We awoke on our 10th anniversary morning feeling much more refreshed than we had in days (vomiting babies and overnight flights not being conducive to good shut-eye). So we decided to hit the ground running with a walking tour of Jane Austen’s Bath, following the audio tour the Mayor’s office put together. We walked up and down and all around and saw pretty much every place the Austens lived and most everywhere that any of the characters are mentioned as visiting. I was absolutely giddy!
Milsom Street still is the fashionable shopping hub of the city, with a few traces of older times.
The Lower Rooms! Where Catherine met Henry Tilney!
Pulteney Bridge, which we had to cross to get to Laura Place. Jane’s daily route into town!
And Catherine and the Allens stayed here, along Great Pulteney Street, alongside all sorts of real life celebrities such as Hannah More and William Wilberforce.
The Austens, of course, lived at Number 4 Sydney Place, around the end of Great Pulteney Street.
Jane wrote to Cassandra how much she enjoyed walking through Sydney Gardens. We did, too.
Then across town and up the gravel walk (where Anne and Captain Wentworth strolled after reconciling) to the Royal Crescent, as magnificent as all the descriptions make it out to be!
We toured the Georgian house at No. 1 Royal Crescent (the big house behind us in the picture above), but no photos were allowed inside. It was a neat reproduction of how life would have been in Georgian England, but only a few rooms were open and decorated, so I found the admission a bit steep for what we got to see.
Then past the Circus to the Assembly Rooms (Upper Rooms), now hosting the Fashion Museum with a special exhibit on WWI clothes, with several costumes from Downton Abbey on display. And we stopped in their tea rooms for hot chocolate and Bath Buns.
The Octagon Room!
When Captain Wentworth told Anne he had nothing left to stay for, he would have fled the concert this way. Serious fangirl heart flutterings.
The costume pictures would take too long for me to edit with the slower internet connection at the hotel, so I just made a big album of them on facebook. I especially wished the girls could have been with me for that part. Lizzie would have been in heaven.
This is where they danced!
Then up a steep hill to Camden Place, where Sir Walter and Elizabeth and Mrs. Clay could look down on everyone else (literally–it’s a great outlook over lower Bath)!
Looking down Milsom Street. And that’s Beecham Cliffs (where Catherine told Henry, “I cannot speak well enough to be unintelligible”) in the distance.
Finally, on our way to dinner, we found St Swithin’s Church, where George and Cassandra Austen were married and where he died and is buried (a stone’s throw away from Fanny Burney, of all people).
(We also attended Evensong services at Bath Abbey, a beautiful church. Took some pictures of the outside, but they don’t seem to fit with the theme. Suffice to say that English church music is amazing, especially when performed in medieval cathedrals!) We’re on our way to London tomorrow morning…