BATH, a city, having separate jurisdiction, locally in the
hundred of Bath-Forum, county of SOMERSET, 12 miles (E. by S.)
from Bristol, 19 (N. N. E.) from Wells, and 106 (W.) from
London, on the direct road to Bristol, containing 36,811
inhabitants. The name of this city is obviously derived from
its medicinal springs, the efficacy of which has been
celebrated from remote antiquity. It is stated to have been a
British town prior to the Roman invasion, and to have been
named Caer Badon, or the place of baths, from an accidental
discovery of the medicinal properties of its waters by Bladud,
son of Lud Hudibras, King of Britain, who, according to the
fabulous histories of those times, having been banished from
court on account of leprosy, came to this place, and, being
cured of that disease by using the waters, is said, after his
accession to the throne, to have built a palace here, and to
have encouraged the resort of persons affected with cutaneous
disorders. So generally was this opinion entertained even till
the eighteenth century, that his statue was erected in the
king's bath, with an inscription to that effect, in 1699. The
researches of modern historians, however, have induced them to
reject this tradition, as entirely destitute of support, and
to ascribe the foundation of the city to the Romans, in the
reign of Claudius, who, having ascertained the healing quality
of its waters, constructed, on a skilful and extensive plan,
their balnea, consisting of frigidaria, tepidaria, olothesia,
sudatoria, &c., for the better enjoyment of the luxury of the
bath, and gave to the station the name Aqua Solis. They
erected a temple to Minerva, with many votive altars, and
numerous other buildings, the remains of which, discovered at
various periods, strikingly indicate their splendour and
magnificence. They surrounded the city with walls twenty feet
in height, and of prodigious thickness, including an area in
the form of an irregular pentagon, of which the larger
diameter was one thousand two hundred feet, and the smaller
one thousand one hundred and forty. In the centre were the
pr&torium, the baths, and the temple; and in the walls were
four gates terminating the principal streets, from which they
constructed roads leading to the neighbouring stations,
Verlucio, Ischalis, Abona, &c. After the departure of the
Romans from Britain, Bath, then called Caer Palladwr, the city
of the waters of Pallas, remained in the possession of the
Britons for upwards of a century, being disturbed only by one
or two unsuccessful attacks of the Saxon chieftains, Silla and
Cerdic, who were bravely repulsed by the renowned King Arthur.
In the year 577, the Saxons, having nearly overrun all the
rest of the kingdom, fell with irresistible fury on the
western part of England; and having gained the memorable
battle of Deorham, about eight miles distant, Bath fell a prey
to their ravages, and was abandoned to indiscriminate plunder.
Its temple was destroyed, its altars were overthrown, and its
baths and other splendid monuments of Roman grandeur reduced
to a heap of ruins. How long it continued in this state of
desolation is uncertain, but probably the Saxons, after having
retained uninterrupted possession of it for a time, turned
their attention to its restoration: they rebuilt the walls and
other fortifications upon the original foundations, with the
old materials, cementing them with a liquid substance which
time has rendered harder than stone. It is probable that they
also directed their attention to the baths, which they soon
restored, for the Saxon names of the city were Hat Bathur, hot
baths, and Ace mannes ceaster, city of invalids. After their
conversion to Christianity, a nunnery was erected here, in
676, by King Osric, which was destroyed during the wars of the
Octarchy, and on its site a college of Secular canons was
founded, in 775, by Offa, King of Mercia, who had taken Bath
from the king of Wessex, and annexed it to his own dominions:
he also rebuilt the conventual church of St. Peter, in which
Edgar was crowned king of England, by Duiistan, Archbishop of
Canterbury, in 973, and the anniversary of his coronation
continued to be celebrated in the time of Camden, in
commemoration of the many privileges which he granted to the
citizens on that occasion. Edgar converted the college into a
Benedictine monastery, which, with the church, was again
demolished by the Danes. At the time of the Norman survey,
Bath contained one hundred and seventy-eight burgesses, of
whom sixty-four held under the king, ninety under different
feudatories of the Crown, and twenty-four under the abbot of
St. Peter's. In the first year of the reign of William Rufus,
Geoffry, Bishop of Coutances, and Robert de Mowbray, who had
risen in support of the claim of Robert, Duke of Normandy, to
