pulpit there is a large semi-circular rostrum, with pitch pine front, surmounted by open iron work in white and gold. The floor of the rostrum is partly removable and discloses the baptistery, which is of cruciform shape. The interior length of the chapel is 74} ft., the width 377 ft., and the height 55 ft. A schoolroom is below the Chapel well-lighted and 12 ft. high. There is seating accommodation for 631. The total cost of the building, with furniture, amounted to £4,225, and the whole of the debt was paid off in 1885.

THE MORAVIANS. The Chapel erected by the Moravians, or United Brethren, in Charlotte Street, at a cost of £2,900, was opened on October 10th, 1845. The elevation consists of a central porch, with two Corinthian columns and two pilasters supporting a pediment, and two wings pierced for two windows. It is said to be a copy of the Temple of Vesta, at Tivoli. Beside the Chapel, which seats 300, there are a minister's house and schoolrooms. The architect was Mr. John Wilson.

THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. The Meeting House in York Street, with an imposing elevation and Doric portico, was built as a Freemasons' Hall, and opened by the Duke of Sussex, September 23rd, 1819. In 1842 it was converted into a place of worship, and the Friends moved hither from Hope Chapel.

THE CATHOLIC APOSTOLIC CHURCH. The body whose views are generally associated in the public mind with the name of Edward Irving have a Chapel of AngloNorman design at the end of the Vineyards. It was built in 1840 from the plans of Messrs. Manners and Gill.

NEW CAURCH. This edifice was built in 1844, in Henry Street, at a cost of £2,000. The elevation is adorned with columns and pilasters of the Ionic order, sustaining a pediment. The architect was Mr. H. Underwood. There is a schoolroom beneath.

The Jews have a synagogue in Corn Street erected in 1841 ; the Plymouth Brethren occupy a small Chapel in Monmouth Street, built by the Moravians in 1765.

INSTITUTIONS,

I

GUILDHALL. The Guildhall is one of the most elegant buildings in Bath; the first stone of which was laid in 1766, but some interruptions occurring to its progress, the undertaking was discontinued until the year 1775, when fresh designs were made for the edifice, and Mr. Thomas Baldwin was employed to carry them into execution. It exhibits two handsome fronts : one towards the street, the other towards the market. Of these, the latter is, perhaps, the more simply elegant of the two; but being enveloped in the buildings of the market, its beauties are not noticed. A large and convenient kitchen forms the basement story of the building ; on which stands the ground-floor, consisting of a vestibule, a justiciary-room, a drawing-room for the mayor, the town clerk's office, a treasurer's office, a record-room, and a lobby near the grand staircase. Above this rises the principal stories, where we find a common-council room ; and adjoining to it a banqueting or ball room, and of admirable proportions. This

a

The present markets were erected in 1863, under the direction of Messrs. Hicks and Isaac.

room is 80 ft. long, 40 ft. wide, and 31 ft. high, and ornamented with several full-length portraits of royal and noble personages ; amongst them is that of his Royal Highness Frederick, late Prince of Wales, who, in testimony of his grateful sense of the attention paid to him by the Mayor and Corporation of Bath, présented them with a magnificent silvergilt cup and salver, the former of which sometimes passes round at public entertainments, previous to a loyal toast, with great respect and ceremony.

The predecessor of the present Guildhall was built by Inigo Jones in 1625, and occupied a site in the High Street, opposite the Christopher Hotel. The street at that time was narrow and tortuous, being crowded with conduits and other structures, besides the edifice referred to. When the present Guildhall was built, the eastern side was set further back and the buildings removed.

