5/21/06: This trip has been postponed. Please watch this space for futher information.

A tour to Bath, England which will focus on sites associated with arguably the greatest of 18th Century English authors, Jane Austen who lived in Bath from 1801 to 1806.

Her main residences were 4 Sydney Place, 27 Green Park Buildings, and 25 Gay St. She was also known to have lived in Trim St, although only for a couple of weeks. In 1797 she came to Bath to visit her uncle and aunt who lived at 1 Paragon, and she also visited Bath again in 1799 and stayed at 13 Queens Square.

This tour will be a very full one if you wish to do the whole thing, but even though Bath is a small city in which the easiest way to get around is to walk, anyone who would prefer to slip away from time to time just to rest their feet, or would perhaps prefer to go and see some stuff on their own, maybe the Guildhall Market or perhaps the Holborne Museum, please feel perfectly free to do so.

Also there will be several evenings free should anyone like to go to the Theatre Royal, an absolute gem of a theatre, or enjoy a performance at the Bath Music Festival which will be on whilst we are there, or even perhaps go on a Ghost Tour!

We shall be staying at The Abbey Hotel, North Parade, Bath (Tel: 01225 461603) which is probably the best located tourist hotel in Bath.

Located in the oldest part of the city it has the Roman Baths, Thermae Spa (due to open shortly), Bath Abbey, Pulteney Bridge, Sally Lunns, Bath Rugby Club, Parade Gardens, the main shopping centre and great restaurants all on its doorstep.

Built as part of the Grand Design in the 1740s the hotel nevertheless has all the modern conveniences one would expect, with full elevator service, a spacious and comfortable lounge and a large Georgian dining-room in which your breakfast, included in the price, will be served. All rooms have ensuite bathrooms and rates are double occupancy, although if you wish for a single they are available for a supplemental fee. Please contact us if a single is required. The Hotel has been awarded 3 stars by the AA -- the British equivalent of the AAA.

Both Bath Spa Railway Station and Coach Station are close by.

We shall begin our "Footsteps ..." Tour with an Opening Reception on the afternoon of May 23, starting around 4pm, during which all participants will receive their Welcome Packages and get to meet us, the organizers, together with our Guest Tour Leader, Leslie Carroll.

Leslie is not only a professional actress from New York City, but also a recognized author, writing contemporary fiction under her own name, and historical fiction under the pen name Amanda Elyot. Her meticulously researched novel "By a Lady - Being the Adventures of an Enlightened American in Jane Austen's England" - will be published this Spring.

Here is an excerpt from the review online in Romance Readers Connection:

This novel was a delight from beginning to end .... The author's love for Jane Austen and her time period shines from every page. Scenes are set with incredibly vivid detail; conversations ring absolutely true.... This is a must-read for any Jane Austen fan, as well as those who enjoy time travel, romance, and a bit of mystery. I can't wait to see what this author does next. Her expertise in all things Jane Austen will provide exciting insights and little known tidbits as we discover Bath, the setting for "Persuasion" and "Northanger Abbey".

After we have all checked into the hotel and got ourselves together we shall repair to the Crystal Palace Tavern on nearby Abbey Green for dinner. Boasting its own ghost and enough history to keep a Cambridge professor happy, it’s a bright and spacious place with two bars and a heated courtyard, complete with fountain and vine-covered gazebo.

Our week will continue with a full morning's walking tour led by an accredited Blue Badge Guide, the best guides in the UK, which will focus on sites in Jane Austen's novels plus a visit to Bath Abbey, and will include a midmorning break for coffee and biscuits (that's cookies to you) at the Pavilion in Royal Victoria Park.

There will be an afternoon visit to the Roman Baths complete with Personal Audio Guides, followed by tea in the famous Pump Room. By the way, your mother was right; don't drink the Bath Water! It has an extremely strong and sulpherous taste.

Throughout the 18th century Bath’s growing reputation as a health spa attracted both patients and doctors to the town. The new Bath guide of 1790 advertises 18 physicians, 13 surgeons and 25 apothecaries. Many quacks and charlatans also set up in business to prey off the wealthy invalids who flocked to Bath during the season. A visitor in 1709 recorded that he had been cured of more diseases in a week than he had suffered in the rest of his life.

During the course of 'Footsteps ...' we shall be visiting the Assembly Rooms, the Costume Museum, and the Jane Austen Centre. We will walk the Royal Crescent, designed by Beau Nash, 'The King of Bath', who, at the beginning of the 18th Century turned a sleepy spa catering to sick people into the favourite resort of Britain's rich and not-so-rich.

