More Than Just A Bath

We were hoping we’d get a clear day. But when has rain left England alone? England’s love story with Zeus, the Greek God of rain, is probably the most tumultuous. However, this time, a beautiful drizzle only added to the pleasure of enjoying Bath on foot. A little rain, a slight chill interspersed with an occasional warmth of the sun was the perfect setting for stories of a Roman city spa, an abbey of the medieval times and modern day architectural wonders.


Since we had ridden on a train from the smoky and noisy London, the first thing that we noticed in the quieter, fresher Bath was the jugalbandi of the blowing breeze and the singing larks. Bath is less than two hours away from London. This 18th Century town is known all over the world for two things – the great Roman bath spa and legendary laureate Jane Austen. I shall talk about both in sometime.

Our expedition, however, began by walking the length of a beautiful canal that leads up to the Bath Market. Something about Bath that is noticeable even to the blind eye is the limestone constructions. The yellow limestone is unique to Bath and practically every building is constructed with it. While one might assume that this gives a monotonous feel to the town, the varied architecture present here gives the town a face-lift.


We first walked over to see the comparatively recent architecture. The Circus and the Crescent are brilliant examples of beauty and efficient town planning. The Circus is a circular building which is built for housing purposes around a circular piece of green land. The Crescent, on the other hand, is a series of handsomely standing linear houses. It overlooks the green-yellow Avon valley. I couldn’t help wondering how magnificent and majestic it would be to live in one of these buildings and see river Avon and the Thames valley every morn.


As the water in Bath had always been known for its medicinal capacities since the medieval times, the sick from all over England thronged to Bath and it became the unofficial infirmary of the country. Therefore, it is not unusual to find, even to this day, buildings that housed the sick and ailing.


Interestingly, though, the patients who arrived in a hospital in Bath were given a small amount of money from the City Council. This money was enough to pay for their joyful journey back home when they recovered. Else, the money was used for their funerals! As, even death comes at a price!


However, there is no room for such depressing thoughts amidst some overwhelmingly beautiful nature and some incredibly romantic weather. I decided to lunch in the only building that still retains some Roman walls. A cosy vegetarian restaurant called ‘DeMuth’s –positively vegetarian’ occupies that building. A glance at their menu threw me off balance. To put it politely, it was experimental in the truest sense. To give you a peak into its menu – tomato upma with baked pinnaple! Talk about a confluence of the East and the West! Nevertheless, after a very painful lunch, I proceeded to see the Roman Bath.


This public bath was drowned after a ferocious flood hit the town in the medieval times. It was only accidentally discovered by some archaeologists in the early 19th Century which is why the Roman Bath is at a lower level than the rest of the town.
The Romans, during their attempts to occupy England stumbled upon three hot water springs in what is now Bath. Even today, a hot water bath is welcomed with open arms at any time in England. When the Romans saw a possibility of making a recreation centre of the hot water available there, I can imagine how they’d have pounced on the idea.


Gradually, the bath must have gone from being just a recreation, social centre to a place with slightly spiritual leanings. There are many well-preserved messages to Roman Goddess Minerva written on thin metal sheets. These sheets were thrown into the bath, with the belief that the Goddess would be able to pay heed to their problems. The pleas range from a request to find lost silverware to locating stolen slaves! From a betrayed lover asking for revenge to administrative injustices!! It is fascinating to read the translations of these messages that are found in the Bath museum. These give us a sense of how the human race has had similar problems all the while and will only continue to. All the talk of the race progressing or regressing begins to sound superficial.


After exiting the museum, I visited the Abbey. It is a beautiful Gothic construction, as many in England are. The abbey’s claim to fame is that the coronation of the first ‘fake’ and relatively unknown king of England was held there. It is, at the most, a wasteful piece of tit-bit.
Bath would like to take credit and make the most of Jane Austen’s name, but it turns out that she lived in the city for not more than six years and hated her time there!


After having roamed the streets of Bath to my heart’s content in the rain, we decided to make a return. Another sweet little rail ride in the Thames valley brought me to London and back to the land of the present day.

Raksha Kumar