When in Bath, visit the Roman Baths, I did and so did Mr Flower in 1902

Now in the summer when we were walking around  Roman Bath had I known that this painting by Charles Flower existed I might have tried to make an exact copy.

But I didn’t so you will just have to put up with these slightly different views.

In some respects little has changed although today you can walk the entire complex assisted by a small mobile like device which gives you a running commentary in the language of your choice.

More over you can have the serious academic report or the populist version which introduces you to the people who might have once worked or visited the temple, and the bath house.

Not that I am being sniffy, I switched between the two regularly and enjoyed both.

That said neither the young person who sent the picture card carrying Mr Flower's image in 1902 or Beatrice who sent the same card a decade and a bit later bothered to comment on the grandeur that they saw before them.

Beatrice merely wanted to remind her friend of the “choir practice tomorrow” while the note on the back  of our earlier card just commented that this was "one for the collection."

But at least they sent the image, mine has been sitting on the hard drive since August and may never have seen the light of day again had I not stumbled on Mr Flowers painting which Tuck & Son turned into a picture postcard.

It says something of the popularity of the baths at Bath that the card continued in use for over a decade.

Pictures; the Roman Baths by Charles E. Flower from the set, Bath, 1902 issued by Tuck & Sons, courtesy of Tuck DB, http://tuckdb.org/ remaining pictures from the collection of Andrew Simpson