Mercenary abductions and amatory risks, the tragedies of unwanted pregnancies, the trials of marital breakdown in a patriarchal age, the hazards of gay sex, and more - and how the law disciplined and mediated sexual practices.


This book offers a counterpoint to the genteel Bath of Jane Austen. Based on extensive original research, it probes the dark underbelly of the spa, especially the vulnerabilities of its service sector. Contrasting Bath with Bristol, a port and manufacturing centre with a small spa of its own, the book explores the sexual practices of the two towns within precise social contexts and examines the ways in which the law attempted to regulate them. Subjects covered include prostitution and the prosecution of disorderly houses, sexual assault and rape, infanticide, elopement and the abduction of heiresses, sodomy, separation suits and sexual defamation. The book reveals the tragedies of unwanted pregnancies, the trials of marital breakdown in a patriarchal age, when the cards were stacked against women, and the hazards of gay sex. It outlines how ordinary women who suffered sexual slurs could seek legal restitution, and how the reach of the law, intensive on some matters such as child murder, was compromised by low policing and jurisdictional peculiarities. Overall, the book provides a fitting contrast to the metropolitan perspective on which so much research is based.