The Assembly Rooms received a number of famous visitors in the
18th and 19th centuries. Both Jane Austen and Charles Dickens
mention the Assembly Rooms in their novels, while the diarist
Francis Kilvert described a reception here in 1873. Concerts
were popular and many well-known musicians visited the Assembly
Rooms. The most distinguished included Joseph Haydn, Johann
Strauss the Elder and Franz Liszt. Born at Steventon, Hampshire
1775. Died Winchester, Hampshire 1817. She visited relatives in
Bath as a young girl; later (when her father retired as a
clergyman) she came to live in Bath with her parents and sister
from 1801 to 1805. They lived at several addresses in Bath such
as Green Park and Gay Street, but for the most part at 4 Sydney
Place (now opposite the Holburne Museum). Only two of Jane
Austen's novels are set in Bath: Northanger Abbey and
Persuasion, both published in 1818. Both mention the Assembly
Rooms, which Jane Austen herself visited. 'Mrs Allen was so long
in dressing, that they did not ent