Those who feel an interest in Bath, and to whom its growth and progress is worth a little study and reflection, must

go back a century and three quarters, and we will accompany them on the journey, if they will permit us to monopolise the conversation. A glance at the map of 1600 and at that of 17001 will show how insignificant had been the growth of the century. The city was still, for the most part, confined within the walls, and the population had but slightly increased. All the best houses in the seventeenth century were those that were built in the reign of Elizabeth, and they were for the most part in the possession of the city officials and the medical men. But some were fine old roomy mansions, in which ample accommodation was found for the residents, and spare rooms for distinguished visitors (who came for the waters) as lodgers. Amongst the citizens there were few, if any, independent gentry, as we now understand

the term. The houses were so built that in Westgate Street, Stall Street, and Cheap Street, they left only the space of a few feet in the centre of the road. As were the streets in the time of Elizabeth so they continued to be in the time of Charles II.

They were narrow, ill-paved, dirty, and could only be traversed on foot and here and there on horseback. From the time of the construction of the mediæval walls the level of the city had in parts actually risen to the top of the ramparts through the accumulation of dirt thrown into the streets. Sceptics on the point will find the statement fully confirmed by a glance at the old east gate or postern still in situ, and the locality at the time referred to was, it must be remembered, in respect of cleanliness, the most highly favoured in the city. The distant commerce of the city was carried on by the use of the pack-horse, whilst the local business in coals, grain, and domestic supplies was almost exclusively carried on by the use of donkeys. These animals were made to carry great loads on their backs, and they travelled in large gangs from the Northgate to the coal districts, and to other parts as occasion required and as they best could. The only roads were the Fosse Road, up Holloway, and the Via Julia, which “passed out of South Wales at the Aust Passage, and so through Bath to Cunetio, near Marlborough, and to Silchester and London.” This Via Julia traversed that part of Bath outside the walls now distinctively known as the Via Julia, through a portion of Walcot to Guinea Lane, then eastward, past the present church. The Fosse Way passed from Holloway over the Bridge, through the Southgate, along the sites of Southgate, Stall, and Union Streets, then slightly deviating to the right, passed through the Principia and the Northgate, and then, traversing the site of Walcot Street, formed a junction with the Via Julia, where the two roads now meet. These roads were the great historical highways, and although, at the period in question, they had become much dilapidated and almost ruined, they led directly to the

centres of our supplies, they clearly marked out the ancient ways; but artfully and skilfully paved as they were by the Romans, and as they were to some extent kept up in later times, they had ceased to be roads in the sense in which we think and speak of roads in the present day.' In later times, when the broad-wheel wagons were invented, they did not travel to London on the Roman roads, except on certain parts, but through wide expanses of open country, best adapted to the season, and very much according to the skill and will of the drivers, the tracks being to some extent indicated by rough landmarks. The first roads of which we have any account were the great trunk roads constructed by the Roads Commissioners, but they were very rugged, and did not admit of rapid travelling, even as late as the close of the last century. The first Act of Parliament for establishing new and systematic roads was passed about 1640, but the result was not satisfactory, and travellers often preferred the “old ways” to the new roads, which were narrow, darkened with trees, intersected with ruts and many swamps." 2 The next Act was

1 The Fosse, which evidently crosses all the middle part of England, and is to be seen and known (though in no place plainer than here) quite from Bath to Warwick, and thence to Leicester, to Newark, to Lincoln, and on to Burton, upon the banks of the Humber. We observe also how several cross-roads, as ancient as the Fosse, joined it, or branched out of it; some of which the people have by ancient usage, though corruptly, called also Fosses ; for example, the Akeman Street, which is an ancient Saxon road leading from Buckinghamshire through Oxfordshire to the Fosse, and so to Bath ; this joins the Fosse between Burford and Cirencester. Also Grimesdyke, from Oxfordshire, Wattlesbank, or Aves Ditch, from the same, and the Wold-way, also called the Fosse, crossing from Gloucester to Cirencester.-De Foe, about 1725.

2 On the visit of Princess Anne, in 1692, she used what was then commonly called a machine, in which she attempted to ascend Lansdown. We cannot from the present state of the road judge of the difficulty of overcoming the scarp, which was removed in the making of that road. The “machine” was cumbrous and heavy, and the Princess became much alarmed, her coachman stopping to give the horses