churches of St. Michael and St. Mary were falling into ruins; and only the old Town Hall in the centre of the Market-Place, built by Inigo Jones in 1625 in the Ionic and Doric orders, resting on arches, and ornamented with statues of King Offa and King Edgar, attracted attention in company with the one fine structure, the Abbey Church.

The Abbey Church is believed to be on the site of the nunnery founded by King Osric in 676 and the "Mira Fabrica" in which King Edgar was crowned nearly three hundred years later. The Abbey, for so it has always been called, though it has had no Abbot since the early Norman days, was long neglected and fell into so ruinous a condition in the fifteenth century that it had either to be rebuilt or abandoned. There is a legend that Bishop Oliver King, who in 1495 was translated from Exeter to Bath, had a dream in 1499 in which he saw the figure of the Deity, below which was a ladder with angels ascending and descending, and at the foot an olive-tree supporting a crown (or, another version says, a crown of olive leaves), and heard a voice proclaim: "Let an Olive establish the Crown, and let a King restore the Church." Seeing in this a divine ordinance, and, accepting the allusion as a reference to his name, he at once set on foot the rebuilding of the church, and had designed for the west façade a representation of his vision and in the north side the olive and the crown, with a distich:

Trees going to choose their King,

Said, Be to us an Olive King.*

* "The building of this church in the manner we now see it,

The work was interrupted by the Reformation and by the suppression of the monasteries in 1539, when the church was dismantled by the Commissioners of Henry VIII., who sold all the lead, glass, iron, and even the bells, and left only the bare walls standing. Operations were resumed in 1572 by Peter Chapman, and the work was completed under the supervision of Bishop James Montague in 1616. Restored in 1874 by Sir Gilbert Scott, it shares with York Minster the title of the Lantern of England, owing to its fifty-two lofty windows, many of which are stained glass put up in memory of distinguished personages, and these, with the innumerable memorial tablets on the wall, gave rise to Quin's famous epigram :

These walks, so full of monuments and busts,

Show how Bath waters serve to lay the dust.

The fine old Abbey is not in the usual shady close, but in a great flagged place, where its splendid proportions are admirably set off. This, however, was not the case when Nash reigned over Bath, for then, and indeed until nearly the middle of the last century, houses abutted not only on the south but also on the north side, which latter blocked up the avenues from west to east (at this time, into the Orange Grove) so

would cost in those days full £30,000, and therefore, how light soever some people may make dreams, it is nevertheless certain that St. Peter's Church at Bath has testified for near two hundred and fifty years back, and is like to do the same for many centuries to come; that something very material has come from a dream."-Wood: "Description of Bath."

that the only public way was through the north aisle of the Abbey.

The Citizens of Bath, with vast delight,

To hide their noble church from vulgar sight,
Surround its venerable sides with shops,

And decorate its roofs with chimney pots.

The

Bath at the end of the seventeenth century was still a walled city, entered by four gates. The length of the wall was about three thousand feet, and enclosed an area of some twenty-five acres; the city being an irregular polygon of six sides, some of which were straight, others much curved, and all uneven. longest and straightest side was that to the north, about nine hundred and forty feet, with Counter's Tower at the east end and Gascoign's Tower at the west end. About one hundred and seventy feet from Counter's Tower was the principal entrance to the city, and from this North Gate to the South Gate was a distance of eleven hundred feet, the same space separating the East Gate from the West Gate. The position of these gates may be indicated by still existing streets: North Gate, demolished in 1764, was at the junction of the Upper Borough Walls with Northgate Street; South Gate, taken down in 1755, was at the top of Hare (now called Southgate) Street; West Gate, which was removed in 1766, stood at the bottom of Westgate Street; East Gate is still extant, beneath the back entrance to the Empire Hotel in the Orange Grove.

The Corporation of Bath, clear-sighted enough in other respects, under the delusion that the develop

ment of the city without the walls would tend to the disadvantage of the inhabitants within these artificial boundaries, vigorously opposed all schemes for extension, with the result that, with the exception of a few detached houses beyond the West Gate, there was nothing on the farther side until in 1707 George Trim, a wealthy clothier, built a street named after him, when, to communicate with it, a bridge was constructed over a ditch, and a second gate inserted in the North wall.

The result of this repressive policy was that so late as 1728 the city comprised no more than fifteen streets, sixteen lanes, five open areas, four terrace walks, three alleys, four throngs, and a few private courts *—to quote Macaulay, who, however, depended mainly for his facts on Wood's " Description of Bath: "a maze of only four or five hundred houses, crowded within an old wall in the vicinity of the Avon." †

The description given by Wood of Bath residences in 1725 shows that they were far from agreeable, and it is not difficult to believe, with Fleming, that on account of the poor accommodation many declined to come to the city.‡ "The boards of the dining-rooms and most other floors were made of a brown colour, with soot and small beer to hide the dirt, as well as their own imperfections; and if the walls of any of the rooms were covered with wainscot, it was with such as was mean and never painted. The chimney

*Tyte: "Bath in the Eighteenth Century."

"History of England."

"Life of Timothy Ginnadrake.”

pieces, hearths, slabs, were all of freestone, and these were daily cleaned with a particular whitewash, which, by paying tribute to everything that touched it, soon rendered the brown floors like the starry firmament. The doors were slight and thin, and the best locks had only iron coverings varnished. With cane or rush bottomed chairs the principal rooms were furnished, and each chair seldom exceeded three halfcrowns in value, nor were the tables, or chests of drawers, better in their kind, the chief having been made of oak. The looking-glasses were small, mean, and few in number; and the chimney furniture consisted of a slight iron fender, with tongs, poker and shovel all of no more than three or four shillings value. With Kidderminster stuff, or at best with Cheyne, the woollen furniture of the principal rooms was made; and such as was of linen consisted either of corded dimity or coarse fustian; the matrons of the city, their daughters and their maids flowering the latter with worsted, during the intervals between the seasons, to give the beds a gaudy look. . . . The weekly price of lodgings thus furnished, was ten shillings a room during the season; and, at the same time, garrets for servants yielded five shillings a piece; but out of season these prices were reduced one half." *

This account, written by an eye-witness, has generally been accepted as accurate, but Mr. Peach has thrown doubt upon it. The latter states that the lodgings described by Wood were only such as the poorer visitors were glad to get in the minor houses of the * "Description of Bath."