Congratulations, you have made it through another year! I think Simeon gave a good report on 2022 last week, so I do not need to say too much. This time last year, I wrote, “my best friend, honorary family member and favourite Martin was diagnosed with Bowel Cancer” and had just undergone an operation. I am pleased to report he received the all-clear, and we have been able to restart our Friday trips to London. My favourite exhibitions this year include the Harry Potter Photographic Exhibition, Small is Beautiful: Miniature Art Exhibition, and Raphael. I also enjoyed visiting places in Bath and Cardiff on a couple of holidays.
Last December, I set up a fundraiser for Bowel Cancer UK and raised a total of £750. Many donations came from friends of Martin, and I reached my £100 target in one day. This December, I set up a fundraiser for a different charity in honour of a very close friend, Stella. The charity is Beat, the UK’s leading charity supporting those affected by eating disorders. Stella and I met in 2014 when we were both hospitalised with anorexia. We were lucky (spoilt, even), although we did not realise it at the time, to receive NHS funding to stay in a private hospital. Since then, NHS funding has been withdrawn due to rising costs and a lack of government support.
Unfortunately, circumstances have forced Stella to return to hospital several times over the last few years, and she has experienced the results of reduced funding. Some hospitals have staff that lack eating disorder-specific training, and one is forced to discharge patients while they are still critically ill due to a lack of beds and understanding. Several deaths from eating disorders may have been prevented with the right support. Beat provides support for eating disorder sufferers by providing helplines, information and resources. They also campaign for increased NHS funding, reduced waiting times and better education for health and medical professionals. As of writing, I have raised £235 for Beat.
In June, I opened an Instagram account to showcase the photographs I took of Simeon on our various adventures. Simeon belongs to my friend Helen (Martin’s wife), and Martin suggested we take Simeon on holiday to Amsterdam in 2018. Since then, Simeon has visited many cities, completed many Treasure Trails, and posed for many photographs. I thought Instagram would be an easier way of sharing these pictures with my friends and family, but before I knew it, hundreds of accounts started following Simeon’s adventures. The majority of followers are also stuffed animals (or “plushies”), and I soon discovered a whole community of toys and teddy bears that go on adventures around the world.
In August, a sloth called Sammy (belonging to Martin and Helen) joined Simeon on his adventurers. In October, Ollie the Otter (purchased by Martin) arrived as the baby of the family. All three get up to a lot of mischief and like to visit other “plushies”, such as some of my cuddly toys: Hedgie the hedgehog, Vegas the monkey, Silly Billy the sloth (named by Simeon’s followers), Aurora the unicorn (also named by Simeon’s followers), and Dora Duck. To anyone who does not follow Simeon on Instagram, this probably sounds a bit crazy!
Simeon receives messages and comments from his followers almost daily. On Simeon’s birthday (17th November, if you are interested), one follower wrote, “Happy birthday to the sweetest plushie I have ever seen. You are one of a kind. We don’t know each other personally, but you have changed my life through your adventures!” Others have said similar things, often commenting on Simeon, Sammy and Ollie’s ability to be kind, thoughtful, sweet, cute and inspiring.
This year, I discovered the art of iris folding, which involves folding and sticking strips of paper to construct an image. I have made many greeting cards using this method, but for my Christmas card, I needed something I could photocopy and print several times. Inspired by iris folding, I drew a camel out of triangular shapes, thus moving away from my “safe” method of drawing – something my old college tutors tried to encourage me to attempt.
Goals for 2022 Continue blogging Write more book reviews Read the 40+ books littering my bedroom floor Go to exhibitions in London (with Martin when he is well enough) Go on holidays with friends (ditto)
Goals for 2023 Continue blogging Write more book reviews Read the 50+ books littering my bedroom floor Go to exhibitions in London Go on holidays with friends Continue making people smile through Simeon’s Instagram page Create more drawings
My fundraiser for Beat is about to end. If you would like to donate, you can do so on the Beat Website. There is an option to write why or in honour of who you are donating.
Wishing you all a happy new year! Thank you for continuing to read my blogs.
Hello readers, it’s Simeon the red-haired gibbon (toffee coloured, if you please). I have taken over Hazel’s blog this week to wish you a happy Christmas and to tell you about my amazing year. This year, you will have read about my visit to the city of Bath, my trip to Cardiff, and my Treasure Trail around London, but I have so much more to tell you.
On 26th June 2022, I opened an Instagram account to share photos from my holidays with friends. Before I knew it, hundreds of teddies and animals like me were following my updates. As of writing, I have over 1,050 followers from all over the world. I am, quite frankly, an international superstar.
My Instagram adventure began just before the heat wave set in, and it was too hot to go out, so I shared some old photographs from my trips to Amsterdam and Antwerp. My followers began to grow, and I made many new friends, so I thought it was time to upload some up-to-date pictures.
Just as I was setting up my camera for a photoshoot, I discovered I had caught Covid! What a disaster! I broke the news to my fans followers, who showered me with sympathy. Of course, my humans were sick too, so I didn’t get much compassion from them!
Before I could complain about the lack of attention my humans were paying me, a parcel arrived with some intriguing contents. On the 12th August 2022, my life changed forever. I became a big brother! Nestled inside the box was an adorable little sloth called Sammy.
Sammy and I instantly became best friends, and he features in many of my Instagram posts. He is loved by my followers, although not as much as me, for his funny idiosyncrasies, for example, he thinks everything is a hat. Toilet rolls, socks, trousers, wrapping paper tubes, sweets and so forth, if Sammy can fit or balance it on his head, he will. Sammy is also very good at finding things, which he proudly presents to me, such as stickers, a sword (it was a pencil), a tin of marrowfat peas, glasses, a model of a tortoise, and a necklace. Sammy’s “treasure” is becoming quite a collection!
My Instagram account is called the Adventures of Simeon, so it is only fair that I continue to have adventures without my little brother tagging along. At the end of August, my Human Friend and I took my Human Dad to London to complete a Treasure Tail. You can read all about it here. I have completed many Treasure Trails over the past few years and hope to tackle many more in the future. The owners of Treasure Trails follow me on Instagram, and I have been featured on their page! That’s how famous I am now!
This year, I completed three Treasure Trails. I did the first one in Bath at Easter time, the London one in August, and a third in September. The third coincided with my holiday to Cardiff, but I had extra help with this one, although I am sure I could have done it alone. My Humans and I were halfway to Wales when I discovered Sammy had snuck into my backpack! How cheeky!
Unfortunately, my trip to Cardiff started a couple of days after the death of Queen Elizabeth II, so many places were closed for mourning, such as Cardiff Castle and the cathedral. Nonetheless, we found plenty to do, including Caerphilly Castle, Castell Coch, St Fagans National History Museum and bus trips around Cardiff. We met some humans who adored us (well, who wouldn’t?) and tried the food at many restaurants. We even had a posh meal at The Ivy!
On our final day in Cardiff, the King came to see us! Well, not just us, everyone. People started queuing outside Cardiff Castle at 3 am, hoping to catch a glimpse of Charles III. Only a select number of people were allowed into the castle grounds, and we did not think we stood a chance, so we went on an hour boat trip instead. When we returned, the queue had disappeared, but we were told there was still room in the castle for a few more people, gibbons and sloths, so without hesitation, in we went.
We had to wait a while, but eventually, we were rewarded with a glimpse of the new King, who waved to the crowd before entering the castle to talk to important people. During the wait, we had our photo taken with the Royal Welsh Guards and a horse. We also saw soldiers marching and playing instruments, and a goat, who was not playing an instrument.
Normality briefly resumed on our return to London until 21st October, when I gained another little brother! Ollie the baby otter was rescued from eBay by my Human Dad after being inspired by The Little Book of Otter Philosophy by Jennifer McCartney. Ollie is very mischievous, although I am not sure he does anything naughty on purpose. He is very good at climbing up things, which is rather strange for an otter, but he has not learnt how to get back down again. If food goes missing, it is because Ollie has taken it, but to get it back, you have to find him first. Ollie is very good at hide and seek!
It is hard work being the older, responsible brother, which made me wonder how old I am. After careful calculations, we worked out I was born on 17th November 2007. Not only did this make me feel very grown up, it meant it was nearly my 15th birthday! This year, I had my very first birthday party. It was a surprise, and many friends came over to play games. I received a badge from one friend that said, “It’s my birthday,” and a set of clothes from another. I was a very lucky gibbon.
Sammy and Ollie frequently appear with me on my Instagram account. Both are much loved by my followers, although not as much as me, obviously. We have had lots of fun taking photos of each other, and we have also filmed the occasional video.
At the end of November, I went to a Christmas Tree Festival where I met the REAL Father Christmas. I told him I had been a very good gibbon and would be grateful if he visited me this year. I also let him know that all my friends and followers were good boys and girls. I hope you all receive something nice this year. Later, I received a letter from Father Christmas confirming that he will visit me! It says:
Dear Simeon, Things are really busy here at the North Pole, and Christmas is going to be here before we know it! I can’t wait! On Christmas Eve, I’m coming to your house in London first! Be sure you’re in bed and asleep with those big adorable eyes closed. Remember, I can’t deliver presents unless you’re fast asleep. By the way, all the elves wanted me to tell you they said, “Hello”. They also wanted me to share with you what they had for lunch today. They were so excited when I told them you liked bananas too! Mrs. Claus and I were talking about you last night at dinner and how proud we are of you for looking after your baby brother, Ollie. You should be proud of yourself! I know it can be hard sometimes, but remember to always use your manners and treat people the way you would want them to treat you! I have to remind the elves of that, too. Did you know that I have a list of all the boys and girls in the world? Well, it looks like you’ve been a very good boy! So you’re on the nice list again! Mrs. Claus and I just can’t get over the fact that you’re 15 years old already. I can hardly wait to see you and your brother, Sammy. I’m sorry to say, but I must be going now. One of the elves just came into my office and needs a helping hand in the workshop. Merry Christmas to you and your family! Take care, Santa
The year went from being the hottest on record to freezing cold in a matter of days. Fortunately, Sammy, Ollie and I have lots of fur to keep us warm. In mid-December, we woke up to discover the world had turned white with snow. It was very exciting! We were allowed to go outside and play, but we only lasted 8 minutes before we felt cold and damp. We decided it was safer to watch the snow through the window!
Now it is nearly Christmas day, and we are looking forward to spending it with Hazel and her family. We also hope there may be something for us under the Christmas tree too! If Hazel lets me, I will write again next year and perhaps go on a few more Treasure Trails. Until then, you are welcome to follow my adventures on Instagram at @theadventuresofsimeon. If you do not have Instagram, you can see my most recent photographs here.
When thinking about the city of Bath, the author that usually comes to mind is Jane Austen, but she is not the only writer celebrated in the city. A couple of doors down from the Jane Austen Centre on Gay Street is Mary Shelley’s House of Frankenstein, which explores the world of Mary Shelley and her best-known fictional character. Shelley briefly lived in Bath in 1816, but the city did not leave a significant impression or influence on her work as it did with Austen. Nonetheless, the interactive museum pays homage to the author and the impact her imagination has had on the world.
Mary Shelley was the second child of Mary Wollstonecraft, the British writer and women’s rights activist, who died shortly after Mary’s birth on 30th August 1797. Mary and her half-sister Fanny were brought up by her father, William Godwin (1756-1836), a political philosopher who endeavoured to keep his late wife’s achievements and memory alive. For the first few years of Mary’s life, her father fought to make ends meet, often leaving her in the care of the housekeeper, Louisa Jones. Eventually, Godwin’s financial situation forced him to look for a wealthy new wife.
