the chief town of Somersetshire, is, from the elegance of its buildings and the beauty of its situation, allowed to be one of the handsomest cities in Britain. It stands on both sides of the river Avon, inclosed by an amphitheatre of hills belonging to the great western oolitic range. The town is well laid out, rising in beautiful terraces and crescents from the river; and its sheltered position renders the temperature mild and agreeable. It contains many fine public walks, and the vicinity presents a great variety of beautiful landscapes. The houses are mostly built of white freestone quarried in the vicinity. The abbey church is a handsome cruciform edifice, with a quadrangular tower 162 feet high, rising from the point of intersection. It is 210 feet in length from E. to W., and 126 in breadth from N. to S. There are 25 other parish churches and Episcopal chapels in Bath, besides numerous chapels belonging to the Independents, Baptists, Wesleyans, Roman Catholics, &c. There is a free grammar school founded by Edward VI., and free and other schools for boys and girls. The Roman Catholics have a college here; and a Wesleyan college has lately been erected. The literary and scientific institution, founded in 1826, is a handsome building of the Doric order, with a laboratory, lecture-room, library, and a museum containing a very valuable collection of Roman remains found here. Among its public buildings are the guild-hall, with an elegant Grecian front, founded in 1766; the assembly-rooms, opened in 1771, the ball-room of which is 106 feet in length by 43 in breadth and 42½ in height; the prison; market-house; theatre, one of the best out of London; and the pump-room of the king's bath, 85 feet in length by 56 in breadth, and 34 high, containing a marble statue of the celebrated Beau Nash, to whom the city is indebted for much of its prosperity. Bath has five banks; a new savings-bank, built in 1842; a number of charitable institutions; a mechanics' institute; and a school of arts. The thermal springs, to which the city principally owes its importance, rise near the centre of the city. They were known to the Romans, who had a station here under the name of Aqua Calida, or Aquae Sulis; commonly Aqua Solis; and very extensive remains of Roman baths have been discovered here. The springs supply five distinct establishments, viz., King's, Queen's, Hot, Cross, and Abbey baths. The temperature varies in the different springs from 90° to 117° Fahrenheit, and the specific gravity of the hot bath is 1-002. Mr R. Phillips obtained from a quart of this water about 30 grains of foreign matter, viz., carbonic acid, 2·4 inches; sulphate of lime, 180 grains; chloride of soda, 6·6; sulphate of soda, 3·0; carbonate of lime, 1·6; silica, 0·4; oxide of iron, a trace; but much carbonic acid escapes from the springs. When fresh drawn, it has a slight chalky taste; and, taken internally, it acts as a stimulant. It is very beneficial in cases of palsy, rheumatism, gout, leprosy, cutaneous and scrofulous diseases.

During the season, the city receives sometimes as many as 14,000 visitors. The Sydney Gardens have been open since 1795, and are frequently employed for horticultural exhibitions and other amusements. Negotiations are now in progress for the purchase of these grounds for the erection of a handsome proprietary college. The Victoria Park was opened in 1830. Bath now carries on no extensive manufactures, the production of the coarse woollens known as "Bath coating" having much declined.

The earliest extant charter of the city is that granted by Richard I., which was afterwards confirmed by Henry III. and extended to its present state by George III. The corporation consists of a mayor, 14 aldermen, and 42 councillors, and the town returns two members to parliament.

The Great Western Railway connects Bath with London and Bristol; from the former of which it is 107 miles distant, and from the latter 12 miles. The Kennet and Avon canal, which joins the Thames at Reading, connects Bath with London by water. The river Avon is here crossed by two stone, two iron, and three suspension bridges. Lat. 51. 23. N. Long. 2. 22. W. By the census of 1851, it contained 7744 inhabited houses, and 54,240 inhabitants.

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) 5002. 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, Trium 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, "the daughter of the voice," a species of oracle, frequently mentioned in the Jewish books, especially the Talmud. (See Vitringa'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 Virgilianae 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 Barabas." William died soon after, and was succeeded by Herbert de Lozinka, 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.