Although London in the main focus of our walks, our guides can conduct a wide variety of tours in locations outside of London.
Indeed, when not conducting his various London walks, Richard Jones writes on a wide range of topics and has covered virtually all corners of the Britain and Ireland as well as devising a wide range of exciting and informative walks outside London.
Walks in places such as Oxford or Cambridge, or cities such as York and Stratford. He has also written two Walking Tours around Bath, which is easily reached by train from London and the founding of which is swathed in colourful legend.
Of course bath is famed for its hot springs and the half a million gallons of thermal mineral water that gush from the ground at, more or less, a constant temperature of 48 Celsius every day, have made Bath a major tourist attraction for nigh on 2,000 years.
Historically speaking, it was the Romans who founded the city when they encountered here a spring dedicated to the Celtic goddess of healing, Sul. Identifying her with their own deity, Minerva, they built alongside it a temple which they dedicated to Sul Minerva, and named the town that grew up around it Aqae Sulis or “Sul’s Spa”.
The place quickly became famous for its curative waters and the structures built to house the spring were some of the finest in Roman Britain.
The City we see today, however, is largely a creation of the 18th century, by which time the history of Bath had been re-written by the chroniclers, most notably Geoffrey of Monmouth, and had acquired a legendary founder in the robust form of Prince Bladud, heir apparent to the throne.
As a youth Bladud had contracted leprosy and his parents had been forced to banish him from the court. He became a swineherd on the opposite bank of the Avon from the future site of Bath.
One day, to his horror, he discovered that the pigs had caught his disease and, in his shame, he herded them across the river, to give himself time to consider how to break the news to their owner. No sooner had they arrived on the opposite bank than, driven by some deep-rooted instinct, the pigs raced off and plunged into a muddy pool where hot springs welled from underground.
Despite Bladud’s efforts, the beasts refused to come out and, in desperation, the exasperated Prince laid a trail of acorns from the muddy morass in a final attempt to coax his charges ashore. The ploy worked and Bladud drove his pigs’ home. But when he wiped the mud from their skins he noticed that they had, apparently, been cured of their leprosy. So it was that he raced back to the pool, threw himself into its hot, muddy waters and was cured of his ailment.
Returning to his father’s court, he assumed his rightful position and, when he became King, he built baths at the site of his cure where the sick could come to be healed and founded there the city of Bath.
Legend holds that he became a great patron of learning, founded Stamford University and brought Greek scholars to Britain. But, according to Geoffrey of Monmouth, he was also a dabbler in the magical arts and made himself a pair of wings and, whilst flying over New Troy he suddenly fell earthwards, crashed into the temple of Apollo and was killed, leaving his son Lear to succeed him as King.
Of course the whole story is little more than colourful invention, a good yarn devised by medieval chroniclers to give the city a distinguished pedigree. But what legend creates tradition is quick to exploit and references to the acorn incident crop up at several locations around what is surely one of England’s most beautiful cities.
Visitors to the King’s Bath are still watched over by a somewhat weathered statue of Bladud, gazing proudly down on his subjects, whilst beneath him a plaque proclaims him as nothing less than “the founder of this City”.
Tags: Bladud, King Lear., London walks, Roman Baths, Tour To Bath