In 1801, Godwin married Mary Jane Clairmont (1768-1841), who already had two children, Charles and Claire. Most of Godwin’s friends disliked his new wife, and Mary hated her. Godwin’s hope of avoiding debts also backfired. Godwin and his wife set up a children’s publishing firm called M. J. Godwin, but it did not make a profit. Godwin only avoided going to debtor’s prison through the help of some friends and devotees.
Mary’s father did not have enough money to provide her with formal schooling, but he tutored her in a range of subjects at home. The children spent a lot of time in their father’s library or talking to his intellectual friends, such as the poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834). As Mary got older, Godwin started to feel guilty for not educating his daughters in the manner their mother would have wished. With the little money he had, Godwin provided his children with a governess and allowed them to read books from his failed publishing company, particularly Roman and Greek histories. In 1811, Mary spent six months at a boarding school to complete her schooling. By 15, she was “singularly bold, somewhat imperious, and active of mind. Her desire of knowledge is great, and her perseverance in everything she undertakes almost invincible.”
In June 1812, Godwin sent Mary to Dundee, Scotland, where she stayed with the radical philosopher William Baxter. Godwin instructed Baxter to educate her in philosophy, per her mother’s wishes. During the holidays, Mary returned to London and became acquainted with poet-philosopher Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822), who had agreed to help her father pay off his debts. When Mary moved home after her second trip to Scotland in 1814, Shelley, now estranged from his wife, had upset his family by denouncing the traditional models of the aristocracy. As a result, he no longer had access to the money he had promised Godwin.
Despite her father’s anger at Shelley, Mary began meeting the poet secretly in the churchyard of St Pancras Old Church, near her mother’s grave. Mary, then only 16, began to fall in love with the 21-year-old radical, and on 26th June 1814, they both declared their love for one another. When Godwin discovered the relationship, he attempted to put an end to the pair’s liaisons. Confused, Mary argued that Shelley was an embodiment of her parents’ liberal and reformist ideas and that Godwin had once said that marriage was a repressive monopoly. By this time, Mary had lost her virginity to Shelley, who was still legally married.
Unsure what else to do, Mary and Shelley eloped to France on 28th July 1814, taking Mary’s step-sister, Claire Clairmont (1798-1879), with them. Mary’s stepmother followed them, trying to convince Mary and Claire to return home, but they refused. For a few months, the trio travelled on foot, carriage and donkey through France to Switzerland, where they eventually ran out of money. With no other choice, they returned to England, landing at Gravesend, Kent, in September 1814. Godwin refused to have anything to do with his daughter, so Mary, now pregnant, and Shelley moved into Claire’s lodgings in London.
Mary suffered poor physical and mental health throughout her pregnancy, not helped by her lover’s growing infatuation with her stepsister. Although Mary believed in free love, she was jealous of Shelley and Claire’s relationship. Mary also disapproved of Shelley’s hints that she should begin an affair with his friend, Thomas Jefferson Hogg (1792-1862). Eventually, Shelley ended his love affair with Claire, who quickly found herself another lover, the poet Lord Byron (1788-1824). Unfortunately, Mary had no opportunity to feel happy about Shelley’s return because, on 22nd February 1815, she gave birth to a two-month premature daughter, who only lived for a few days.
Throughout the spring, Mary suffered from acute depression, often seeing ghostly visions of her deceased daughter. By the summer, she had conceived again, and the hope of a new child greatly improved her mental health. Around the same time, Shelley received some money from his late grandfather, so he treated Mary to a holiday in Torquay. Following this, Shelley rented a cottage in Bishopsgate, where Mary gave birth to a son, William, on 24th January 1816.
In the summer of 1816, Shelley, Mary and their son travelled to Geneva, Switzerland, to spend time with Lord Byron and his pregnant lover, Claire. The weather in Europe remained wet and dreary throughout the summer months, and the four friends spent many an hour sitting around a log fire at Byron’s villa, telling German ghost stories. Byron proposed that they write their own stories to share during the evenings. Mary initially struggled to think of a concept, but during a late-night discussion about galvanism, the theory that electricity could animate body tissue, Mary imagined using electricity to reanimate a corpse. Thus, Mary penned the first draft of her famous novel.
With encouragement from Shelley, Mary expanded her ghost story, which she published anonymously as Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus in 1818. Shelley provided the introduction for the first edition, which led many people to assume he had written it. Mary’s name did not appear on the cover until 1821, but it took much longer for readers to accept her as the author.
Returning to England in September 1816, Mary, Shelley, and Claire took up residence in Bath, where they tried to keep Claire’s pregnancy secret. While there, Mary began receiving desperate letters from her half-sister, Fanny. Fearing for her mental health, Mary sent Shelley to check on Fanny at her home in Bristol, but he arrived to find her dead beside a bottle of laudanum and a suicide note. Two months later, Percy Bysshe Shelley learned of the death of his estranged wife, who drowned herself in the Serpentine lake in Hyde Park, London. Wishing to assume custody of his children, Eliza (1813-76) and Charles (1814-26), Shelley’s lawyers advised him to marry Mary, which he did on 30th December 1816.
In March 1817, the court ruled Shelley was too morally unfit to take custody of his children. The Shelleys still lived with Claire Clairmont, who gave birth to a daughter, Alba, in January. Following the court’s ruling, the Shelleys and Claire moved to Albion House at Marlow, Buckinghamshire, where Mary gave birth to her third child, Clara. Soon, financial difficulties caught up with Shelley. Fearing he would lose Mary’s children too, he moved Mary, Claire and the children to Italy.
Lord Byron, who lived in Venice, agreed to help raise his daughter, Alba, so long as Claire stayed away. He also changed the child’s name to Allegra. Byron initially placed Allegra with a foster family but later moved her to a Roman Catholic Convent, where she contracted malaria and died aged 5. With one less child to worry about and believing Alba/Allegra would be safe in Byron’s hands, Claire remained with the Shelleys on their roving existence, moving from place to place without staying anywhere for long.
Tragedy struck the Shelleys again in 1818 and 1819, when both children, William and Clara, died within months of each other. The loss of all her children had a profound effect on Mary, who found solace in her writing. Mary wrote, “May you never know what it is to lose two only and lovely children in one year, and then at last to be left childless and forever miserable.” The birth of Mary’s fourth child, Percy Florence Shelley (1819-89), was the only thing that managed to lift Mary’s spirits.
While living in Italy, Mary Shelley wrote two novels, Matilda (1820) and Valperga (1821-23), and two plays, Proserpine (1820) and Midas (1820). The first of the two novels, Matilda, was not published until after Mary’s death, but the money she earned for Valperga helped alleviate her father’s financial difficulties. Despite the family rift, Mary still deeply respected her father.
In June 1822, Mary suffered a miscarriage that nearly killed her if it had not been for her quick-thinking husband. The doctor was too far away from the Shelleys’ residence on the Italian Riviera, so fearing Mary would die from blood loss, Shelley placed her in a bath of ice to staunch the bleeding. When the doctor finally arrived, he commended Shelley’s actions. Unfortunately, neither Shelley nor the doctor could prevent the depression brought on by the loss of another baby. To make matters worse, Shelley began spending more time with other women than his wife.
Mary remained devoted to her husband despite his many affairs and questionable behaviour. For years, Mary followed him around Italy without hope of settling down and tolerated his immoral behaviour. Whilst Mary suffered from depression following her miscarriage, Shelley found himself a new plaything – a sailing boat. On 1st July 1822, Shelley and his companions set off along the coast to Livorno to see Lord Byron. After staying there for a week, Shelley set off for home but never reached his destination. Mary did not know when Shelley planned to return, so she did not worry until she received a letter addressed to Shelley saying, “pray write to tell us how you got home, for they say you had bad weather after you sailed Monday & we are anxious.” Ten days after the storm, Shelley’s corpse washed up on the shore.
Following Shelley’s death, Mary lived with the poet Leigh Hunt (1785-1859) and his family in Genoa for a year. Mary spent time transcribing her husband’s poems, which she later published in 1839. Unfortunately, Mary’s financial situation prevented her from staying in Italy, so Mary returned to England with her son in 1823. Initially, she stayed with her father and stepmother in London until her father managed to find her some lodgings nearby. Mary also asked Shelley’s father, Sir Timothy Shelley, for help. The Baronet said he would only help if his grandson, Percy Florence, was handed over to an appointed guardian. Naturally, Mary refused to relinquish her only surviving child but persuaded Sir Shelley to provide an allowance of £100 a year. The amount increased to £250 following the death of Percy Bysshe Shelley’s son, Charles.
Mary continued to focus on writing for the remainder of her life. In 1826, she published the novel The Last Man and contributed to biographies about Shelley and Byron. Between 1827 and 1840, she wrote The Fortunes of Perkin Warbeck (1830), Lodore (1835), and Falkner (1837) and contributed to a ladies’ magazine. Her primary concern was the welfare of her son, which prompted her to sell the rights to Frankenstein for £60 in 1830. She also persuaded Sir Timothy Shelley to help pay for Percy Florence’s education. The young Percy attended the prestigious Harrow School before studying at Trinity College, Cambridge.
Percy Florence remained devoted to his mother and returned to live with her after completing his university studies. In the 1840s, mother and son travelled around the continent, gradually putting together the book Rambles in Germany and Italy in 1840, 1842 and 1843. The following year, Sir Timothy Shelley passed away, leaving his estate to Percy Florence, who became the 3rd Baronet of Castle Goring, Sussex. For the first time in her life, Mary was financially stable.
Now that she had some money, Mary became the target of blackmailers, who threatened to publish various letters that could ruin her reputation or the memory of her late husband. Mary purchased a few letters but ignored other claims, such as someone posing as Lord Byron’s illegitimate son. These threats did not appear to have too much of an impact on Mary’s life. She remained living with her son, even after his marriage to Jane Gibson in 1848. Unfortunately, Mary’s final years were blighted by illness, and she passed away on 1st February 1851, aged 53, from a suspected brain tumour.
Mary Shelley’s House of Frankenstein devotes one floor of the building to the life of Mary Shelley. Her history is crammed into four rooms, leaving the rest of the museum to explore Mary Shelley’s most famous creation, Frankenstein’s monster. Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus tells the story of Victor Frankenstein, a fictional scientist who is determined to create a sapient creature through unorthodox scientific experiments. Frankenstein stitches together the body parts of recently executed criminals to create a creature and brings it to life using electricity. Scared of the monster he created, Frankenstein runs away, and the beast spends years trying to find a place for itself in the world.
Frankenstein received mixed reviews after its publication in 1818. Some praised the author for introducing the science-fiction concept to the Gothic horror genre, but others wrote disparaging reviews about the novel. The novelist William Beckford (1760-1844), who lived in Bath, called Frankenstein “The foulest toadstool that has yet sprung up from the reeking dunghill of the present times.”
Despite some early criticism, there have been over 100 dramatisations of Frankenstein and several films. The first theatrical production, titled Presumption! Or, The Fate of Frankenstein opened in 1823. It included music and songs, and while it remained faithful to the storyline, the play was shown from the perspective of a new character, Fritz. In the show, Fritz was Frankenstein’s assistant, who later became the basis for the hunchbacked Igor in subsequent films. The monster, known as the Creature, was played by Thomas Potter Cooke (1786-1864), who wore a wig of wild hair and pale green face paint.
