Bath

BATH, city, municipal, and county and parliamentary borough of north-east Somersetshire, England, on the G.W.R., L.M.S., and Somerset and Dorset railways. Pop. (1921) 68,669; and in 1931, 68,8oi. It lies on the River Avon, 12 miles S.E. of Bristol, and has been called the most nobly placed and best-built city in all England. The crater-like situation of Bath, its sunward aspect, and the surrounding Cotswold hills combine to give it a charac ter of its own. The open oolite hills were centres of population in prehistoric times, and the neighbouring Solsbury Hill bears evidence of pre-Roman occupation, but there is no evidence for the legendary foundation of the city by Bladud, 863 B.C. Solsbury commemorates the native deity, Sul, said to have been considered by the Romans the counterpart of Minerva. There are abundant evidences of full civic settlement in Romano-British times.

Roman Bath.

By the Romans, Bath was named Aquae Sulis, the name indicating the dedication to Sul. There were a temple of the goddess and a few houses for priests, officials and visitors, besides the large baths, and the place was apparently walled ; but it did not contain a large resident population. Many relics have been disinterred, such as altars, inscriptions, fragments of stone carvings and figures and Samian ware. The chief buildings were apparently grouped near the later abbey churchyard, and included, besides two temples, a magnificent bath, discovered in 1755. Suc cessive excavations have rendered accessible a remarkable series of remains, including several baths, a sudarium and conduits. The main bath still receives its water (now for the purpose of cooling) through the original conduit. The fragmentary colon nade surrounding this magnificent relic still supports the street and buildings beneath which it lies, the Roman foundations having been left untouched. The remains of the bath and of the temple are among the most striking Roman antiquities in Western Europe.

Bath (Achemann, Hat Bathum, Bothonea, Batha) was a place of note in Saxon times, King Edgar being crowned there in 973. The present abbey church occupies the site of Saxon and Norman buildings, founded in connection with a 7th century convent, transferred in the loth century to Benedictine monks. Bath was then a royal borough. The first charter, granted in 1189, con ferred the same privileges as Winchester had. Others followed throughout the 13th, 14th and 15th centuries. The existence of a corporation being assumed in the earliest royal charter, and a common seal having been issued since 1249, there was no formal incorporation of Bath until the charter of 1590. Various fairs were centres of exchange when the cloth trade prospered ; but the industry declined long ago. Bath "beaver," however, was known throughout England, and Chaucer makes his "Wife of Bath" excel the cloth-weavers of Ypres and of Gaunt. The golden age of Bath began in the 18th century, and is linked with the work of the two architects Wood (both named John), of Ralph Allen, their patron, and of Richard Nash, master of the ceremonies. Previously the baths had been ill-kept, the lodging poor, the streets beset by footpads. All this was changed by the architectural scheme, in cluding Queen square, the Royal crescent and the North and South parades, which was chiefly designed by the elder Wood, and chiefly executed by his son. Nash provided the assembly rooms which figure largely in the pages of Fielding, Smollett, Burney, and their contemporaries. The genius of Wood, the re-discoverer and re-builder of Bath, and one of the pioneers of town-planning, fused the various traditions of the city, geographical, historical and social, into a grand architectural expression. His response to the genius loci is best illustrated in the Royal crescent.

Bath Abbey.

The Abbey church of St. Peter and St. Paul is a singularly pure and ornate example of late Perpendicular work. From the number of its windows it has been called "The Lantern of the West," and especially noteworthy is the great west window. Slight traces of the previous Norman building remain. Of other churches of the city, that of St. Thomas of Canterbury is the old est while St. Swithin's is one of the most interesting.

Among educational institutions may be mentioned the free grammar school, founded by Edward VI., the Wesleyan college originally established at Kingswood, Bristol, by John Wesley, and the Roman Catholic college. The hospital of St. John was founded in the 12th century. The public buildings include a guild hall, assembly rooms, Jubilee hall, art-gallery and library, mu seum, literary and scientific institute, and theatres. The mineral springs supply several distinct establishments. The temperature varies in the different springs from 117° to 120°F. The waters are very beneficial in cases of rheumatism, gout, neuralgia, sci atica, diseases of the liver, and cutaneous and scrofulous affec tions. One of the most noteworthy features is the successful treatment of children at the Bath Orthopaedic hospital. The Old Royal Bath, planned by John Wood, was restored for the special ized treatment of cripples and opened in 1927. The city has successfully retained its position and appearance as an aristocratic health resort and has added to its functions those of a tourist centre, the industries being concentrated outside in such suburbs as Twerton, which has quarries and brickworks. Building ac tivity is restricted by natural causes; but residential suburbs are extending, e.g., at Bathampton to the north-east.

Markets still held on Wednesday and Saturday were granted originally in 1305. Fairs are now held on Feb. 4 and on the Mon day after Dec. 9. Bath forms, with Wells, an episcopal see of the Church of England. The county borough of Bath (area 5,152ac.) returns one member to parliament. The city is governed by a mayor, 14 aldermen and 42 councillors.