Collection of Fawcett Papers and Books

William Street: an Apothecary’s Progress

William Street: an Apothecary’s Progress

Written by Trevor Fawcett, this looks at apothecaries in Bath in the 18th century, focussing on one in particular, William Street who lived and ran his apothecary's shop at the sign of the Phoenix in Northgate Street.

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Georgian Imprints

Georgian Imprints

Printing and Publishing at Bath, 1729-1815. Amid the architectural splendours and spa rituals of Georgian Bath a small but vital printing industry quietly flourished. At its core was the jobbing trade — the production of mainly ephemeral items such as handbills, public notices, leaflets, tickets, catalogues, and part-printed official stationery of all kinds. But most printers took on much more ambitious work as well, so that an amazingly promiscuous mix of publications, large and small, tumbled off the city's presses, from sermons, poetry and guidebooks to medical treatises, schoolbooks and romantic fiction. Jane Austen may not have been published at Bath, but many well-known names were. Georgian Imprints tells this story in some detail, aided by copious illustrations. It follows the career of every notable local printer, including the redoubtable Cruttwells (father and son), and describes the running of the typical printing office in this age of hand-set type and the traditional, laborious, wooden printing press. It also touches on relations with authors, illustrators, and the London end of the book trade, and gives particular attention to key publications. Examples here include John Wood's Description of Bath, Sarah Fielding's Xenophon, the lively verse satires of Christopher Anstey, the beautifully printed Bishop Wilson Bible, John Collinson's county history of Somerset, several works on natural history, Hannah More's famous series of Cheap Repository Tracts, the first 'bowdlerised' Family Shakespeare, and, not least, some pioneering trials of lithographic printing. Various magazine titles appeared over the years, but none lasted long. The importance of the Bath newspaper press cannot be doubted, however, and it is properly covered here from the Bath Journal, founded in 1744, to the four separate weekly journals that existed by 1815.

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Spa Medicine - An anthology

Spa Medicine - An anthology

Patients, Practitioners and Treatments in Stuart and Georgian Bath - An anthology compiled by Trevor Fawcett

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The Horse Economy of Eighteenth-century Bath

The Horse Economy of Eighteenth-century Bath

Talk for History of Bath Research Group, 12 Oct 2005

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Bath Commercialis'd

Bath Commercialis'd

The retail shops and the abundantly supplied provisions market ranked among the major 'conveniences' of Georgian Bath. Like any other town it had its butchers and pastrycooks, its smiths and mercers, its shoemakers and coalmen, and a fair share too of laundresses, pawnbrokers, street pedlars and cheap corner shops. What set it apart, though, was its trade in luxury commodities, hardly surpassed outside the capital itself. Countless temptations assailed the well-to-do and the fashionable as they strolled about the spa - from gorgeous silks, laced coats and modish bonnets to the mouthwatering delicacies displayed in the confectioners' windows and all the glitter of jewellery, plate, and fancy goods at the celebrated 'toyshops' which more and more resembled showcases of British manufacturing skills. This book offers a panorama of eighteenth-century consumerism in full flood, with insights into an unusually wide range of businesses, crafts and occupations. Nor are the customers forgotten as they summon milliners to their lodgings, gossip in bookshops, order toupées, steal umbrellas, and wander through the market pricing geese, butter and cucumbers.

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Bath Administer'd

Bath Administer'd

If anyone ran Georgian Bath it was the Corporation. Private enterprise, true, provided many of the amenities that visitors needed, but only within a framework of local government that reached back centuries to Bath's origins as a chartered borough. In a convenient alphabetical format this book traces every aspect of the Guildhall's involvement in everyday spa life from managing the vital hot springs to preserving law and order. Headed by the Mayor, a narrow self-elected Council took all the decisions, chose the Bath M.P.s, appointed the town officials, leased out properties, supervised the market, filled the magistrates' bench, and at different times largely rebuilt central Bath. All this is covered in over a hundred entries, which also treat the wider context of parliament and county, trade interests and social issues, environment and justice, and discuss such institutions as canal companies, infirmaries, militias, parish vestries, and turnpike trusts. Even Jane Austen's aunt, the municipal swans, and the Abbey organ blower put in brief appearances, and the whole book amounts to something of a Corporation feast.

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Bath City Council Members 1700 to 1835

Bath City Council Members 1700 to 1835

Compiled by Trevor Fawcett, this contains both a list and and a fuller article about the Council, election practices and the Council's role within the city over this period.

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Bath Entertain'd

Bath Entertain'd

Next to the medicinal waters and the comfortable Georgian lifestyle that Bath offered, its diversions were a prime attraction. Far from being a sideshow, they were key factors in the spa’s prosperity, holiday atmosphere, and alluring image. They were more varied than is commonly realised, appealing to humble citizens as well as the rich, and ranging from highly structured entertainments to casual pastimes and hobbies. Healthy and relaxing open-air pursuits contrasted with the indoor excitements of assemblies, plays and the gaming tables, and in one way and another almost everyone was drawn into their orbit. Like today’s rock music, football or television, eighteenth-century leisure interests tell us a good deal about the society they belong to. This book, packed with fresh information and based on new research, can be read straight through from ‘Angling’ to ‘Window Shopping’, casually dipped into, or used for quick reference and as a springboard for further enquiry in a subject field that is entertainment in itself.

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Voices

Voices

Georgian Bath speaks to us with many voices – a representative sample of them captured in the hundreds of illuminating extracts printed in this collection. Some of the voices are well-known. We listen to the composer Haydn, the artist Gainsborough, the politicians Wilkes and the elder Pitt, Lord Chesterfield and David Garrick, John Wesley and Jane Austen, Wedgwood the potter and the future George IV. But we hear too from land developers and shopkeepers, country parsons and waggon-owners, schoolteachers and pupils, criminals and antiquaries, physicians and bluestockings, from the poor and obscure as well as the great. However individual and even discordant each voice may sound in solo performance, the result is a balanced chorus on eighteenth-century Bath. The whole anthology is arranged by topics – some familiar (the townscape, spa facilities, and entertainments, for example), but others less so (education, religion, crime and punishment). The great majority of extracts will be new and revealing even to those knowledgeable in the subject.

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