It was January 1801 when Jane Austen moved to Bath. Considered a spinster at the grand age of 25, she followed her family as they left the countryside for the southwestern city, where her parents had married decades before. The move was, in hindsight, somewhat mistimed.
Bath had been the beacon of high society in the 18th century, when it climbed the ranks as an elegant spa town, centred around hot springs and built up in Palladian fashion.