BATH, a city of Somersetshire in England, seated
in W. Long. 2. 30. N. Lat. 51. 27. All the different names that this city has borne in different ages and languages have been taken from its medicinal waters, as the Alax Sigus, or "hot waters," of Ptolemy; the Aqua Solis, or "waters of the sun," of Antoninus; the Casr Baden, and Casr Ennant, i. e. "the city of baths," and "the city of ointment," of the Britons; and the Ackmanchester, i. e. "the city of valetudinarians," of the Saxons. The baths consist of the King's bath, the Queen's bath, the Cross-bath, the Hot-bath, the Leper's bath, and the duke of Kingston's bath. This place was of old a resort only for cripples and diseased persons; but now it is more frequented by the found for pleasure than by the sick for health. The waters are very pleasant to the taste; and impregnated with a vitriolic principle, yielding, upon evaporation, a little neutral salt, and a calcareous earth and iron. They are very efficacious in strengthening the bowels and stomach, bracing the relaxed fibres, and invigorating the circulation. In bilious complaints they are counted specific; and prove serviceable in most nervous, paralytic, rheumatic, and gouty, complaints. At the King's bath is a handsome pump-room, where the gentlemen and ladies go in a morning to drink the waters; and there is a band of music that plays all the time. In the Cross-bath is a monument of marble, representing the descent of the Holy Ghost attended by angels, erected by the earl of Melfort (who was secretary of state for Scotland) when king James II. met his queen here. The King's bath is a large basin of 65 feet 10 inches by 40 feet 10 inches, containing 346 tuns 2 hogheads and 36 gallons of water when filled to its usual height. In the middle is a wooden building with niches and seats for the accommodation of the bathers. There are also iron rings all round for them to hold by; and guides, both male and female, to attend them in the bath. The person intending to bathe puts on, at his own lodgings, a bathing dress of brown canvas hired for the purpose; and is carried in a close chair, of a particular make, to one of the slips which open into the bath. There he descends by steps into the water, where he is attended by a guide. Having staid his stated time in the bath, he ascends again into the slip, where he puts off his bathing-dress, and being wrapped up in blankets, is carried home to bed, where he lies for some time to encourage perspiration. The King's bath is overlooked by the company in the pump-room; and adjoining to it are places furnished with pumps to pour the hot streams on any particular part of the body. The Queen's bath communicates with the King's, from which it is filled; therefore the water of it is not so hot, being at a greater distance from the source. As the heat is here more moderate, the bathers descend first into the Queen's bath, and advance gradually to the centre of the other. In the year 1755, the abbey-house, or priory, belonging to the duke of Kingston, was taken down, in order to erect a more commodious pile of building; and in digging for the foundation, the workmen discovered, about twenty feet below the surface of the earth, the remains of Roman baths and sudatories constructed upon an elegant plan, with floors suspended on pillars, and surrounded with tubulated bricks, for the conveyance of heat and vapour. These were supplied by a spring of hot water, of the same properties and temperature with those of the
Bath. the King's-bath; and the sewer was found still entire, that conveyed the waste water into the river. The duke, having cleared the spring and the sewer, has erected several convenient baths and sudatories on the spot, where invalids may be accommodated at all hours, by night as well as by day. The two seasons are the spring and fall; but those who take the waters purely for their health do not regard the seasons, but drink them all the year round. There are a number of genteel sedan chairs, which carry people to any distance, not exceeding half a mile, for sixpence. The company assemble in the afternoon alternately, at two flatly rooms, to converse together, or play at cards. At a very pretty new theatre near the parades, plays are acted every other night; and there are balls twice a week; for which and the rooms, and books at the libraries, the gentry generally subscribe. The city is surrounded with hills on all sides, except a little opening to the east and west, through which the Avon runs. This river, which has been made navigable