Bath
Bewitching Bath
Resplendent City of Jane Austen, Beau Brummel and Sally Lunn
(Llew and Chriselle on their day out at the Roman Baths)
Bath is a gracious old city, nestling quietly in the Cotswold Hills, as if guarding some closely-kept secret. Our first view of the city came as we turned a bend on a heightened road while still a few miles from the town center.
Bath’s historical antecedents go back to the Roman occupation of the city when the medicinal waters of the hot springs that flowed under it were first used for therapeutic reasons. The city’s name, no doubt, derives from these utilitarian purposes. In keeping with their fondness for hot saunas, the Romans built public baths in this city and spent many a long hour deriving both pleasure and medicinal benefit from the soothing waters. Excavations on the Roman baths carried out in the 19 th century revealed the complicated series of rooms through which the swirling, smoking waters gushed. These excavated ruins are a site of tourist interest today. Crowned by statues of eminent Roman officials of the time, they are a testament to the power of the mineral springs and their ability to foster human settlements.
Then, long after the Romans had packed up their togas and left, the city gained prominence once again in the 18th century as a Center for Matchmaking. Indeed, it became the place for fashionable and wealthy young “dandies” to congregate with the idea of seeing and being seen. Among this ilke was the famous Beau Brummel who was known to have the most flamboyant sartorial tastes of the day and eagerly flaunted his fondness for extravagant couture. A statue to this Man About Town is seen in the Pump Room on the top floor of the Roman Baths.
The Pump Room was also made famous by novelist Jane Austen who during the Regency period set parts of her novels Northanger Abbey and Persuasion in Bath. In her Sense and Sensibility as well as in Emma, characters make reference to frequent visits to Bath where the rich and famous went “to take the waters”. When Llew, Chriselle and I sat ourselves down to a steaming cuppa and a traditional Bath Bun in the Pump Room, I could hear the faint rustle of crinoline skirts brushing against the chair’s legs as ghosts of eager bachelorettes hovered around our laden tables. In a corner somewhere lurked Austen quietly surveying the scene with her humorous eye for detail.
I found myself in Bath not during the gracious Regency period but at the turn of the 20th century to attend an International Millennium Conference on Film where I was presenting a paper on “South Asian Novels and their Cinematic Adaptations”. Llew and Chriselle joined me on the trip. We found accommodation in student dorm rooms on campus at the University of Bath perched high on a pretty hilltop. At the end of a busy day of conference participation, it was a thrill for all of us, international delegates attending the conference, most of whom were professors of English or Film Studies, to find that our celebratory candlelit dinner was held in the Pump Room (above left) after cocktails were served underground in the Roman Baths. It was a fabulous evening made even more special by the piano and violin recital provided by some of the university’s students while dinner was in progress.
Llew and Chriselle enjoyed sight-seeing around the resplendent Regency city which they were visiting for the first time. The city’s landscape is dominated by its fabulous medieval Abbey which we visited in the morning. Like most European Gothic cathedrals, its spire towers up into the sky. The interiors have fabulous soaring fan-vaulted ceilings. Right outside the Abbey, the road opens up into one of the beautiful architectural crescents for which the city is famed. Of these the Royal Crescent is most famous and is the site of some well-appointed hotels. Built in the 18 th century by some of the leading architects of the time such as John Wood and his son, also called John Wood, they house today some of Britain’s snazzier stores. A shop that several tourists frequent is the Sally Lunn Bakery, home of the famous English Sally Lunn Buns which originated here.
On the way to the Royal Crescent, we passed by the bridges that span the wiers on which water can be seen gushing down in picturesque curving steps. It is the interesting nature of early architecture and the present-day charm with which the city is endowed that makes it endlessly fascinating today.
Bath is best visited in summer when the roads are ablaze with color from the hanging flower baskets that are suspended over Victorian wrought-iron poles giving the entire city an air of freshness and refinement.
If you close your eyes and let your imagination take wing, you will see men in top hats and tail-coats sporting ornamental canes walking arm-in-arm with demurely clad ladies in the high–waisted Empire-line dresses of the Regency era as they promenade through the city hoping to attract the socially correct match.
You may not go to Bath today to sip medical waters or to find your dream partner, but I do hope you will consider going to partake of the rich treasures that history has left behind. Plan to pause a while to enjoy browsing aimlessly in the interesting shops or to nibble at a tea cake in one of the old-world tea rooms scattered around the city.
Bon Voyage!