A literary walk through Bath

By Gaurav Jain Everyone has one book in them goes the old adage. I myself have typed out a pair of 50,000 word outlines but never really had a chance to see them through. It wasn’t writers block as much as it was the simple lack of inspiration to continue and to commit. Seeking a muse I found myself driving to a stunning town of beauty and inspiration situated an hour north of London. Bath has served as the setting and inspiration for romance, intrigue and comedy in many works of English literature from some of its greatest literary minds. It’s the setting for the first complete works of both Charles Dickens & Jane Austen. The drive up is only slightly less beautiful than the town itself. Lush green hills, narrow roads shaded by vines, grazing cows and horses that cast a curious eye at passersby. Perhaps the granddaddy of English literature Chaucer himself roamed these lands before penning the tale of the Wife of Bath. [caption id=“attachment_23579” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“Entering Bath is like traveling back in time. It is a town of beautiful buildings and has been a center of attraction through the ages. jon gos Flickr”] [/caption] Entering Bath is like traveling back in time. It is a town of beautiful buildings and has been a centre of attraction through the ages. It all started with its Roman baths, which gave the city its existence and attracted travelers. The cathedral cemented Bath’s place in history and then it became a fashionable spa resort town which gave rise to its magnificent Georgian buildings. These buildings have remained largely unchanged for three hundred years and have served and continue to serve as settings for some of the most popular pieces of literature ever published. The center of Bath has appropriately been created from Bath Stone and is home to great history and beautiful architecture. Bath Abbey with its unique depiction of Jacob’s ladder on the façade is an impressive place of worship. Built, pulled down and then rebuilt it was here that the first King of all England Edgar was crowned in 973 in a ceremony that set the precedent for all coronations in Great Britain. The Roman Baths of Bath are nearly 2,000 years old and some of the construction was done during the reign of Emperor Claudius. Although most of the construction is relatively newer it gives a great sense of what a functioning Roman Bath would have been like. Geoffrey Monmouth’s largely fictional History of the Kings of Britain mentions the healing properties of the waters as experienced by the legendary King Bladud. A short walk from from the abbey and connected to the Roman Baths is the famed Pump Room. Officialy inaugurated by the Duchess of York in 1795 and credited as the beating heart of Bath society ever since. It is featured prominently in Jane Austen’s first completed work Northanger Abbey. Once a spot to sip on the holistic waters of Bath, it is now a restaurant and one can have a pleasant lunch below its elegant chandeliers and marvel at how little the place has changed(3 courses for 20£) since Austen’s time. “With more than usual eagerness did Catherine hasten to the pump–room the next day, secure within herself of seeing Mr. Tilney there before the morning were over, and ready to meet him with a smile; but no smile was demanded — Mr. Tilney did not appear. Every creature in Bath, except himself, was to be seen in the room at different periods of the fashionable hours; crowds of people were every moment passing in and out, up the steps and down; people whom nobody cared about, and nobody wanted to see; and he only was absent. “What a delightful place Bath is,” said Mrs. Allen as they sat down near the great clock, after parading the room till they were tired; “and how pleasant it would be if we had any acquaintance here.” Opposite the Pump Room was the White Hart Inn featured in Charles Dickens debut novel The Pickwick Papers, another book set in Bath as well as Jane Austen’s Persuasion. The owner of the White Hart Inn was Eleazer Pickwick and this is undoubtedly where Dickens picked up the title from. Unfortunately it was pulled down in the late 1800’s and is now a series of shops. You can walk down Gay Street designed in 1735 between a row of elegant townhouses, designed to look consistent for the entire length of the street. As you walk down the street do pay attention as you pass by residence number 25. That’s where Jane Austen lived. The snobbish elite of her Persuasion also live on this street and it’s defined as an acceptable address. .daylife_smartgalleries_container p { width: 100%; height: 100%; margin: 0; padding: 0; border: 0; background: transparent; } The characters of Persuasion also attend the theatre and listen to music at the Assembly Rooms. That was where society gathered for balls and events and where mothers brought eligible daughters to find them suitable husbands. Its evening hustle and bustle is also mentioned in The Pickwick Papers. At the appointed hour, Mr. Pickwick and his friends, escorted by Dowler, repaired to the Assembly Rooms, and wrote their names down in the book—an instance of condescension at which Angelo Bantam was even more overpowered than before. Tickets of admission to that evening’s assembly were to have been prepared for the whole party, but as they were not ready, Mr. Pickwick undertook, despite all the protestations to the contrary of Angelo Bantam, to send Sam for them at four o’clock in the afternoon, to the M.C.’s house in Queen Square. Having taken a short walk through the city, and arrived at the unanimous conclusion that Park Street was very much like the perpendicular streets a man sees in a dream, which he cannot get up for the life of him, they returned to the White Hart, and despatched Sam on the errand to which his master had pledged him. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Inspiration is everywhere and it has transcended through three centuries. Isabella Thorpe of Northanger Abbey mentions shopping for a hat on Milsom Street. Not only is Milsom Street beautiful even today it is the place to go shopping in Bath. In 2010 it was voted the Best Shopping Street in Britain. I am sure Jane Austen would agree. Another spectacular building one can visit is The Royal Crescent, a gem of Georgian architecture; built in the late 1700’s, its house number 16 was the fictional residence of Countess Emma Orczy’s disguised French Revolutionary hero, the Scarlet Pimpernel. Dicken’s Mr. Pickwick found himself residing in one of townhouses as well. Anywhere you go in the town of Bath, it’s like you walk in and out of the pages of English literature. The writers have gone and the times have changed but Bath’s well preserved streets and buildings give you a fleeting glimpse into the golden age of modern English literature. While that age of literature has passed, Bath continues to be a source of inspiration and a much sought after setting for writers. Christopher Lee set a series here whilst Peter Lovesey, famed writer of Victorian era stories, chose Bath as the location for a contemporary murder mystery. Curiously both authors chose to explore the dark side of human nature set in a relatively chaste Bath. Bath’s ability to inspire has kept it relevant from Roman times to our millennia. One can walk on the streets once walked by Dickens and seek out places that Austen wrote about. As you visit these places that come alive, perhaps you can also find the inspiration to commit pen to paper and finish that first book just as Dickens and Austen did.

A literary walk through Bath

Anywhere you go in the town of Bath, it’s like you walk in and out of the pages of English literature. From Austen to Dickens, all the way back to Chaucer, this town inspired the greats.

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