After dinner, Gaby and Annette went swimming in the gorgeous Spa heated pool! We're all sad we only have one night here! We could have gone horseback riding on the grounds if we were staying longer!
Now, for the earlier part of the day! We departed Cotswold House and were off to visit two additional charming villages. In fact, the word "charming" had to be invented to describe these villages! They come complete with running mill streams and a pond to feed the ducks . We had quite a bit of liquid sunshine today, but we were lucky that the weather cleared up when we did our walking tour of Bath.
Bath is an ancient city built by the Romans in the 800's. They settled on Bath as a leisure site for the Roman soldiers because they discovered the bubbling hot water coming out of the ground-- England's only hot mineral springs. They believed it had curative powers, so they excavated the ground and built a large bath ( think pool) with statues of the Goddess Minerva. But the Emperor of Rome called all his soldiers back in the late 800's to defend the Empire and within one year, ALL the Roman soldiers left England. The Saxons cared nothing about the bath and so it fell into disrepair and the pool they'd built became a trash dump. It was forgotten for many centuries. In 1499, a Monastery was built in Bath-- once again because they noticed the hot bubbling water. They too at some point built a Pool and lined it with the recently discovered lead found in the area. Little did they know that they we're building their pool directly on top of the one the Romans had built!
It was during the Georgian period that Bath really became fashionable. Queen Anne (1692, 1702 & 1703) visited the springs (which by now had become a rather disgusting place) and ordered it to be cleaned up. Once that happened, London Aristocracy discovered the Bath and soon there was an actual "social,season" to visit. It became the first dating site. Families of means would come stay in Bath for the season with their marriage eligible children. There would be a stroll through the town where you would "accidentally on purpose" bump into a family you hoped would accept your child in marriage.. By the end of the stroll, a young lady should have her dance card completely filled for that evening.. There is a great dance hall still in existence. In the early 1900's, Bath once again fell into disfavor as the aristocracy decided that the Sea was more beneficial, and they began to take seaside vacations at places like Brighton or Weymouth.
The original Roman Bath was accidentally found in 1878 when someone was excavating in the area and discovered the gold head of the Roman Goddess Minerva! This re-energized the area and it is still a fashionable place to come today. We actually went into a restaurant next to the original Roman Bath that offers you a glass of the restorative water containing 57 different minerals. The hot water still bubbles out of the ground today from a mile below the earth's surface, just as it has been doing for more then 2,000 years! Almost everyone drank a glass of the curative water-- not exactly Dasani! !It's a beautiful town as you will see in the photos. And yes, the flowers are amazingly gorgeous-- particularly the peonies!!! Back to London tomorrow with a visit to Oxford and Bleinham Castle on the way!
A field of Rape Seed from which they make Cannola oil.
No comments:
Post a Comment