A new day, a new adventure. We left Bristol and drove to Bath. We joined the Mayors' volunteer tour leaders and had a very enjoyable 2 hour walking tour of Bath. Linda and Amanda saw this tour was available through "Rick Steves". This is a service offered through the Mayor's office...no reservations...no tour charge...no tipping...a 5 star rating...everywhere look for in a tour. Our guide's name was Brenda. Brenda was a "Bathonian", a native of Bath. She swam in the Roman Baths as a young girl. She was very knowledgeable and we came away from her tour with a lot more information than we started.
 |
| Avon river in Bath |
The tour not only included the Roman Baths, but also she provided us a look into the 17th and 18th century lifestyles of the gentry that visited and lived in Bath. There were people who came here from all over the world to seek treatment in the baths. There were many apartments built to provide lodging for the patients, their family, and their servants. One service available was a sedan chair. They offered door to door service for the patients. It was basically was an enclosed box, carried by two servants. Not a job I would want. They had no interior bathrooms during this time in history. So they were somewhat limited in performing their bathing and other duties. They would wash their hands, feet, and arms and sometimes the rest of their body. One thing they used was a chamber pot. The chambermaid emptied it out every day. At night the "Night Soil Man" went from apartment to apartment collecting what needed to be collected. Another job I would not be suited for.
This trip I have ruled out a lot of jobs from way back then. I would not have fared well back then.
We learned a beauty tip for the ladies. Do not use lead based face powder. It will make your eyebrows fall out. One way they addressed this problem was to have their servants catch rats, kill and skin them They used the fur from the deceased rat and made eyebrows for the ladies. This created another problem, especially in warm weather. The glue that was used to hold the "faux" eyebrows in place would melt and slide down their face. I will leave this to your imagination.
This was not published last night as we are afoot on the information highway.
 |
| On the Bath tour |
 |
| Museum entrance |
 |
| Great restaurant |
 |
| Dinner |
 |
| Roman Bath |
 |
| Bath Abbey |
 |
| Old town |
 |
| Old Town |
 |
| Our guide |
No comments:
Post a Comment