to Bristol by act of parliament, washes the city on the east and south sides, and there is an elegant bridge over it. This city hath formerly had a flight wall, of which some part still remains, as well as one or two of its gates; but almost all the new buildings, and much the greatest and finest part of the city, is without the walls, particularly the fine square called Queen's-square, in the middle of which is a small garden, with gravel walks, and an obelisk in the centre. But the greatest ornament at Bath is the circus: it is of a circular form consisting of houses built on an uniform plan, with three openings at equal distances to the south, east, and west, leading into as many streets. The fronts of the houses, which are all three stories high, are adorned with three rows of columns in pairs, of the Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian orders, the frize embellished with sculpture. The whole has an air of magnificence, which cannot fail to strike the most indifferent spectator. In the centre of the area is a reservoir, or basin, filled by two or three springs rising in the neighbouring hills; whence the streets in this district are supplied with water. On the south side of the town are the north and south parades, two noble walks, paved with hewn stone, raised upon arches, facing each an elegant row of houses on one side, and having a stone balustrade on the other. These, with the two streets that join them, were planned and executed by one Mr Wood, an able architect, who likewise built the square and projected the circus. The two public rooms stand betwixt the north parade and Orange-grove; which last is a square planted with trees, having in the middle a stone obelisk, inscribed in Latin to the late prince of Orange, who recovered his health in consequence of drinking the Bath waters, and gave his name to this part of the town. Several new streets and rows have of late years been built on the north-side of Bath, in the neighbourhood of the square, such as Gay-street, Milson-street, Edgar-row, Harlequin-row, Bladud's-buildings, King's-mead-street, and Brock-street. Their advantages for building here are very great, having excellent free-stone, limestone, and slate, in the neighbourhood. One sort of their lime is as white as snow. The guild-hall of Bath stands in the market-place, and is said to be built on a plan of Inigo Jones, which however, exhibits nothing worthy of that great architect: besides, one end of it has been
rebuilt in a different style. The hall is ornamented with some portraits of the late prince of Wales and other remarkable personages: but the greatest curiosity of the place is a Minerva's head in bronze, a real antique, dug up in Stall-street, in the year 1725. Bath boasts a noble infirmary, or general hospital, for the reception of the sick and lame from all parts of the three kingdoms. It extends 100 feet in front, and 90 in depth, being capable of receiving 150 patients. Here was anciently a monastery, of which the present cathedral was the church. It is a venerable pile; the principal front of which is adorned with angels ascending and descending. There are three other churches in Bath, and several chapels and meeting-houses. Besides the infirmary, there are several other hospitals, almshouses, and charity schools. The corporation consists of a mayor, eight aldermen, of whom two are justices of the peace; and 24 common-council men. The city is extremely well provided with stage-coaches, post-coaches, chaifes, machines, and waggons. Bath is the general hospital of the nation, and a great number of invalids find benefit from the waters: but as the city lies in a bottom surrounded by very high hills, the air is constantly surcharged with damps; and indeed this place is more subject to rain than any other part in England. The markets are remarkably well supplied with provisions of all kinds at reasonable rates, particularly fish and poultry. They also afford excellent mutton fed upon Lansdown, one of the highest hills that overlook the city. This down, remarkable for its pure air, extends about three miles; and at the extremity of it there is a stone monument, with an inscription, erected to the memory of Sir Beville Granville, who was here killed in a battle which he fought with the parliament's army in the reign of Charles I. Bath sends two members to parliament. The earldom of Bath was bestowed on William Pultney in the end of Sir Robert Walpole's administration as a reward for his patriotism, but is now extinct for want of heirs-male.