Since the first production of Frankenstein, the monster has usually appeared with green skin and scars, eventually developing a flat head held onto the neck with two bolts. The character is easily recognisable throughout the world and has become a commercial medium, with merchandise ranging from rubber ducks to flower pots. The monster or creature is definitely the most famous of Mary Shelley’s characters, leading to the frequent error that it is called Frankenstein, rather than that being the name of the scientist.
Mary Shelley never intended the monster to look like a green-skinned zombie. In the novel, Victor Frankenstein describes his creation as something quite different from the commercialised version. “His limbs were in proportion, and I had selected his features as beautiful. Beautiful! Great God! His yellow skin scarcely covered the work of muscles and arteries beneath; his hair was of a lustrous black, and flowing; his teeth of a pearly whiteness; but these luxuriances only formed a more horrid contrast with his watery eyes, that seemed almost of the same colour as the dun-white sockets in which they were set, his shrivelled complexion and straight black lips.” Shelley also revealed the creature was 8-foot tall (2.4 metres).
For the first time, a model of Mary Shelley’s monster has been authentically produced as she described. The formidable animatronic creature is located in the laboratory on the second floor, whilst other rooms feature unusual artefacts and vintage objects, which set the scene for the world’s first science-fiction novel. On the top floor, visitors are invited to watch a handful of short films showing the first few appearances of the monster on screen.
Those feeling brave can visit the basement, where they can probe dark rooms accompanied by the unnerving hum of electricity and screams of torture. The more daring visitors can enter “The Cage” and try to find their way to freedom through a twisted metal maze, where there is no choice but to push past the bodies of The Cage’s previous victims. This exhibit is not suitable for young children or those of a nervous disposition.
For an extra fee, Mary Shelley’s House of Frankenstein opens the doors to the attic, where families and friends can race against the clock to solve clues and escape from Frankenstein’s quarters. Based on the popular Escape Room games, visitors experience the mind of a madman who wants to harvest their organs to complete his latest maniacal quest. This feature is also included in the birthday, hen, and stag party packages.
Tickets to Mary Shelley’s House of Frankenstein cost £15.50 per person, although some concessions apply, including children and over 60s. The house is open every day but special attractions must be booked in advance.
Once upon a time, around the 9th century BC, Prince Bladud contracted leprosy. His father, Ludhudibras, banished Bladud from the court and sent him to work as a country swineherd. Accepting his fate, Prince Bladud took good care of his pigs, noticing that when the animals wallowed in the steamy, muddy swamp at the bottom of the valley, they emerged cleansed of their warts and sores. Braving the mucky water, Bladud plunged into the stream and emerged without a blemish. His leprosy had vanished, and his father welcomed him back home. The news spread of the miracle, and soon, a small town developed around the thermal waters, building the foundations of the city of Bath.
The water that cured Prince Bladud is the same water that fills the city of Bath’s top tourist attraction. The Roman Baths or thermae date to around 60-70 AD, during the first few decades of the Roman occupation of Britain. These baths attracted people from far and wide who wished to sample the healing power of the water. The city became known as Aquae Sulis (Waters of Sulis) due to the Roman belief the hot spring that supplied the water belonged to the goddess Sulis Minerva. For this reason, the Romans also built a temple on the site.
As with most Roman buildings, the baths succumbed to the elements. Fortunately, parts of the original foundations survived, upon which 18th-century architects reconstructed some of the walls and columns. Today, swimming in the waters, which have turned green due to algae, is not possible, but the baths are open to the public as a museum. Next door, the Grand Pump Room sells samples of the curative water to taste – something that gets mixed reactions from visitors.
The water in the Roman Baths may be many hundreds or even thousands of years old. It originally fell as rain on the Mendip Hills and percolated down through limestone aquifers measuring a depth of 2,700-4,300 metres (8,900-14,100 ft). The deeper the water travelled, the higher the temperature rose, reaching between 64 and 96 degrees Celsius. Under the pressure of the limestone, the water eventually rises back up to the surface through cracks, forming heated springs. Scientists have studied this phenomenon to develop enhanced geothermal systems.
Around 1,106,400 litres of water rise every day to fill the baths. This is approximately 13 litres per second. It rises from the Pennyquick fault, which thanks to Roman engineering, flows directly to the bathing pools. There are an estimated 43 minerals in the water, including calcium, sulphates, sodium and chloride. There are also some traces of iron, which causes orange stains on rocks and stone. Sometimes, the water may appear to bubble. This is caused by gases escaping.
Archaeological evidence suggests the site of the baths was a worship centre for the Celts. They dedicated the springs to the goddess Sulis, a life-giving mother goddess, who the Romans associated with Minerva, the goddess of wisdom. When the Romans invaded, they kept the name Sulis, as seen in the name Aquae Sulis, but frequently referred to the goddess as Minerva-Sulis or Sulis Minerva. Before constructing the bathing complex, which took around 300 years, the Romans built and dedicated a temple to the goddess.
Builders began by creating a wooden foundation in the mud surrounding the thermal spring, then constructed a stone chamber lined with lead. In the 2nd century AD, a wooden barrel-vaulted ceiling enclosed the building, dividing it into several sections, including a caldarium (hot bath), tepidarium (lukewarm bath), and frigidarium (cold bath). Bathers usually started in the tepidarium, heated by underground lead pipes, which directed water from the spring into the baths. Here, the bathers acclimatised to the heat before moving on to the considerably warmer caldarium. The rich usually brought attendants to rub their bodies with fragrant oils before taking a plunge into the freezing water in the frigidarium to close the pores.
Bathing was not the only activity available at the baths. Alcoves provided spaces for business meetings, philosophical discussions, or a place to meet friends. Evidence suggests visitors played board games, gambled and consumed food and drink. In other areas, musicians performed while people received certain treatments, such as manicures and pedicures.
Many Roman towns contained a bathing house, but people travelled far and wide to experience the curative waters provided by Sulis Minerva. People with various ailments travelled to Bath to drink the water or submerge their ailing bodies. Others visited to ask the goddess for advice or vengeance. Over 130 lead or pewter curse tablets have been discovered, asking Sulis Minerva to punish a wrongdoer. Many of these relate to petty crimes, such as the theft of a towel. Often, the accuser did not know who committed the crime, but they believed the goddess would know and mete out punishment accordingly.
Excavation has also revealed thousands of coins, jewellery, dishes and cups, many containing a dedication to Sulis Minerva. When not asking the goddess for requests, people gave sacrifices and gifts. Unlike contemporary religions, where gods and goddesses are worshipped across the world, the Roman baths and temple became the point at which the human world could communicate with the presiding deity.
Not much remains of the Temple of Sulis Minerva, which stood next to the baths. During excavations and sewage works, a handful of artefacts have been unearthed, which are now in the Roman Baths museum. A gilded bronze head belonging to a statue of Sulis Minerva was discovered by workers in 1727. Its body has never been found, but it is believed it once wore a tall Corinthian helmet. Other items once belonging to the temple include a relief carving of the goddess wearing a gorgon mask and parts of a carved pediment, which may also feature a gorgon. According to Greek mythology, the hero Perseus killed the gorgon Medusa and gifted her head to the goddess Athena, the Greek equivalent of Minerva.
The baths remained popular for many years, permitting both men and women entry. At one time, men and women could not visit together, but further construction provided separate changing areas for the different sexes. Builders also raised the floors of the baths to escape the rising water levels caused by the frequent flooding of the nearby River Avon. These floods also sent mud into the water system, which accumulated in the Sacred Spring. The higher the bath floors, the further away they got from the underground heating, rendering it useless. The number of visitors dropped rapidly, and the inhabitants of Aquae Sulis gave up the losing battle against the floods. Eventually, mud and debris found their way into the temple, damaging the walls and causing the building to collapse. The baths suffered a similar fate, and the ceiling crashed into the swamp below, where people once bathed in the thermal water.
The story of the Roman Baths did not end there. During the 12th century, John of Tours (d.1122), the Bishop of Wells, built a new bath over the once-Sacred Spring. The pool became known as the King’s Pool and is where Anne of Denmark (1574-1619), the wife of King James I (1566-1625), bathed on 19th May 1613 on the recommendation of the court physician, Théodore de Mayerne (1573-1655). Anne returned in 1615 to bathe in the newly constructed Queen’s Bath, decorated with the inscription Anna Regnum Sacrum (Anne’s Sacred Kingdom).
During the 18th century, father and son architects John Wood, the Elder (1704-54) and John Wood, the Younger (1728-82), designed a new building to house the King and Queen Baths. Basing the design on the original Roman Baths, the neoclassical building also contains the Grand Bath, which the general public used. Next door, they built the Grand Pump Room, where visitors could “take the waters”, in other words, drink it, or attend social functions.
Further expansion of the baths continued during the Victorian era. During the late 19th century, statues of Roman Emperors and Governors of Roman Britain were placed on the open terrace surrounding the Grand Bath. Over time, the elements have eroded some features, particularly the faces, but a new protective wash prevents further damage. The statues represent Julius Caesar, Emperor Claudius, Emperor Vespasian, Governor Ostorius Scapula, Governor Suetonius Paulinus, Governor Julius Agricola, the Head of Roma (symbolising Rome), Emperor Hadrian and Emperor Constantine the Great. These men lived between 100 BC and 337 AD, and all had significant connections with Britain, or Britannia, as it was then known.
The Roman Baths stayed open until October 1978, when a young girl contracted naegleriasis and died. The fatal brain infection is caused by Naegleria fowleri, more commonly known as a “brain-eating amoeba”, which lives in untreated waters. The Baths closed for several years to tackle the microorganism, but it never reopened for public use. In 1979, the psychiatrist Herbert Needleman (1927-2017) documented the dangers of lead exposure. Lead interferes with the normal functioning of cells in the body, chemically displacing vital elements, such as calcium, zinc and iron. Although Naegleria fowleri still poses a risk, the lead piping delivering water to the baths is also a health risk.
In 1982, a new spring water borehole was sunk to provide safe, clean water for drinking in the Pump Room. This water also fills the pools at the nearby Thermae Bath Spa, which opened in 2006. Here, visitors can experience the effects of the healing waters in a modern environment and receive various treatments.
Although the waters at the Roman Baths are out of bounds, visitors to Bath can wander around the Grand Pool where people of the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries once congregated, and before them, the people of Roman Britain. The entry fee also incorporates the Roman Baths museum, which houses artefacts from the Roman period. Objects include over 12,000 Denari coins and the gilt bronze head of Sulis Minerva.
The museum building preserves the remains of the original Roman Baths. With the help of projections and CGI, the museum recreates scenes in the original changing rooms and saunas to help visitors understand how the original baths were used. The 1.6 metres deep frigidarium or plunge pool is also part of the self-navigated tour, as is part of the Roman drainage system.
Visitors should expect to spend a couple of hours at the Roman Baths. There are thousands of objects on display in the museum, spanning four centuries. Many of the items were found in the sacred pool and are presumably offerings to Sulis Minerva. Several metal pans, known as paterae, are inscribed DSM or Deae Sulis Minerva, suggesting people used them to make offerings of holy water. There are also many curse tablets on display, which are some of the earliest examples of prayer in Britain.
The Roman Baths is a very popular tourist destination, and it is not uncommon to see queues of people waiting in the courtyard outside Bath Abbey. For this reason (and the recent pandemic), visitors must book their tickets in advance. Ticket prices change throughout the year depending on school term time, bank holidays, and so forth. They also cost more at weekends. In November, for example, an adult ticket costs £20 on weekends and £17.50 on a weekday. Students and seniors (65 +) received £1 off their entry, and children cost between £10 and £12.50. Visitors can expect to pay at least £3 more during peak times.
