Regency Bath - Part VII

Bath is a very hilly city and the higher up the hill you lived the more you were in with the in crowd. Poor Jane Austen. Her family's fortunes slowly went downhill. When they first moved to Bath they lived in Syndney place, a relatively new house. After her father's death they moved down the hill to Gay Street and finally settled in Trim Street. Definitely coming down in the world.
This is Trim Street today. As you can see not one of the beautiful sweeping Terraces, like the Paragon Buildings where the Austens stayed with their relatives.






I thought you might enjoy this view of the colonade, since it includes the Regency gentleman from the Jane Austen center. He hands out leaflets down by the pump room and I couldn't resist taking a picture of him.


And this is a plan of Georgian Bath, as you can see it was much smaller then.

Members of the ton and lots of other people too traveled from London to Bath in this period to take the waters, so I imagine that the population swelled in the summer months.

For the cost of one pound one shilling, one could travel on Mountain's Bristol and Bath and London Post-Coach from the Greyhound (an inn), Market Place Bath to the Saracen's Head, Snow Hill in London. You would leave Bath at 4 pm in the afternoon and arrive at 8am the next morning, well guarded and lighted all the way. It was only fifteen shillings, if you traveled on the roof.

Finally, I wanted to remind you that Bath is a very old city. The wonderful buff-colored sandstone buildings were new in the Regency era. They were Georgian and they were classically styled as we discussed in the very first blog on this topic. However Bath was a Roman City and we saw a little of their baths, and a medieval city. And I was thrilled to find this reminder of that ancient time in the center of the town. The remains of the medieval wall. I could not help but run my hand over it and imagine knights in armor trotting past.




Oh, and we did have supper at Sally Lunds, the home of the Bath bun. The dinner was excellent, I would highly recommend it, and the people were exceeding friendly and made us very welcome. Since it was the last time I went out for dinner with my mum it will always remain close to my heart.

And that is it. No more Bath from me, though I could have gone on for weeks I promise this is the last I will have to say about Bath for sometime to come. Next week will be March and we will begin with Flora and Fauna and Fashion and then move on to a new topic.

Until then, happy rambles.