Jane Austin in Bath

Not sure that this was quite Jane's experience.
While Jane was in Bath though she made many observations
of the characters and follies in the society that her Admiral brother
 was able to introduce her to.
Her novels Northanger Abbey and Persuasion were written here
though not published until after her surprisingly early death.

According to some who know better than I, Jane Austin did not very much like Bath.  They take their opinion from hints in her letters to her sister Cassandra and I think, are reading deep scores between the lines by quoting one of her heroines - Anne in Persuasion - as their evidence. "She persisted in a very determined, though very silent, disinclination for Bath; caught the first dim view of the extensive buildings, smoking in rain, without any wish of seeing them better..." Chapter 14.

This picture was taken in winter, we
passed when it was surrounded by brilliant green

Well House Manor - even has its own library for guests!
Didn't have time to look for Jane.

Our experience was very different, we arrived via a B road from Melksham (20 mins to Bath), where we stayed the night at Well House Manor. 5 star amenities and service at a 3 star price - Charlie had his own doggy bed provided and bowl in the en-suite, beautiful grounds for wee walks and a short stroll from the town centre, continental breaky included with a fridge full of soft drinks and coffee machine for free use. http://www.wellho.net/mouth/3985_Special-weekend-at-Well-House-Manor-come-and-see-Wiltshire.html The B3108 took us over one of the 7 hills that surround Bath, just like Rome. Coming over a crest, we saw a little hotel called the Swan perched on the edge of the ridge with spectacular views down a valley way down below with a river running at the bottom.

Willow claiming the bed by the window

Petal charging her i-pod through her Surface

Where is my bed?

Squeezing oranges for fresh breaky juice

Charlie's bed under the apple tree

 All was green and lush, Bath glowed with the morning sun bouncing off the cream stone buildings it is so famous for. Unfortunately that was the last of the sun, the clouds only had a tiny leak but hung very low all day.

Being the last day of the Jane Austin Festival week, we saw many in Regency dress and booked a Jane Austin walking tour of Bath. Our guide was all dressed up and very knowledgeable about Jane and the town she had lived in for a few years. I was amazed to learn that the Roman Baths were not uncovered until 1810 when the failure of the Regency Pump Rooms spring forced an investigation.  The Victorian buildings now surrounding the excavated Roman remains were not constructed until 1897 - some  80 years after Jane's death.  This means that all my imaginings as I have read Austin and Heyer Historical Fiction have been wrong.  As I sat in the square by the Abbey with it's angels forever trialing up and down carved ladders to heaven and back, I enjoyed my raspberry and pavlova ice-cream and tried to imagine the space crowded with Regency shops and housing- right up to the doors of the Pump rooms.

Incredible detail but a little slower for he news
to get heaven than the faithful hope. 

Entrance to the Pump Rooms - spot the Regency dress ups.

The Victorian architect carved the Roman lookalike figures around the edge of the terrace.
Historians think that the Anglo Saxon chronicles hint at the destruction of the Roman remains through flood and warfare
Modern Street level is 1/2 m down from where the terrace is.  This pool had an arched ceiling of hollow brick and wood
higher than the Abbey towers.  It must have been visible around the whole valley. There were ladies baths behind the
 wall visible in this shot and mens baths including a plunge pool of frigid water under where M is standing to take it.  This was necessary when the Emperor Hadrian banned mixed nude bathing which had been common until then.

Touching the water was discouraged by large
signs saying not to. About to jump Petal?

Taking the waters from a stainless tap in the museum.
Petal hasn't added it to her list of cool new beverages.
High in Sulphate, Calcium, Magnesium, Potassium and
Fluoride it may have been helpful to many. At least
it didn't taste like Hanmer springs sulphur!

In front of Sally Lun's restaurant, creator of the
famous Bath bun or Sally Lun, known to many as a
Boston Bun when imported to the USA.
The box beside Willow is a sedan chair,
these could be hired to carry the wealthy to
places around Bath. Long planks would be slid through
the loops on the side and two men would use these
as handles to lift the box. Hide if the servant of a large
person heads your way!