For more information about booking tickets, visit the Roman Baths website.
In the back garden of 19 New King Street, Bath, a German-born British astronomer doubled the known size of the solar system when he discovered a new planet in 1781. Initially named Georgium Sidus after the King, the discovery earned the astronomer instant fame across Europe and the attention of King George III, who hired him as the astronomer of the Court. The man in question was William Herschel, and the planet is known today as Uranus.
In 1981, 19 New King Street opened as a museum about William Herschel and his family, exactly 200 years after he discovered Uranus. The house forms part of a terrace originating from 1764. Whilst it is not pretentious like some neighbouring buildings (the Royal Crescent and the Circus), the house has five floors, including a basement. Although very little documentation exists of the house’s original decor, careful research into the era revealed the style and fashions of the day, which the William Herschel Society used when returning the interior of the building to the 18th and 19th century. Today, the museum is open on Tuesdays to Sundays for those wishing to see where the astronomer once resided.
Born in 1738, Friedrich Wilhelm Herschel grew up in Hanover, Germany. He was the fourth of ten children born to Issak Herschel and Anna Ilse Moritzen. As a keen oboist, Issak encouraged his children to study music and enrolled a couple of his sons as musicians in the Hanoverian Guards regiment. When war with France seemed imminent, Isaak sent Wilhelm and another son, Jakob, to England, where Wilhelm changed his name to the English equivalent, Frederick William Herschel.
Known mostly by his middle name, William quickly learnt English and earned money playing the oboe, violin, harpsichord and organ. In 1761, he acquired the position of first violin in the Newcastle orchestra and started writing symphonies. He wrote a total of 24 symphonies and several concertos during his career as a musician. In 1766, Hershel took on the role of organist at the Octagon Chapel in Bath and encouraged one of his younger sisters, Caroline, and three brothers, Dietrich, Alexander and Jakob, to join him in the city. Together, they performed many concerts, with Caroline singing soprano solos. Later, in 1780, Herschel became the director of the Bath orchestra.
Herschel’s interest in music led to his fascination with astrology. After reading Harmonics, or the Philosophy of Musical Sounds (1749), by the mathematician Robert Smith (1689-1768), Herschel came across another work by the same author. Entitled A Compleat System of Opticks (1738), the book explained how to build a telescope, which led Herschel to seek more information on the subject. A local mirror-builder gave Herschel lessons, which helped Herschel develop light-gathering surfaces for use in his hand-built telescopes. He dedicated many hours of the day to grinding and polishing mirrors, often assisted by his brother, Alexander.
At the time of Herschel’s developing interest in astronomy, he and his sister, Caroline, lived at 7 New King Street, a few doors down from the current Herschel Museum of Astronomy. Caroline, who took on the role of housekeeper, despairingly wrote, “It was to my sorrow that I saw almost every room in the house turned into a workshop.” Although Herschel continued to practice music, giving students lessons in various instruments, he spent his spare time working on his telescope.
In 1774, Herschel and his sister moved to Walcot in the suburbs of Bath, where there was plenty of space to build a large telescope. Here, Herschel began studying the rings of Saturn and the Great Orion Nebula, noting his observations in an astronomical journal. Unfortunately, the location proved too far from the centre of Bath, where Herschel and his sister still performed in concert halls and churches. In 1777, they returned to New King Street, taking residence at number 19. The house had a larger garden than it does today, making it a perfect spot for Herschel’s telescope. Unfortunately, he also crammed his instruments into every room of the house, much to Caroline’s disgust. Since Herschel used horse dung for his telescopic mirror moulds, Caroline can hardly be blamed for her protestations.
In 1779, the Herschels briefly moved to 5 Rivers Street, although it is unclear why. Whilst it was closer to the Literary and Philosophical Society of Bath, where Herschel hoped to become a member, the house had no garden. Herschel set up his telescope in the street, where he quickly drew attention. Whilst some saw Herschel and his telescope as a fascinating landmark, horse-drawn carriages had difficulty navigating around him.
Herschel moved his telescope back to 19 New King Street in March 1781, where on the night of the 13th March, he made a discovery that changed the world. The discovery of Georgium sidus, later Uranus, earned Herschel the Copley Medal and he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society. The following year, George III appointed him “The King’s Astronomer”. Herschel and Caroline moved to Datchet, near Windsor, to be closer to London, where he could focus on his astronomy career. By this time, Caroline was more than a housekeeper. In Bath, she became her brother’s assistant and helped him record his findings, which resulted in three catalogues of stars and nebulae. Caroline made a few discoveries of her own, using a telescope built for her by her brother. (For more information, see my blog about The Lost Heroine of Astronomy.)
The Herschel Museum of Astronomy explores William Herschel’s life in Bath and his achievements throughout his career. It also recognises Caroline as an astronomer in her own right and includes the work of John Herschel, William’s son. Herschel married Mary Pitt in 1788, with whom he had one son in 1792. John proved just as intelligent as his father and studied mathematics at St John’s College, Cambridge, where he won the Copley Prize in 1812. Despite embarking upon a legal career, John abandoned this in favour of his father’s passion, astronomy.
In 1820, John Herschel became one of the founding members of the Royal Astronomical Society, and after his father’s death in 1822, completed William Herschel’s catalogue of nebular stars with the help of documentation kept by his aunt, Caroline. John is also recognised for his pioneering work in the field of photography, in which he worked closely with William Henry Fox Talbot (1800-77) at Lacock Abbey. He coined the words “positive” and “negative” concerning photography and developed a fixing agent.
Like his father, John Herschel also had a passion for music and often played the flute or violin in concerts. Later in life, he became the Master of the Mint, a post once held by the scientist Isaac Newton (1642-1727). Failing health put an end to his career, and John passed away in 1871. He is buried in Westminster Abbey.
John Herschel never lived at 19 New King Street, but his portraits currently feature on the walls of the ground-floor reception room. The room also houses illustrations by John, which he produced while using a camera obscura. Other objects include mirrors made by William Herschel and a model of the 40-foot telescope he made when living at the Observatory House near Windsor.
Also situated on the ground floor is the dining room. Handprinted wallpaper gives visitors the impression of 18th-century fashions, as do the framed maps and cartoons. The wooden table in the centre of the room was once part of a larger extending table from the Observatory House. At some stage, the table was divided by various members of the Herschel family, most likely during an inheritance dispute.
Not all the objects in the dining room date to the time of William Herschel’s time in Bath. A longcase clock made by John Roberts of Bath dates to the early 19th century, as does a stick barometer made by Jacob Abrahams. Nonetheless, Herschel likely owned similar items because they would have been of use during his nocturnal observations of the sky.
William Herschel used the first-floor drawing room as a study and workshop. It is also surmised that he slept in the room amongst his machinery and tools. Most of the items on display relate to astronomy and are on loan from the Greenwich Royal Observatory and the Royal Astronomical Society. A brass drum orrery made by George Adams around 1782 demonstrates the movements of the planets in relation to each other. This particular machine includes Uranus and its moons. Whilst some people, such as George III, used orreries as playthings, Herschel and other scientists found them useful for practical demonstrations during talks and lectures.
The drawing room leads into the music room, where scientific instruments resting on the harpsichord indicate Herschel’s fascination with astronomy encroached on his musical career. John Bernard (1756-1828), an actor who received singing lessons from Herschel, recalled, “His lodgings resembled an astronomer’s much more than a musician’s, being heaped up with globes, maps, telescopes, reflectors etc, under which his piano was hid, and the violoncello, like a discarded favourite, skulked away in a corner.”
The basement of the house features a typical Georgian kitchen, complete with an early 19th-century cooking range. With the help of a servant, Caroline prepared food here for her brother, whilst in the next room, Herschel used a furnace and smelting oven to make his telescopic lenses. When setting up the workshop, Herschel had the foresight to create two exits. According to Caroline’s diary, Herschel and one of his brothers attempted to pour 538 pounds of molten metal into a handmade mould, but the liquid splashed onto the ground, causing bits of stone flooring to fly in all directions. Both men survived after hastily escaping through separate doors. The cracks on the workshop floor are still visible today.
The basement leads out into the garden, which is below street level. It is hard to imagine a large telescope in the considerably shortened garden, but its original length is what initially attracted Herschel to the property. When the Herschels lived at 19 New King Street, they benefitted from an orchard at the back of the house. The current layout, designed by the Bath Preservation Trust, features cypress trees and maintained borders.
Within the garden is a statue of William and Caroline Herschel by Vivien Mousdell. Commissioned for the 250th anniversary of the birth of Herschel, the stone sculpture depicts Herschel gazing up at the sky whilst Caroline holds a quill pen in one hand and a piece of paper in the other, on which is drawn the solar system with Uranus at the centre. The statue was unveiled by Sir Patrick Moore (1923-2012), the president of the British Astronomical Association. Another sculpture, entitled Seedhead by Ruth Moillet, represents the position of Uranus in the solar system.
A small extension at the rear of the house contains a small exhibition and a few hands-on activities for children. These include simple arts and crafts and a toy version of an orrery. During half-term and end-of-term holidays, the museum hosts specific events targeted at children to teach them about the universe.
The Herschel Museum of Astronomy provides an insight into Herschel’s life and discoveries. It also allows people to imagine life in 18th and 19th-century Bath. Whilst other museums in the city, for instance, No. 1 Royal Crescent, explore the lives of the rich and their servants, William Herschel’s former residence introduces the typical home of the general population. Yet, Herschel was by no means an ordinary man. His genius, passion and perseverance earned him a place in British and international history.
The Herschel Museum of Astronomy is open Tuesday to Sunday between 10am and 5pm. Tickets cost £9.50 for adults and £4.50 for children, except during the Summer Holidays (£11.50 and £5.50).
“The best address in Bath” is how The Times describes No. 1 Royal Crescent. The address is the first building on the eastern end of the Royal Crescent, built in the 18th century. The curved row of terrace houses has significant architectural and historical importance and is safeguarded by the Bath Preservation Trust. No. 1 Royal Crescent belongs to the Trust and is decorated and furnished as it might have been between 1776 and 1796. Open to the public six days a week, visitors can learn about life in Georgian Bath, including the differences between upper and lower classes.
The Royal Crescent was built by John Wood the Younger (1728-81) between 1767 and 1774. It was probably designed by Wood’s father, John Wood the Elder (1704-54), who planned many other buildings in Bath before his death, including Queen Square and the Circus. Both men were known for constructions that defied usual geometric architecture in favour of curved lines, such as the crescent shape of the Royal Crescent.
The grandeur of the terraced houses made the Royal Crescent a fashionable address. It was also the first crescent-shaped terrace of townhouses in Europe, which made it all the more appealing to the upper classes. The houses were rented out to many notable people, including Prince Frederick, Duke of York (1763-1827), and his wife, Princess Frederica Charlotte of Prussia (1767-1820). The royal couple frequently visited Bath and stayed at No. 16 when in the city.
The first resident of No. 1 Royal Crescent was Henry Sandford (1751-1814), a landowner and future baron from Ireland. Details in his commonplace books record some of the goings-on in the crescent, including wild parties at No. 30 that frequently got out of hand. Sandford’s commonplace books, of which two survive, are held in the National Library of Ireland. As a widower, he left his Irish estates in the capable hands of his sons and moved to Bath to take advantage of the healing properties of the waters.
According to the Bath Journal, Sandford passed away in February 1796 and was buried in St Swithin’s Church in the parish of Walcot. Several residents passed through No. 1 Royal Crescent during the following century, including Eliza Evans, who ran a school for young ladies between the ages of eleven and fifteen. At the beginning of the 20th century, the property became a lodging house run by Stephen and Elizabeth Thomas and family until it was divided into two properties in 1967.
