The Imaginary Autocrat

Bath, like Venice, is a city which is a 'total heritage site'. Its beauty lies in its exquisite Georgian architecture, its terraces, crescents and villas, but they came into being through fashion, and that fashion was made by Richard Nash, a self-made man from Swansea, son of a bottle maker, who became Master of Ceremonies in Bath in 1705, and soon made it the most fashionable place in Britain. This book is his biography. That so little is known about his early life is a tribute to his skill in inventing himself. We have to rely on the rich anecdotes about him - to a large extent the Nash of anecdote is the real man. Nash was born in 1674. He went up to Oxford but trouble with women soon took him down. Oxford was followed by the army or navy, and military life by the inns of Court, but his prime reputation was as a gambler. Then Bath's Master of Ceremonies was killed in a duel, and the Beau saw an opening. But how did this rackety adventurer become a leader of society who could turn away duchesses for being improperly dressed? When Nash came to Bath it was a small resort catering for the sick, when he died in mid century it was already the most beautiful city in the kingdom, to be visited by virtually every famous figure of Britain. Nash is the main character among scores who cross its pages in this fascinating 18th century story. It embraces tourism and spa culture, dancing and gambling (all aspects, morality of, legislation, how to play), property development and developers, landladies, town planning, religion, medicine, the marriage market -in Europe's hottest resort city. These are the questions this highly original biography by a young cultural historian sets out to answer, set against the background of a dynamic and changing centre, which with its awareness of style, its consumerism and love of celebrity anticipated much of our modern world.