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The flow of the River Avon - a crucial ingredient in the city's charm - is interrupted by a graceful V-shaped weir just below the shop-lined Pulteney Bridge , an Italianate structure designed by the eighteenth-century Scottish architect Robert Adam. The bridge was intended to link the city centre with Great Pulteney Street , a handsome avenue originally planned as the nucleus of a large residential quarter on the eastern bank. The work ran into financial difficulties, however, so the roads running off it now stop short after a few yards, though there is a lengthy vista to the imposing classical facade of the Holburne Museum at the end of the street (mid-Feb to mid-Dec Tues-Sat 11am-5pm, Sun 2.30-5.30pm; GBP3.50; ). The three-storey building contains an impressive range of decorative and fine art, mostly furniture, silverware, porcelain and paintings (including the newly acquired Byam Family portrait by Gainsborough) from the eighteenth century, plus a good collection of twentieth-century craftwork. Behind Holburne House, Sydney Gardens make a delightful place to take a breather. When Holburne House was a bustling hotel, the pleasure gardens were the venue for concerts and fireworks, as witnessed by Jane Austen, a frequent visitor here - the family had lodgings across the street at 4 Sydney Place in the autumn of 1801. Today, the bosky slopes are cut through by the railway and the Kennet and Avon Canal. From here, it's a pleasant one-and-a-half mile saunter along the canal to the George pub. If you want to explore the river itself, rent a skiff, punt or canoe in summer from the Victorian Bath Boating Station at the end of Forester Road, behind the Holburne Museum (about GBP6 per person per hour). Organized river trips can be made from Pulteney Bridge and weir, and there are cruises on the Kennet and Avon Canal from Sydney Wharf, near Bathwick Bridge. A two-mile nature trail winds along the banks of the restored canal, which itself extends east as far as Reading.
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