Well, Bath was buzzing this sunny Saturday – despite the Wessex Water woes on the London Road where traffic was pretty backed up around the repairs going on to stop a mains leak.
It’s open week-end for the University of Bath and – this morning – the annual Grand Parade which launches the Jane Austen Festival.
Some great costumed characters too in a gentle stroll from the Holburne Museum and up Great Pulteney Street to the Parade Gardens.
I was otherwise engaged at the Bath Royal Literary and Scientific Institution in Queen Square where the last popular Nelson Trail walk was getting underway.
Around 28 people were off to find out more about the people and places connected with Admiral Lord Nelson during his many stays in Bath.
Before they set off l was able to show them the object l had curated and which is in a current exhibition called Chosen. It’s a tiny bottle said to be full of some of the alcohol from the barrel in which Nelson’s body was brought back for burial from Trafalgar.
The story surrounding the exhibition it is now included in a new edition of Bath and Admiral Nelson which has just been published by The Nelson Society.
Priced at £10 it’s available via Sales.nelsonsociety@gmail.com
Find out more about the society via www.nelson-society.com
Meanwhile BRLSI is one of the city’s heritage centres involved in this year’s Heritage Open Days and l bumped into Elizabeth Vincent this morning who is the author of a new book based on the history of the Institution – which dates back to 1824.
It’s called BRLSI Revealed – Its times, its people, its possessions and you can buy it from the Institution which is in Queen Square.
For me this building is as close as you get to a Museum of Bath and the exhibitions on its ground floor are always free to visit.
There is a series of regular lectures on all manner of subjects and by all manner of people. Find out more via www.BRLSI.org
