Bath
Legend has it that in 860 BC when Prince Bladud (father of Shakespeare’s King Lear) - banished from the royal court after contracting leprosy, now a swineherd - noticed that his pigs were cured of skin disease after wallowing in pools of warm mud - In the 1st century AD the Romans built elaborate Baths, known as Aquae Sulis (literally 'the Waters of Sul') after the ancient Celtic goddess Sul
- Romans abandoned the city In AD 410 when their legions were recalled to defend Rome against the invading barbarians The remains of the Great Bath were not unearthed until the end of the 19th century
- In the early 17th century Bath began to regain fame as a spa when 'taking the waters' became fashionable.
- Royal Crescent Royal Crescent Elegant Georgian architecture: architects John Wood and his son (John the Younger) laid out the city in streets and squares, with identical facades conveying a sense of classical dceorum
- Particularly famous are the Circus and the Royal Crescent (though behind its elegant frontage all the houses are different, as purchasers simply bought a length of facade!)
- Around 1770, Pulteney Bridge was built by Robert Adam - modelled on a Palladio design for the Rialto Bridge in Venice, Italy
- Bath is home to Sally Lunns, teacakes named after a French pastry cook (1772), Bath Buns (round, sweet and very rich); and Bath Olivers - dry round biscuits invented by Dr Oliver in 1740
- Bath's most famous resident was Jane Austen, who lived here in the early 1800s: Northanger Abbey and Persuasion are set here
- Today the natural spring still flows, pumping some 250,000 gallons of mineral-rich water every day, at a constant temperature of 117 degrees Fahrenheit. Thermae Bath Spa, a multi-million pond development, opened in 2006
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