You may be lucky enough to have an original copy of A Barbeau's Life & Letters at Bath in the Eighteenth Century which was first published in 1904.

If not, it has just been republished in paperback by The History Press in Stroud.

Eighteenth-century Bath was at the centre of English culture and fashion. It was a pleasure resort as well as a spa town and played host to the beau monde in search of diversion in addition to the infirm in search of a cure by taking the Bath waters.

Bath's Pump Room, Assembly Rooms and theatre attracted aristocracy and gentry from all over the country, particularly under the auspices of Beau Nash, the master of ceremonies. And then there were the residents whose names we still know today including Richard Sheridan, Thomas Gainsborough and Jane Austen.

A particularly salacious account of the events leading up to the marriage of the eldest Linley girl to Sheridan makes particularly good reading.

Life & Letters at Bath in the Eighteenth Century is published at £14.99.