Bath, it's brilliant!

In 1830 the Duke of Wellington built a Georgian country house in Bath. It is rumored that it was so that he had a place to meet with his mistress. In January 2008 we decided that this would be the perfect place for us to stay while we were visiting Bath. With only twelve rooms we knew we would be getting the personal service that we were hoping to get used to.

Joe saw the pictures of the rooms and fell in love with one with a four poster bed and red bed hangings.

Cubby decided that she wanted the Duke of Wellingtons former room,

Al and I decided that we didn’t want to spend as much as they were spending and opted for a more simple room (it turned out to be the Champagne room where the Duke and his Mistress met). We were lucky enough to get the Web winter break which meant we had a superior room for two nights (mid week) for 160 pds. Joe and Cubby spent 220 for their rooms. We decided that we would use the 60pds we saved to pay for our dinner in Bath.

Thought it is a historic house it has all the modern amenities, ensuite bathroom, wireless internet, flat screen TV and Molton Brown bath amenities. What more could some hedonistic vacationers ask for. Well certainly the trouser press was a nice addition as were the two bottles of spring water on our night-stand, which were replaced when we drank any.

Our room The Champagne Room #3 is on the second floor and has a king size bed, iron and brass headboard and matalisse coverlet with a dark, richly floral sham and curtains. The ceiling was high, at least 12 feet and we had a very pretty chandelier hanging in the center of our ceiling. A dresser, ladies chair, desk, armoire and shaving mirror made it all very comfortable. The tea tray was just a nice addition.

When we need to order food delivery Anel ordered for us and then had a tray with plates, napkins and silverware ready for us when the food arrived. We took the tray into the lounge where a fire was burning and used the table as our dining table.

There is an honor bar where we were able to have a coke with our dinner. Newspapers, magazines and books are available if you want to relax and enjoy the cozy atmosphere.

Joe and Cubby’s rooms were both magnificent. There are five of these really outstanding four poster rooms, each a little different. Joe had access from his room to the rear garden

and Cubby’s room had a California King sized bed and a chaise lounge. The Romance room was next door to us and it had gorgeous blue toile decoration and a four poster canopy bed.

There is a car park in front of the house. The hotel let Barbara and GB park there while we walked out to get lunch.

Breakfast is served in a beautiful room with large windows and a splendid view. There is a buffet where you begin your breakfast with juice, fresh fruit (both whole and cut up), cereal, yogurt, stewed prunes

and grapefruit slices. One of the woman will ask you for your coffee, tea or hot chocolate order and then you can choose from several types of eggs with the addition of mushrooms, tomatoes, bacon, sausage and brown or white toast. They also offer kippers salmon and believe it or not American style pancakes and real maple syrup.It was all beautifully prepared and cheerfully served.

I can’t recommend this hotel highly enough, everything is first class. Both the owners Nick and Claire Potts and the managers Anel and Duncan Neville are delightful to converse with and will go way beyond what you might expect to make sure that you have an exceptional stay. Pampering is what they do best and I felt very much like Lady Iz vacationng with Sir Al.

apsley house

One of my favorite periods of time is Regency England and visiting Bath is all about the Georgian and Regency Periods. It has been said that two things transformed Bath from a market town into a renowned spa, the hot mineral waters and Richard “Beau” Nash. His arrival in 1704 set the stage for the development into a fashionable place to see and been seen. His love of gambling was the onus that fueled his desire to get the idol rich to help fuel his passion. He became the aid to the Master of ceremonies and when death opened the position he was the natural successor. He became in time The “King of Bath”. He set the fashion in Bath and during his reign at the head of the Social scene he was the arbitrator was both behavior and fashion. If you wanted to make a splash in Bath you had to win the approval of the ‘Beau”, to be ostracized was social suicide. Eventually it was his gambling that was his downfall but his reign lasted 40 years and made a significant mark on Bath.

The current Assembly Rooms were designed by John Woods and constructed in 1769 with the grand opening on September 30, 1771. They replaced the Lower Assembly Rooms of Beau Nash’s day. Today they are administered by the National Trust. There was work going on in the Costume Museum so when we paid for our ticket we were given a coupon for a free cup of tea in the tea room. The Assembly Rooms are free to visit , what you pay for is to see the costumes. There was something going on in the Ball Room as well, these rooms are still used today.

This Assembly Room is the one that is featured in Jane Austen’s novels. There is a head phone tour, take it, it added immensely to our enjoyment. The tour begins in the Tea Room. This was where at 9pm in the evening all the people who were here to dance or play cards would retire to the tea room. It would have been noisy and crowded and certainly where any person with any hope to be thought fashionable would want to be seen. It is a really magnificent room, the chandeliers in this room and all the other rooms are the originals from 1771..

“In the evening, I hope you honored my toilette and ball with a thought; I dressed myself as well as I could, and had all my finery much admired at home. By nine o'clock my uncle, aunt, and I entered the rooms, and linked Miss Winstone on to us. Before tea it was rather a dull affair; but then the before tea did not last long, for there was only one dance, danced by four couple. Think of four couple, surrounded by about an hundred people, dancing in the Upper Rooms at Bath.” Jane Austen in a letter to her sister Cassandra.