the throne of England, obtained possession of the city by
assault, and reduced the greater part of it to ashes. From
this calamity it soon recovered, under the favour of John de
Villula, who, on his promotion to the see of Wells, about the
year 1090, purchased the city from Henry I., for five hundred
marks, and built a new and spacious church here for that see,
removing the episcopal chair to this place, where, during the
festival of Easter in 1107, he had the honour of entertaining
Henry I. In the turbulent reign of Stephen, Bath suffered
greatly from its proximity to Bristol, then the head-quarters
of the Empress Matilda, and was alternately occupied by the
adherents of both parties. It contineed in the possession of
its bishops until 1193, when Bishop Savaric transferred it to
Richard I., in exchange for the abbey of Glastonbury: this
monarch made it a free borough, and invested it with many
privileges, in consequence of which it began to participate in
the commerce of the country, and to increase in wealth and
importance. The manufacture of woollen cloth, which was
introduced into England in the year 1330, was established here
under the auspices of the monks, in consequence of which the
shuttle was introduced into the arms of the monastery. During
the civil war in the reign of Charles I., Bath was fortified
for the king; but the Marquis of Hertford, who commanded the
royal forces, having retired into Wales, it fell into the
hands of the parliamentarians, and became the head-quarters of
the army raised by Waller in that part of the country, to
retrieve the loss which his party had sustained in the battle
of Statton. In 1643, the battle of Lansdown, in the immediate
neighbourhood, took place, in which the royalists,
notwithstanding many local disadvantages, drove the
parliamentary forces from the field, and compelled them to
retire into the city; in commemoration of which, a monument
was erected on the spot by an ancestor of the present Marquis
of Lansdowne, in 1720. After this battle the royalists
regained possession of the city, which they held till it was
finally surrendered to the parliament, in 1645. On the
restoration of Charles II., the citizens presented a
congratulatory address through the celebrated William Prynne,
then one of their representatives; and in the autumn of 1663,
the king paid a visit to Bath, on which occasion his chief
physician having recommended the internal use of the waters,
the adoption of this practice became general. After the
suppression of Monmouth's rebellion, four persons, who had
been condemned by Judge Jeffreys, were executed here. The city
continued within the limits prescribed to it by the Romans
till the year 1720, and its suburbs consisted merely of a few
scattered houses: celebrated only for the medicinal properties
of its hot springs, it was for several years visited merely by
invalids. The perseverance of Mr. John Wood, an enterprising
architect, who was encouraged by the proprietors of land in
the vicinity, about the year 1728, first led to its
improvement, and the excellent quarries of freestone in the
neighbourhood facilitated the execution of an enterprise which
has embellished it with splendid edifices, and raised it to
the highest rank as a place of fashionable resort. The town is
pleasantly situated on the banks of the river Avon, along
which its buildings extend more than two miles, decorating the
acclivities, and crowning the summits, of that fine range of
hills by which it is environed. Over that part of the Avon
which skirts the eastern side of the town are two stone
bridges, one of ancient, the other of modern, erection; and a
handsome iron bridge has recently been constructed, connecting
Walcot with Bathwick, and affording a direct entrance from the
London road into the most improved part of the town. Among the
earliest of the modern improvements is Queen's square, the
houses in which are decorated with columns and pilasters of
the Corinthian order; in the centre is an obelisk seventy feet
high, erected in 1738, by Beau Nash, to commemorate the visit
of the then Prince and Princess of Wales, who occupied a house
in the square. The Circus is a noble range of uniform
edifices, embellished with successive series of double pillars
of the Doric Ionic, and Corinthian orders, and enclosing an
extensive area, disposed into shrubberies, with a gravel walk
round a reservoir in the centre, from which the houses are
supplied with water. The Royal Crescent is characterised by a
simple grandeur of elevation, and adorned by a lofty colonnade
of the Ionic order, rising from a rustic basement, and
supporting a cornice with a rich entablature; a lawn of more
than twenty acres slopes, gradually to the margin of the Avon,
commanding a fine view of the city, the beautiful vale below