Bath is joined with Wells to form a bishopric, called the diocese of Bath and Wells. The bishop's seat is at Wells, whose cathedral church was built by Ina, king of the West Saxons in 704, and by him dedicated to St Andrew. Several other of the West Saxon kings endowed it, and was erected into a bishopric in 905, during the reign of king Edward the Elder. The present church was begun by Robert the 18th bishop of this see, and completed by his immediate successor, John de Villula, the 16th bishop, having purchased the city of Bath for 500 marks of king Henry I. transferred his seat to that city in 1088. From this, disputes arose between the monks of Bath and the canons of Wells, about the election of a bishop; but they were at last compromised by Robert the 18th bishop, who decreed, that from henceforward the bishop should be styled from both places, and that the precedence should be given to Bath; that in the vacancy of the see, the bishop should be elected by a certain number of delegates from both churches; and that he should be installed in them both; both of them to constitute the bishop's chapter; and all his grants and patents to be confirmed in both. So it stood till the reformation. But in the 35th of king Henry VIII. an act of Parliament passed for the dean and chapter of Wells to make one sole chapter for the bishop. This diocese hath yielded to the church of Rome one cardinal, and
to the civil state of England six lord chancellors, five lord treasurers, one lord privy seal, one lord president of Wales, and principal secretary of state. The diocese contains the whole county of Somerset, except a few churches in the city of Bristol; the number of parishes amounting to 388, and the churches and chapels to 503. Of the parishes 160 are improper. It is valued in the king's books at L. 535 : 1 : 3, and computed to be worth annually L. 2200. The clergy's tenth is L. 353 : 18 : 04. To the cathedral belong a bishop, a dean, three archdeacons, a chancellor, a treasurer, a sub-dean, fifty-nine prebendaries, four priest-vicars, eight lay vicars, an organist, six choristers, and other officers.
Knights of the Bath, a military order in England, concerning the origin of which antiquaries differ in their accounts. The most probable deduction seems to be the following.
The knighthood of the Bath is supposed to have been practised by the ancient Franks, the inhabitants of Lower Germany, with whom it is highly probable the Saxons, who invaded England, had the same common descent, and, with other customs, upon their settling here, introduced the same method of knighthood. These ancient Franks, when they conferred knighthood, observed, amongst other solemn rites, bathing before they performed their vigils; which custom continues to be practised in England: they were from thence denominated Knights of the Bath.
In the reign of Henry IV. there was a degree of knighthood specified under the express appellation of the Bath. That king, on the day of his coronation in the tower of London, conferred the same upon 46 esquires, who had watched all the night before, and had bathed themselves. From that time it was customary with our kings to confer this dignity preceding their coronations, the coronations of their queens, the birth and marriage of the royal issue, and their first advancement to honours, upon their designed expeditions against their foreign enemies, upon installations of knights of the garter, and when some grand anniversary festivals were celebrated. The last knights of the Bath so made were at the coronation of King Charles II. in 1661; after which the order was neglected until the year 1725, when George I. was pleased to revive it, and to order a book of statutes for the government of the order. By this the number of knights is fixed to 38, viz. the Sovereign, and 37 knights-companions.
The apparel of a knight of the Bath is a red surcoat, lined and edged with white, girded about with a white girdle, without any ornament thereon; the mantle is of the same colour and lining, made fast about the neck with a lace of white silk, having a pair of white gloves tied therein, with tassels of silk and gold at the end; which mantles are adorned upon the left shoulders with the ensign of the order, being three imperial crowns or, surrounded with the ancient motto of this knighthood, Tria jumenta in uno, wrought upon a circle gules, with a glory or rays issuing from the centre, and under it the lace of white silk heretofore worn by the knights of the Bath. They have red breeches and stockings, and have white hats, with a plume of white feathers thereon. The king allowed the chapel of King Henry VII. to be the chapel of
the order, and ordered that each knight's banner, with plates of his arms and styles, should be placed over their several stalls, in like manner as the knights of the Garter in St George Chapel in the castle of Windsor; and he allowed them supporters to their arms. His Royal Highness Prince William, second son to the Prince of Wales, on this occasion, was made the first knight-companion, and his Grace the Duke of Montagu grand master of the order, the dean of Westminster (for the time being) dean of the order; the other officers of which are, Bath king of arms, a genealogist, register and secretary, gentleman usher, and messenger.