Ice cream beside the Abbey

The Jane Austin walk took us over Pulteney bridge that had shops built on it to hide the river from the pedestrians. Perhaps many Regency folk suffered from Vertigo. The markets were pointed out where Jane would have shopped for produce and Laura place that was featured as a desirable residence by both Heyer and Austin. At the end of this road is the building that was a famous club with leisure gardens at the height of Bath's social popularity.  Many other haunts were destroyed by floods or developers in the Victorian age. We walked up Milsom St towards the Assembly rooms (Upper rooms) and saw where the coffee shop where Anne met Captain Wentworth for the first time in Bath had been - yes a real place! On our way to the rooms on Bennett St we were taken past a little lane that had a little green gate opening onto it. This was the back of cheaper rented accommodation that the Austins were forced to take after the death of the Reverend from a bilious fever. There was a large Eucalyptus growing in the yard which of course would not have been there in Jane's time for the first fleet didn't land in Sydney cove until 1788.

The Lower rooms were where Grand Parade is now full of tour buses and cars desperately looking for parking. The tea rooms looked out through arched pillars overlooking the Parade Gardens.  These were considered too small and informal for the ton so the upper rooms were designed with a large room for dancing, an octagonal room for cards with a smaller, quieter suite for serious gamblers and a large refreshments room that was catered by Messrs Kuliff and Fitzwater. One account of the 'taking of tea' in the upper rooms mentions "justling,scrambling, pulling, snatching, struggling, scolding and screaming" (from J.Melford's Humpfry Clinker) No wonder it was the gentleman's duty to secure refreshments for the ladies.

Another 'Aha' moment was when I discovered that Bath became a popular winter resort for high society when a very confident chap called Richard 'Beau' Nash decided to make a set of rules that provided more freedom of contact between the tiers of polite society.  Bath became a popular place where young ladies and gentlemen might find a marriage partner higher up the social ladder than themselves or impoverished titles could find a well educated and dowered merchant's daughter. The aristocracy bent to join the well to do with in the social safety of Nash's rules. A couple of examples are, "That no person take it ill that any one goes to another's play or breakfast instead of to theirs - except captious by nature." and "That all whisperers of lies and scandal be taken for their authors." These ideas wouldn't go astray in today's society.

Charlie had to be carried in here.

The Circus

House at the end of the Royal Crescent
Now a Georgian Museum - didn't get there.

Front of the Royal Crescent the stone Haha fence just visible.

1 Laura St - where Lady Russell may have rented rooms.

Palace facade on Queen Square

 Many of the building designed and built in this prosperous time of Bath's history were a Father and Son team called John Wood the Elder and John Wood the Younger. They built the Circus which is a semi circle of white buildings with a grassy circle in the centre for promenading(Nicholas Cage has just vacated his apartment here recently) - this area also had the first street gas lamps which made loitering in the evenings without chaperons another allurement of Bath.

'The Gravel Path' gave wide pedestrian access from the Royal Crescent (The Circus on steroids - built by the Woods) to the centre of town, there was a duelling grounds half way along it and the first indoor flush toilets can be seen hanging from the back of the some houses in the Circus.  They were added to the buildings after completion with their plumbing running down the backs of the structures into drains. They were dubbed 'thunder boxes' for reasons that don't need explanation. Opposite the fearfully expensive Royal Crescent was a private lawn that overlooked pastures and farmlands.  A 2m rock wall was built to raise the lawn level from the field so the beasties couldn't mess up the lawn.  This is called a Haha fence, apparently because poor sighted individuals roaming the lawn would occasionally fall off it and provide great entertainment for peers and passersby.
Another famous architectural wonder invented by the Woods was the Palace front.  This is where a collection of houses were built in a terrace but they shared a front of pillars and plinth so it appeared to the outside world as if it was one large- grand building.  Jane Austin spent a happy holiday living with her Admiral brother and his family in lodgings across from a fine example of this style in Queen Square. Just around the corner from this is the Jane Austin Center on Gay St.

