22nd June 1819, Bath — Lucy's Diary

Tuesday June 22nd

Taking leave of our friends and having had excellent accommodation at the Castle we proceeded to Bath. The view on entering the town is very picturesque and beautiful. It is built entirely of stone and the houses are very regular

After Dining at the York Hotel where we took up our abode for the night we walked to Gt Pulteney Street which is reckoned the finest in Bath and in my opinion greatly resembles Portland Place at the end of the street are the Sidney Gardens

which are beautifully laid out by a Man of the name of Masters. There is a band of Music every Evening. The Gardens are I think much prettier than Vauxhall though not near so large being only 14 acres inclusive of a ride of 7 acres. At the end of the principal walk is a famous labyrinth;

here, we all sallied forth in hopes of reaching the centre where there is a swing, but without the assistance of the Guide I think we should have remained there till now. After walking about for some time we returned to the Hotel and my brothers went to the Theatre.

OBSERVATIONS & COMMENTS

1792: View of Marlborough, Artist, Engraver & Publisher Archibald Robertson - from Robertson's Bath Road http://www.rareoldprints.com/p/12580

Castle Inn, Marlborough was built as a house on the site of the old ruined castle by Francis Seymour, 1st Baron Seymour of Trowbridge (c.1590-1664), and was replaced in 1683-84 by the "new house" for his grandson Charles Seymour, 6th Duke of Somerset. The new house declined into a coaching inn, the Castle Inn. However “this was no ordinary inn but a luxurious and elegant house providing the grandeur of Bath to titled and wealthy visitors” (see history.wiltshire, below). Here the Marlborough Club, whose members were Tory gentlemen from Marlborough and the surrounding area, was established in 1774. The club met at the Castle Inn until 1842. The house became the nucleus of Marlborough College when it was founded in 1843. https://history.wiltshire.gov.uk/community/getcom2.php?id=155 & https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marlborough_Castle

Circa 1855: Marlborough College, Wilts Engraver: Rock & Co Publisher: W W Lucy http://www.rareoldprints.com/z/4179

Bath, noted for its elegant Georgian architecture, became the centre of fashionable life in England during the 18th century https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bath,_Somerset A UNESCO World Heritage site, it exemplifies the 18th century move away from the inward-looking uniform street layouts of Renaissance cities that dominated through the 15th–17th centuries, towards the idea of planting buildings and cities in the landscape to achieve picturesque views and forms https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/428 . Its Heritage status has, on the whole, protected it from unsympathetic development and we can still appreciate the best of Georgian architecture here, as Lucy did two hundred years ago.

1818: York Hotel – Print from: Egan's Walks through Bath, Artist & Engraver H S Storer, Publisher Sherwood & Co http://www.rareoldprints.com/p/9178

A photograph of York Hotel in 1932 can be found at https://www.bathintime.co.uk/catalog/product/view/id/14246

Great Pulteney Street forms the principal element of the late 18th development of the Bathwick estate east of the River Avon. Laid out on an unusually generous scale, 100ft wide, it is one of the most imposing urban set-pieces of its day in Britain. Robert Adam prepared designs in 1782, but Thomas Baldwin was responsible for the eventual design. https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1396183

Sidney Gardens: Situated behind the Holburne Museum, at the end of Great Pulteney Street, Sydney Gardens is the oldest park in the city of Bath. It was planned and laid out by the architect Harcourt Masters in 1795 and throughout the end of the eighteenth and into the nineteenth century it was the most popular place to see and be seen by the most fashionable visitors to Bath.

Sydney Gardens was frequently visited by members of the Royal family and, of course, by the famous author Jane Austen, who lived at Number 4 Sydney Place, directly opposite. Public breakfasts were only one of the many attractions the gardens had to offer, alongside firework displays and concerts.

