Bath

Bath is an ancient and beautiful city in the South West of England.

It was originally a Roman settlement known as Aquae Sulis, famous for its natural hot springs. The Roman Bath built at that time still exists and visitors can take guided tours round it. In Georgian times it was again a popular spa resort, and it is from this period that much of its distinctive architecture dates - the unique yellowish hue of the local limestone permeates almost all its buildings and gives the city an unusually homogeneous appearance.

Bath was for a time the home of novelist Jane Austen, and many of her books refer to the city.[1] Today there is a Jane Austen Centre in Gay Street in the city, and to explore the association with Jane Austen is just one of many reasons for visiting the city. Bath is one of the most popular tourist destinations in England, along with Oxford, Cambridge, and York. Not to mention Stratford-upon-Avon, which is just a little more than 60 miles north of Bath and is well known as the birthplace of William Shakespeare, the Bard of Avon.

Bath was also the city from which the astronomer William Herschel discovered the planet Uranus in 1781; Herschel's former house in New King Street has been turned into a museum dedicated to him, his sister Caroline, astronomy, and 18th century culture.