Evening star., 1901-12-28
THE ANCIENT BATH.
The Old Story of Its Founding by
King Rladud.

King BIadud.
Harold Hamel Smith in Literary Thoughts.
From the year B. c. $50 to the year A. D.
1901 Is a long stretch, yet both years have
an event in cOmmon-an event, too that
deals with elaborate and wefl-thought- ht-out
experiments Of a science that the 2,76O
years have not succeeded in bringing to
perfection-that of aerial navigation. King
Bladud, by tradition at least, Is said to have
been the discoverer and founder Of the an
cient city of Bath Like M. Santos-Du-
mont, he strove to solve the difficulty Of
aerial flight. 1t was only by miracle that
the plucky Brazilian engineer in his last
trial at Paris did not share the same fate
as Bladud, who, we are told, met his death
through trying to fly by means Of wings,
and in one of which attempts he fell and
broke his neck
This Bladud was the son of Lud Hudibras
King of Britain, by whom he was banished
from court, owing to his having contracted
leprosy. The queen, his mother, on his de-
parture gave him ring, so that when he
was cured-Wh1ch the poor woman believed
to be impossible-he could return and make
himself known and be reinstated in that
rank and dignity that was his right by
birth Bladud therefore set forth, not
Knowing where to go. Meeting with a
sWlneherd on the opposite bank of the Avon
to where Bath now stands, he offered his
services as an assistant, which, being ac-
cepted, he took a portion Of the herd nnder
his care. Noticing after time that the
pigs, like himself had become contaminated
with the dreaded disease, and fearful lest
the swtneherd should notice it, he drove
them over to the opposite bank under the
preteXt that the acorns were finer on that
side, but in reality to give himself time to
consider what he should Wine thus he
pondered the pigs wallowed in the mud,
warmed by the then unknown hot mineral
springs that abounded about that spot and
Bladud noticed that after repeating the
performance for two or three days the af-
fected pigs (and especially one old sow) got
cured of their leprosy. The idea at once
seized him to try to cure himself. So strip
ping himself, he. like the pigs, rolled in the
healing mud, until, to his delight he too
finding this out, he drove back his herd,
and, leaving his employer without more
ado, presented himself at King Lud's court
and by means of the ring his mother gave
him was recognized and reinstated as the
| son and heir to the kingdom. After this his
father sent him on a journey to Athens to
study the sciences, and 1t was there that
he first conceived the idea that man by
means of wings could fly through the air
| the same the birds. On the death of his
father he succeeded to the throne, and one
| of his first acts was to erect in the wear
b. Z. $50, a palace near the spot where
he and his herd Of swine had been cured.
| so that others affected with leprosy could
come and battle in the healing liquid.
This idea Of the founding of Bath pre-
vailed until the eighteenth century. In 1909
a statue to Bladud was erected in the
kings bath room, where it still remains.
Modern research. however, is inclined to
disbelieve this account, and to date the
foundation of Bath to the reign of the
Roman Emperor Claudius in the first CEN
tury, when the city of Aquae Soils ("Waters
| Of the SUM- was built. After the Romans
Bath remained in the possession of the
Britons for over century, during which
period King Arthur is said to have GO
cessfully repulsed attacks Of Aelia and Ger
| die, the Saxon kings. In SIT, however
after the death Of Arthur. the Saxons
proved victorious. and. gaining an entry
buildings erected by the Romans. but also
the massive walls as we'll