"What Part of Bath Do You Think They Will Settle In?": Jane Austen's Use of Bath in Persuasion. (the Country and the City)

LOCATION IS EVERYTHING, they say the business world. Why does one side of the street attract more customers than the other, and why does a family choose one neighborhood when moving into a new town rather than another, or for that matter why does one choose a city to live over another--it seems shopkeepers and businessmen are not the only ones concerned with location. It is interesting this respect that Bath is the setting, part, of both Jane Austen's first novel, Northanger Abbey, and her last, Persuasion. This paper deals specifically with how Jane Austen used Bath Persuasion, how the topography of Bath relates to the characters, and how the location of various characters mirrors the society Austen portrays. We should first review briefly the growth process of eighteenth-century Bath. For many years after its establishment as a spa by the Romans the first century, Bath remained a walled, Medieval town, built at the low end of a slope stretching down to the River Avon which bends sharply at one point to give the city its eastern and southern boundaries. Map of Bath, 1717 Emma Austen-Leigh's Jane Austen and Bath (20) shows the North Gate, South Gate, West Gate and East Gate. From the West Gate to the South Gate the city is bounded by a quarter circle Borough Wall, whereas the rest of the city is bounded by straight walls on five sides. In this Medieval part of the city we find the ancient Bath Abbey, the Pump Room (built 1706), and the baths--the King's Bath, the Queen's Bath, the Cross Bath, and the I-lot Bath. Outside the Borough Walls there are a few rows of houses to the north and south of the city, but the rest of the area is forest or pasture land as indicated by tree-shaped signs the map. From this Medieval town Bath grew northward and uphill, and Maggie Lane Jane Austen's England (74) states that a thousand houses were built in the 1790s alone--rapid growth by any standard. It should be helpful to mention some of the major landmarks of Bath at this point. John Wood the elder, chief among the architects of modern Bath, designed the Queen Square which was finished 1735. (1) John Wood himself lived there, and he started to build The Circus 1754 but died only three months later. The work was continued by his son, John Wood the younger, who also built the new Upper Assembly Rooms from 1769 to 1771. These Rooms were obviously built to cater to people who now lived the newer and higher part of town and did not want to go down to the Assembly Rooms the old town. The Upper Rooms were naturally more modern and spacious, and reflected eighteenth-century elegance. Between the two wings of the Assembly Rooms is the famous Octagon Room, which plays an important part Persuasion. The Roya l Crescent was begun 1767 and completed 1775, the year of Jane Austen's birth. After tearing down an existing inn the old town, Union Street was laid 1807 to unite or connect Stall Street the old town with the new and fashionable Milsom Street, which forms the main north-south axis the newer part of town. What we should note here is that the Medieval walled town of Bath expanded northward and literally upward, as one must ascend a total of over 80 meters (nearly 270 feet) to reach the highest part of Bath. I wish to explore this essay this special topographical feature of Bath--that as one goes north one goes upward, that upward is not just physical but social, and that, Persuasion, a character, his social rank, and his location go hand hand with the topography of the city. The importance of where one locates oneself Bath is hinted at, first by Mrs. Allen Northanger Abbey. [General Tilney's] lodgings were taken the very day after he left them, Catherine. But no wonder; Milsom-street you know' (NA 238), and then by Henrietta and Louisa Musgrove: [1]f we do go [to Bath], we must be a good situation--none of your Queen-squares for us! …

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