ABSTRACT
During 18th-century Bath, John Wood Sr. and Jr. opened a new chapter in the history of squares. What made one of these squares, the Crescent, especially interesting is that it opened toward its surroundings, in this case: nature. At this time nature became a remedy against a culture that was challenging to the nerves. As a point of departure, Chapter 12 mentions the growing worries about nervousness, “the English Malady,” and the resulting growing importance of a spa such as Bath. Bad nerves also determine The Expedition of Humphrey Clinker by Tobias Smollett, and it is shown how the expedition to Bath results in detailed reflections on the squares created by the two John Woods. In his book on Bath, John Wood Sr. called Bath a “Theatre of the Polite World” and said that if he had been a novelist, he could have written a whole volume on all the stories produced in and by this place. Bath attracted the polite as well as the not quite so polite society, and a number of writers put their experiences with this special world into drama (Richard Sheridan), novels (Jane Austen), and letters (Horace Walpole).