The River Avon looking back to Pulteney Bridge and the Weir. You can hire a canal boat for a day - catered.
The building on the left was built through a council loophole and is taller than the Abbey by a little.
It has three different era roof lines, the castle turret on the corner used to be owned by Van Morrison.
The line of houses below the tree line on the right is Camden place - for Persuasion fans. Sir Walter was not in
the best position but Elizabeth was very proud of the spacious drawing rooms in their rented apartment.

Very interested in the ducks

Oh! Just going in to visit Jane and her mum

For Captain Arthur Philip - The first Governor of  Australia

Time for a country dance Willow - where's the partner? Upper Assembly rooms. Original chandeliers escaped
the Bath blitz in WWII because they had been taken down and hidden in caves outside of Bath.

Victorian dressups in the
Fashion Museum

Mr Darcy!

A interesting teapot in the Bath Markets

Aladdins cave of antique and modern jewelry in the Bath Markets

Read: Persuasion - Jane Austin to the family in the car driving back to Watford after our day in Bath!
I bought it at the Jane Austin centre, a little 'Collectors' one that matches the Pride and Prejudice that Kim Wright gave me for Christmas one year. The reading of the first 2 chapters was greatly appreciated - ran out of voice so read the rest to myself!!!!
Ms Austin's observations on human pretenses and struggles are just as relevant today without being as damning as they must have been when they were first published.  We can pretend that the issues she tackles don't exist in our modern lives but next time you read an Austin see if you can't match characteristics to people you know - I bet you'll be able to.

One of  the 30+ Historic Romances Heyer wrote.

Georgette Heyer's Regency romances often mentioned Bath, one was set there in 1816 - written in the 1920's though so without the vivid observations of Austin's comments on her contemporaries.

Sutton Hoo

Garnet belt buckle with a butterfly design

Gold pieces - early English coins?

Reproduction of the unearthed helmet.

Sutton Hoo is a burial place of the early English.  The Romans had been recalled to a failing empire, their roads and towns were deserted as the Britons returned to a pastoral life.  Angles and Saxons arrived and pulled together the people under their pagan gods. Apparently if a clever person sat and studied a basic text from our times they would be able to understand it as so many of our words have come from this era. Quite a few I know have trouble reading Shakespeare who wrote only 400 years ago, imagine trying to read 1600yrs into the future - would we know any of the nouns in common usage? (Remember Mark Pagel's findings of the proto-eurasiatic language in my earlier blog - Genes v ideas)

Replica of a stone sceptre - Over 200hrs to recreate

Inside the burial room on the boat buried in the mound.
The body was completely absent - acidic soil destroyed it,
but not the metals or beaver skin Lyre carry case?
Another theory is that the warrior king was lost at sea
so they just left a space for his body.

Venerable Bede, a Northumbrian monk, recorded how Christianity came to the English.  With it came a mini renaissance of scholarly and artistic skills.  Bede also recorded the political issues as rulers fought, pagan vs christian. A ruler of East Anglia, Raedwald, may have been the recipient of a huge hoard of wealth uncovered in one of the burial mounds here at Sutton Hoo just before WWII broke out. He apparently settled religious disquiet in East Anglia by taking his wife's advice and setting up two altars in his Hall, one pagan and one Christian so his people could worship how they chose.  I wonder if Young Princess Elizabeth read the monk's histories of her nation and followed the advice of religious tolerance.



This is a National Trust site with an excellent exhibition hall full of reproductions of the treasures on display in the British Museum and life sized models of what was found. This is good to see because the walk around the mounds does not tell very much at all.

Charlie's nest.

After being left in the boot (in his nest with a window open enough for oxygen but not for theft or hypothermia Nana) while we were in the exhibition hall, Charlie loved sniffing for rabbits, foxes, squirrels and horses on the walk around the mounds and woods. I wondered if, when a dog picks up a scent, they have a picture of the animal in their head if sniffed before. The brambles were ripe but not very sweet. It started to rain half way around the circular path and was quite chilly on the veranda back at the center. Too wet to spot the rare birds many signs warned us not to disturb.

