Bath’s bath

Of course, for all its Regency romance, Bath is most famous for, well, its bath! A tour of the old Roman bathhouse really is fascinating – and the new Thermae baths are worth a quick visit. We spent a couple of hours in the various pools and steam rooms – all fun, but a bit crowded – as well as enjoying really good massages. The rooftop pool has to be the highlight, with its wonderful view of the Abbey as you bathe; it’s actually a tremendously sexy place, and couples were pretty tightly intertwined.

I’m sure that merely echoed goings on in Roman days, when it can’t have been uncommon for a nobleman to bend his girl over the edge of the pool and to fuck her soundly. And, of course, she’d be made to stay there for other bathers to use, while he watched. (She’d presumably watch as he took advantage of other girls during their stay, too – after all, “share and share alike”! And as for what must have gone on behind the closed doors of the changing area for women…)

These days, the Thermae does have one restored old bath that’s available for private hire. I wonder how often it gets used for orgies?

I also couldn’t help but wonder what impact the natural mineral waters, bubbling with chemicals, must have had one girls who’d been birched by their tutors or whipped by their fathers. I suspect they might have hurt. And, of course, bathing would have been naked, so the embarrassment of having to strip in public whilst displaying marks would be a source of not inconsiderable shame….