BATH.

THIS delightful city, where Fashion has long established her court, and where Beauty and Elegance are seen in her train, has been singularly favouredboth by nature and art, and is worthy of the distinguished pre-eminence which it has acquired. It lies at the north-eastern extremity of Somersetshire, about 107 miles from London, and twelve from Bristol.

Bath is surrounded by an amphitheatre of hills of considerable height, except where they open to allow a course for the Avon, which winds slowly and majestically close to the city, and, being navigable for barges to Bristol, facilitates the intercourse with that busy port.

The valley in which Bath lies, being too small to contain the numerous splendid buildings which have been erected there within the space of a century, they gradually covered the side of the hill toward the north, and now crown its summit. Nothing indeed can be more picturesque than the appearance of this city, where houses rise behind houses in progressive order, while the most elevated seem to look down with proud superiority on the no less elegant and extensive structures below. In the hills which environ it, rise excellent springs of the purest water; and by means of pipes every house is amply supplied with that necessary of life.

ANTIQUITIES, AND EARLY HISTORY.

The antiquity of Bath mocks the researches of the most inquisitive; and therefore, at an early period, fable was called in to supply the want of authentic narration. No doubt it was first noticed on account of its warm springs, from which it appears always to have been denominated; but the origin of their fame is lost in the mist of time. The fiction however which ascribes this important discoveryto Bladud, is so pleas

ing, and has been so long repeated by vulgar credulity, that this description would appear imperfect without it. Take it therefore as it is generally received on the spot. A story is commonly told with variations, and this cannot expect to be exempt from the common lot.

Bladud, the eldest son of Lud Hudibras, king of Britain, and the eighth in succession from Brutus, the great-grandson of Eneas, having spent several years at Athens in the study of the liberal arts and sciences, returned a leper: whether from the heat of the climate he had lived in, or from ill diet, or infection, does not appear; but a leper he was, and for that reason shut up, that he might not infect others. Impatient of his confinement, he chose mean liberty rather than a royal restraint; and contriving his escape in disguise, went from his father's court into an untravelled part of the country, and offered his assistance in any common employment, probably thinking he was less likely to be discovered under such humble circumstances. He therefore entered into service at Swainswick, a small village three miles from this city, where his business (among other things) was to take care of pigs, which he was to drive from place to place, for their advantage in feeding upon beech-mast and acorns; the hills thereabout abounding then with the trees that produced them, though now few remain : yet there is a hill close upon the south part of this city, that still retains the name of Beechen Cliff, though there is scarcely a beech-tree left upon it at this time.

"Here the rising sun breaking through the clouds, first saluted the royal herdsman with its comfortable beams; and while he was addressing himself to the glorious luminary, and praying that the wrath of heaven against him might be averted, part of the drove of pigs, as if seized with a frenzy, ran down the side of the hill into an alder moor, till they reached the spot of ground where the hot springs of Bath now boil up; and they thence returned covered with black mud. The prince being of a thoughtful turn, and

very solicitous to find the reason why the pigs that wallowed in the mire in the summer to cool themselves, should do the same in winter, observed them further; and following them down, at length perceived a stream arising from the place where the swine wallowed. Making his way to it, he found it to be warm; and this satisfied him, that for the benefit of this heat the pigs resorted thither; and after a while became whole and smooth from their foul scurfs and eruptions, by their often wallowing in this mud. Upon this, he considered within himself why he should not receive the same benefit by the same means: he tried it, and succeeded; and when he found himself cured of his leprosy, declared who he was. His master was not inclined to believe him at first, but at length did, and went with him to court, where he was owned to be the king's son; and after his father's death he succeeded him in the government, and made these baths."

The legend goes on to say, "that when these works were completed, Bladud gave himself up to ingenious studies, which he pursued with so much assiduity, that he at last invented wings to fly with; but these not being quite so safe as the modern balloons, in one of his flights he unfortunately fell down on Salisbury church, and, to the great grief of his subjects, broke his neck, after a reign of twenty years.'

