I thought it was interesting that the town of Bath and city of London were both described with similar details but Bath was less favorable than london.
Mr Brambles description of Bath compared to Lydias (p 31/36) is quite different. Lydia finds it more charming, where as Mr Brambles old age has made the town’s faults come to light. I thought the description of Bath by Mr Bramble reminds me of someone who has gone to Las Vegas a decade or two ago and just went back and found it startlingly different.
He blames the nation’s thirst for luxury and fortune for the quick decline or expansion, but when he gets to London he is slightly more favorable of the changes.
In London he marvels at some of the new wonders of the city, but finds the place packed, and is put off by the people who appear to have charm and class but its ultimately just a facade. He goes on about the British Museum and its need to be better arranged and more thoroughly stocked- which Im sure it is by now.
What really hit me about all of this is that Lydia who is younger and hasn’t visited before finds it all very charming and gorgeous but the old man focuses more on whats lacking or what irks him.
The Edible Eighteenth Century 
Your comments about age are interesting because I sometimes felt like Mr. Bramble uses his age as an excuse. For example, early on, he tells his doctor that the alterations to Bath have an “exaggerated impression on the irritable nerves of an invalid surprised by premature old age, and shattered with long-suffering” (32). That is, and like you said, his supposed old age brings the town’s faults to light. However, Jery Melford’s letters sometimes contradict this presumption, like when his uncle nimbly hops out of the overturned carriage or when his health seems to be temporarily rejuvenated when he reaffirms the patriarch within his family (74, 81, 95).
Additionally, your example of someone returning to Las Vegas after a couple decades reminds me of a scene later on when Mr. Bramble is again reflecting to his doctor. He comments that if mankind’s morals haven’t decreased “within these thirty years, then must I be infected with the common vice of old men, difficilis, querulous, laudatory temporis acti,” meaning he must be an old man thinking about the good old times, so to speak (100). He continues: “or, which is more probable, the impetuous pursuits and avocations of youth have formerly hindered me from observing those rotten parts of human nature, which now appear so offensively to my observation,” that is, his age is bringing to light true human nature that his naivety during youth shielded him from (100). Either way, I think both of his reactions could be similar to someone who is startled by a different Las Vegas.
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