it, and the hills on the opposite side of the river. The North
and South Parades are handsome ranges of building, with
terraces raised on arches, and commanding extensive and varied
prospects. The Orange-grove, formerly the chief place of
fashionable amusement, now principally composed of lodging-
houses, has been planted with trees, and in the centre is an
obelisk, commemorating, the restoration of the Prince of
Orange to health by drinking the Bath waters. Behind the Royal
Crescent are St. James' square, Lansdown Crescent, and Camden,
Portland, and Somerset Places, with Mount Sion, an extensive
range of houses on the summit of the Beaconhill, Belle-
Vue,Cavendish Crescent, and Lansdown Place; besides which are
the Paragon, Belmont, and Belvidere, rising above each other.
In the new town, on the eastern bank of the Avon, is Laura
Place, a neat range of buildings in the form of a lozenge,
intersected diagonally by Great Pulteney-street, a noble
series of mansions, at the extremity of which are Sydney
Gardens, occupying an extensive area surrounded by several
ranges of building forming Sydney Place, not inferior in
beauty and elegance to the most splendid part of the city. The
improvements in this part of the town will speedily be
extended by means of a subscription, which has been raised for
that purpose. A grand pump-room, the centre of attraction
during the fashionable season, was erected in 1797; it is a
handsome building, eighty-five feet in length, forty-eight in
width, and thirty-four in height. The interior, which is
lighted by a double range of windows, is decorated with
pillars of the Corinthian order, supporting a rich entablature
and a lofty coved ceiling: at the west end, is a handsome
orchestra, and at the eastern, a wellexecuted marble statue of
the celebrated Beau Nash, under whose superintendence for many
years, as master of the ceremonies, the elegant amusements of
this place were regulated, upon a system combining the most
liberal urbanity with the most refined decorum. The principal
entrance is through a handsome portico of four lofty columns
of the Corinthian order, supporting a triangular pediment,
under the tympanum of which is inscribed, "APISTON MEN YAQP."
The king's bath contains three, hundred and sixty-four tons of
water, and is conveniently fitted up with seats and recesses,
having also a handsome colonnade of the Doric order, with the
statue of Bladud, the traditionary patron of the waters. The
queen's, bath, adjoining it, has also suitable apartments.
The, cross bath, so called from a cross erected in the centre
of it, and the hot bath, so named from its superior degree of
heat, the mean temperature being 117 degrees Fahrenheit, have
the convenience of dry and vapour baths; and a small pump-room
has been recently erected. Besides these public baths, which
are now principally used by the hospital patients, there are
private baths belonging to the corporation, and the abbey
baths, the property of Earl Manvers, which are chiefly
resorted to by the wealthier visitors. The waters contain
carbonic acid and nitrogen gases, sulphate and muriate of
soda, sulphate and carbonate of lime, and silicious earth,
with a minute portion of oxyde of iron, and are efficacious in
gout, rheumatism, palsy, biliary obstruction, and cutaneous
disorders. The Bath Literary and Philosophical Institution was
established in 1820: the buildings, occupying the site of the
lower assemblyrooms, which were burnt down in 1820, are of the
Doric order, and comprise a library, lecture-room, laboratory,
and two rooms for a museum, exclusively of the housekeeper's
apartments: it is open to both visitors and inhabitants. The
Bath and West of England Society for the encouragement of
Agriculture, the Arts, Manufactures, and Commerce, by the
distribution of premiums and medals, was instituted in 1777 at
the suggestion of Mr. Edmund Rack. The public subscription
library, established in 1800, contains an extensive and well-
assorted collection of books in the various branches of
science and general literature: it is conducted under
judicious regulations, and is liberally supported: there are
also numerous circulating libraries. The Mechanics'
Institution, recently formed, occupies a commodious building
at the corner of York and Abbey streets. The chief sources of
amusement are the subscription assemblies and concerts, which
are held during the season, under the superintendence of a
master of the ceremonies, whose office being equally
honourable and lucrative, has been warmly contested by the
successive candidates. The rooms are superbly elegant: the
ballroom is one hundred and five feet long, forty-three wide,
and twenty-two high j the card-rooms, library, and rooms for
refreshment, are furnished in a style of unrivalled splendour.