One of the lodgers at the house was George Saintsbury (1845-1933), a highly influential critic and literary historian. He moved into rooms on the ground floor in 1916, which were originally the servants’ quarters, after retiring as Regius Professor of Rhetoric and English Literature at the University of Edinburgh. Sainstbury wrote on a range of literary topics and was close friends with other authors, including Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936) and Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-94).
Whilst living in Bath, Saintsbury wrote Notes on a Cellar-Book (1920), filled with tasting notes, menus, and robust opinions about wine. Saintsbury was a keen wine connoisseur who inspired the French wine merchant André Simon (1877-1970) to set up the Saintsbury Club in 1933 in his honour. The Saintsbury Club continues to meet today in Napa Valley, California, where a vineyard was also named after Saintsbury.
Following Saintsbury’s death, the Bath Preservation Trust began campaigning for the protection of historic buildings in the city. The Royal Crescent is one of several important residences in Bath, but it was not until 1967 that someone came up with the idea of turning No.1 Royal Crescent into a museum for posterity. The man with the vision was Bernard Cayzer (1914-81), a man of some wealth who supported the Trust and their work. Unfortunately, the sale only included the upper wings of the house, making the servants’ quarters a separate dwelling.
Restoration and refurbishment began in 1968, gradually restoring the building to its original 18th-century appearance. This involved removing partitions and raising the level of the first-floor windows. Cayzer established a house committee to oversee the interior design of the rooms. Members included Philip Jebb (1927-95), a restorer of Georgian buildings, and Peter Thornton (1925-2007), the keeper of furniture and woodwork at the Victoria and Albert Museum and a curator at the Sir John Soane’s Museum. Only the main rooms, including the dining room, library, and one bedroom, were given Georgian furnishings, the others were converted into offices or flats. The restored rooms were eventually opened to the public as a museum on 20th June 1970.
In 2006, No. 1a Royal Crescent came on the market, and the Bath Preservation Trust jumped at the chance to purchase it and reunite it with the rest of the property. With the help of a local philanthropist, Andrew Brownsword (born 1947), who made his money by establishing the Forever Friends teddy bear company, the Trust bought the property. Between 1968 and 2006, knowledge of Georgian interiors had increased significantly, and the designs of the rooms in the museum were not historically correct. Instead of only refurbishing the servant quarters to their Georgian roots, the Trust decided to give the museum a complete make-over and open more rooms to the public.
Nicknamed “The Whole Story Project”, building works began in October 2012. The original courtyard, which separated the servant quarters and the rest of the house, was reintroduced, as were Venetian windows. Carpets and wallpapers were produced in Georgian styles, and a sensitive lighting system was installed. Whilst the architects and designers aimed to be faithful to 18th-century fashions, they made an exception for a modern lift to give access to all levels of the museum. Finally, the museum reopened on 21st June 2013.
Visitors to No. 1 Royal Crescent are accompanied on a self-guided tour by disembodied voices belonging to imagined inhabitants of the building. Discussions range from idle gossip, preparing for an evening out and worries about a wayward son. Additional information about each room and particular objects are accessible by scanning QR codes with a mobile phone.
On the ground floor is the dining room, an essentially masculine space for entertaining guests. Decorated with family portraits, the room symbolised the host’s wealth and importance in society. Wealthy families dined a la française, meaning numerous dishes were placed on the table for guests to help themselves to what they desired. The food was served on elegant porcelain dining sets, which typically cost over £30, the equivalent of £2,000 today.
The dining table at No. 1 Royal Crescent is set for dessert. This course was another way for the host to boast of his wealth, providing his guests with expensive sweet treats and impressive sugar sculpture table decorations. Unfortunately, these luxuries came at the cost of thousands of enslaved Africans, who were forced to grow and harvest sugarcane and other commodities under the British transatlantic slave trade.
The parlour was a less formal room for breakfast, tea and daily activities. No. 1 Royal Crescent furnished their parlour with a table set for the early morning meal, a bureau for letter writing and a bookcase containing the types of literature available in the Georgian era. Amongst the latter is the Guide to Watering and Sea Bathing Places, which details the benefits of spas, such as the natural spring in Bath.
Next to the parlour is a small room known as the Gentleman’s Retreat. Here, the man of the house could escape his family to read or study subjects of interest. Many cultured Georgians enjoyed science, the natural world and “modern” inventions. The 18th century is sometimes known as the Age of Enlightenment because explorers were discovering new things about the world and beginning to understand the workings of the universe. Several cabinets at No. 1 Royal Crescent reflect this period of discovery, with items such as animal skulls, fossils, a globe and a replica of Edward Nairne’s Patent Electrical Machine.
Ladies did not have a retreat like their husbands. Instead, their sanctum was their bedchambers. Situated on the first floor of the house, the bedroom functioned as a place to sleep and undertake their toilette. The latter involved the assistance of a maid who styled the lady’s hair and applied make-up. Husbands and wives usually slept in separate rooms, so the lady was free to invite guests into her chamber. While getting dressed, friends often arrived with gossip about the goings on in society, including the latest fashions.
Of course, the bedroom was only an appropriate place to receive visitors when dressing for the day’s activities. After meals, women usually headed to the Withdrawing Room to drink tea while the men remained in the Dining Room with alcoholic beverages. Eventually, the men joined the women to play card games or listen to music played on the harpsichord, usually by one of the daughters.
At No. 1 Royal Crescent, the table in the Withdrawing Room is set with teacups and a plate of biscuits. The teacups resemble small dishes with no handles, inspired by fashions brought over from China. There is no sugar bowl on the table, which references the anti-saccarite movement of 1791 onwards, where women refused to put sugar in their tea in protest of the transatlantic slave trade. Since women could not vote to abolish the trade, they often found other ways to express their opinion.
On the second floor, the museum has furnished one room to resemble a gentleman’s bedroom. It is not too dissimilar from the lady’s bedchamber, but it is unlikely any guests visited the room. For this reason, the furnishings are less elaborate, although they still suggest significant wealth.
The basement area of the house is a stark contrast to the upper levels. The kitchens of 18th-century townhouses were always “downstairs” in the servant quarters. Whilst the family lived in carpeted and wallpapered rooms, the servants had stone floors and bare walls. Until the 18th century, cooks were traditionally men. Large households often employed Frenchmen, believing them to be the most skilled. They were also the most expensive. During the Georgian era, smaller houses began hiring women, paying them a much lower wage.
Wealthy Georgian families employed a range of staff, some who worked upstairs, such as the lady’s maid, and others who worked downstairs alongside the cook. The lowest paid position was the scullery maid, who was responsible for cleaning the house and doing the laundry. She washed pots and pans, scrubbed floors, and cleaned up after the servants. In Bath, families often sent their linen elsewhere for laundering, but the scullery maid performed the occasional clothes wash. These tasks took place in the scullery, where the maid probably slept. She was generally aged between 10 and 13 and received only £2 10 shillings a year (approximately £12 today).
Male servants received more money than the women, particularly the Butler, who received approximately £25 per year (£2,181 today). Unlike women, men were taxed on income to fund the American War of Independence. Nonetheless, the Butler also received extra rations of tea and other benefits. In houses the size of No. 1 Royal Crescent, the Butler also took on the role of Footman and Valet, making him the only male servant. As a footman, he would accompany his master around the city or conduct errands on his master’s behalf. He also answered the door to visitors, cleaned and polished shoes, and set the table for meals. The Valet was the equivalent of a lady’s maid and performed tasks such as maintaining his master’s clothes, running his bath and so forth.
The most important female servant was the House Keeper. She was usually an older woman and received her own room, where she slept, dined and organised the household bills. Her main task was to oversee the servants and make sure everything was running smoothly. She usually answered to the Mistress of the house, who gave instructions to pass on to the servants. As a salary, the House Keeper earned around £15 per year (£1,308 today) but also received extra rations of tea and sugar.
Whilst the House Keeper dined alone, the rest of the servants ate in the Servant Hall, except for the Scullery Maid. The latter looked after the kitchen until the others finished eating. The servants lived by the saying “Waste Not. Want Not” and usually ate the remains of the food their employers did not finish.
Servants were given a set of rules to follow in the Servants Hall, for which they faced a forfeit if they broke. Examples included no swearing or arguing, only using their own knife and fork, and never wearing a hat inside. Each rule broken cost the servants one penny, which came out of their wages at Christmas.
The way No. 1 Royal Crescent is set out provides visitors with a sense of what it would have been like to live there. Both the rich and poor lived under one roof but had completely different lifestyles, which seem alien compared to the 21st century. It is thanks to organisations, such as the Bath Preservation Trust, that the lives, fashions and buildings of the past are available for people to explore.
No. 1 Royal Crescent is open Tuesday to Sunday between 10am and 5:30pm. Tickets cost between £11 and £13 for adults, depending on the time of year. Children can visit for half the price. Pre-booked tickets are recommended.
Situated at 40 Gay Street in Bath is a museum dedicated to Jane Austen, her writings and her experience in the City of Bath. All six of Jane’s completed novels mention the city, and two, Persuasion and Northanger Abbey, are set in Bath. Although Jane Austen only lived in Bath for a short period of her life, the city had a huge impact on her interests and writing.
Jane Austen was born on 16th December 1775 at Steventon, near Basingstoke in Hampshire. She was the seventh child of George Austen (1731-1805) and Cassandra Leigh (1739-1827), who married in Bath in 1764. George Austen was a rector and began taking in boarding pupils at the rectory in Steventon a couple of years before Jane was born. Although Jane attended a boarding school for a couple of years, most of her education came from her father and older brothers.
Jane had seven brothers, James (1765-1819), George (1766-1838), Edward (1767-1852), Henry Thomas (1771-1850), Francis (1774-1865) and Charles John (1779 1852), and one sister, Cassandra (1773-1845). For reasons unknown, Jane was the only sibling not given a middle name. Neither Jane nor Cassandra married and relied on six of their brothers for money later in life. The second-eldest brother, George, had little to do with family matters and was sent to live with a relative due to his mental disabilities. References in Jane’s letters to talking “with my fingers” suggests George may have been deaf or unable to communicate verbally.
In late 1797, when Jane was 21, she visited Bath for the first time with her mother and sister. During the six weeks they spent in the city, Jane experienced a different lifestyle from the quiet village life to which she was accustomed. Social events were high on everyone’s agenda in Georgian Bath, which Jane’s letters home described as exciting scenes. “I really believe I shall always be talking of Bath when I am home again – I do like it very much.”
Two years later, Jane returned to Bath with her brother Edward, who wished to “take the waters” to aid his ill-health. The Roman Baths in the city centre were renowned for their healing properties, as was the experimental electric shock treatment provided by local physicians. Jane took the opportunity to learn about the area, which helped form the setting of her first completed novel, Northanger Abbey.
Jane, Edward and their mother stayed at No. 13 Queen’s Square for a couple of months, during which time Jane worked on her novel. She had started writing a book called Susan before coming to Bath for the second time and continued working on it while in the city. Despite selling it to a publisher for £10, the book was never published during her lifetime. After her death, Jane’s brother Henry published it under a different title, Northanger Abbey.
There are similarities between Jane Austen and Catherine Moorland, the protagonist of Northanger Abbey. Both young women grew up in the countryside and experienced Bath as innocent, inexperienced girls. Like Jane, Catherine was enthralled by the hustle and bustle of the fashionable city and exclaimed, “Oh! Who can ever be tired of Bath?”