Ladies of the house or naughty servants?

We stopped off in the property's house, 22 bedrooms, servants corridors and areas tiled in white,while family and guest areas had wooden paneling, floors and enormous rugs. It was set up with 1930s furniture, toys, journals, fashions and china.  Dog and I sat in the porch while the others looked around.  An artist had built the house and apparently the South end of the third floor had been the owner's painting studio that faces the mounds. The last owner, a Mrs Pretty, left the property and treasures to the state, she died mid WWII and although she sat in her rocking chair to watch the excavations never saw the cleaned treasure because it was hidden in the London underground along with all of the British Museum's other treasures during the blitz.

Checking the 'What's that bump' info board on the lookout

Willow riveted with the Burial Mounds

More interested in the Pigs next door

A Gar seat - welcome shelter from the wind over looking Deben estuary opposite Woodbridge Riverport.

Brambles - too small for jam!

Even though only Charlie's head could be seen poking out of my coat, we still weren't allowed to sit inside in the warm for avo tea. I may not be tough enough to be a dog person in the UK - just may have to move to France. The onion and cheese pasty was delish and the cream tea finished it off nicely. M was educated as to what a cream tea was by a very informative lady in the queue to as he ordered and then had to explain that he didn't want cream in his tea! A pot of tea+scone+jam+clotted cream = a cream tea.Willow had a giant slice of layered chocolate cake and Petal had a cheese scone and a little bar of Black and Green's White chocolate.

Read: The Cook Wayne Macauley
This novel makes the horse meat as beef issue in Europe sound like a bedtime story. The voice is the main character - Zac. Everything seems a little obsessive but normal until you realise that he never shares his thoughts or feelings with anyone, he prefers to say what will get him ahead, what others expect him to. When his plans fall flat he just finds a way around to continue his ambition to start up his own restaurant with the best food in town. If you are brave enough to read the last chapter you may never eat meat again. Being resourceful just took on a whole other hue.
(The lack of punctuation is hard to read at first but does convey Zac's one track mind.) R18 for ghastly!

"What else are rich and successful people except those who've learnt how to manipulate what's around them a guy dealing in the money market architects designing fancy buildings TV guys making TV shows selling dreams to losers writers and their happy endings.  That's what civilisation is I reckon manipulating nature." p89

In Australia..."We don't have kings and queens and princes and lords if we did maybe this country would be a more honest place but no we'd rather live like hypocrites patting ourselves on the back telling ourselves we're all equal we're not ... Give me a good ladder to climb that's what I say..." p94

"...Trouble is he said I didn't have a clue how much hard work was involved not in getting rich that was easy but staying as rich as the richest you'd been..." p166

Duxford Airbase - needed a second visit.

The walk way at the far end has lots of interactive displays on flight - vistors can walk through many of the planes. image from wiki

Apparently this airbase, in Cambridgeshire, was the first to take delivery of Spitfires from the factory in WWII. It has a hanger all about the Battle of Britain. The displays, in all the old and purpose built hangers, are an exceptional collection of flight and fliers.  Book tickets here http://www.iwm.org.uk/visits/iwm-duxford

It is amazing that after DaVinci's drawings and experiments in the early 1500s, it took over 300 more years for other people to work on the same ideas. (Falling with style according to Woody and Buzz Lightyear)  On March 31 1902 a Kiwi, Richard Pearse, is reported to have flown his invention for around 300m. Sometime in 1903 he eventually crashed into the top of a 4m hedge after a km in the air. Not bad for a flightless bird!
Read here for more  http://www.ctie.monash.edu.au/hargrave/pearse1.html 
The world accepted inventors of engine powered flight, the Wright bros, are recorded experimenting with flight since 1899 and flew a glider in 1902 then their powered Kitty Hawk flight in 1903, Dec 17.  The smart thing they did was to have their 59sec flight recorded on film to prove it to a disbelieving world. Have a look at that footage here - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T5o-fhBKf8Y 

