They Came to Bath   

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William Makepeace THACKERAY
1811-1863

17 the Circus

In January 1857, Thackeray arrived in Bath to give his celebrated lectures on The Four Georges. He had already visited America to deliver these fascinating reviews of manners and morals in England during the reigns of the Hanoverian kings, and had been rapturously received. The large audiences that crowded into the Banqueting Hall of the Guildhall in Bath were equally enthusiastic; a contemporary scribe, writing in the Bath Rambler, declared: 'In exposing so fully and completely the gross animalism of these times, he has performed an important work'. The Bath Chronicle was a little more restrained. 'Thackeray's manner is unimpassioned and calm', its reporter wrote, 'but it is impossible to describe the impression which he produces. Whatever differences of opinion may be entertained on the subject of Mr Thackeray's views of the four Georges and their times, there can be no question in any quarter as to the force, felicity and high interest of his lectures'.
  The talks were later produced in book form, and they can still be read with absorbing interest; they are a masterly assessment of one of the most eventful periods in British history. Whilst he was in Bath, the novelist stayed with his aunt in Gainsborough's old house at 17 the Circus.

 

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