Several notable locations are mentioned in Northanger Abbey, which Jane experienced during her first two visits to the city. Catherine Morland met her love interest, Mr Tilney, by the River Avon in what is now known as the Parade Gardens. This was the location of the Lower Assembly Rooms in Jane’s time, to which she referred in her novel. Catherine attended services nearby in Bath Abbey and visited the Pump Room daily. “As soon as the divine service was over, the Thorpes and the Allens eagerly joined each other; and after staying long enough in the Pump-room to discover that the crowd was insupportable, and that there was not a genteel face to be seen, which everybody discovers every Sunday throughout the season, they hastened away to the Crescent.“
The Royal Crescent is one of the most iconic sights in Bath, as is the Circus, which was built between 1754 and 1756. Jane had friends living in the round circle of terrace houses, so it was only natural to refer to the area. Jane also mentioned the Upper Assembly Rooms, where she enjoyed attending dances and performances. The fictional Catherine also visited the Rooms for similar entertainment. Today, it is the location of Bath’s Museum of Costume.
In 1801, Reverend George Austen surprised his family by announcing his retirement and decision to move to Bath. They moved to 4 Sydney Place, a recently built Georgian townhouse in the Bathwick area of Bath. The nearby Sydney Gardens supplied public breakfasts, which Jane regularly attended. The breakfasts included tea, coffee, and rolls, and towards midday, they served Sally Lunn buns, followed by music and dancing. During the summer, galas were held in the gardens in honour of the King and Prince of Wales’ birthdays and the annual Bath races. During Austen’s time at 4 Sydney Place, André-Jacques Garnerin (1769-1823) took off from the gardens in his hot air balloon in September 1802. Garnerin was well-known for his balloon demonstrations and visited Bath as part of his tour of England.
The Austens remained in Sydney Place until the lease expired in 1804. Her father quickly sought cheaper lodgings, and the family moved to No. 3 Green Park Buildings East. Jane often complained about the dampness in the building but still declared it was “so very desirable in size and situation”. Unfortunately, Jane’s father died suddenly in January 1805 and Jane, Cassandra and their mother were forced to seek smaller accommodation.
The Austens found temporary accommodation at 25 Gay Street, not far from where the Jane Austen Centre is today. In the summer of 1805, they moved to a cheaper address in Trim Street, a less fashionable region of Bath. Although Trim Street boasts luxurious apartments in the 21st century, in Jane Austen’s time, prostitutes frequented the area. Needless to say, the Austens did not remain there long before deciding to leave the city for Southampton.
Despite witnessing the poorer side of Bath, Jane never lost her love of the city. During her time in Southampton, she wrote Elinor and Marianne, which she published under the title Sense and Sensibility in 1811, shortly after moving to Hampshire. Although the novel was set in Sussex and London, the characters reference their “earnest desire” to go to Bath.
In 1813, Jane Austen published Pride and Prejudice and finished writing her next novel, Mansfield Park. Both these stories mention minor characters visiting the city of Bath, as does Emma, which was published in 1815. “If she is really ill, why not go to Bath Mr. Weston?”
Nine years after leaving Bath, Jane Austen started working on Persuasion. At the beginning of the story, the Elliot family move to Bath to settle in a cheaper home until their financial situation improves. The protagonist, Anne Elliot, a 27-year-old unmarried woman, is unsure she will like the city but cannot upset her parents by making a fuss. Jane was a similar age when she moved to Bath, but she had already a favourable impression of the city from her visits in her early 20s. To write from Anne’s point of view, Jane imagined how she would have observed Bath and its social customs for the first time as a mature woman.
Several locations in Bath are written about in Persuasion, for instance, Milsom Street, where Anne first meets her ex-fiancé Captain Wentworth in the city. Jane set the encounter in Molland’s sweet shop, which, whilst no longer there, must have held significant memories for Jane. Gay Street, where Jane briefly stayed after her father’s death, also receives a mention. Although Gay Street contained cheaper housing, it still had a genteel atmosphere.
Behind the back gardens of Gay Street is a gravel walk known as Lover’s Lane during Jane Austen’s time. Young lovers used to meet for a romantic stroll along the lane, making it the perfect setting for Anne Elliot and Captain Wentworth to have a romantic encounter. Other locations in Persuasion include Camden Crescent, where Sir Walter Elliot lived. The houses with their position on a hill symbolise Sir Elliot’s lofty views of his self-importance. Dowager Lady Dalrymple and the Honorable Miss Carteret, cousins of the Elliots, lived in Laura Place, one of the most prestigious groups of houses in Bath. Their way of life greatly contrasted with the general public.
Jane started feeling unwell in 1816 but tried to make a start on another novel, Sanditon. After twelve chapters, she gave up and moved to Winchester with her sister Cassandra and brother Henry for treatment. Unfortunately, Jane passed away a couple of months later, on 18th July 1817, at the age of 41. Jane’s cause of death is still debated today due to Jane’s letters in which she made light of her symptoms. The two most accepted diagnoses are Addison’s disease and Hodgkin’s lymphoma, a form of cancer.
The Jane Austen Centre at No. 40 Gay Street focuses on Jane’s relatively short time in Bath. Visitors are given a talk by members of staff dressed up as well-known Jane Austen characters, such as the formidable Lady Catherine de Bourgh, and remain in character throughout the visit. The talk covers Jane’s family background, her trips to Bath, the inspiration for her books, and her untimely death.
A short film provides a brief tour of Regency Bath, particularly the locations relevant to Jane Austen and her books. A map of the tour is provided in the souvenir guide, so visitors can explore the area if they wish. The rest of the museum contains images, books and letters written by or concerning Jane Austen. There is also an opportunity to dress up in Regency clothing and pose next to a Colin Firth-look-a-like wax figure of Mr. Darcy. Before leaving, visitors are invited to try writing with a quill pen and visit the Regency Tea Room for tea, cake, scones and sandwiches.
One of the highlights at the Jane Austen Centre is the waxwork model of the author. A small watercolour painting by Cassandra Austen is the only existing image of Jane, but it was described as “hideously unlike” Jane by another family member. Fortunately, there are many written descriptions of Jane’s physical appearance from friends and contemporaries, which the forensic artist Melissa Dring used to bring Jane Austen to life.
Melissa Dring unveiled her drawing of Jane Austen in 2002. Nine years later, the Jane Austen Centre commissioned the portrait sculptor Mark Richards to produce a waxwork model of the artwork. Working with Dring, the hair and colour artist Nell Clarke, and costume designer Andrea Galer, Richards spent three years carefully crafting the model until he revealed it to the world on 9th July 2014. Many visitors to the centre comment on Jane’s height of 5 ft 8 in. Cassandra’s portrait of her sister led people to assume Jane was a short woman, but several accounts record her as “tall and slender”.
The Jane Austen Centre is open every day of the week. Due to popularity, booking is strongly advised with the option of reserving a table for afternoon tea. Adult tickets cost £12.50, but there are various concessions for children, students and the over 60s. Tickets are available on the Jane Austen Centre website.
“Bath Abbey seeks to be a “House of Prayer for all nations”, praying with and for needy people locally and all around the world, regardless of their political, ethnic or religious affiliation.” – The Rev’d Canon Guy Bridgewater, Rector of Bath Abbey
For over 1,000 years, a Christian place of worship has stood in the centre of the city of Bath, Somerset. Known today as Bath Abbey, the present-day parish church was built in the 16th century, replacing a Norman cathedral, which, in turn, had replaced a Saxon monastery. The Grade I listed building is one of the largest examples of Perpendicular Gothic architecture in the West Country and the most visited church outside London.
In 675 AD, a French Abbess, either called Bertana or Berta, was granted a plot of land in Bath for the establishment of a convent. In 781, King Offa of Mercia (reigned 757-796) rebuilt the monastic church on the current site of the abbey, which is where the first king of all England, Edgar the Peaceful (reigned 959-975), was crowned. King Edgar encouraged the monks to adopt the Rule of Saint Benedict, a book of instruction written in 516 by Benedict of Nursia (c. AD 480–550). The Benedictine monastery was led by Abbot Ælfheah, now known as St. Alphege (953-1012), who was later killed during a Viking invasion.
In 1087, William II (1056-100) granted the city of Bath to a royal chaplain, John of Tours (d.1122), subsequently making him the Bishop of Wells and Abbot of Bath. Three years later, John transferred the bishopric to Bath Abbey, which was much wealthier than Wells. He rebuilt sections of the monastic church and raised it to cathedral status. John planned to expand the cathedral and dedicate it to Saint Peter and Saint Paul but died before its completion in December 1122.
A fire in 1137 hindered the construction of the cathedral, which was eventually completed in around 1156. After a couple of successful years, during which time Pope Innocent IV (1195-1254) awarded joint cathedral status to Bath and Wells, the building gradually fell into disrepair. By 1499, it was almost in ruins. Oliver King (1432-1503), the Bishop of Bath and Wells, blamed the state of the cathedral on the monks being “all too eager to succumb to the temptations of the flesh”.
In 1500, Oliver King allegedly had a dream in which he “saw the Heavenly Host on high with angels ascending and descending by ladder,” similar to the scene dreamt by Jacob in chapter 28 of the Book of Genesis. The earliest recording of King’s dream was written 100 years later and is largely considered to be a story; nonetheless, the dream is represented in stone on the west front of the cathedral.
King commissioned brothers Richard (b.1506) and William Vertue (d.1527), who were also involved with work on the Tower of London, to rebuild the dilapidated cathedral. They promised, “there shall be none so goodly neither in England nor France” and incorporated the surviving Norman wall and arches into their design. The Vertue brothers specialised in fan vaulted ceilings, which remains one of the most admired sections of the building’s architecture today. Unfortunately, King did not live to see the result, which was not completed until at least two decades after his death.
Due to the Dissolution of the Monasteries, the church was deprived of its cathedral status in 1539, and stripped of £4,800 worth of lead, iron and glass. The roofless remains of the church was given to the corporation of Bath in 1572, which struggled to raise funds for its restoration. Fortunately, Queen Elizabeth I (1533-1603) set up a national fund to finance the necessary works and decreed that it should become the parish church of Bath.
The church remained incomplete when the queen died, but James Montague (1568-1618), the Bishop of Bath and Wells from 1608 to 1616, personally paid £1,000 for a new roof. The gesture came after Montague attempted to shelter in the church during a thunder storm, only to discover the building offered no protection. Montague financed the rest of the restoration, which was completed in 1611. After his death, Montague was buried in an alabaster tomb, which remains in situ in the north aisle.
For a couple of centuries, Bath Abbey survived without the need for any building works until the 1830s, when George Phillips Manners (1789-1866), the first Bath City Architect, remodelled the interior. Manners also added flying buttresses and pinnacles to the exterior. In the 1860s, major restoration work by Sir George Gilbert Scott (1811-78) took place, involving the extension of the fan-vaulted ceiling in the nave. Scott also designed the finely-carved pews, later described as “one of the most magnificent and extensive suites of Victorian church seating in the country”. When Scott died in 1878, his pupil, Thomas Graham Jackson (1835-1924), completed the building project.
Bath Abbey is constructed from Bath stone, a form of limestone obtained from the Combe Down and Bathampton Down Mines. The majority of buildings in the city are built from the same material, giving the streets a yellowish tinge. The interior of Bath Abbey features the same stone, but the 52 windows, occupying about 80% of the wall space, bring in enough light to make the walls appear much whiter. In recent years, traces of coloured paint were discovered in the spaces between the fan shapes on the vaulted ceiling. Closer inspection revealed these to be the coats of arms of King James I (reigned 1603-25), Cardinal Adriano de Castello, a former Bishop of Bath and Wells (1503-18), and the pre-Reformation priory.
