‘A very diminutive property with large pretensions’ wrote Walpole of Batheaston, in 1766. Here Lady Anna Miller held poetry contests based on Italian academies witnessed on the Grand Tour – fortnightly assemblées – with set themes or rhymed line endings, to which attendees drove out. The poetical compositions of Miller's friends were deposited anonymously in a large Roman vase, to be read out in front of the assembled company. Famous contributors included David Garrick and Anna Seward. Another poet present was Mary Alcock, sister of Richard Cumberland, poet, novelist, dramatist. Evidence in her later poetry suggests Mary Alcock was resident in Bath from at least May 1783. Perhaps through this encouragement, Alcock permitted the anonymous publication in 1784 of a seven-page poem, The Air Balloon, or, Flying Mortal, which reflected the public enthusiasm for ballooning in England initiated by Lunardi's ascent from Moorfields, London, on 15 September 1784. Between 1775 and 1781 selections of the compositions were published under the title of Poetical Amusements at a Villa Near Bath. The edition was sold out within ten days. A new edition appeared in 1776 with a second volume of poems. Horace Walpole called the book ‘a bouquet of artificial flowers, and ten degrees duller than a magazine’ (Letters, 6.169, 178).
