Bath
This was our second visit to the always delightful city of Bath.
Having limited time and not wanting to repeat things we'd done before,
we targeted some particular sites: the museum house at 1
Royal Crescent, the Assembly Rooms (both essential for getting a full
picture of Bath, in my opinion), and the Jane Austen Centre. Preeminent
among England's resort towns, Bath is wonderful for strolling, especially
in the early evening when the traffic dies down somewhat but the sunlight
lingers. In Austen's day, the newly built town was "glaring white";
these days, the stone is a warm tan. While the houses are mostly
all variations on the theme of classically inspired elegance, it is interesting
to note the way in which the style is diminished in the more modest buildings
and executed on a grand scale in others. We walked in some areas
mentioned in Jane Austen's novels and personal letters, including Milsom
Street, a top shopping street since the early 1800s. I took a picture
of a tile mosaic in the entry to the Jolly & Son department store there
-- the peacock in the middle is holding a banner that says "fashion."
In the evening we bought sandwiches at Waitrose grocery and walked to the
gardens off Henrietta Street to eat them. We walked back to our car
via the Abbey and Pump Room (both closed, the plaza between them quiet
at last), and through some side streets to the Royal Crescent. Bath
unfortunately attracts a fair number of scruffy young people who are apparently
disinclined to get jobs despite the energy and initiative they display
in panhandling. This is a bit of a bother, but that's my only
complaint.
Just a bit of Bath: fashionable Milsom
Street, and a tile mosaic at the entrance to a department store.
Below, the Assembly Rooms, where the fashionable would come to dance, play
cards, and socialize.
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