England 2 - Roman baths and Romance Novel Heroins

Sorry I did not post for a while, very few british B&B's have internet connection apparently! Incidentally, I still dont either, so I have to go to the libary to use the internet. Many things are wonderful here in Holland, but not the phone company. Almost 5 weeks after ordering LAN line and internet, we called again and they said "Oh, you know, its summer, so things are slow. You'll get it soon." So, until then, sporadic posts when the libary is open and a computer is avaiable. I promise to spell check once I have internet at home, and Microsoft word. Until then, enjoy the typos,uuum, I mean creative spelling.

But, onto my travel stories:
I spent 2 wonderful days touring Bath. If you are a fan of Roman or 18/19th century social history, this is the town for you!

I had a stupendous time visiting the Roman Bath ruins, Jane Austen Museum, and the History of Costume museum (with ladies gowns from 1700's until present). Rob practially had to drag me out of that one after a few hours. Poor Rob was the only guy for miles around in either of these, wonderful sport that he was. We also did a great waling tour of Bath, were we learned some of the history of the place.

I got so much information here, I want to share all of it. If you like to read about the social and architechural history of bath, read on. If not, check back a few blogs later to read about my life in Holland again. Those fans of travel, history, or Victorian Romance Novels, will hopefully learn a little and be entertained.

Since pre-Roman times, Bath was famouse for its numerous natural hot-water springs. When the Roman's arrived on the scene in 1st century CE, they built a huge temple and bathing complex around the largest of of the springs. Today's spa-going ladies seeking a day at Burke-Williams would not be dissapointed! You could have a spa, massage, healthy swim, and beauty treatments. A few things were different: They did not have soap in Roman times for bathing. You would be masaged with olive oil, sit in a sauna to open your pores and sweat out the dirt, then scrape of the olive oil. Both Roman men and women belived in remooving of all body hair. They did not have razors, or waxing, in those days, so your arms and legs would be plucked with a tweezers, ouch! After your beauty treatments, you would go to the olympic size comunal pool for a gossip for the ladies, and men would conduct business there. I prefer that to a stuffy office any day!

After the Romans, Bath declined. The entire Roman complex caved in and was not found again until the 1700's. At about the same time as the Roman baths rediscovery, Bath was becoming the hottest place to be for the British high society.

In the 1760's, the entire town was completely remodeled into a giant tourist distination for the social elite. The british nobility and haute' ton would flock to Bath for the entire winter season to "take the healthful waters", marry off daughters, and parade in beautiful gowns and suits all to see.

The famous architect father and son team Jonh Wood Elder and Younger designed a beautiful circle of grand houses around a green parkway called the Circus. These beautiful 5 story housed were rented for the season the the highest society folks, You only brought yourself. Rather like a modern day business traveler staying for a few months, you could rent lodging, furniture, linnens, servants, and shops and shops of beautiful new cloths to buy. The architects only designed the front of the house with beautiful warm yellow stone in the Queen Anne style, but the inside and backs could look like anything, often chaotic and not as nice. It was called "Queen Anne in front, Mary Ann in back".

In the modern day, most of these 5 story houses have been broken up into million dollar apartment. One of the major concerns was no modern plumbing in them at all. In many, a "hanging loo" was installed - just bolt a tiny bathroom onto the back wall, hanging withoug much visible support.

After these beautiful houses were built, the British government came up with a novel way to raise taxes, a "Window Tax". If you had more than a predetermined number of windows, you were charged a tax. To aviod paying the tax, some windows were blocked in then a fake window painted on. Other windows were rebuilt sqashed together, as if the window gap between 2 windows 12 inches apart, it was considered 1 window. Once I get internet connection at hom