One cannot come to Bath without thinking of Jane Austen. Two of her novels have Bath as a setting, Northanger Abbey and my favourite of all, Persuasion. Every time I return from a visit here I have to read the latter again and my copy is now on my bedside table.
Here is a post with pictures of locations for these two novels.
Anne was too much engaged with Lady Russell to be often walking herself but it so happened that one morning, about a week or ten days after the Croft’s arrival, it suited her best to leave her friend in the lower part of the town; and in walking up Milsom Street she had the good fortune to meet with the Admiral. (Persuasion)
Every creature was to be seen in the Pump Room at different periods of the fashionable hours; crowds of people were every moment passing in and out, up the steps and down; people who nobody cared about and nobody wanted to see. ‘What a delightful place Bath is’ said Mrs Allen ‘and how pleasant it would be if we had any acquaintance here’ (Northanger Abbey)
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, Catherine and Isabella hastened away to the Crescent to breathe the fresh air of better company (Northanger Abbey)
Upon Lady Russell’s appearance soon afterwards, the whole party was collected, and all that remained was to marshal themselves and proceed into the concert room (Persuasion)
Soon words enough had passed between Anne and Captain Wentworth to decide their direction towards the comparatively quiet and retired gravel walk where the possibility of conversation would make the present hour a blessing indeed (Persuasion)
I am already looking forward to returning next year.
