The record-union., 1892-09-03
Especial Correspondence of the RECORD
UNION. Copyright, 1927
BARN, England, August %. 1892.

NoWnere IN England nave so many
great men and women come and for
time lived and left behind them such
clear and charming chronicles OF their
tarrying as in the interesting old Somer-
setshire city of Bath.
Curiously enough it furnishes few of
the ordinary characteristics which render
most other British cities attractive to the
traveller. There are no ruins of castles or
yestiges of siege and slaughter. No
Kings were crowned or are entombed
within it. 1t has no cathedral, vast, dim,
shrineful, where Cromwell can still be
remembered in the headless and 1imbless
ef1gIes of martyrs and saints. Even its
abbey church has scarcely had time to
turn gray from the hands of its sixteenth
and seventeenth century builders. The
city's noble erescents and parades are
scarcely an hundred years old, and only
III odd quarters Of the old town are found
The tender browns and grays mingled
with the masses of ivy which mutely tell
OF remote and hOary long ago.
And yet Bath has known antiquity of
nearly two thousand years, one that you
can see any day of the year with your
own eyes. and claimed antiquity of
nearly thousand years beyond that. 1t
IS IN the baths of Bath, modern and an
cient, that chief interest centers. From
the standpoint OF modern elegance and
convenience no city in the world possesses
more splendid provisions, while there
IS certainly wonderful fascination and
interest in the feeling that here i'll west
OF England city, while enjoying hot baths
under conditions of luxury unsurpassed
IN Europe, your surroundings are those
OF the Roman Emperors and Generals of
400 to l,oOO years ago, while the same
thermal waters possibly baniShed the ills
OF st. David, King Arthur and vast line
OF old British princes and potentates for
half thousand years beyond.
w WhateVer may be the actual antiquity
Of this ancient city and its more ancient
baths, the legend OF their discovery is
most curious and interesting. Hudibras,
King of Britain, who fiourished B. c. Sg2,
had son named Bladud, who, being a
leper, was expelled from the royal court
at Winchester, and wandered in pow
erty throughout the land. After a time
he became swineherd along the banks
OF the Somersetshire Avon, but soon dis
covered in diSmay that all the animals in
his charge had become as leprous as him
sell.
Fearful of discovery by his master he
drove his pigs across the river at point
still known as SWinefOrd, and took up
position on the hillside where shelter and
acornS were in abundance. 1t happened
TO rowing. She strayed from the rest,
and Bladud on searching for her discov-
cred her contentedly wallowing in pool
OF muddy warm water. But Bladud found
much more TO his satisfaction. The ami
mai had been cleansed Of her leprosy, and,
following her example, he not only drove
the whole herd to the warm pool, morn
ing and night, but himself wallowed
within 1t among the swine.
Finally the Prince returned to his faith
er's court clean and whole, There was
great rejoicing, and Bladud resumed
his place as heir apparent, but for long
time could not be prevailed upon to make
the place or circumstances of his cure
known. de was sent to and educated in
Greece under the name Of Abaris, and re-
turned capable Governor of the ma
ton" He now bethought himself to
make his secret known ior the benefit of
others. ThereupOn he built the city of
Bath about 200 years ago., when he
applied himself SO diligently and exclu-
siyely to ingenious studies that he sue
ceeded in inventing and making for him
sell wings with which TO fly, but in one
OF his flights he fell down upon church
steeple which caused the breaking of his
neck from which he died.
However all this may be. certain it is
that at about the beginning of the last
century Bath suddenly rose from the con-
dition of neglected provincial town to
second capital OF English fashion. It's
baths attracted all the rich and great
Then 1t was that the unknown Richard
Nash, who, when law student at cham
bers in the Temple, London, had been
raised to royal favor by his conduct as
master of the pageant on the visit Of the
King, came to Bath. and, by common
consent as master Of all city ceremonials
and the most tritiing questions of eti-
quette, concerning the social relations of
visitors, held undisputed sway for over
fifty years. New York has now a mimic
of this famous king cOxcomb, sort of
social male tape measure and steelyards
of ceremonial inanities, but the Beau
Nash of Bath was intellectually, and in
the matter of actual power, a king in
deed IN comparison with all the buIfoon
imitators who have followed him.
1t is lovely, leaty, roomy, rare old
city, this Bath, without any of its curious
old associations. Its baths are finer than
can be found elsewhere in Europe. Per-
haps 100000 visitors seek their healing
qualities annually. Wealth, age, refine
ment and wonderful beauty of surround
ing, render tarrying here luxurious and
charming. And then what a treat it is to
have added to this modern day luxury
the constant experience of sweltering in
these hot waters precisely where the
swine, Bladud and all the Romans have
wallowed! The old Roman bath is here
to-day almost precisely as it was built
and the Generals of The Empire left it,
Something like 100 feet in length and 20
In breadth are its dimensions. The an
clent Vaulted roof, fifty feet high, sup
ported by SIX massive piers, is only lack
ing. But here are still the clustered
pilasters on either side, and broken col
umns, wonderfully carved entablatures
and all the curious stone work of /, 400
years ago. 1t is all worth a long journey
10 see, tor in Rome itself is q no more
Roman
luxury.
TO many the literary and artistic asso-
Citations OF Bath viii have the deepest in
Jerest. In no other English city, except
London, can there be found such a
wealth OF memories of this character
Everywhere you turn is some reminder
OF pleasant or pathetic sort of the do
ings and personality OF the great scien-
lists, writers, poets, painters and actors.
or their friends, of the last or the early
part Of the present century. Bath was
then in its glory. In those days every
coach from London, winter or summer.
landed some famous parsonage at the
doors of the White Horse Inn, or the
Pelican Inn, which is still standing, and
Is known as the Three Cups"
At No. Il Pulteney street lived Sir
William Watson, the natural PHILOSOPHER.
who introduced Sir W. Hersehel TO the
King and the scientific world. In 1856
the latter removed from Yorkshire to
Bath, where he lived at No. New King
street. lie was for a long time organist
at the Octagon Chapel and leader of the
orchestra at the public assembly rooms.
At length a simple telescope. only two
feet in length, fell into his hands. He
was at once tilled with intense enthusiasm
for astronomical research, but dismayed
at the London price OF larger glass, he
determined to construct one with his
own hands. Telescopes of seven, of eight,
OF ten, and finally of twenty feet focal