Day 13: It is a truth universally acknowledged...with apologies to Austen!

It is a truth, universally acknowledged that an Australian tourist in possession of a spare day in Somerset, must be in want of a fine sunny day in Bath. And that is exactly what we got, it was a slightly diverted start this morning as Enid had remembered where she thought she had left her wallet and so we headed back to Lacock on the off chance that it might be found. We phoned the Parish Staff and they were so helpful and searched St Cyriac’s church, to no avail. But, as we were almost back at Lacock and there was a plan to check at all of the places we had been. Great news! The wallet had been handed in at the National Trust Office, missing its money, but the important things were intact.  Great rejoicing in Harry from a Galaxy far far away as we merrily rolled along to Bath. 

The Saturday of a bank holiday weekend meant that Bath was pumping but we were fortunate to find a park in the underground car park that Chris had researched. We wandered up towards the Abbey, but as it was nearly lunch time, we called by Sally Lund’s Cafe, a very famous cafe in the oldest house in Bath. Sadly the wait was going to be a bit long, so we went in search of other options and found Green Pickles, which served rustic, light meals. Quiches, soups and salads finished, it was up to Bath Abbey and we were just in time for a fabulous violin orchestral performance of several Mozart pieces by the Concerta Konstantz from Germany. The music was beautiful and in that prayerful setting it was so moving. The acoustics were piercing and the music ethereal. The down side of the visit was that the Abbey is undergoing significant renovations to its flooring. Craftsmen are removing each flooring segment and the grave covers that accompany it and are reinforcing the floor which is at risk of subsidence due to its proximity to the hot springs under and adjacent. This meant that the side of the cathedral commemorating captain Arthur Phillip was actually closed off, but Chris managed to find the spot and get a photo of the flag. The amazing thing about the flooring works is that, when they are finished the abbey will be able to be heated by the hot springs.. so that is very environmentally conscious and perhaps a good example for Enviro Ethics for any of my Studies of Religion colleagues. The outside of the abbey is also stunning, with the carvings and the ladders with the angels climbing up to heaven, with one angel climbing down! It is a stunning historical but living religious building and we also learned that the stained glass and much of the eastern end of the abbey had to be rebuilt after the bombings in the WWII. 

Martina was keen to see the Roman Baths and so we were joining the line when a character offering free Jane Austen Walking Tours appeared in the Abbey Square. It was none other than the character Lady Catherine de Burgh of Pride and Prejudice fame. So the line to the baths was left and we headed out on a fab walking tour of Jane Austen’s Bath. We learned all sorts of interesting things about both Bath and Jane Austen. We visited the Pump Room, the place where the ambitious mothers from the high society set would check out the addresses of the male talent holidaying in Bath each summer and would determine from the register which events they were attending and would make sure that their daughter turned up at the same events, positioning her for a proposal! Scheming women they were. We then made our way down to the Baths, via the cloisters which was a colonnade where the rich women we carried in bathing cabs and were dropped off so that they maintained their modesty when they went to bathe in the waters. We learned about the different baths and how the water can take up to 10000 years to percolate to the baths. Walking briskly along to what was the poorest part of Bath in the early 1800, we learned that Jane Austen’s father had been an Anglican minister but, when he died, his wife was not entitled to his 600 pound pension and so Jane, her sister Charlotte and her mother had to live in very por conditions. She never actually wrote her novels while in Bath, moving instead to a home bought for her and her mother and sister by her brother who came into wealth a few years later. What we did grow to understand more deeply was her rejection of the pretensions of the summer season in Bath and the biting satire that comes through in some of her novels as a result. She stayed at 1 Queens Square during the summer season of 1802 and this certainly gave her a lot of material. The spot today has a red postbox outside and is a ritzy hotel. It appears that the George, Prince of Wales was very keen on Jane and rather demanded that he receive a dedication in her fist copy of Persuasion. She obliged, in spite of her lack of regard for him, as he led a reckless drunken life. Our final stop was conveniently outside the Jane Austen Centre and shop, where the tour ended and we were told of Jane’s early death and the fact that, during her lifetime , not one of her books were written in her own name: rather “by the author of Sense and Sensibility” etc. It was a lot of fun and while we mooched in the shop for a few moments there were other things on the agenda. 

Martina was heading for the Baths and Chris and Enid and I looked around a craft market in Queens Park before moving down to the Baths area in search of afternoon tea, and where better than the Bath Bun, a tea house serving the Bath Bun and cream teas. The Bath Bun is interesting , it is a bit like a hot cross bun without the cross, except that it has a sugar cube baked into it and currants and crystal sugar on top. It was a pleasant recharge to the batteries while we waited for Martina, and then went back to the car for the drive back... but ohhhhhh what a drive. 

Somehow Sat Nav and Google Maps were conspiring against us and even though we put the correct numbers into both we ended up on a very convoluted route through impossibly narrow laneways where we encountered local idiots who think that 60 MILES an hour is an appropriate speed to do on a winding  single lane road where there is no passing opportunity. It was so stressful and exhausting (but we did manoeuvre through Batcombe)... and then we arrived home to discover that the fridge had not been on and so the food that we had was for the most part no good.. so Martina cobbled together some bacon eggs and toast and a little cheese and some raspberries. It had been a big day!