The subscription concerts, of which there are nine during the
season, are conducted upon a scale of the most comprehensive
liberality. The lower assembly-rooms, which were destroyed by
fire in 1820, were nearly equal to the upper rooms in elegance
of decoration and convenience of arrangement. The city
assemblies, for those who are not eligible as subscribers to
the upper rooms, are held, by permission of the corporation,
in the banquet-room of the guildhall, every alternate Monday.
The theatre, a well-adapted and handsome edifice, in the
centre of the city, among the buildings of which it is
distinguished by the loftiness of its elevation, is handsomely
fitted up, and splendidly decorated: it contains three tiers
of boxes; the ceiling is divided into compartments embellished
with exquisite paintings by Cassali, which were removed from
Fonthill Abbey. The building was completed in 1805, and is
regularly open during the season; it has been long and
deservedly eulogized for the excellence of the performances,
and many actors who have attained the highest degree of
eminence on the London stage have made their debut here.
Sydney Gardens, the Vauxhall of Bath, are laid out with great
taste and beauty; they afford an agreeable promenade at all
times, and, during the summer, attract fashionable and
numerous assemblages to public entertainments and exhibitions
of fireworks, upon which occasions they are brilliantly
illuminated. The Subscription Club-house, in York-buildings,
containing a spacious suite of elegant rooms, was established
in 1720, upon the plan of most of the superior club-houses in
London, the members of which establishments are eligible as
subscribers without ballot: the annual subscription is six
guineas and a half. The Bath and West of England Subscription-
rooms, in Pulteney-street, upon a similar plan, and uniting
with it the accommodations of an hotel, are fitted up in a
very superior style; the members of the York club, and those
of the principal club-houses of London, are eligible as
subscribers, the annual subscription being two guineas and a
half. There are also subscription billiard-rooms in Milsom-
street, to which those only are admissible who are eligible to
the assembly-rooms. The Lodge of Freemasons hold their
meetings in Yorkstreet, where a hall was erected in 1817,
which may be ranked among the architectural ornaments of the
city. There are two extensive riding-schools, well conducted
on moderate terms, in one of which is a spacious covered ride
for invalids in unfavourable weather. Lansdown and Claverton
down afford delightful equestrian excursions, displaying much
variety, and abounding in rich and interesting scenery. The
races take place on Lansdown, the week after Ascot races , and
there is a spring meeting in April, for half-bred mares. The
town, by means of the river, which is navigable to Bristol,
and the Kennet and Avon canal, by which it maintains an inland
communication with London and the intermediate places, is
favourably situated for trade; but the only branch of
manufacture carried on is that of coarse woollen cloth, called
Bath-coating, and kerseymere, which is made in the
neighbourhood. The markets are held on Wednesday and Saturday,
in an area behind the guildhall, the wings of which form the
principal entrances; the market-house is an extensive and
commodious range of building: the corn and cattle markets are
held in Walcot, and the coal market in Loo-close, where there
is a weighing machine, and an officer in attendance to see all
transactions equitably concluded. The fairs are on February
14th and July 10th. This city enjoyed, under Edgar and other
Saxon monarchs, many valuable privileges, which were
afterwards confirmed by Richard I., subsequently recognized
and enlarged by Queen Elizabeth (who gave the citizens a
charter of incorporation), and finally by George III., who
made such modifications in the charter as the increasing
importance of the place required. The government is vested in
a mayor, recorder, two bailiffs (who act as sheriffs), a
chamberlain, deputy chamberlain, ten aldermen, and twenty
common council-men, assisted by a town clerk, two Serjeants at
