Bath: They Came to Bath

When he was Prince of Wales, George IV was infatuated with Mrs Fitzherbert. She was a Roman Catholic, and had been twice married and widowed when, in December 1785, they secretly married. But legally...

The author of Tom Jones lived for some time at Twerton, then near Bath, but now within the city’s boundaries. He was there in 1748, and is believed to have written part of his famous novel...

Sarah Fielding lived for a time at Widcombe Lodge, Bath. Like her celebrated brother Henry Fielding, she wrote novels, the best known of which was The Adventures of David Simple. She was also a...

In 1770 the physician to Chester Infirmary came to Bath, and took up residence at 29 the Circus; he was Dr William Falconer, and he practised there for more than fifty years, as well...

In the churchyard at Bathampton, on the outskirts of Bath, there is a tombstone with an inscription that reads: ‘Here rest the remains of Jean Baptiste du Barre. Obiit 18th November, 1778’. The brief...

Disraeli visited Bath for the first time with Edward Bulwer Lytton, later Lord Lytton, in January, 1833. They are said to have stayed at the White Hart; but a letter that Disraeli wrote from...

The man whose novels have probably been read by a greater number of people than any other English works of fiction, was no stranger to Bath. As a young parliamentary reporter, he visited the...

De Quincey spent three years of his boyhood in Bath, where he lived with his widowed mother at 6 Green Park. For much of this time he attended the grammar school in Broad Street,...

The Duke of Connaught was the third son of Queen Victoria. He first came to Bath in 1881 with his wife, who was formerly Princess Louisa of Prussia, and the royal couple returned in...

Lady Betty Cobbe, who lived at 22 Marlborough Buildings, was well-known in Bath in the late eighteenth century, because she was said to have been involved in a most unusual ghost story. In fact,...

In 1744, when he was a youth of nineteen, Robert Clive arrived in India, as a penniless clerk in the service of the East India Company. Later he joined the army, and his courage...

When Queen Charlotte, consort of George III, visited Bath in 1817, she was accompanied by her third son William, Duke of Clarence, who lodged at 103 Sydney Place. The visit was a brief one,...