The Crescent overlooks Prior Park, an exquisite garden designed by Lancelot Brown, who acquired the peculiar nickname "Capability" from his habit of telling clients that their gardens had "great capabilities". In his talented hands, they certainly did. Those of you who may have been with us last year for 'England Expects ...' may perhaps remember the gardens sweeping down from The Royal Observatory to the Royal Naval Museum in Greenwich. They too were designed by Brown, and it is estimated that he was responsible for some 170 gardens surrounding the finest country houses and estates in Britain. So numerous are his designs, and so widespread was his influence, that it is hard to find a prominent country house that did not have a garden designed by Capability Brown!

If we are really lucky Leslie Carroll will lead a private walk through the Park, pointing out the salient features of Bath that appear in the novels Persuasion and Northanger Abbey.

We shall of course meet for tea one afternoon at Sally Lunn's, the oldest house in Bath and home to the famous Sally Lunn Buns. Sally Lunn, a young French refugee, arrived in England over 300 years ago. She began to bake a rich round and generous bread now known as the Sally Lunn Bun.

This bun became a very popular delicacy in Georgian England as its special taste and lightness allowed it to be enjoyed with either sweet or savory accompaniments. Many attempts have been made to copy the world famous Bun with little success.

The house has not been greatly altered, but certain changes have been made since it was built. During the 1700s, the street level was raised, making the original ground floor into a cellar, and a grand reception room was created on the new ground floor by replacing a dividing wall with an elegant Hanoverian arch.

During our visit we shall have an opportunity to visit the original cellar kitchen, built over Roman ruins, where the oven fireplaces were kitchen fireplaces modernized to burn coal.

Needless to say over the years the building became run down and in desperate need of extensive restoration. This work was carried out around 1938 during which time Sally Lunn's recipes were discovered in a secret cupboard in the old paneling which can still be seen today.

Naturally we shall be taking a full day to go to Chawton where Jane lived from 1809 until 1817, and then in the afternoon we shall tour Winchester Cathedral, Jane Austen's final resting place. On this trip we shall again be accompanied by a Blue Guide.

We are very pleased to say that during this week we shall have the opportunity to visit the house in which the Austen family lived in Bath. During the summer of 1801 the Austens took possession of their new house, No. 4. Sydney Place, which lies at the further end of Pulteney Street, flanking a part of the Sydney Gardens. Jane had always liked this situation but had feared the houses there would prove too expensive for the family means.

"It would be very pleasant," she had written before leaving Steventon, "to be near the Sydney Gardens. We could go into the labyrinth every day."

We are especially fortunate in that this house is not normally open to the general public.

The Sydney Gardens have lost none of their charms since it was said of them long ago that "the hand of taste is visible in every direction." There are sloping lawns, and shady walks under the boughs of fine trees. A classical pavilion with a pillared front crowns the summit of a green bank, and, near at hand, the waters of the Kennet and Avon Canal pass beneath the arch of an old stone bridge.

Pauses, Inc. is delighted that we will be once again be joined by historian and Tutor for Oxford University's residential summer school, Justin Reay, who led the 'England Expects ...' tour of the Old and New Admiralty Buildings last year. An advisor to the British government on the history and architecture of the Admiralty and a highly regarded writer on architecture and Georgian naval history, Justin has recently been appointed British naval historian for the Peninsular War Bicentenary commemoration in Spain in 2008. He will share with us his knowledge about the Architectural Treasures of Bath and also explain the fascinating links between Bath, an inland city which was nevertheless known for a time as the Third Port of England due to its heavy association with the Royal Navy, Jane Austen's family, the Royal Navy itself and Admiral Horatio, Lord Nelson.

We are also hoping that before, during, or after Jay's presentation Leslie Carroll will talk about Nelson and the 'scandalous' Emma Hamilton.

Finally our tour, "In The Footsteps Of Jane Austen" will conclude with dinner on the evening of May 28 at the restaurant 'The Wife Of Bath.' at 12 Pierrepont Street.

Another of Bath's hidden treasures, The Wife Of Bath can be found below pavement level just behind the Abbey Hotel. The cuisine is well-cooked and plentiful. The food is of the good, honest, hearty type and will not disappoint you. The menu is always changing but expect to find lasagna, fish or chili as well as a few vegetarian options.

The price for this tour is $1,800.00, which does not include airfare or transfers to and from the hotel. However we are pleased to offer a discount of $100 per person for previous customers of Pauses, Inc.

And be sure to check the website for upcoming information on our Tour To Tuscany at the end of October where we shall be staying at a 17th Century Monastery converted into a stunning small hotel and which will include a course in Cooking Tuscan Cuisine and visits to nearby towns for wine, cheese and olive oil tastings as well as visiting the beautiful historical sites and enjoying Italy in the Fall. Arrivederci !

Please inquire about booking or additional information here.