mace, and subordinate officers. The mayor, who is also coroner
and clerk of the market, and the two bailiffs, are chosen
annually from among the aldermen, on the Monday before
Michaelmas day; the mayor, aldermen, and two senior common
council-men, are justices of the peace. The freedom of the
city is obtained by gift from the corporation, who have power
to choose citizens or free burgesses from among the
inhabitants generally. The elective franchise was conferred in
the reign of Edward I., since which time the city has
continued to return two members to parliament: the right of
election is vested solely in the corporation, and the mayor is
the returning officer: the influence of the Marquis of Bath
prevails in the return of one of the members. The corporation
hold a court of session quarterly, and a court of record every
Monday, for all personal actions arising within the city and
liberty: a court of requests, for the recovery of debts under
£10, is held every Monday, by commissioners appointed under an
act of the 45th of George III., the jurisdiction of which
extends over the city and liberty, the parish of Walcot, and
the several parishes and places in the hundreds of Bath-Forum
and Wellow, and the liberties of Hampton, Claverton, and
Easton with Amrill, in the county of Somerset. The guildhall
is an elegant structure of freestone; the front is decorated
with a portico of four lofty Corinthian columns, rising from a
rustic basement, and supporting a triangular pediment, with a
rich entablature and cornice, in the tympanum of which are the
city arms, and on the apex a finely sculptured figure of
Justice; above the cornice is a handsome balustrade, with
urns: this elegant building comprises, on the ground floor, a
handsome vestibule, sessions hall, offices for the courts of
record and requests, and for the chamberlain and town clerk;
and, in the upper story, a magnificent suite of apartments for
civic entertainments. In the mayor's room is a beautiful head
of Minerva, or of Apollo, of gilt brass j it was discovered in
1727, at the depth of sixteen feet below the surface of the
ground, in Stallstreet, and is thought to be part of a
mutilated statue, the remainder of which is supposed to be
buried near the same spot. The prison is a spacious building,
occupying an area sixty feet in front, and eighty feet in
depth, with a large court-yard, and cells in which delinquents
are confined previously to their committal to the county gaol.
Jointly with Wells, Bath is the head of a diocese, which is
co-extensive with the county of Somerset. The Abbey church,
dedicated to St. Peter and St. Paul, is a venerable and finely
proportioned cruciform structure, in the later style of
English architecture, of which it forms one of the purest
specimens: from the intersection, an irregularly quadrilateral
tower to the height of one hundred and sixty-two feet. It
occupies the site, and is built partly with the materials, of
the conventual church of the monastery founded by Osric, which
had subsisted, under different forms of government, for more
than eight hundred years. This church having become
dilapidated, Bishop Oliver King (as it is said, admonished in
a dream, of which a memorial is sculptured on the west front,)
began to rebuild it in 1495; but dying before it was
completed, and the citizens refusing to purchase it from the
commissioners of Henry VIII., the walls were left roofless,
till Dr. James Montague, Bishop of the diocese, aided by a
liberal contribution from the nobility and gentry resident in
the county, completed it, in the year 1606. There are some
remains of the monastery on the south side of the Abbey
church, consisting chiefly of the gatehouse in which James
II., Mary, consort of William HI. Queen Anne and her consort,
George, Prince of Den', mark, successively resided: the
revenue, at the dissolution, was £695. 6. 1. By charter of
Elizabeth, the several parishes of St. Peter and St. Paul, or
th'e Abbey parish, St. James, and St. Michael, were
consolidated into one rectory, to which the vicarages of
Widcomb and Lyncomb were annexed. The living is in the
archdeaconry of Bath, and diocese of Bath and Wells, rated in
the king's books at £20. 17. 11., and in the patronage of the