The Octagon Room is where the gentlemen would retire to have a game of cards and get away from the dancing and the woman. There are portraits around the upper level of the room one of them is a Gainsborough of Captain William Wade (the first Master of Ceremonies). On the lower level of the room there are four marble fireplaces.

The ballroom hosted up to 1000 people at these dances. You can still imagine the ghosts of Georgian men and women performing the minuet and dancing the country dances. The room is 105 ft long , 42 feet wide and 42 feet high. With all the crystal chandeliers it is breathtaking. Dancing began at 6pm with the minuet, at 8pm there would be lively country dances, at 9pm everyone went to the tea room and all music stopped at 11pm even if it was in the middle of a song. Once a week there was a dress ball.

Designed by Thomas Baldwin and constructed in 1776 the Guildhall contains the Banqueting Room which is considered one of the finest Adams Rooms in the Country. The rooms can be visited on Mondays from 9am-5pm with a guide. We weren’t aware that visits are only on Monday but luckily that is when we visited.
Bruce who is one of the men who works here took us on a tour of the building. You need to be able to walk up stairs to see the Banqueting Room. It is a lovely Georgian Room with 3 magnificent London chrystal chandeliers. It has a minstrals gallery where the musicians used to play for social functions, Bruce told us that a previous guide explained the dents in the wood floor by saying that the musicians would get tipsy by the end of the evening and tip out of the very steep gallery onto the floor below.
At one end of the room there are portraits of King George III who Bruce thought we, as Americans, would be particularly interested in seeing as well as his Queen, Charlotte. Crazy George is the king who lost the American Colony. At the other end is a portrait of Prime Minister William Pitt the Younger. Around the rest of the room are other people important in 18th century Bath history. The room is painted a very pale green and has gold gilt pillars located every few feet and large windows giving it quite a light look. The room also has three Robert Adams Fireplaces and is very impressive.
We then went into the ante chamber where during a ball in the Banqueting Room the men would have retired to play cards and escape from the dancing. There was a copy of the famous Holbein Portrait of Henry VIII in the room known as the Aix-en-Provence Room.

From here we moved into the Victorian part of the building and the Council Chamber. This is so much more ornate and the colors are darker. The wood is all stained dark brown and the seats are a rich red though the walls are still a green color. There are portraits lining the wall. What I found interesting is that there are not enough seats to accommodate every council person if they all showed up, evidently this never happens.


If you are looking for records about your ancestors who were from Bath, this is where you are going to come. The Record Office is located here. Charters and deeds going back to a Charter from King Richard I in 1189, School and workhouse records and parish records. To find out exactly which records they hold visit their website at Bath Archives
Now for locals there are many reasons they might be visiting here since this is where births and deaths are registered, bus permits are obtained and where you get contractor or business permits.

I have to admit to watching the BBC Movie Pride and Prejudice at least 10 times, now granted Colin Firth makes a very fine Mr. Darcy but I have been enamored of Jane Austen’s characters long before this particular production. Having never been to her cottage at Chawton I was delighted to have the opportunity to visit this museum dedicated to the time she spent living in the city of Bath.

Jane Austen was a minister’s daughter, the 7th of 8 children and the second daughter. Her older sister Cassandra was her lifelong friend and correspondent. This correspondence has helped scholars learn more about the real Jane. You enter through the gift shop where you buy your entrance ticket. You are then directed to the first floor where the waiting room is. Our tour was scheduled to start within ten minutes but it didn’t start for twenty, no explanation was ever given.

Jackie Herring was our guide and she gave us our introduction to Jane, her family and the time that she spent in Bath. In spite of how much time she spent here it wasn’t always a happy time for her and she was glad when it was over and she could go back to being what she truly was, a country girl.

Because George Austen was a minister when he died all income ceased from his living. The three woman of the family became pensioners of Jane’s brother Edward who had been adopted by wealthy relatives. This is when they moved to Bath, previous Jane had only had short visits. During this time they moved lower and lower on the social scale as they had to keep moving to less fashionable neighborhoods. It was time when Jane was the least productive in her writing.

After the brief talk you are sent down to the ground floor to go through the museum. As there were at least 25 people in our group, and this early in January, it took quite a while to even to look at some of the placards. There is also a fifteen minute film called “Jane Austen’s Bath”, there were not enough seats for everyone in the tour to see it all at once so we continued with the museum. There is a display as well of costumes from some of the recent films made from Jane’s books.

The film was quite interesting and features a descendant of the Austen family. It takes you on a walk through Bath showing you the different homes where she lived. One of them is just a few doors down from the museum.

