Have you heard of Bath?

I actually have. Kill me if I can't remember, but I have a inkling of it from somewhere in the UK.

Maybe it was when I went on that bike tour? Or maybe from Top Gear?


You should still describe the environment. Good news, you can travel there and remember the sights and sounds to get a nice feel for the place.

I would just think of a small UK town. Tiny streets, pedestrians, small cars, stone walls and houses rotting away with small shops with wooden signs. The smell of garbage, rust and the constant patter of rain while I'm drenched down to my underwear despite the rain coat I'm wearing.

Yes. It was founded by the Romans. I hope to move to England reasonably soon and for me, Bath would be a viable place to settle.

Yeah, I"ve heard of Bath but mainly because I read a lot of Jane Austin and watch a lot of documentaries. But I don't really have a mental picture of it. If I did, it would probably be Regency period. lol

US citizen here. Yes, I've heard of it. It's one of the tourist destinations people say they want to see when they visit England, to see the Roman baths.

That said, I wouldn't necessarily know how to picture it. I'd figure it wasn't a bustling metropolis like London, but that's about it.

Not heard of it til now.

WillSauger said:

houses rotting away

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I'm sure some are, but you can probably say that about some houses in the US too. You can certainly say it about some of the houses here in Australia.

I've been to the UK and there are houses that are hundreds of years old which are still perfectly viable to live in.

Being from the UK I've been to bath. Accidentally of course because we were going to Cribbs Causeway but I read the map wrong and we ended up in bath. It's quaint.

WillSauger said:

I would just think of a small UK town. Tiny streets, pedestrians, small cars, stone walls and houses rotting away with small shops with wooden signs. The smell of garbage, rust and the constant patter of rain while I'm drenched down to my underwear despite the rain coat I'm wearing.

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And I assure you WillSauger that the city of Bath is well kept. It has two universities, there is no smell of garbage and it's houses are not 'rotting away'. It's quite insulting that you would describe a place you've not been to as such. It is one of the richest cities in the UK. And you can go out in UK weather and not get wet to your underwear but I suppose that would require you to use common sense and have a raincoat and umbrella like mostly everyone.

fireluxlou said:

And I assure you WillSauger that the city of Bath is well kept. It has two universities, there is no smell of garbage and it's houses are not 'rotting away'. It's quite insulting that you would describe a place you've not been to as such. It is one of the richest cities in the UK. And you can go out in UK weather and not get wet to your underwear but I suppose that would require you to use common sense and have a raincoat and umbrella like mostly everyone.

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It's rather beautiful, in fact.

Torgo said:

It's rather beautiful, in fact.

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It is massive and absolutely gorgeous it reminds me of Worcester. Worcester City is very much like Bath in that it's got loads of old Tudor streets.

I really want to go there again maybe I can persuade someone to go on a day trip with me Take the train of course.

WillSauger said:

I would just think of a small UK town. Tiny streets, pedestrians, small cars, stone walls and houses rotting away with small shops with wooden signs. The smell of garbage, rust and the constant patter of rain while I'm drenched down to my underwear despite the rain coat I'm wearing.

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Not quite sure on what you are basing your statement here on - but the suggestion you are making is that all UK towns are run down and rotting is offensive and misinformed.

I assume you meant it in humour, but it's actually pretty offensive and ignorant.

Bath, for the record, is quite a large town, and beautifully kept with a very rich cultural history. it's a university town and draws a lot of visitors and tourists each year.

Torgo said:

It's rather beautiful, in fact.

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I supect a lot of those buildings will still be there in an entirely unrotten state when even the flashiest buildings in Las Vegas have rotted away.

fireluxlou said:

And I assure you WillSauger that the city of Bath is well kept. It has two universities, there is no smell of garbage and it's houses are not 'rotting away'. It's quite insulting that you would describe a place you've not been to as such. It is one of the richest cities in the UK. And you can go out in UK weather and not get wet to your underwear but I suppose that would require you to use common sense and have a raincoat and umbrella like mostly everyone.

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Well, sorry for trying to paint my own mental picture, even though I did exaggerate a bit. I'm just trying to be some help here. Of course, I'm not for the UK, so I wouldn't know the place. I just did a bike tour there and had a pretty bad time, no hard feelings about it, but that's just my experience.

Most people would think of Las Vegas as gambling, whores, casinos owned by crime bosses and run down motels with hobos raining from the sky. But I see it differently, since I live in it. So our personal experiences differ.

And that's what makes it our opinion. Sorry I insulted you.

WillSauger said:

Well, sorry for trying to paint my own mental picture, even though I did exaggerate a bit. I'm just trying to be some help here. Of course, I'm not for the UK, so I wouldn't know the place. I just did a bike tour there and had a pretty bad time, no hard feelings about it, but that's just my experience.

Most people would think of Las Vegas as gambling, whores, casinos owned by crime bosses and run down motels with hobos raining from the sky. But I see it differently, since I live in it. So our personal experiences differ.

And that's what makes it our opinion. Sorry I insulted you.

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With respect, Will, please don't try to paint your own mental picture if it's based on nothing, as I don't think that it's particularly helpful or appropriate for a research thread.

(I like Vegas - my brother was a croupier there for a couple of years. Remember coming off the plane and seeing a sign that said SEE THE 60ft LEPRECHAUN! - and thinking, wow, that sounds amazingly bizarre! And then on the way back home, seeing the same sign and thinking, meh, only 60ft? Pikers.)