Mayor and Corporation. St. James' church, rebuilt in 1768, is
an elegant structure in the later style of English
architecture. St. Michael's, erected in 1744, is of the Doric
order, with a handsome dome. The parochial church of Walcot, a
spacious edifice within the liberty of the city, was rebuilt
in 1780, and has lately received an addition of two thousand
one hundred sittings, of which number, one thousand eight
hundred are free, and towards defraying the expense of which
the Incorporated Society for building and enlarging churches
and chapels granted £1000. The living is a discharged rectory,
in the archdeaconry of Bath, and diocese of Bath and Wells,
rated in the king's books at £6. 19. 9., and in the patronage
of the Lord of the Manor. Christ-church was erected by
subscription, in 1798, for the especial accommodation of the
poor; it is a fine building in the later style of English
architecture. The living is a perpetual curacy, exempt from
the jurisdiction of the Archdeacon, and in the patronage of
the Bishop of the diocese. St. Mary Magdalene's, an ancient
edifice overspread with ivy, on Beachen Cliff; and St.
Michael's chapel, near the cross, are parochial chapels, the
former in the gift of the Crown, and the latter in the
patronage of the Rector of Bath. St. Mary's chapel, in Queen-
square, built' by subscription in 1735, is a handsome edifice
in the Grecian style of architecture; the exterior is of the
Doric, and the interior of the Ionic, order. The octagon
chapel, in Milsom-street, was erected in 1767, and is much
admired for the elegance of its style. Margaret chapel, in
Margaret-buildings, is a spacious and handsome structure in
the early style of English architecture. The chapel in
Lansdown Place, erected in 1794, and dedicated to All Saints,
is a good specimen of the decorated style; there are twelve
fine windows, in which are painted the heads of the twelve
Apostles, and the east window is ornamented with a painting of
the Last Supper. Kensington chapel, a neat modern building
near the London road, was erected by subscription, in 1795;
and Laura chapel, an elegant and well arranged edifice in
Henrietta-street, was built by tontine subscription, in 1796.
There are places of worship for Baptists, the Society of
Friends, Independents, Methodists, Moravians, Unitarians, and
Roman Catholics. The free grammar school was founded by Edward
VI., in 1552, and endowed with lands belonging to the
dissolved religious houses: the management is vested in the
corporation, who appoint the master, and allow him a salary of
£60 per annum, and an excellent house. The rectory of
Charlcombe was annexed to the mastership of this school by the
late Rev. Williarii Robins, for the instruction of ten
additional boys, sons of freemen, or inhabitants of the city,
in classical and commercial learning. The Blue-coat charity
school, for fifty boys and fifty girls, was founded in 1711,
by Robert Nelson, Esq., and is chiefly supported by
subscription; an apprentice fee of £ 6 is given with each boy,
and one of £ 5 with each girl, on leaving the school. There
are also two other free schools for girls, besides one for the
instruction of poor children of Bath and Bath- Forum, a
National school, and a Roman Catholic free school. The Bath
hospital, open to the poor from every part of the kingdom,
whose maladies require the use of the Bath waters, is
supported by subscription, and under the direction, of a
president and governors, incorporated by act of parliament,
who have a common seal, and are empowered to fill up vacancies
in their own body. The Bath United hospital, combining the
objects of the late city dispensary and casualty infirmary,
recently established, and for which a spacious building has
been erected near the cross bath, and the infirmary in
Kingston-buildings, for curing diseases of the eye, are
supported by subscription. There are three societies for the
relief of women during child-birth; an asylum for the support
of young females, and for instructing them in household work;
a house of protection for orphans and destitute females; an
establishment for aged, and an asylum for young, females; and
charitable institutions of various kinds, adapted to the wants