There is a small gift shop which of course features all things Jane Austen and also on the second floor a tea room where we had lunch. You need to be able to climb stairs to visit here. A must stop for any Jane Austen fan. Senior/student discounts available.
Entry: $6.50 senior $4.95

I have to admit that we had a very unusual eating pattern in Bath. We arrived on Sunday afternoon and after checking into our hotel where we met up with fellow guides BG from Devizes and Barbara we headed out walking toward downtown. We had not eaten lunch and neither had GB, so we found a pub called The Hop Pole which both Barbara and GB have frequented in the past. Luckily they were still serving Sunday lunch, which at many pubs is a special menu or a carvery. We ordered at the bar from a special Sunday menu, Al got the roast beef dinner, with boiled potatoes, Yorkshire pudding and gravy, GB got the chicken dinner, Barbara got the potato and leek soup and I got the pork dinner. We shared two bowls of vegetables, carrots, cauliflower, broccoli and greens. The portions were generous and the beef was cooked perfectly. My pork had crackling, pate and some chunky applesauce. We sat there for between three and four hours and no one had any problem with that.

Curry Nights Later the same night we were back at the B&B and we were hungry. Luckily they had a binder at the check-in desk with menus and information about which restaurants will deliver. In case I haven’t mentioned it, Al isn’t a big fan of Indian food but this really did seem like the best option. Luckily for me he had a good roast beef dinner under his belt and was much more willing to give Curry Nights a try. I asked Anel if she would call for me, since I figured they would understand her better on the phone. Within 40 minutes our meals were delivered and bless her heart, Anel had a tray with plates, silverware and napkins waiting at the desk for us. We took our food onto the lounge and dug in. I had ordered everything mild this time, Chicken Kurma and Chicken Mossala.(no I didn’t spell it wrong, this is what the menu said) I also ordered lemon rice and naan. The food was very good, I was very pleasantly surprised. The sauces were outstanding. The Kurma was both of our favorite with its mild and slightly sweet flavor of coconut and almonds.

Tea Room at the Jane Austen Center- By the time we finished our tour we were ready for lunch or at least at snack. We walked up the two flights of stairs to the restaurant. There was only one other table occupied when we walked in but it was 2:30pm. We all decided to try the Mr. Darcy’s High Tea. We received a scone with thick cream and jelly, tea sandwiches in cheddar cheese and cucumber. We got to pick the cake, there was coffee cake with walnuts on the top and lemon cake. The price was a little ridiculously high for what we got but of course we expected that because of the location. It was fun to do and we would do it again.

West Cornwall Pasty Co- Before going back to Apsley House I spied this shop near the Abbey. For less than 5pds we bought 2 large steak and potato pasties and brought them back with us. They were delicious. The pastry was nice and flaky and the steak and potato with the addition of turnip was tasty. . I will be the first to admit this is not a low calorie or low carb choice but these make an excellent and very economical meal and since the hotel has an honor bar we could get a coke to go along with our meal

Hop Pole Pub
Upper Bristol Rd
01225 446327

Curry Nights
Upper Bristol Rd
01225 329111

Jane Austen Center
40 Gay St

West Cornwall Pasty Co
Burton St

Bartlett Street Antiques Center
Bartlett St

This is a very upscale antiques shop with more than forty dealers. Almost everything is in a glass case. This is not the shop to go to if you are looking for a good selection of furniture. However, if you are interested in finding a 200 year old silver tea pot or a tea caddy then this could just be the place for you.

One thing that Joe found that was very interesting were 800 year old arrow tips. Though I found these interesting I was not inclined to part with my pounds to own them. There was a lot of jewelry here, plenty of art deco and Edwardian rings, earring and broaches. These were a much greater temptation but I remained strong.

There also were some very interesting pieces of Chinese import porcelain. One of the dealers had some things from Nepal which I found unusual. Some of the other dealers had the usual Royal Dalton and Wedgewood items that you would expect. There was one dealer who did have some old linen and lace pieces and another had a vast selection of buttons. Overall this was an interesting shop to spend a half hour perusing and who knows you may find a real treasure but expect to pay full pop, they know what they have and they price accordingly, besides, this is Bath.





OxFam Shop
12 a George Street

We always love the Oxfam shop in whatever town we go to. They are a charity that helps to fight poverty in the world. Their shops have lots of different things, designer clothes, books, china, pottery and lots of other interesting things. You never know what you will find so when you see a shop you just need to go right in and start looking around.

This particular time we didn’t find anything that we wanted to carry home but you can be sure that the variety will be excellent and the prices will be fair. You can also walk away feeling as if you have helped in at least a small way to make the world a better place.



National Trust Shop

Located across from the side of the Abbey this shop is located on two levels. Since it was the second week of January there were some deals to be had on items related to Christmas. Expect to find the usual National Trust items, logo items, books, some lavender bath and body lotions, floral tray, calendars and the like. This wasn’t a particularly large shop considering the location and frankly we found it to be nothing out of the ordinary. The only thing I was remotely tempted to buy was some joint pain lotion and then I thought should I pay $10 for some joint lotion from the National Trust, what do they know about joint pain? We have seen better National Trust Shops.

Bath Abbey Shop

They had a few religious items. Olive wood crosses from the holy land, prayer cards and one statue that I saw. What kept our attention here was the best selection of humorous magnets that we have seen in a long time. I am sure we created quite a scene standing there laughing for five minutes over all these ridiculously funny squares of plastic. It really takes so little to amuse us and in the end we didn’t buy any but we certainly enjoyed reading them.