"The Unmeaning Luxuries of Bath": Urban Pleasures in Jane Austen's World
Journal article by Paula Byrne; Persuasions: The Jane Austen Journal, Vol. 26, 2004
Journal Article Excerpt
"The Unmeaning Luxuries of Bath": Urban Pleasures in Jane Austen's World. by Paula Byrne But who is that bombazine lady so gay, |
So profuse of her beauties in sable array?
How she rests on her heel, how she turns out her toe,
How she pulls down her stays, with her head up to show
Her lily-white bosom that rivals the snow!
| ("A description of the Ball, with an episode on Beau Nash," The New Bath Guide, or Memoirs of the B-N-R-D Family in a series of Poetical Epistles, 1797?) No place in England, in a full season, affords so brilliant a circle of polite company as Bath. The young, the old, the grave, the gay, the infirm, and the healthy, all resort to this place of amusement. Ceremony beyond the essential rules of politeness is totally exploded; every one mixes in the Rooms upon an equality; and the entertainments are so widely regulated, that although there is never a cessation of them, neither is there a lassitude from bad hours, or from an excess of dissipation. The constant rambling about of the younger part of the company is very enlivening and cheerful. In the morning the rendezvous is at the Pump-Room;--from that time 'till noon in walking on the Parades, or in the different quarters of the town, visiting the shops, etc;--thence to the Pump-Room again, and after a fresh strole, to dinner; and from dinner to the Theatre (which is celebrated for an excellent company of comedians) or the Rooms, where dancing, or the card-table, concludes the evening.(Christopher Anstey, The New Bath Guide, or, Useful Pocket Companion, 1799)IN THE LATE GEORGIAN ERA Bath was the most famous resort town in England, the queen of the spa towns. Others such as Cheltenham, Tunbridge, and Brighton would try to eclipse it, but without success. Bath was one of the largest cities in the country, and good roads and an effective postal system added to its popularity. By the end of the eighteenth century it housed over 30, 000 residents and thousands of visitors flocked there every season. By 1800 there were in the region of 40, 000 visitors, an average weekly attendance of 8,000 visitors (Neale 46). A Mecca for health and leisure, it was popular with young and old. As the historian John Brewer describes it: "Crowded with valetudinarian politicians, retired soldiers, gouty squires and rich widows taking its medicinal waters, visited by mothers and daughters in pursuit of suitable husbands and frequented by young men in search of eligible heiresses, it was a city of quackery, leisure and intrigue" (299).Bath had earned its reputation as the epitome of the urban renaissance in the provinces, ever since Beau Nash had set about his crusade to civilize the rural gentry. Nash introduced a polite code of behaviour, which aimed to refine and civilize, and educate the gentry into urbane and genteel values. He drew up a set of rules, forbidding gentlemen from the wearing of boots and leather breeches in the assembly rooms, and requiring them to leave swords by the door. There were strict rules about dancing and etiquette. He also satirized the boorish country squire: ill at ease in the ball-room and associated with hunting, drinking and animals. This would become a stock figure in literature, as with Squire Weston in Torn Jones, Tony Lumpkin in She Stoops to Conquer, and John Thorpe in Northanger Abbey.In the eighteenth century, sociability was perceived as one of the most civilizing influences, and it was promoted through a range of activities. Bath, as a spa town devoted to the pursuit of pleasure, offered outdoor and indoor concerts, theatrical entertainments, public breakfasts and dances in the Upper and Lower Rooms, libraries, chocolate, and coffee houses. The theatre was run in tandem with the Bristol playhouse and was regarded as one of the best in the country. It had been patented in 1768, becoming the first Theatre Royal of the English provinces. In particular Bath prided itself on its relaxed attitude towards rank, as the opening quote from the New Bath Guide emphasized.Not merely a city of pleasure and amusement, it was also a health spa for the sick and dying: the line between "recuperation and recreation was a thin one" (Borsay 33). Bath also had a reputation for being a marriage market, though Tunbridge Wells and Cheltenham were also considered to be the good places to "make alliances." In 1783 the Dean of Gloucester, however, was ... |
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