After another hearty breakfast only slightly smaller than the one Michael described in the last post, we drove to Bath, passing through several beautiful villages along the way. Our sightseeing began with a two-hour tour that was given by an older Bath native, who clearly loves his city. He led us through most of the major parts of town, and we were introduced to the details of the city's architecture as well as the persons who were instrumental in its eighteenth-century revival and buildings. The highlights of the tour were seeing the additional baths that we had not already seen yesterday when we visited the Roman baths, the Crescent, and the Circus, the latter two being the primary places for walking while displaying oneself and one's clothing as Austen describes in her novels. Of course, the guide also did a great job in pointing our the many locations in the city that are mentioned by Austen in her works, which I appreciated.
At the conclusion of the tour, Michael and I thanked the guide before going our separate ways; Michael went to find an internet cafe to post the previous entry (He also graciously authored the post last night as I needed a break.) while I visited the Jane Austen Centre on my own. Because I had already visited her home in Chawton, there were very few new Austen artifacts to see here, but the fifteen-minute introductory talk helped me to review some key information about her family, and it also added to my minimal knowledge about her life in Bath. And this was the real value of the Centre; it showed the addresses and pictures of all of her homes in Bath and focused on the details of her time there, which she ultimately did not enjoy. Perhaps because of her unhappiness, she was not productive while living here, though the city did seem to provide her with plenty of raw material for her novels. This reminded me of the great gift that Austen had to create so many varied characters and situations when she had seen so little of the world herself. In that respect, I suppose she was a bit like Dickinson, and coming here to visit her small part of the world has helped me to realize that.
Incidentally, the Jane Austen Centre had a great gift shop where I was able to buy several items to be enjoyed by both my students and me. I purchased a unique map of Bath from Austen's time, and I also found a small hardcover book called Austen's England with great pictures of houses and towns with which she is connected. Many are of places we have visited on the trip; others are places we did not get to, like Steventon, her birthplace (the house no longer stands). I also found a copy of one of her earliest works that she wrote as a teenager. I have read excerpts from her early works, but I have never seen a complete text of any of them. Another Austen tidbit I have heard from several Austen experts while in England: The new movie, Finding Jane, is "rubbish." Some have said that while it tells a good story, the story is so far from the truth as to render the movie worthless as a biographical piece. We'll have to see how it does in the American theaters.
While as a city, Bath was not a favorite of either Michael's or mine, having recently read Northanger Abbey and being a huge fan of Persuasion, I enjoyed immensely seeing the Assembly Rooms and the Pump Room as well as the Georgian streets and buildings of the city. Because it is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, it has strict (Michael called them "draconian.") building codes so that its buildings remain architecturally consistent, and it is not at all difficult to imagine Austen's characters making their way though the crowded Pump Room, dancing in the Assembly Rooms, or strolling down Milsom Street during a day of shopping. The town is so very conscious of itself and its appearance that it is easy to see how it would inspire Austen's characters to feel the same.
At the conclusion of the tour, Michael and I thanked the guide before going our separate ways; Michael went to find an internet cafe to post the previous entry (He also graciously authored the post last night as I needed a break.) while I visited the Jane Austen Centre on my own. Because I had already visited her home in Chawton, there were very few new Austen artifacts to see here, but the fifteen-minute introductory talk helped me to review some key information about her family, and it also added to my minimal knowledge about her life in Bath. And this was the real value of the Centre; it showed the addresses and pictures of all of her homes in Bath and focused on the details of her time there, which she ultimately did not enjoy. Perhaps because of her unhappiness, she was not productive while living here, though the city did seem to provide her with plenty of raw material for her novels. This reminded me of the great gift that Austen had to create so many varied characters and situations when she had seen so little of the world herself. In that respect, I suppose she was a bit like Dickinson, and coming here to visit her small part of the world has helped me to realize that.
Incidentally, the Jane Austen Centre had a great gift shop where I was able to buy several items to be enjoyed by both my students and me. I purchased a unique map of Bath from Austen's time, and I also found a small hardcover book called Austen's England with great pictures of houses and towns with which she is connected. Many are of places we have visited on the trip; others are places we did not get to, like Steventon, her birthplace (the house no longer stands). I also found a copy of one of her earliest works that she wrote as a teenager. I have read excerpts from her early works, but I have never seen a complete text of any of them. Another Austen tidbit I have heard from several Austen experts while in England: The new movie, Finding Jane, is "rubbish." Some have said that while it tells a good story, the story is so far from the truth as to render the movie worthless as a biographical piece. We'll have to see how it does in the American theaters.
While as a city, Bath was not a favorite of either Michael's or mine, having recently read Northanger Abbey and being a huge fan of Persuasion, I enjoyed immensely seeing the Assembly Rooms and the Pump Room as well as the Georgian streets and buildings of the city. Because it is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, it has strict (Michael called them "draconian.") building codes so that its buildings remain architecturally consistent, and it is not at all difficult to imagine Austen's characters making their way though the crowded Pump Room, dancing in the Assembly Rooms, or strolling down Milsom Street during a day of shopping. The town is so very conscious of itself and its appearance that it is easy to see how it would inspire Austen's characters to feel the same.
Here is a photo of Bath Abbey, whose bells were vigorously ringing as our tour began at 10:30. The Roman baths are to the right :
From Bath, we pressed on into Warwickshire and to Stratford. While most of the Shakespearian sites were closing for the day as we arrived, we did squeeze in a visit to Holy Trinity Church, Shakespeare's burial place, before checking into the "Hermia" room at our bed and breakfast and having dinner at a nice Italian restaurant in town.
We are glad to have internet access tonight, but we are having difficulty getting consistent wireless access. And we hate to spend too much of the time we could be using to experience England in an internet cafe. As we will be in the tiny town of Haworth tomorrow night, I will likely not be able to post, but I'll try again from York.
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