This city appears to be of great antiquity, from the infinite number of antient coins, ftatues, altars, infcriptions, and other monuments of Roman history, which have been, and are still daily discovered in and about it; mention whereof is made in Camden, Guidot, Wood, and many other authors. It is evident, that the City of Bath has been several times deftroyed, either by civil commotions, or by fires; and that the old city was ten or twelve feet below the prefent one; for in digging fome cellars to the houfe where Mr. Dodd, apothecary, now lives, in Stall-street, there was found (on the 29th of June, 1753) a pedestal; and the following is a juft representation, with the infcription on it, and may now be seen in the grand ftair-cafe of the Guildhall, leading to the Banqueting Room. LOCVM RELI GIOSVM PERIN SOLENTIAME RV TV M N VIRT V TET EMERIT V S* * EMERITUS [In English.-This religious place, infolently thrown down, Caius Serverius Emeritus purified and restored to the name and virtue of Auguftus, in teftimony of his gratitude.] In order to illuftrate this infcription, it is neceffary to obferve, that the Romans carried their adulations to their Emperors fo far, as not only to flatter them in the groffeft manner while living, but to deify them after they were dead, by erecting temples and altars to them. Of this the foregoing infcription is a proof; for it appears that Caius Severius had purified or cleansed fuch a place from its ruins and profanation, and had restored it to its original use, and dedicated it again to the virtue and name of the deceased Emperor, to whom it had been at first confecrated. In the year 1755, the Abbey-Houfe or Priory was taken down, which stood where the Duke of Kingston's baths now are, and the walls of it extended to the Abbey-Green and the back of Church-street.. In digging out the antient foundation of the Priory for the prefent new building, the workmen found, about eight feet below the furface of the earth, feveral rough-hewn ftone coffins, with the seeming entire, but mouldering remains of human bodies of different ages and fizes, and feveral pieces of coin of the fucceffive Saxon Kings; the number of pieces, and different reigns, poffibly denote the age of the interred. Three or four feet below the burying-place of the Saxons, were discovered fome cavities which led to the remains of feveral very noble Roman baths and fudatories, constructed on their elegant plans, with floors fufpended upon fquare brick pillars, and furrounded with tubulated bricks, for the equal conveyance of heat and vigour. Their dimensions were very large. One of thefe Saxon coffins lay level with the floors of the fudatories, and another lay upon the shafts or part of the upright of one of the pilafters of the great *EMERITUS may either be the firname of Caius Severius, or may fignify that he was paft the military age, and had been bonourably difcharged from the duties of war, for bis past good services. +PEG ftands for Pofuit Ergo Gratitudinis, and is therefore rendered, in teftimony of his gratitude. The C inverted, in antient inscriptions, fometimes fiands for the initial letter of a woman's name, and may therefore fignify, that his wife Caia joined with him in this pious office. bath bath; fo that it is to be prefumed, the ruins of these baths were fo far from being known when the foundation of the Priory or Abbey-Houfe was laid, that they then hardly knew of the ground having been confecrated to a christian burial place. Hence it appears, that the Roman foldiery, though in fo remote a station, entertained higher ideas of the conveniency, elegance, and use of baths, than the settled inhabitants of Great-Britain. The fpring which fupplied these baths being cleared from the rubbish, &c. and the feveral antient sewers for carrying off the water from the baths repaired, his Grace the late Duke of Kingston built on the same spot several baths and fudatories, upon an entire new plan, approved by fome of the most eminent physicians, as well for the elegance and neatness of the defign, as the utility of the feveral apart ments. The city being furrounded with an amphitheatrical circle of hills, and fituated to the west, is a confiderable addition to its delights: for Hippocrates was of opinion, that a city fo advantageoufly placed, and fo much fheltered from the north-easterly winds, must be the most healthy to live in. Although its fituation is low, the air is at all times very falubrious, and the inhabitants in general remarkably healthy. The late Mrs. Chandler, in her poem, entitled, A Defcription of Bath, makes the following obfervations on the City and its Waters : "If but one leper cur'd makes Jordan's streams "In facred writ a venerable theme; "What honour's to thy fovereign waters due, "The min'ral fteams, which from the baths arife, "From noxious vapours clear the neighbouring skies: "When fevers bore an epidemic sway, "Unpeopled towns, fwept villages away; "The plague but gently touch'd within their sphere. "Bleft fource