Austen--More about Bath

In the county of Somerset, Bath is fifty miles from the fictional Kellynch Hall—a short journey in today’s world of cars and trains. In Anne’s time, however, the trip was quite an undertaking by horse and carriage. Bath is located 12 miles from Bristol but feels much more compact and leisurely than Bristol. Austen wrote Persuasion and Northanger Abbey here, and it is where Gainsborough made a name for himself as a portraitist and landscape painter.

The city contains elegant crescents and Georgian buildings, and it has been known as a spa resort for many years. Bath gets its name from its hot springs (the only ones in the country), and Roman technology turned Bath into a bathing establishment. After the departure of the Romans, the city was left in ruins. It wasn’t until the first king of all England, Edgar, was coroneted in the abbey in 973 that the city began to experience an upswing.

Most of Bath’s Palladian mansions and town houses were built in the eighteenth century, and the stone used for most of them is local. Around this time, Bath saw its rebirth with the arrival of postal guru and baths fan Ralph Allen. The spa waters became famous, and many of Bath’s wealthy residents moved in. Richard “Beau” Nash, who was appointed Bath’s Master of Ceremonies in 1705, was a gambling dandy and womanizer who provided entertainment for the rich as well as imposed regulations on balls and dress. Nash’s presence contributed to Bath’s atmosphere of glitz and preoccupation with physical appearance and social class.