The nave is 211 feet (64 m) long and 35 feet (11 m) wide, ending in a tall stained-glass window depicting 56 events in the life of Jesus from the Annunciation to the Ascension. The window contains 76 square metres (818 sq. ft) of glass, the majority of which dates to the Victorian era. It was likely designed by Alfred Bell (1832-95), who established Clayton and Bell with John Richard Clayton (1827-1913), one of the most prolific British stained-glass windows manufacturers during the latter half of the 19th century. During the air raids of 1942, sections of the coloured glass were destroyed. A Canadian soldier stationed in the area collected the shards and took them home, where they now form part of a window in Christ Church, Meaford, Ontario. In the 1950s, Michael Farrar Bell (1911-93), the great-grandson of the original designer, repaired the war damage.
On the north side of the Abbey, a 19th-century stained-glass window depicts the coronation of King Edgar in 973. The service was devised by Saint Dunstan, which has remained the basis of coronation ceremonies ever since. Dunstan (909-988) was an English bishop who served as the Abbot of Glastonbury Abbey, Bishop of Worcester, Bishop of London and Archbishop of Canterbury. Dunstan became famous for the many stories about his dealings with the Devil. Allegedly, Dunstan resisted the Devil’s temptations by holding the Devil’s face between a pair of red-hot tongs. The only evidence of this event are accounts written at least 100 years after Dunstan’s death, including an old folk song: St Dunstan, as the story goes, Once pull’d the devil by the nose With red-hot tongs, which made him roar, That he was heard three miles or more.
On Ascension Day in 988, Dunstan had a vision of angels who warned him that he would die in three days. Dunstan made the necessary preparations, warning his congregation of his impending death and choosing a place for his tomb. Three days after the Ascension, Dunstan fell ill, and after partaking in Mass from his bed, he passed away. People immediately revered him as a saint, although Dunstan was not officially canonised until 1029. Dunstan was buried in Bath Cathedral, although later reinterred in Canterbury Cathedral. Until he was overshadowed by Saint Thomas Becket (1119-1170), who was murdered in Canterbury Cathedral, Saint Dunstan was the favourite saint of the English people.
There are over 1,000 memorials inside Bath Abbey, including the aforementioned effigy of James Montagu, the Bishop of Bath and Wells. On the north wall, a memorial stone remembers Admiral Arthur Philip, who founded the state of New South Wales in Australia. Unfortunately, the inscription states Philip founded Australia. Other people honoured with memorials include Master of Ceremonies Beau Nash (1674-1762), Reverend Thomas Malthus (1766-1834), Mary, the Countess Dowager of Kintore (d. 1826), botanist John Sibthorp (1758-96), and several military men. In 1958, the most recent memorial was installed to commemorate Sir Isaac Pitman (1813-97), who developed Pitman shorthand.
In 2007, a frieze of 12 wooden angel musicians was installed above the quire screens. The quire, also known as the choir, is where the clergy and church choir sit during services. The screens were installed in 2004 to improve the acoustics. Music in the Abbey is supplied by the large organ in the north transept, which was first installed in 1895.
The earliest mention of an organ at Bath Abbey dates to 1634, but there are no specific details about the instrument. In 1708, another organ was built by Abraham Jordan and modified in 1718 and 1739 by his son. The organ was later moved to the Bishop’s Palace at Wells in 1836. That year, John of Bristol built a new organ, which now resides at the Church of St Peter & St Paul in Cromer, Norfolk.
Norman and Beard, a pipe organ manufacturer based in Norwich, supplied Bath Abbey with a new organ in 1895. Initially, the instrument stood on two steel beams in the North and South crossing arches before being re-erected in a case designed by Sir Thomas Jackson in the North Transept in 1914. On several occasions, organ manufacturers rebuilt sections of the instrument, adding a variety of keys and stops. Eventually, the entire organ was reconstructed in 1997 by Orgelbau Klais, a German firm, who restored it to its original 1895 condition.
The organ is not the only form of instrument installed in the Abbey. Hung in the ringing chamber in the tower are ten bells. Unconventionally, they are arranged from highest to lowest in an anti-clockwise ring around the chamber, rather than in the usual clockwise fashion. Eight of the bells were created in the early 18th century after six of the originals were melted down. The two lightest bells were added in 1774. The heaviest bell, the tenor, was replaced after it cracked in 1869. After installing the replacement, the organist claimed it was out of tune and ordered it recast.
Visitors to Bath Abbey are offered guided tours of the tower, which include viewing the bells in the ringing chamber. Two spiral staircases consisting of 212 steps provide access to the 161 feet (49 m) structure. The first staircase ends at the roof level, and the second reaches the top of the tower, from where visitors can survey the city of Bath.
Bath Abbey is open most days for visitors except during scheduled service times. Sunday services include Morning Prayer, Holy Communion and Evening Prayer. Weddings, baptisms and funerals also take place throughout the year, although burials are no longer allowed in the Abbey due to health and safety. The last burial took place in 1845 before the practice was outlawed in 1853. Approximately 3,800 bodies are buried under the floor. Only the rich could afford this privilege, and the nearer the altar they wished to be buried, the higher the fee.
Between 1583 and 2022, there have been 28 rectors at Bath Abbey. The first rector was John Long, who held the position for a year before Richard Meredith (1559-1621) took his place. The current rector is Reverend Canon Guy Bridgewater, who was appointed in 2018. Other notable rectors of the past include George Webb (1581-1642), who was also Chaplain-in-Ordinary to King Charles II, the philosopher Joseph Glanvill (1636-80), and James Phillott (1750-1815), of whom the writer Jane Austen thought very little.
Bath Abbey is free to visit, although a donation is most welcome. Tours of the Abbey are available to book for a fee of £8 per adult or £4 per child. Tower tours, which last between 45 minutes to an hour, cost £10 per adult and £5 per child. The Abbey gift shop, which is open every day except Sundays, offers a range of products inspired by Bath Abbey, including books, gifts and postcards.
Dear Simeon, During a recent archaeological dig in Bath, a skeleton, believed to be of an elderly male dating back to Roman times, was discovered. Local media have leaked the intriguing news that, clutched in its hands, sealed inside a vessel, was a well-preserved treasure map with some mystifying scrawled notes. Experts at IES (Intrepid Explorers Society) are speculating that this map might lead to a stash of precious gems and possibly Roman gold, buried on an island somewhere in the Bristol Channel. Unfortunately, the very dodgy Brutally Awful Treasure Hunters (aka BATH) are also super keen to discover this lost treasure. IES don’t want them uncovering it before you do so get out there, solve the Clues and identify the location of this hidden hoard!
After receiving this intriguing quest from Treasure Trails, Simeon, the red-haired gibbon (toffee-coloured, if you please), grabbed his towel and headed to the bathroom. After laughing hysterically for some time about his mistake, Simeon got out of the bath and into the car to make the long journey from London to Bath in Somerset. Assisted by his friends, Simeon began a perilous expedition around some of the most beautiful, historic streets of Bath.
Simeon began his quest in the Bath Abbey Churchyard, where he squeezed through the crowds of people listening to the buskers. Towering above him, the Bath Abbey of St. Peter and St. Paul stood in all its glory. Built between 1499 and 1533, the limestone building is one of the largest examples of Perpendicular Gothic architecture in the United Kingdom. The abbey is the third building on the site, but there has been a church here for over 1,000 years. The Saxons built the first church in the 7th century, which was where King Edgar, the first king of all England, was crowned in 973. The second church was built by the Normans in the 12th century. The present building largely resembles the 16th-century architecture of the third building, although Sir George Gilbert Scott (1811-78) undertook a restoration project during the Victorian era.
Whilst the Abbey is an impressive structure, Simeon did not have time to admire it because he heard about the nearby Beau Street Hoard. Discovered in 2008, 17,577 silver Roman coins dating from 32 BC to 274 AD had been buried under the streets for thousands of years. It is the fifth-largest hoard ever found in Britain, unearthed during the construction of a swimming pool at the Gainsborough Hotel. The hoard consisted of eight money bags and 2,437 loose coins, which are now on display in the Roman Baths Museum. After some investigation, Simeon decided this was not the Roman hoard he was looking for and continued on his quest.
Around the corner, Simeon peered into the Cross Bath, but the clear water did not reveal any treasure. Constructed in 1784 and remodelled in 1789, the Grade I building houses a historic pool famed for its healing properties. The nearby St John’s hospital used the pool for treatments as early as 1180, and the royal family frequently visited between the 16th and 18th centuries.
The water in the Cross Pool fell as rain around 10,000 years ago in the Mendip Hills. After sinking 3 kilometres below the earth’s surface, geothermal energy heated the water, which eventually rose under natural artesian pressure. Legend claims the mythical Prince Bladud discovered the thermal waters in 863 BC, which cured him of his skin disease. The warm water allegedly contains over 42 different types of minerals. The bath and Victorian construction now belong to the adjacent Thermae Bath Spa.
As Simeon continued his journey around Bath, he came across a mystery. Beaufort Square, designed by John Strahan in 1730, appears to have two names. On one signpost, the name reads “Beaufort”, but on another, it says “Beauford”! There does not seem to be an explanation for this other than a spelling mistake, but it was enough to make Simeon stop in his tracks and look around. Beaufort square is surrounded by two-storey cottages and the original frontage of the Theatre Royal. In the centre, a small rectangular lawn is all that remains of the communal area. Simeon could not enter the garden but admired it from the railings. These date from 1805, and the spear shapes commemorate weapons used during the Battle of Trafalgar.
Simeon came across another strange site in Chapel Row, where he stopped briefly to rest. Standing separately from the other buildings is Temple Ornament, which was re-erected in 1976 by students of Bath Technical College. The limestone structure, featuring five Ionic columns, is situated on the original site of St. Mary’s Chapel, built between 1732 and 1734 by John Wood the Elder (1704-54). In 1875, the city demolished the church for road widening. The ornament was constructed from the ruined building.
After paying his respects at the war memorial on the corner, Simeon made his way along the Gravel Walk. The pathway leads past the gardens of the houses in Gay Street, where the English novelist Jane Austen (1775-1817) once lived. In Austen’s time, the Walk was known as Lover’s Lane and was where young lovers used to meet each other for a stroll. In Austen’s novel Persuasion (1817), it is the setting for a love scene between Anne Elliot and Captain Wentworth. Simeon did not see any Georgian ladies and gentlemen walking along the path, but he did come across an intriguing garden.
Signposted as the Georgian Garden, the gap in the wall led Simeon into a Georgian-style garden, which is a recreation of one of the gardens of the Circus (not a circus with animals, as Simeon later discovered). The project started in 1985 to replace the existing Victorian landscape with its former style. There was no grass in the original garden, only gravel and flower beds. Grass lawns were not easily maintained in the 18th century and only became popular after the invention of mechanical lawnmowers in 1832.
Excavation work revealed the original 18th-century layout, including the position of flowerbeds and paths. Dr John Harvey of the Garden History Society sourced appropriate plants, such as honeysuckle and other fragrant flowers. Towards the end of the 18th century, plants from Indo-China and the New World arrived in Britain, replacing many native plants in private gardens.
