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England Bath, Bath Abbey, Churches, England, History

Bath Abbey–A Storied History–Part 2

by Indu Sundaresan July 28, 2023 2 Comments

Part 1 here

My kingdom for a wife (and an heir):

In the early 16^th Century, Bath Abbey and England had a new king, desperate for an heir, married to a woman who could not give him a son.

Henry VIII, who had not expected the throne, was a carousing, hard-living man, tilting in yards, hunting, drinking and eating until late hours. And, he had a roving eye. Eventually, he decided that the first wife would not do, and to divorce her, he toppled the entire religious establishment in England.

Ultimately, Henry would have six wives, with a ditty to immortalize their fates: ‘Died, beheaded, died. Died, beheaded, alive.’

England Bath, Bath Abbey, Churches, England, History

Bath Abbey–A Storied History–Part 1

by Indu Sundaresan July 17, 2023 3 Comments

Economics at Bath:

What, you might ask, does the church of Bath Abbey have to do with the study of economics? Follow me here for a bit, please.

Take an Economics 101 class, and you will learn that Adam Smith is the ‘father’ of modern economics. If Smith’s the father, then Thomas Malthus, with his theory on food production and population growth, is surely the ‘son’ of. I’m muddling around here a bit, but what I mean to say is that both Smith and Malthus were hugely influential in their economic philosophies.

The economist, Thomas Malthus, is buried at Bath Abbey — **Thomas Robert Malthus.** Source.

I write fiction now, but I do have three degrees in economics, and when I heard that Thomas Malthus was buried at Bath Abbey, I had to go pay my respects at his memorial.

Malthus’ theory of population explosion is simple and reasonable enough. If food production grows, then it doesn’t necessarily, over time, lead to a better standard of living, because the population growth will eventually eat up all the food surplus.

England Bath, England, History, Jane Austen, Roman Baths

The Roman Baths at Bath–Healing Waters—Part 2

by Indu Sundaresan June 15, 2019 3 Comments

The Roman Baths that were:

The Roman Baths today don’t any longer function as usable baths. Waters are still pumped through ancient lead pipes into the bath, but they’re green with algae (pretty, actually!)–a sign that it’s not a good idea to try drinking it, or even trailing your fingers through it.

**Early excavations unearthed the Great Bath (right) and the circular Cold Water Pool (left).**
Source: *Outlines of European History* by James Henry Breasted. 1914.

England Bath, England, History, Roman Baths

The Roman Baths at Bath–Healing Waters—Part 1

by Indu Sundaresan April 10, 2019 4 Comments

But…not all the credit goes to the Romans, surely:

Before the Romans came to England and built the Roman Baths at Bath, there was good king Lud Hudibras. He ruled over England sometime in the 7^th or 8^th Century BCE, and had both a great sorrow and a terrible dilemma. His son had leprosy, a devastating disease, with no cure in the times in which he lived. Otherwise, this boy, Bladud, was a fine, stalwart young man, engaging of manner, fine of face and form, a splendid heir to a vast kingdom.

But, Bladud could not live at the English court anymore. Over time, this dreaded illness would eat away at his extremities, turning his hands and feet into stumps, causing everyone to recoil from him in disgust. What sort of a future king would Bladud make?