When WWI broke out in July 1914 the generals were skeptical that flying machines would be useful for anything but reconnaissance. On April 1, 1915 French pilot Roland Garros had some extra steel wrapped around the base of his propeller and took a machine gun up with him. His total of 5 enemy kills became the legendary 'ACE' standard. He was caught behind lines and the Germans had a Dutch aircraft engineer - Anthony Fokker - look at the machine and demanded that he produce a duplicate to be demonstrated in 48hrs.  His team improved the idea and he was sent up to the front to test it. He choose not to shoot down an unsuspecting French plane and told the Germans to get one of their pilots to do the killing.  Oswald Boelcke became 'the Knight of Germany' with 40 kills to his name at his death in 1916.  He also found von Richthofen and invited him to join his special squad. The Red Baron was shot down by Australian Lewis gunners after shooting 80 enemy planes from the sky.  Long before the aeroplane was very useful for transporting passengers or delivering cargo, humans had worked out how to throw bombs out of it to kill.

Duxford has hangers full of the earliest passenger planes, flying boats, the experimental first supersonic aircraft. One hanger is full of US planes including the very cool looking invisible reconnaissance aircraft 'Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird' - gave me the same shivers as the name 'Mufassa' gave the warthogs in Lion King even though it wasn't fitted with any weapons. If the soviets ever spotted it they knew that the firepower wouldn't be far behind the supersonic super sleuth. 

Aeronautical displays

Very low flyby of BA's biggest cargo plane on route to Amsterdam then Chicago then back to England.

The plane at the top of the pyramid at this airbase though is the Spitfire. RJ Mitchell designed the MkI which was then put into mass production, to assist the Hurricanes, under the pressure of relentless attacks from the Luftwaffe in WWII Britain needed a plane to outmaneuver and fly longer than the Messerschmidt and Junkers. The German invasion troops were lined along the French coast waiting for the British air threat to be killed off. All of England was on high alert with observation sites and radio shacks up and down the southern coast. Hitler made the decision to move his troops to the Eastern front and get rid of the commmunist threat when the Spifires and their pilots proved too strong. This retreat marked the end of the Battle of Britain.

Asked by Hermann Goering, his supreme commander, what he needed to win the Battle of Britain, Adolf Galland, the Luftwaffe's leading ace, replied: "Spitfires".  http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/4197482/Why-have-we-never-honoured-man-who-invented-the-Spitfire.html 

M and Petal went to the airfield again for the Airshow, the billowing clouds make some of their photos look as if they were taken above the planes. 

Added Bonus to the picnic and thermos

Keen pilots?

We finally found M and left him to roam.

G,M and Petal in the American Hanger
Excellent Pacific War section.

Indian feast at Pipasha for Father's Day(Aus)

Time for a movie after a big day out. Are those goggles M?

Read: The Bean Trees  Barbara Kingsolver's first novel. Abacus 1988

Incredible characterisation, no wonder she went on to write huge best sellers - Lacuna and The Poisonwood Bible. The voices of all the people you meet in Taylor Marietta Greer's life are real and honest. She's a Kentucky girl who leaves her encouraging mum and escapes the small bigoted world she grew up in. Leaving in a VW without windows or working ignition she faces the plains of Oklahoma and the dry of Arizona.  She finds out that the world is just the same as Kentucky but on a bigger scale, people who love, people who are scared so hang onto their place by hating. She accidentally rescues an abused Cherokee toddler and learns about the tough world of people smuggling.

"I had this notion that at one time in life she had been larger, but that someone had split her in two like one of those hollow wooden dolls, finding this smaller version inside." p93

"It's funny how people don't give that much thought to what kids want, as long as they're being quiet....it's hard to be depressed around a three year old, if you're paying attention. After a while, whatever you're mooning about begins to seem like some elaborate adult invention." p209

"When I was Turle's age I had never had anyone or anything important taken from me. ... Maybe I hadn't started out with a whole lot, but pretty near all of it was still with me." p211