of the distressed poor, and to the mitigation of almost every
species of calamity,all which are liberally supported and
judiciously regulated. St. John's hospital, for the
maintenance of six aged men and six women, was founded in the
reign of Henry II., by Reginald Fitz-Jocelyn, who endowed it
with lands then producing £22 per annum; the management is
vested in the corporation: attached to this institution is a
neat chapel, in which the master, who must be a clergyman of
the established church, officiates daily, and receives a
liberal stipend. Partis' College, a capacious range of
building, occupying three sides of a quadrangle, on the upper
road to Bristol, and comprising a chapel and separate
dwellings for thirty decayed gentlewomen, ten of whom must be
either the widows or daughters of clergymen, was founded and
endowed by Mrs. Partis, in fulfilment of the intention of her
husband, Fletcher Partis, Esq., who died before it was carried
into effect , each of the inmates has a house containing four
apartments, a garden, and a liberal pecuniary allowance. The
remains of antiquity, found at different times in this city,
are of British, Roman, and Saxon origin, and clearly
demonstrate the fact of its having been severally occupied by
those people. Among the British antiquities are celts, or
stone hatchets, hand millstones, boars' teeth, and amber
beads, found in their burialplaces, a small silver coin,
having on the obverse a rude head in profile, and on "the
reverse a star, or wheel. Among the Roman was found, in 1753,
a pedestal with a Latin inscription: in 1755, parts of the
Roman baths, and several of the large tubulated bricks, which
conveyed the heat to the sudatoria, were discovered; and in
1790, a votive altar, fragments of fluted Corinthian columns,
basso-relievos, and other relics of the temple of Minerva,
besides numerous coins of the emperors Nero, Trajan, Adrian,
Antonine, Gallienus, Claudius, Gothicus, Maxentius, and
Constantine, with some of Carausius, who assumed the Roman
purple in Britain, were found. On digging the foundation for
the new bridge over the Avon to Walcot, the remains of an old
ford were observable, and a leaden vessel was found,
containing some hundreds of denarii, and several small brass
coins from the time of the Emperor Valens to that of Eugenius;
for the reception of these, a room was appropriated by the
corporation, in which they are deposited, with a due regard to
classification. The Saxon remains, exclusively of coins,
coffins, &c., consist of what is still visible in the city
walls, erected by them on the Roman foundation, in which are
inserted fragments of the ruined temple, pieces of sculpture,
and parts of triumphal arches, intermixed with the original
materials. In a stone coffin was also found a small copper
box, in the form of a rouleau, divided into two parts, the
upper part being covered by a slide, probably intended for
perfume, and the lower part filled with small silver coins
resembling the early Saxon scattce. John Hales, who, in 1612,
was appointed Greek Professor at Oxford, and who, in the year
following, pronounced the funeral oration of Sir Thomas
Bodley, founder of the Bodleian library, was a native of this
city, and received the rudiments of his education in the
grammar school. Benjamin Robins, a celebrated mathematician,
and the writer of the account of Commodore Anson's voyage
round the world, was born here in 1707. Closely connected with
Bath for several years, though not a native, -was Ralph Allen
Esq., of Prior Park, an elegant mansion, a few miles to the
south, which was in his time the resort of several of the wits
and literati of the age: this gentleman, supposed to be the
original of Fielding's Allworthy, in his novel of Tom Jones,
amassed a splendid fortune by being the first who farmed the
cross-posts throughout the kingdom, and having been elected a
member of the corporation of Bath, exercised great influence
in the regulation of its municipal affairs: he died in 1777,
and was interred at Bathampton, in the south aisle of the
church, where a tablet has been erected to his memory. Bath
gives the title of marquis to the family of Thynne, of
Longleat Hoxise.