… upon it he wanted not company’ (Penrose 164). Sociability took on a more intimate turn with the development of private parties, ‘the bane of Bath.’ 31 Elite women organized social gatherings in their homes, or poetic assemblies: this is … seaside resorts, such as Brighton, 35 which accelerated the transformation of Bath into a residential city with private parties taking over from public ones, as shown by the case of the Elliots in Persuasion who went to Bath to settle …