Playing in Bath

Yesterday the uni provided a bus to Bath, England, a 2-1/2 hour drive from Swansea. Leaving at 8:30am, we would arrive in bath by 11am & have until 5:30pm to explore the town. Bath is a very historic place (as are most places in England, it seems). Now before we discuss what I saw in Bath, you need a little historical context because some people hear "Bath" & go "huh?" So, we should all thank Wikipedia for the following info I will give you.

Bath is in South West England & its claim to fame around some baths fed by the only 3 naturally occurring hot springs (over 80°F) in the UK. Most people associate it with Roman spas but it is suggested that it was founded earlier & people believed the waters cured many illnesses. It became a resort city for the wealthy during Elizabeth I's time & maintained that reputation until the Georgian times. Now it is populated by 80,000 people & college students.

Historically speaking, Bath dates to the Celts & Romans with the main spring treated as a shrine to the goddess Sulis by the Celts. The Romans invaded Britain in 43 AD & began identifying Sulis with the Roman goddess Minerva. Once they took over, they built grand temples & bathing complexes but in the late 4th century, the Roman Empire fell into decline. Some believe that Bath was the site of the Battle of Mons Badonicus (c. 500 AD) where King Arthur defeated the Saxons. How much truth is in this? Well, we don't since the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle mentions Bath falling to the West Saxons after the Battle of Deorham in 577. The A-Ss are the ones who gave Bath its present name. King William Rufus granted the city to royal physician John of Tours, who became Bishop and Abbot of Bath in 1088. He planned and began a much larger church as his cathedral, but by the 15th century, the later bishops preferred the city Wells & moved the bishop's palace there. Bath Cathedral fell into great disrepair. It was rebuilt in on a smaller schale in 1500 but the Bath Priory was dissolved in 1539. Henry VIII let it fall into greater disrepair & it was not restored until the Elizabethan period when the city drew the wealthy to the spas. Bath became an official English city in 1590. By the Georgian times (18th c), there became a continuing demand for elegant accomodation for the fashionable visitors. Architects John Wood the elder and son John Wood the younger laid out the new quarters, giving an impression of palatial scale and classical decorum by the identical facades. The city declined as a fashionable resort in the 19th century but not before Jane Austen visited. Jane Austen, writer of the popular Pride & Prejudice & others, lived in the city from 1801 - 1806 though she never liked the city. Despite this dislike, the city has honored her with the Jane Austen Centre. Two novels (Northanger Abby & Persuasion) are largely set in the city. In 1822 one of Bath's most famous residents, William Thomas Beckford (novelist), moved to the city. During WWII, Bath was hit by 3 air raids (25 - 27 April 1942) by the Luftwaffe, part of the Baedeker Blitz that damaged/destroyed 19,000+ buildings and killed 400+ people. The historical buildings were reconstructed.

Now what I saw:
Bath Abbey is probably the coolest building I saw. Though it looks really old, it really isn't compared to other British religious buildings. Originally it was constructed as a Norman church but was rebuilt in the early 16th century, transforming it with gothic-style flying buttresses.

Bath Abbey from the outside.

A close up of the ladder - possibly Jacob's?

The inside

Check out the fanned vault ceiling!
My relatives! The Bartlett's are buried here. I enlarged the photo, hoping you can read it. In case you can't, the first slab reads:
Bartlett Little of this city who died March 14, 1888 Aged 84 and Jane his wife who died July 7, 1885 Aged 73.
The second slab reads:
Edward Bartlett, Clara Jane, Olivia Timbrell, Laura Jane, Henry Homer, and Graham. Can't read the bottom part
An American flag with 48 stars!

The Pump Room:
The outside of the pump room.

Inside the Pump Room - now it's a posh restaurant.

The domed ceiling which I thought was gorgeous. Flowers remind me of the ones in the Musee D'Orsay in Paris.

I thought she was pretty.

My new boyfriend, Charles Dickens, though I don't think we'll get along well 'cause I don't particuarly care for his work. Now if it were Wilkie Collins ... well, we'd be on our way!

The Roman Baths:
The entrance to the Roman Baths
From the Pump Room - the waters are so green & yucky looking!
A closer view
These guys live on top of the roof. All of the inscriptions are in Latin, which I cannot read of course.
Close up of our Roman centurions.
Some guy? Made out of stone?
The original drain that still functions today!
This one looks really gross! Another drain.
A couple getting their wedding photos taken ... so I took the opportunity to take my own. She had a very pretty dress. Wish the US had cool things like this to do wedding photos...


We also went to the Jane Austen Centre, but I didn't take any photos. And we had proper high tea, but again no photos. Overall a really cool town. Wish I had gone to uni there instead of in Swansea. It's easier to navigate on foot! And it's not as far from London! And just to give you an idea of some famous people from Bath or lived there, here's a few you may recognize.

Famous People

Thomas Gainsborough (painter), Sir Thomas Lawrence (painter), Sit Isaac Pitman (invented shorthand), Sophie Cramb (mini-skirt inventor), Jane Austen (novelist), Henry Fielding (novelist_, Richard Brinsley Sheridan (playwright), Van Morrison (singer) William Herschel (astronomer, discovered Uranus with 7-foot long telescope, musician), Richard Lovell Edgeworth (writer, inventor), Richard J. Roberts (Nobel prize winning biochemist)

Lived in Bath in exile

Louis XVIII (before ascending the French throne), Napoleon III (before becoming President then Emperor of France), Haile Selassie I (during WWII)