Friday, September 24, 2010

A day at 'Bawth'

Hello hello! sorry, it's been a week since my last update. Mostly, I have been busy writing away at my papers. Last Saturday, Natalie and I did visit the Pitt Rivers natural history museum, which is a great little place. I posted pics of it on facebook, so you can see them there.
However, yesterday we took a field trip to Bath, or 'Bawth' as Dr. Liz Baigent, one of our senior members calls it. She grew up there, so was the leader of our trip.
We first visited the very famous Roman Baths that are there. From the shoulder down, the baths are from roman times, but from the shoulder up, there was some remodeling done by the Victorians, who just loved doing that sort of thing...sometimes even tearing down legit old stuff to build old looking stuff 'the right way.' Ha ha. Anyway, the baths are filled from a natural hot spring there, and the Great Bath was all filled up and everything! The staff at the baths said not to touch the water because it wasn't sanitized, but I still did. It was very lovely and warm, like a jacuzzi! I also visited the pump house, the hang out spot in Northanger Abbey, but it was converted into a restaurant, so there were a lot of tables. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get a taste of the famous Bath waters, (mostly because there wasn't an attendant there so that I could buy a cup) but I did get a photo of the fountain!
Because Jane Austen lived in Bath for little while, the town like to capitalize on that, though she actually loathed the place. They tend to over look that part, he he. So, Natalie, Libby (another girl from our house) and I went to the Jane Austen Centre gift shop. We didn't got into the centre itself, because it was expensive, but we did shop a little! I got 2 post cards, one of which is staying on my door, and one is going to dear old Gabby. Bath is also known for its stone, which is a yellowish limestone, and it actually what many of the buildings in Oxford are made out of too, so Oxford and Bath have a similar look. However, Bath has TONS of shops. It was known for that back in the day too, as one might remember from Northanger Abbey. Everything was very expensive, but such cute stuff! I wanted to buy several hats, but they were rather steep, so I did not.

We saw some famous buildings, such as the King's Crescent (which those of you who took Downing's Romantic Period class will remember!)
We also saw the Haha in front of the crescent, which is a type of wall that was made in the lawn to keep out animals (and peasants) without having a fence line to mar the beautiful green view. It's a little hard to describe, so look up a picture of it. Anyway, it is called a Haha, because people on the other side can look down on the people below and say haha, you can't get in. Seriously.

Well, that is all for now, except that today we had a lecture by a lady who is going to be my Victorian lit tutor! Dr. Emma Plaskitt is her name, and she is very funny and incredibly smart...it almost scares me a little, actually :-) Anyway, I am looking forward to having her though. She talked about Gothic and Romantic women writers, and mentioned some stuff about Northanger Abbey that was similar to things I said in my paper about it, so that made me feel like I was on the right track.
Well, have to keep reading for my next paper! tomorrow I am going to Dorchester for a few hours, so I need to get a lot done tonight.
-Abby

2 comments:

  1. Good to hear from you seester!
    I'm envious of you, it's true.
    And i'm typing this on my darling little netbook, who i need to name. :)

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  2. ahhh! I have so loved reading and seeing about Bawth... hee hee. I'm also quite looking forward to seeing this postcard! perhaps I'll buy you a CU postcard and send it... it's quite a touristy spot this university :) hee hee. Love you much!

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