We visited the Roman Baths this morning. A very interesting site.
After that we did a two hour walking tour of Bath with Jack Smith, a very entertaining and informative guide. He had many good stories about the history of Bath and its buildings. He showed us Royal Crescent, which is a collection of thirty very expensive homes. All connected, they are referred to as a terrace. There are 8 similar terraces around Bath. Lots of money here. Around 4,000,000 GBP each.
Take a look at this house. Notice how some windows are bricked in. You see a lot of that around here. It has to do with the window tax that England and Wales had in the 1700s and 1800s. Instead of an income tax, homeowners were taxed on the number of windows they had in their house. So people just bricked in windows to pay less tax. Also, notice that on the first and second floors, two of the windows have been moved closer to the other window than they were initially. That's because if windows were less than 12 inches apart, they were only counted as one window. Some think that the window tax was the origin of the phrase "daylight robbery".
A nod to the English in general, who realize instantly that when they have called us Americans, they have offended us. They all seem to know it. Thanks for the apologies. Sorry to my American friends, but I'm sure you understand.
We ended the day with a visit to Bath Abbey and a Tower Tour.
Another perfect weather day.
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