The story of Bladud and his swine was seriously believed for centuries, and a zealous unlearned Bathonian would still stand up for its truth.* Yet surely the celebrity of these waters does not require the aid of fiction; nor can the addition or subtraction of a few centuries, augment or diminish their real virtues.

About the close of the seventeenth century, the earl of Rochester, having visited Bath, convinced the citizens of the improbability of this tale; and induced them to remove a memorial of it, which had till then been exhibited in a pub. lic place. Some years after, Mr. Powell gave a mortal wound to the legend, by associating Bladud and his pigs with Punch and his family, and producing them on the stage at Bath.

It is very probable that these springs were known to the ancient Britons before the invasion of the Romans; for there are unquestionable evidences of the latter having a station at this place, and baths either for health or pleasure. The various names by which this city has been called, all designate the principal cause of its celebrity. The Britons named it Caer Badon, or the City of the Bath, and Caer yn ennaint twymyn, or the City of the Hot Bath.

The Romans

give it the appropriate appellations of Thermæ Sudatæ, Aquæ Calidæ, Aqua Solis, or simply Balnea; while the Saxons called it Akemannus Ceaster, which has been interpreted, the City of Valetudinarians.

It does not enter within our plan to give its early history from the commencement of authentic records; but we must observe, that the great number of ancient coins, statues, altars, inscriptions, and other Roman antiquities, which have been discovered at different intervals in and about Bath, prove that it has undergone various revolutions.

In 1753, as some cellars were digging in Stall-street, a pedestal was found with an inscription which purports, that "this religious place, insolently thrown down, Caius Severus Emeritus purified and restored to the name and virtue of Augustus, in testimony of his gratitude." Under this stone were several coins of Carausius.

* Many of these antiquities are preserved with great care; and a room has been erected by the corporation, near the Cross Bath, for the purpose of exhibiting them. The late governor Pownall, and the rev. R. Warren, have written accounts of these curious remains; each containing ample proof of the learning and ingenuity of the writers, though they do not agree in many points with each other. The ingenious Mr. Lysons has likewise given a splendid illustration of these fragments of antiquity, and has most fancifully assigned them places in such a building as may be supposed to have originally existed.

+ This inscription seems to indicate that the place where it was found was the site of a temple. Caer Palluder, or the city of Pallas, is one of the ancient names of Bath.

Two years after, as the abbey-house, where the duke of Kingston's baths now stand, was pulling down, in digging the foundation, the workmen discovered several rough-hewn stone coffins, with the entire, but mouldering, remains of human bodies; and several pieces of coin of Saxon kings. Below these were cavities, which led to the remains of several Roman baths and sudatories, constructed on a large and elegant plan. The spring which supplied these baths being cleared from rubbish, and its channel opened, the duke of Kingston converted it to its original purpose.*

In digging the foundations for the new Hot Bath and its accompaniments, a quantity of Roman copper and brass coins of Nero, Adrian, 'Trajan, Antoninus, &c. were found, together with an antique pillar (now removed) having an abbreviated inscription, which has been rendered into English; "Sulinus, the son of Maturus, gladly pays his grateful vows to the high goddess Minerva."

When the foundation of the new Pump-room was clearing out in 1790, on the east side of Stall-street, various Roman antiquities were discovered, consisting of a votive altar; a considerable portion of a fluted pillar, two feet eight inches in diameter; and a handsome Corinthian capital, belonging to the same. Several massy fragments, adorned with sculpture in basso-relievo, were also found. One of them, within a double circle of oaken boughs richly wrought, represents the head of Apollo Medicus, who was considered as the inventor of medicine.

Indeed, from a variety of circumstances it appears, hat Apollo and Minerva were regarded as the patrons

Lord Manvers, the present possessor of the Kingston e state, has caused these baths to be improved at a great expence, and rendered as convenient to bathers as their Jimited scale would allow. They are now rented by the ingenious Dr. Wilkinson, celebrated for his philosophical researches, and author of a valuable work on Galvanism,