WillSauger said:

Well, sorry for trying to paint my own mental picture, even though I did exaggerate a bit. I'm just trying to be some help here. Of course, I'm not for the UK, so I wouldn't know the place. I just did a bike tour there and had a pretty bad time, no hard feelings about it, but that's just my experience.

Most people would think of Las Vegas as gambling, whores, casinos owned by crime bosses and run down motels with hobos raining from the sky. But I see it differently, since I live in it. So our personal experiences differ.

And that's what makes it our opinion. Sorry I insulted you.

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I don't know how it was helping at all. Bath is one of the oldest city/towns in the UK. The way you described it didn't just apply to Bath. You made a sweeping generalising about the whole of the UK. I don't deny our weather is crap as the UK is known to be windy and rainy. Some buildings may be rotting which I'm sure can be said of most countries in the world.

I would just think of a small UK town. Tiny streets, pedestrians, small cars, stone walls and houses rotting away with small shops with wooden signs. The smell of garbage, rust and the constant patter of rain while I'm drenched down to my underwear despite the rain coat I'm wearing.

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You mean Aqua Sulis? I set part of my novella there.... I wouldn't worry about obscure towns, the US do it all the time and expect us to know what they are talking about...

WillSauger said:

Well, sorry for trying to paint my own mental picture, even though I did exaggerate a bit. I'm just trying to be some help here. Of course, I'm not for the UK, so I wouldn't know the place. I just did a bike tour there and had a pretty bad time, no hard feelings about it, but that's just my experience.

Most people would think of Las Vegas as gambling, whores, casinos owned by crime bosses and run down motels with hobos raining from the sky. But I see it differently, since I live in it. So our personal experiences differ.

And that's what makes it our opinion. Sorry I insulted you.

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Bath is a UNESCO World Heritage site and even for the UK has incredibly unique architecture. It's a Georgian city and the buildings are built of Bath stone, which is described as honey coloured. Highlights include the Circus and the Royal Crescent - long curved terraces of four story buildings.

Essentially, what you've done is picture Vegas without knowing it has Casinos and thinking it looks like Des Moines. Or Colonial Williamsburg. Or Chuck Norris.


Edit: Make some kind of reference to Jane Austen if you need to. I'm sure many would pick up the reference and at least have an idea of what you're talking about.

I thought Bath was reasonably familiar. It's a pretty unique survival of Roman baths after all.

Now a really hard one would be Bath, Maine. There is a shipyard there and the Bath Ironworks produced among other USN vessels, some fast frigates, including FFG-21, the USS Flately, which I have some passing acquaintance with.

WillSauger said:

Well, sorry for trying to paint my own mental picture, even though I did exaggerate a bit. I'm just trying to be some help here. Of course, I'm not for the UK, so I wouldn't know the place. I just did a bike tour there and had a pretty bad time, no hard feelings about it, but that's just my experience.

Most people would think of Las Vegas as gambling, whores, casinos owned by crime bosses and run down motels with hobos raining from the sky. But I see it differently, since I live in it. So our personal experiences differ.

And that's what makes it our opinion. Sorry I insulted you.

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What you've done is insulted a city based on a bad experience. I've never been to America, and I wouldn't base a description on what I see on TV. I had a horrible time in Canada and only saw a small proportion of it (a lot of it at scout camps) and wouldn't describe areas I'd never been based on that - else my description would be 'wild woodland, pits dug in the ground to shit in, surrounded by people who ask you to 'talk english at me', and frost on the tents'. I'm pretty sure Canadians would be insulted if I described their cities and towns in that fashion.

It's fine to have an opinion on a place, but it's best if it's based in fact. And remember an important fact about people living in the UK - we're allowed to call our country a shitehole, ( I often refer to it as a rain-swept dystopia, myself) but no-one else is. All you've done is come across our well-hidden but fierce pride. It's a bit like... you may call your family names and find them irritating, but if anyone else even breathes a word of criticism you close ranks and drive out the outsider.

And Bath is gorgeous. I only visited once or twice, on our way to other places, but on both days it was sunny and I can vividly remember the sun on the stone making the whole place look like it was glowing. I'm not sure how many people outside of the UK would know it exists, but most people who've read Austen or other Regency literature probably would. And - anecdotal evidence time - a few American and Canadian friends definitely knew of it, even if they couldn't place it geographically or tell me what it looked like now.

Ooops, sorry, clicked yes before realising I was disqualified from voting. Count me out.

I only know of Bath because it's a frequent mention in many of the Romance novels I've read over my life.

Then I got into Enlgish history and got the references about natural hot springs that the Romans took advantage of to build their baths and gave the town its name pretty much.

So, from a reader's perspective, it's not as unheard of as you may think.

Buffysquirrel said:

Ooops, sorry, clicked yes before realising I was disqualified from voting. Count me out.

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Me too!

Alessandra Kelley said:

And "Wells." Long before I took up Jane Austen (which I first read as an adult), I knew there was a place in England called Bath and Wells. It had a bishop.
.

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I am relatively sure he didn't eat babies. Probably. And Leonardo Da Vinci didn't make any compromising paintings of him and Lord Percy. No siree.


Bath is fabulous, and even if folk outside the UK haven't heard of it, well, they will after they've read your book, right? Plenty of US fiction does ok over here without me/many people having heard of the setting before, or only having a vague idea of it. Might even be a selling point to a certain type of Anglophile.

I think Will's hand has been slapped enough, so no more comment from me. Just a stern 'Mother is cross' look.

U.S. citizen, never been to the UK, and I've absolutely heard of Bath and knew (vaguely) where it was. No mental picture of it before now though. I'd love to visit someday.