of health! feated on rifing ground, "With friendly hills by nature guarded round; "From eastern blafts, and fultry fouth fecure, "The air's balfamic, and the foil is pure. An An Account of the Bath Waters, the Caufe of their Heat, their Virtue in many Disorders, taken inwardly or used externally, the best time of drinking them, the quantity generally taken, and the proper time of Bathing. HE Bath Waters, it is conjectured, derive their heat Tfrom paffing through mineral beds, or being impreg nated with the vapours of pyrites; or perhaps they derive this heat from an extrinfic cause, or fubterraneous fire in the bowels of the earth; very probable arguments have been urged, and great authorities there are on both fides; but we pretend not to decide on which truth lies. It is fufficient for our purpose that the fact is certain, and that we have indubitable proofs that our hot waters have retained their warmth and their virtues through a long course of ages, and that, whatever the cause may be, there are no juft grounds to apprehend that their falubrious qualities will ever fail. Other authors imagine, that their origin is owing to a mixture and fermentation of two different fources diftilling from the tops of two mountains, (Claverton and Lanfdown) meeting in the valley where the town ftands: for all hills have a neft of metals and minerals, and their bowels are cavernous and hollow. It is not therefore improbable, but that on Claverton-Down there fhould lie the fulphureous matter, which must rise by impregnation from that excellent ftone lying in feveral parts of the mountain, which hardens in the air, and grows cafed with a nitrous coat by time and cold weather; for all the mineral waters owe their virtue to an impregnation of rain water generated from the clouds, which are impreffed in their courfe by mountains or eminences, and fall on the refpective included minerals. And it is very well known that a due mixture of fulphur* * Dr. CHARLETON, in his pamphlet, entitled "A Chymical Analyfis of the Bath Waters," afcribes that great degree of heat which is found in the Bath Waters to elementary fire, as to its most probable caufe; this, if it exifts in any bodies at all, does fo most eminently in iron and brimstone. It fhould feem then that these waters, by washing off, feparating, and taking up, in their paffage through the earth, the particles of these minerals, fet at liberty this imprifoned element, which thereupon communicates its warmth and activity to the fluid. and and filings of iron, moistened with water, will produce any degree of heat. This ftone, therefore, must have a large quantity of fulphureous or bituminous matter in its compofition, as will be evident to a natural philofopher, from thefe mentioned qualities; neither is it improbable, that the ferruginous or iron-tinctured water takes its rife from Lanfdown; the stone of it being hard, and on the top flinty, black, and acrimonious, as iron ore is known to be.-Thefe two mountains, thus tinged by rain-water falling from the proper heights, meeting in fome caverns in the valley, and there fermenting, produce that hot, milky, foft liquid, called BATH WATER; far beyond any hot mineral water for its delicacy, and is thought to be fuperior to any other hot water hitherto discovered on the habitable globe for its comfortable heat, as it poffeffes that milkiness, detergency, and middling heat, fo friendly to weakened conftitutions, which all other hot waters want in the due degree; either being too hot or too cold, to do any great good in cafes where they are prescribed. These waters are beneficial in almost all chronical diftempers, and can hurt in none, except in hæmorrhages, inflammations, or bad lungs, unless they be over-dosed in quantity, or too high or too hot a regimen be joined with them; for they are very grateful to the ftomach, have a fine fulphureous steely taste, like that of the German Spa, or Pyrmont; and procure a great appetite, and good spirits, if cautiously managed; but if high meats and strong liquors be indulged, they create inflammatory diforders; they are of a strengthening, cleanfing, attenuating, opening nature. They comfort the nerves, warm the body, and are good in all conftitutions: And among the many complaints for the cure of which the Bath Waters are remarkable, the Gout perhaps bears the first place; in bringing the paroxyfms of this diforder to a happy crifis, by fixing them in their proper fituation in the extremities, and thus relieving the head, ftomach, and vital parts; in promoting the exit of the gouty matter by an eafy and gentle perfpiratory discharge, and thus, in a manner moft agreeable to nature, giving a full and complete termination to the paroxyfm, and by that means rendering the intervals more complete, and the limbs lefs likely to become rigid. In this diforder, the Bath Waters inwardly taken are unparallelled; nor are they lefs efficacious in certain ftages of it, when externally applied. Bathing, in a decline of a fit of the Gout, |