Keen to continue his quest, Simeon returned to the Gravel Walk and soon found himself in the Royal Victoria Park. Opened by the 11-year-old future Queen Victoria (1819-1901) in 1830, the 57-acre park consists of grasslands, tennis courts, a golf course, a botanical garden and a children’s playground. It was the first park to carry Victoria’s name and was privately owned until 1921 when it was taken over by the Bath Corporation.
Overlooking the Royal Victoria Park is the Royal Crescent, a row of 30 terraced houses laid out in a 500-foot-long (150 m) crescent shape. Built by John Wood the Younger (1728-82), the Grade I listed buildings feature 114 Ionic columns on the first floor with Palladian-style mouldings above. In front of the houses is a ha-ha (ditch), making an invisible partition between the lower and upper lawns. The latter is for residents only.
Notable residents of the Royal Crescent include William Wilberforce (1759-1833), who stayed at number 2; Baroness Angela Burdett-Coutts (1814-1906), who lived with her father at number 16; and Elizabeth Linley (1754-92) at number 11, who eloped with the playwright, Richard Sheridan (1751-1816). “Would I like to live here?” pondered Simeon. After learning about Georgian lifestyles, particularly sedan chairs, at No. 1 Royal Crescent, a historic house museum, Simeon decided yes, he would.
On the corner of the Royal Crescent, Simeon looked for clues inside a silver-coloured telephone box. Whilst he did not locate any treasure, Simeon found some interesting information about the box. The telephone box or kiosk was designed by English architect Sir Giles Gilbert Scott (1880-1960) in 1924. Over the following years, the design was tweaked before settling on Kiosk no. 6 (K6). The bright red boxes were primarily used in London, but when they spread to neighbouring towns and cities, people complained about the bright colour. In response to the complaints and to coincide with King George V’s silver jubilee, the kiosks were painted battleship grey (silver) with touches of red around the windows.
Tempted to call the Treasure Trail team for more clues, Simeon noticed the kiosk did not contain a telephone. Whilst it is no longer in use, the kiosk is a listed structure of architectural and historical importance. Many K6s were painted the iconic red colour once people got used to their presence, so very few remain battleship grey, making them very rare. This particular box survived the Blitz and has remained in situ for over 80 years.
Next, Simeon visited the Circus, where except for himself and a few pigeons, no animals or entertainers could be seen. The Circus is a circular ring of terrace houses built between 1754 and 1768 by John Wood, the Elder. Its name comes from the Latin word circus, meaning circle. Today, it is a famous example of Georgian architecture and has been designated a Grade I listed building.
Wood was inspired by Stonehenge, a prehistoric monument on Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire. Believing that Bath had once been a centre for Druid activity, Wood mimicked the neo-druid place of worship. Unfortunately, Wood died five days after the construction began and his son, John Wood, the Younger, oversaw the rest of the building project. On completion, it was named King’s Circus, although the royal title was later dropped.
Walking around the Circus, Simeon appreciated the various styles of architecture incorporated into the building. Each floor represents a different Classical order, with Doric on the ground level, Ionic or Composite on the piano nobile (principal floor), and Corinthian on the upper floor. The styles become progressively more ornate as the building rises. Between the Doric and Ionic levels, an entablature decorated with alternating triglyphs and 525 pictorial emblems completes the building’s design. Simeon enjoyed looking at the many images, including nautical, art, science and masonic symbols. He also spotted serpents and owls – so there are some animals in the Circus after all!
Simeon’s instructions eventually led him to Pulteney Bridge, where the confused little gibbon warily eyed the shops on either side, wondering why it was called a bridge. Only later did Simeon discover the buildings were constructed over the River Avon! Designed by Robert Adam (1728-92) in 1774, shops span the length of the Palladian-style Grade I listed bridge, making it a highly unusual construction.
Pulteney Bridge is named after Frances Pulteney, the first cousin once removed of William Pulteney, 1st Earl of Bath (1684-1764). When the Earl died, Frances inherited his estates and a significant amount of money. Her husband, William Johnstone (1729-1805), promptly changed his surname to Pulteney and made plans to create a new town, Bathwick, which eventually became a suburb of Bath. For easier access across the Avon, William Pulteney commissioned Adam to design a bridge, who took inspiration from the Ponte Vecchio in Florence and the Ponte di Rialto in Venice. The original designs for Pulteney Bridge are held in the Sir John Soane’s Museum in London. As of 2022, it is one of only four bridges containing shops across its entire span, the others being the aforementioned bridges in Italy and the Krämerbrücke in Erfurt, Germany.
As well as the bridge, Great Pulteney Street, Henrietta Street and Laura Place are the work of William Pulteney. Great Pulteney Street connects Bathwick with the City of Bath. It was designed by Thomas Baldwin (1750-1820) and completed in 1789. At over 1,000 feet (300 m) long and 100 feet (30 m) wide, Great Pulteney Street is the widest and the grandest road in Bath. Situated at one end is the Holburne Museum of Art, which was originally the Sydney Hotel. The hotel attracted many visitors, and several notable people lived on the street, including Napoleon III (1808-73), during his exile from France; William Wilberforce, who also stayed in the Royal Crescent; and the “Father of English Geology” William “Strata” Smith (1769-1839).
Henrietta Street and Laura Place were named after Pulteney’s daughters. Both were constructed in the late 1780s by Thomas Baldwin. Laura Place, situated at the end of Pulteney Bridge, is an irregular quadrangle containing four blocks of houses. In the centre sits a circular stone fountain, which was not part of the original plan. Instead, residents petitioned for a column similar to Nelson’s Column in Trafalgar Square, London, but when construction began, they realised it would tower over the area and petitioned against it.
After admiring the weir in the River Avon below Pulteney Bridge, Simeon made his way back to the Abbey for his final clues, resisting the urge to eat Sally Lunn’s buns and Charlotte Brunswick’s chocolates. Sally Lunn’s historic eating house is one of the oldest houses in Bath. It was allegedly the home of a Huguenot refugee called Solange Luyon during the 1680s, who became known as Sally Lunn. As a baker, Luyon or Lunn became famous for her buns, now known as Bath Buns.
It is claimed that Charlotte Brunswick was the first and finest chocolatier in Bath during the 18th century. Fascinated by flavour, she sought the perfect combination of ingredients to make her delicious chocolate. The men in her family were explorers and brought her back oranges from Spain and ginger and cinnamon from China, which she incorporated into her recipes. The Charlotte Brunswick Shop on Church Street continues to use many of the recipes today.
Another delicacy from Bath is the Bath Oliver biscuit, invented by the physician William Oliver (1695-1764). Some claim Oliver, not Sally Lunn, invented the Bath Bun, but after realising it was too fattening for his rheumatic patients, he sought an alternative. A Bath Oliver is a dry, cracker-like biscuit, often eaten with cheese. When Oliver died, he bequeathed the recipe, ten sacks of wheat flour, and £100 to his coachman, Mr Atkins, who set up a biscuit-baking business.
Back at the Abbey, Simeon used all the clues he had gathered to work out the location of the Roman Hoard. After celebratory ice cream, Simeon sat and reflected on the sites he saw around Bath. Simeon enjoyed walking along quaint streets, admiring the architecture, and felt humbled knowing he was walking in the footsteps of many famous people, not least the Romans. “I think I’ll visit Jane Austen for afternoon tea on Gay Street,” mused Simeon, not fully comprehending that he would not be able to see the REAL Jane Austen but a waxwork. “And after that, I’ll pop in and see Mary Shelley.”
Both the Jane Austen Centre and Mary Shelley’s House of Frankenstein are located on Gay Street, which links the Circus to Queen’s Square. It is named after Robert Gay (1676-1738), a Member of Parliament for Bath who leased part of his estate to John Wood the Elder for the construction of Queen’s Square.
Simeon recalled seeing many other names on plaques around the city, such as Beau Nash (1674-1762), the Master of Ceremonies at Bath. Nash made it his job to meet new arrivals to Bath and judge whether they were suitable to join the select “Company” allowed to attend dances and such-like. He infamously confronted John Wesley (1701-93), the founder of Methodism, when he began preaching in the city. Nash question Wesley’s authority, demanding to know who allowed him to speak to crowds of people. Wesley calmly answered, “Jesus Christ and the Archbishop of Canterbury.” Having lost the argument, Nash left Wesley alone, allowing the people of Bath to flock to hear the preacher speak.
Simeon did not like the sound of Beau Nash, but he was intrigued to learn about William (1738-1822) and Caroline Herschel (1750-1848), who lived at 19 New King Street. William Herschel famously discovered the planet Uranus, which resulted in his appointment as Court Astronomer to George III (1738-1820). His sister, Caroline, made several discoveries of her own and became the first woman to receive a salary as a scientist and the first woman in England to hold a government position. Today, 19 New King Street is home to the Herschel Museum of Astronomy. As well as documenting the Herschels’ astronomical finds, a room is devoted to their love of music, which originally brought the German siblings to England.
Another notable resident of Bath was Admiral Arthur Phillip (1738-1814), the first governor of the Colony of New South Wales. Simeon came across the Admiral’s memorial on Bennett Street during his quest for the Roman hoard. Installed in 2014 by the Britain-Australia Society Education Trust, the sculpture resembles an armillary sphere, which sailors used to determine their position in relation to Earth and the sun. Phillip commanded the first fleet of convicts sent to Australia and established a settlement at Sydney Cove in 1788. In 1793, he returned to England and settled in Bath for the remainder of his life.
Other notable residents of Bath include John Christopher Smith (1712-95), the secretary of the Baroque composer George Frideric Handel (1685-1759). Smith moved to Bath in 1774 after King George III granted him an annual pension. The 1st Earl of Chatham, also known as William Pitt the Elder (1708-78), lived in the Circus between 1757 and 1766 when he stood as the Member of Parliament for Bath. He then served as Prime Minister of Great Britain for two years.
The artist, Thomas Gainsborough (1727-88), lived in the Circus with his family from 1759 until 1774. During this time, he became a popular portrait painter for fashionable society. He eventually got bored of painting people and longed for the “quietness and ease” of landscapes. Another artist from Bath is Thomas Lawrence (1769-1830), who from the age of ten, supported his family with his pastel portraits. Amongst his sitters were Duchess Georgiana Cavendish (1757-1806), who visited Bath in 1782, and Sarah Siddons (1755-1831), a Welsh actress, who first performed in Bath in 1778.
“Who knew there was so much to discover in Bath,” exclaimed Simeon. “I shall have to come back another time to learn more about the historic city.” As well as completing his Treasure Trail, Simeon visited some of the attractions and highly recommends the Abbey and Roman Baths. He also enjoyed the Jane Austen Centre, House of Frankenstein, No. 1 Royal Crescent, the Herschel Museum of Astronomy, and travelling on the sightseeing bus. There is only so much a little gibbon can fit into a week, so Simeon has plenty more places to explore on his next visit to Bath.
Simeon’s Top Tips
Book tickets for the attractions in advance. Some places are limiting the number of visitors due to Covid-19. (Generally, it is best to book to avoid disappointment)
Do not fall into the Roman Baths. You will get very wet.
Do not pull a face if you try the water. You will put other people off trying.
Be respectful in the Abbey. It is a place of worship.
Pace yourself when climbing all the hills. Bath is supposedly built on seven.
Remember to use the Park and Ride buses if you are staying outside the city. Parking is free, you only pay for the bus ride.
Do not get ink on your paws if attempting to write with a quill pen at the Jane Austen Centre. Simeon did this and it was very messy.
Buy a map.And try not to get lost.
Only go into the basement at the House of Frankenstein if you are really brave. Simeon was not.
Follow social distancing rules. Some places still request you wear a mask.
Hazel Stainer 