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The University of Southampton
BARS 2013: Romantic Imports and Exports

About

English and the Centre for Eighteenth-Century Studies at the University of Southampton are proud to be hosting this thirteenth BARS conference.

Conference organizers: Professor Stephen Bygrave and Dr. Gillian Dow, University of Southampton.

We are proud to be hosting the 2013 BARS Conference in the ancient port city of Southampton, from which Henry V's invasion fleet, the Mayflower and the Titanic all set sail. Southampton became a spa town in 1740 and in the Romantic era it became a popular site for sea-bathing. 

Since the 13th century, when it was known for the import of French wine in exchange for English cloth and wool, Southampton has been a thriving trading port (it did not deal in slaves; the Southampton Docks company was formed in 1835). The city is therefore an ideal location for a conference on Romantic Imports and Exports.

Plenary and parallel sessions will be held on the Highfield Campus, the main campus of the University of Southampton, set in green and pleasantly landscaped surroundings on the eastern edge of the city centre. Its facilities include the Jubilee Sports Centre and Students' Union, a bookshop, the Hartley Library and Special Collections with its Wellington archives, and a range of cafés, restaurants and bars.  

'The Town of Southampton is situated upon a Promontory, which divides the Hitchin and the Southampton water, a river and an arm of the sea, which after having formed a beautiful Lake from our windows, flows into the Channel. The opposite shore, is ornamented by the New Forest, which hangs down to the waters edge, The Ships riding at Anchor before the Port, a number of Farm Houses, dispersed in the environs diversify the scene, and the road to Lymington about three hundred yards from our House adds a chearfulness to the situation-We have a pretty little garden, which is so twisted by gravel walks, that the Nurse & Child have room enough to stretch their legs-They are now reaping all the benefit of Sea Breezes...We have read Smith after dinner & supper, and I think he fully proves, that Sympathy is the foundation of Propriety, and that Propriety with a mixture of benevolence is the foundation of virtue-We mean to go thro' his Wealth of Nations together, which I shall understand much better, with his assistance, and the communication of our sentiments upon the subject, will impress the whole more fully upon our minds.'

Elizabeth [Charlton] Montagu to Elizabeth Montagu, Southampton, November 1, 1787



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