Postcards from Bath
and Bath was to be her home. (Jane Austen, Persuasion)
Destinating Bath
Any lover of Jane Austen and Georgette Heyer must one day make a pilgrimage to Bath. Like so many others who have “destinated” Bath (an apt coinage I borrow from the friend of a friend), I wanted to get a feel for the town that figures prominently in Persuasion and Northanger Abbey, as well as Black Sheep, Bath Tangle, Lady of Quality, and other novels. And I had lots of questions: What did the waters in the Pump Room actually taste like? What was the Circus and why did the Musgrove girls want to stay near it? Where was the desirable Laura Place? What were the Assembly Rooms like? I went to Bath to find out…
RECOMMENDATION: A great place to start one’s visit to Bath is the excellent — and free! — walking tour, run daily by The Mayor of Bath’s Corps of Honorary Guides. Each of the eighty-odd volunteer docents brings her own interests and perspectives to the tour. I was lucky enough to fall in with Diana White, a vigorous walker and the author of a new biography of Jane Austen. Diana has been leading these tours for twenty-six years, and she provided a great overview of the town, along with a wealth of quirky details.
My two-day visit included an excellent walking tour (see above), several museums (the Roman Baths, the Fashion Museum, and No. 1 Royal Crescent), a concert (part of the Bath Festival), a massage and other amenities at the wonderful Thermae Bath Spa, tea and a sip of the famous waters in the Pump Room, a silly-but-fun comedy walk, breakfasts on the terrace of the delightful Café Lucca, and walks around the town. I squeezed a lot into my short trip! Here are a few impressions — and postcards — from Bath.
A good beginning
What better comfort food than pie and mash? — the ideal choice for my first meal in the UK. TripAdvisor pointed me to The Raven of Bath, a pub whose homemade pies are famous. Served with “buttery mustard mash” and my choice of gravy (red ale!), my ham and chicken pie was richly flavored and succulent without being heavy. Yum! Plus an Old Mout passion fruit-apple cider (from New Zealand) to go with. A perfect start!
After dinner I wandered down to the Abbey where a group was gathering outside the Huntsman Inn for the nightly Bizarre Bath Comedy Walk. Billed as “hysterical rather than historical,” the tour lived up to its promise. It was a lighthearted and silly introduction to the center of Bath. And a good way to help me adjust to local time.
Around the Abbey
Bath Abbey is justly famous, a striking landmark at the center of old Bath. We walked all around it that first evening, and I was able to get several shots of its beautiful, moonlit exterior, fashioned of golden Bath stone.
The next day from tour guide Diana I learned about the rebus in stonework which commemorates Bishop Oliver King, under whose auspices the Abbey was founded. She also told us that the head of St. Peter (whose statue and that of St. Paul flank the main entrance) was damaged during the Civil War, so they fashioned a new head for him out of his remaining and once-impressive beard. It gives him a rather stubby look, in comparison to his fellow door-keeper!
A blessing on The Mayor of Bath’s tour guides,
who show us sights we didn’t know we wanted to see
and tell us secrets we didn’t know we wanted to hear!
Connections
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