Two Days in Bath - Ancestry, Walks, Roman Baths
As I write this journal of my days on this trip, I am amazed at some coincidences that have happened, the most recent being that the day I visited Dyrham House and Gardens, it was written about in detail in the New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2024/07/01/world/europe/uk-national-trust.html?unlocked_article_code=1.4E0.dNjI.MNczlTR2d_Lr&smid=url-share The article focused on the issue that most bothered me while I was exploring the exhibits - that all the wealth that allowed the house and gardens to be built was based on slave labor. It is true about so many of the manor houses in Britain and other places that colonized other countries and exploited their people and their environment. It made me think about how flawed (and suicidal) capitalism is in a world where nature has no voice with greed, inequality and the need for status now driving tools of such mass destruction on a planetary level. At the same time as I think these dark thoughts, I am hopeful in the ability of nature to regenerate and of people to change their minds and actions.
In the morning, Jill and Jeremy, my British cousins, took me to one of their favorite walks outside of Bath - Newton Farm and Park. It is part of the campus of Bath Spa University and has a peaceful trail around the two ponds behind the university buildings. We drove and parked in the university parking lot past fields of cows and sheep and trees that had boards around them to prevent the deer from damaging them. We walked along a high ridge of one of the ponds and noticed two swans with cygnets on the far bank. As we came down to the bridge with a little dam, there were several ducks there and eventually one of the swans seemed to have decided to take her three cygnets on an outing to the dam. The views were straight out of a painting and the copper beech trees stood out in rich purple among all the other trees - lindens and oaks, firs and cedars. I used my picture this app to identify some of them including copious amounts of mountain laurel along the path. There were hardly any other people there.
We walked up through fields and kissing gates and past an old church where Jill and Jeremy pointed out three graves of friends they had known, and we passed by very old houses with glorious gardens out front and robins and goldfinches flying around.
The organic farm had a wonderful restaurant with a wide variety of options and I treated Jill and Jeremy to lunch and then we all shared fresh cheddar strawberries with clotted cream for dessert.
When we got back, Jill showed me various diaries and books about the Sturges since I am especially interested in them because of this diary my Mom inherited from 1891 that is quite extraordinary in its writing and watercolors. It was exciting to finally see a portrait of Amy E. Sturge who was one of the artists who did all the calligraphy in the diary and transcribed everyone’s observations in her own cursive. I was sad to learn that her house had been directly bombed in 1941 and that would explain why there was so little about her letters or artwork online. Apparently everything in it was destroyed. Luckily she wasn’t there at the time. Below is Amy Sturge and other relatives along with one of her paintings and some of her writing and illuminated letters from Golden Days.
In the afternoon Jill dropped me off near the Victoria Park and I walked down to the Roman Baths. I passed the Royal Crescent which was built over a Roman settlement which had been built near a Bronze Age settlement and I thought about the rise and fall and reabsorption of civilizations much of yesterday when I went through the famous Roman Baths that made Bath thriving city. The exhibit was crammed with high school students and other tourists - taking selfies, wandering, like I was, through the underground levels and up to the different areas of the baths. The exhibits were brilliantly displayed with projections of actors as romans reenacting what might have happened in the complex - a slave helping a woman with her hair, people massaging others on tables, someone making a sacrifice or a prayer to a deity. There were also displays of curses written on lead or pewter that had been found in the fountain of the Temple of Minerva
The Roman curse tablets are the personal and private prayers of 130 individuals inscribed on small sheets of lead or pewter.
Believed to range in date from the 2nd to the late 4th century AD, the tablets were rolled up and thrown into the Spring where the spirit of the goddess Sulis Minerva dwelt. They are mostly from people who had suffered an injustice, asking for wrongs to be put right and for revenge. The prayers reveal the anger felt by ordinary people at the loss of what seem to us like modest everyday items, but which were very important to people who at the time had few personal possessions.
I thought about this great civilization that had reached such heights of craftsmanship and yet had fallen due to many reasons. https://www.history.com/news/8-reasons-why-rome-fell In light of our current political situation, I was feeling sombre.
There was an eerie feeling of going through what had been a thriving series of baths and rooms with complex water management and heat management (radiant heating under the floor) and feel as if all these altars where animals were sacrificed and the deities were worshipped were all in the service of figments of imagination and the need to have some control over elements beyond their control. All of us humans walking through the baths would not be alive in a hundred years either. I felt a solidarity and tenderness with other humans and also sadness at the suffering of the animals and the slaves that walked on these floors. I was also hot and a bit run down. From the top level of the Baths I could see the guitarist in the square outside the cathedral still playing soothing renditions of pop songs with his guitar perched on his folded legs, his red sneaker tapping time and a big VENMO QR code taped to his guitar case. It was healing music and calming to hear it over the wall.
After leaving the baths, I had booked a ticket for my own bath experience at Thermae Spa about a block away. The spa uses the same water from the spring that supplies the Roman baths and it is pumped to different pools, one of which is on the rooftop overlooking the city. It was an experience I didn’t want to miss when I was reading about Bath. After giving my phone to the desk attendant who locked it in a pouch until I left, I went up to the changing rooms with my big white towel and robe and changed into my swimsuit and found my way up to the top of the building, passing many beautiful young couples and people largely in their 20’s. It was incredible to be in the water under the sky and on top of the building seeing the skyline of Bath. Seagulls were flying overhead and there were people who had come from work who were discussing business in the pool. Some of us wedged our arms over the side to let the jets under the water keep us afloat and couples floated together, some with sunglasses, many with hair clips and glamorous bikinis. I was amused to see the man in black in sunglasses standing on the sidelines with a walkie talkie making sure that nobody went underwater and that nobody was displaying too much public affection which I guess happens since there were signs about it.
This article about the intelligence of seagulls and how they are so much like us came out in today’s NYT. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/23/science/seagulls-behavior.html The picture below is not mine. It’s from the website from Thermae Spa.
I was feeling tired and relaxed but also wishing I had a friend there to hang with in the pool, and so I left and negotiated the fancy showers with motion sensing for the shower (all at one temperature preset). I left and made a valiant attempt to figure out the bus system to get back to Jill and Jeremy’s house but just decided to walk. I soon realized that I was dehydrated and after walking about 25 minutes called Jill who came to pick me up. We had a nice simple dinner and then I went up to read and go to sleep. It was another full day.
And just to finish, here are some stamps from Jill’s huge stamp collection. I was so interested in looking at this because many of the stamps from England often make full scenes. Some even have cutouts you can stick on to make little faces. I appreciate U.S. stamps, but these take stamps to a new artistic level. Enjoy!
