18TH C
Mary (known as Molly to her affectionate father) was now nine years old and Margaret (nicknamed Captain by Gainsborough) was eight.
The move from a small country town to the sophisticated and often wanton pleasures of the fashionable spa town of Bath was an exciting adventure for them but possibly a more difficult time for their mother.
Gainsborough finally settled on living in the centre of town in Abbey House, a large, impressive building erected for the 2nd Duke of Kingston and leased from him. The house easily met the artist's needs for work and family. From the moment he signed a seven year lease on the property in June 1760 Gainsborough made a life-long habit of increasing his income by letting out rooms to lodgers. When he first moved into Abbey House he placed Margaret and the girls exactly in the middle of both social and commercial life in Bath, living as they did in the noisy and smoke-filled centre of the town. The handsome building, since demolished, lay between Pump Room and Abbey. It was so close to the King's and Queen's Baths that a public passage-way for bathers was incorporated in the building.
From contemporary accounts it appears that views of the Roman Baths from the windows of adjacent houses were not always suitable for the eyes of the innocent young Gainsborough girls who might have gazed down upon them, as we shall see.
Meanwhile family ties were so strong within the Gainsborough clan at Sudbury that no fewer than ten of Thomas's relatives eventually followed him to live in Bath. His sister Mary Gibbon the milliner was among the first, arriving in 1762 to set up shop in the shadow of the Abbey. Mrs Gibbon soon made a name for herself as a most fashionable shop-keeper dealing in expensive small items such as perfumes and gifts as well as millinery. Later she became known as a leading lodging-house-keeper in the city, or a "lodging-house cat" as her brother Thomas described her.
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LIVING WITH MRS THOMAS GAINSBOROUGH IN THE CIRCUS, BATH, 18TH /21ST C By VIVIENNE RAE-ELLIS The following is a work in progress, to be published here in instalments. The manuscript has not been submitted to any publisher. References and bibliography will be published following the final chapter. 1) go to the Manuscript below right.. 2) Start from the top entry.. 3) Read down through the manuscript
The Circus
About Me
- Vivienne Rae-Ellis FRGS
- I am an ex-pat Tasmanian author who has lived in England since 1987. I have had eleven books published in seventeen editions by publishers who include Faber&Faber, Heinemann, Hamish Hamilton, Robert Hale, University Of Melbourne, University of Yale, Angus Robertson and the Australian Institute Of Aboriginal Studies. Subjects include biographies of three famous Australians: Trucanini, the last Aboriginal Tasmanian to live and die on the island; Louisa Anne Meredith, Australia's first resident female author, and George Augustus Robinson, Chief Protector of the Aborigines in the 1830's. Published work includes books for adults and for children based on the history of Australia; the paranormal;and Public Libraries.
