4, 2011 · 8:48 pm

♥ Postcard from Bath

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A slideshow – Roman history, honey coloured stone Georgian buildings, adjacent hills, a mix of museums, the ghostly presence of Jane Austen, all part of the magnificent mélange that is the beautiful stately city of Bath.

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