July 23, 2025 – Jane Austen in Vermont

So, today I messed up Royally – was supposed to meet a friend, but misplaced days of the week in my head – travel can do that to you [anyone else out there have this happen??]. To me, today was a Monday, because yesterday felt like a Sunday – everything contrived against my really knowing today is a Tuesday, the day set up to meet my friend – it was to be my second day in Bath, but I didn’t count the first day because we only got there in the evening – I am still trying to make sense of it – my only consolation is that we shall see each other in Baltimore!

So to carry on – today started with the usual to-die-for English breakfast (Tea + everything else) – then off on a walking tour of Bath – with a Terrific guide starting at St. Swithin’s Church where George Austen is buried – and also where he and Cassandra Leigh were married in 1754, their register below – and for those interested, William Wilberforce was married here also in 1797:

And of great interest to me, this is where Frances Burney is also buried, her grave in the churchyard, along with the remains of her husband Alexandre D’Arblay and their son. Burney had lived in Bath for a number of years and died here in 1840.

There is this memorial to her on the wall, and one to her sister and also novelist Sarah Harriet Burney:

These plaques were installed in 2013, replacing the originals what disappeared in 1958 during renovations to the church organ [are they perhaps somewhere with Jane Austen’s missing head??]

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From there we walked to the Royal Crescent, perhaps one of the most photographed spots in all of England? – completed by John Wood in 1775, Mrs. Austen’s sister Jane Cooper lived at number 12.

We hit all the mentioned locations in both Northanger Abbey and Persuasion – and easy to imagine Catherine Morland and Henry Tilney and Ann Elliot and Captain Wentworth wandering along the streets – the movies have made them all very real to us, and nothing has much changed really, other than the errant car or two, or people holding cell phones and wearing flip-flops…

The Queen’s Parade, the Gravel Walk [Ann and the Captain along with us]…we walked it, but in those early days it was a way for the gentry to be transported to the baths in their sedan chairs.

We passed the World War I Memorial which features the “Cross of Sacrifice” and erected in 1923, now has the additional names of WWII fallen, including civilian deaths – you can read more about it her: http://bath -heritage.co.uk/war-memorial.html

We followed around former haunts of the Austens and family:

No. 13 Queen Square is where Jane stayed with her mother and Edward in 1799 – he had come to take the waters… [it is now being renovated…] – and then along to Trim St, the final lodging of the Jane, Cassandra, and Mrs. Austen, and the “very bottom of the social scale, populated by prostitutes, beggars, and thieves.” [Jane Austen’s Bath, JA Centre]

25 Gay Street, just down from the Jane Austen Centre, is where the Austen’s lived following Mr. Austen’s death – [the Jane Austen Center is at #40]

And here several photos of various sites as we walked around:

The St. John’s Hospital, recently dedicated by the then Duchess of Cornwall [now Queen Camilla],

The all-important Circulating Library and Milson Street, Beau Nash, the baths, and shopping!:

and a sign worth a photo:

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After the tour, Joy and I went to the Jane Austen Centre – I had visited this several years ago when it was first starting out – much improved, and they do a terrific newsletter, and the long-time greeter Martin Salter is worth the price of admission… [these pictures from Joy]:

And some pictures from there worth sharing [I didn’t take many! – see the website for a great collection]:

And Joy found this in the WC!

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We visited the main Marketplace as Joy was in dire need of Gillards of Bath teas, and I spot a Snoopy:

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And then we went our separate ways – me finding it ironic that though I was supposed to be meeting my friend, I felt quite foot-loose and fancy-free and wandered all around Bath with no itinerary – what an idiot! And here is the final glitch – I did not stop to eat or go anywhere where I connected to the internet – if I had I would have seen the various messages from my friend asking where I was!

So off to Bath Abbey for an in-depth visit – and started it with a tour of the Jane Austen-related memorials – and here I found Stephen Herring of Jane Austen’s Regency World magazine * giving tours at the Abbey! What a grand surprise! Though disappointed to not see Jackie as well – but Stephen was great taking a small group of us all around the Abbey – I took notes but took NO PHOTOS! – but we did learn about:

The Nibbs Family [James Langford Nibbs]
Dr. William Bowen – doctor to Mrs C Auysten in 1804
William Siddons, husband to Sarah
Admiral Sir William Hargood [Francixs Austen’s Canoppus
Caleb Hillier Parry
The Famous Castrata Rauzzioni

The Abbey also has an exhibit on through September 27, Austens at the Abbey – Jackie Herring is on the video and it covers much of what I had just learned on the tour with Stephen.

Wandered around the other exhibits at the Abbey, hit the bookshop (of course) and then wandered back to the hotel which was very nearby – and when I found the note from my friend letting me know I had missed her – it was too late as she was already on the train heading home – a lost adventure with a friend… but Marcia DID see Hazel in the Topping bookshop…so that was something I suppose…