The gardens were reached via the Sydney Hotel, in Sydney Place, at the end of Great Pulteney Street. Today, Sydney Hotel now welcomes you as the Holburne Museum, home to fine and decorative arts built around the collection of Sir William Holburne https://visitbath.co.uk/listings/single/sydney-gardens/ . Details of the museum are at https://www.holburne.org/ , which has become the setting for romantic weddings with a most tempting, but most accurate description of the venue: “set at the head of one England’s most famous roads, Great Pulteney Street and surrounded by the splendor of Sydney Gardens, the Holburne makes for a truly breathtaking venue for your special day.” On a sunny day the views from and the views to the Holburne along Great Pulteney Street are truly stunning.

1818: Sydney Hotel – Print from: Egan's Walks through Bath, Artist & Engraver H S Storer, Publisher Sherwood & Co http://www.rareoldprints.com/p/9240

The labyrinth: The labyrinth was torn out in 1840 when the Great Western Railway was built around it. In 2017 the Sydney Gardens Parks for People Project set about laying out the historic Labyrinth and a fascinating video of of their efforts was published on Youtube by Bath & North East Somerset Council at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r24lYYE7TKE . The reconstruction, which was marked out according to an 1825 Guide Book, would almost certainly represent the design of the labyrinth that Lucy would have been guided through to the swing at the centre, which the guide book and video tell us was called “Merlin’s Swing”.

Vauxhall: Many fashionable Gardens of the day adopted the name of the famous London Vauxhall Gardens into their titles, including Bath’s Sidney Gardens which was originally entitled “Bath Vauxhall Gardens” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sydney_Gardens

Charles Harcourt Masters, surveyor & architect, made a scale model of Bath in 1789 which he displayed at his home, 21 Old Orchard Street, and later in London: the plans were published in 1794. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Harcourt_Masters A “City of Bath” map by Charles Harcourt Masters was published in 1798. He made minor revisions and it was considered one of the most detailed maps of the time when it was published on 1st January 1808 by Masters and engraved by S.I. Neele. Copies of this map are widely available at most of Bath’s booksellers. https://www.bathintime.co.uk/the-city-of-bath-by-charles-harcourt-masters-1808-15119.html

The Theatre Royal. The Royal Patent was granted to the Old Orchard Street Theatre in 1768, the first theatre to achieve this outside London. Its success soon led to it outgrowing the needs of the city and its many affluent visitors and a larger venue was urgently required. A new theatre was proposed in 1802 and several sites were considered. The current site was chosen in 1804, with funding raised by the use of a Tontine, and it opened the following year in Sawclose. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theatre_Royal,_Bath. The main Sawclose entrance was built in 1720 by Thomas Greenway (who was one of Bath's leading Architects before John Wood came into prominence), and it had been Beau Nash's first house. The exterior of the building, with arches, pilasters, garlands and ornaments, is visible from Beaufort Square, designed by George Dance the Younger and erected by John Palmer. The redundant Orchard Street theatre is now a Freemason's Hall. After a fire in 1863 the new theatre’s interior was reworked by C J Phipps and, along with the neighbouring Garrick's Head public house, is a Grade II* listed building and considered a prime example of Georgian architecture. https://www.cotswolds.info/places/bath/theatre-royal.shtml . It remains a thriving theatre set in the heart of Georgian Bath https://www.theatreroyal.org.uk/

1818: The Theatre – Print from: Egan's Walks through Bath, Artist & Engraver H S Storer, Publisher Sherwood & Co http://www.rareoldprints.com/p/9209

Can you help us?

Castle Inn, Marlborough: We would welcome any old prints of the Castle Inn before it was converted to Marlborough College

York Hotel: We would love to know a little more about the York Hotel.

Coaching Routes: We would like to locate any maps of coaching routes followed in 1819.

Theatre Royal playbills: It would be fascinating to learn whether there are any playbills or records of the play Lucy’s brothers would have seen on Tuesday 22nd June 1819

Old Regency Prints or Pictures: Illustrations of Great Pulteney Street , Sidney Gardens and The Theatre Royal would really brighten up this section and give us an idea of what Bath would have looked like when Lucy travelled through . It would be great to know more about the 1825 Guide Book that became the basis for the the labyrinth’s 2017 reconstructed layout.

Pictures Old and New: As well as any Regency pictures and prints, do you have any modern pictures of the areas and streets, gardens and buildings that Lucy would have seen?

Please click here if you can help