BATH, a seaport town, county of Lincoln, state of Maine, North America, one of the principal commercial towns in the state, being advantageously situated on the western bank of the river Kennebec, 12 miles from its mouth. Ship-building is extensively carried on here. Pop. (1850) 8002. There are several other places of this name in the United States.
Knights of the Bath, a military order in England, concerning the origin of which antiquaries differ in their accounts. The earliest intimation we have of the order is in the reign of Henry IV., when we find a degree of knighthood under the express denomination of the Bath. On the day of his coronation in the tower of London, that king conferred the insignia of the order upon forty-six esquires, who had watched all the night before, and had bathed themselves. Thenceforth it was customary for our kings to confer this dignity on the occasion of their own coronations or those of their queens; on the birth or marriage of royal issue, and their first advancement to honours; upon the eve of intended expeditions against foreign enemies; at the installations of knights of the Garter; and when some grand anniversary festivals were celebrated. The last knights of the Bath so made were in 1661, at the coronation of Charles II.; after which the order was neglected until the year 1725, when George I. was pleased to revive it, and to command a book of statutes to be framed for the government of the order. By this code the number of knights was fixed at thirty-eight, namely, the sovereign and thirty-seven knights-companions. But, in the reign of George IV., the statutes of the order were relaxed; and, under the denominations of companions and grand crosses, a great additional number of persons, chiefly military men who had distinguished themselves in actual service, have been admitted.
The apparel of a knight of the Bath is a red surcoat, lined and edged with white, and girt with a white girdle, but without any ornament; the mantle, of the same colour and lining, is fastened about the neck with a lace of white silk, to which is attached a pair of white gloves, with tassels of silk and gold at the end; and on the left shoulder it is adorned with the ensign of the order, consisting of three imperial crowns or, surrounded with the ancient motto, Tria juncta in uno, wrought upon a circle gules, with a glory or rays issuing from the centre, and under it the lace of white silk worn by the knights of the Bath. Red breeches and stockings, and white hats surmounted with plumes of white feathers, complete the knightly apparel. The chapel of Henry VII. is the chapel of the order, and every knight's
Bath-Kol banner, with plates of his arms and style, is placed over his respective stall, in the same manner as those of the knights of the Garter in St George's chapel, Windsor; and the knights are allowed supporters to their arms.
Bath-Kol, "the daughter of the voice," a species of oracle, frequently mentioned in the Jewish books, especially the Talmud. (See Vitring's Observ. Sacr. ii. pp. 341-363.) This was a fantastic method of divination invented by the Jews, though called by them a revelation of God's will made to his chosen people after all verbal prophecies had ceased in Israel. It was, in fact, analogous to the Sortes Virgiliane among the Romans. For as, with the latter, the first words they happened to turn to in the works of the Mantuan bard were considered a kind of oracle prognostic of future events, so with the Jews, when they appealed to Bath-kol, the first words they heard from any man's mouth were regarded as a voice from heaven, directing them in the matter they inquired about. Even the Christians were not quite free from this superstition, often making the same use of the Scriptures as the Romans did of the works of Virgil; and it descended, through them, to later times. In France it was the practice for several ages to use this kind of divination at the consecration of a bishop, in order to discover his life, manners, and future behaviour; and the usage came into England with the Norman conquest; for we are told that at the consecration of William, the second Norman bishop of the diocese of Norwich, the words which first occurred on dipping into the Bible were, "Not this man, but Barabbas." William died soon after, and was succeeded by Herbert de Lozinga, chief simony broker to king William Rufus, on whose consecration the Bible opened at the words in which Jesus accosted Judas Iscariot: "Friend, wherefore art thou come?" This circumstance so affected Herbert that it brought him to a thorough repentance of his crime, in expiation of which he built the cathedral church of Norwich, the first stone of which he laid in the year 1096.