He conceived the intention to erect four uniform sides, each to have the appearance of a palace of the Corinthian order, five hundred feet long; but again he was compelled to modify his plan and only the north side exists to show the grandeur of his design. The partial failure of the scheme gave an opening to Anstey, who wrote, after the erection of the obelisk to Frederick, Prince of Wales, in the ground in the centre of the Square (then enclosed by a low wall bearing a balustrade, with gates on each side twentyfour feet broad):

But then that square-within whose centre rail'd
Lies taste upon an obelisk impal'd ;

Mark, how from servile squeamish order free,
The different buildings sweetly disagree;
This boasts a richer, that an humbler grace,
Like courtiers in, and out of place.

After many other enterprises, Wood in 1754 laid out the ground for Gay Street, which runs from the north-east side of Queen's Square due north to the architect's greatest achievement, the Circus, a circle of magnificent houses, its stages being of the Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian orders. This attracted much attention outside Bath, and when the first stone was laid on February 7, it was thought to be an event worthy of commemoration in the Gentleman's Magazine. "The first stone of the building, which

traditions of which crescent are still upheld by the residence, a few doors from Miss Austen's house, of another distinguished novelist, Mr. William Clark Russell, the lineal descendant in letters of Captain Marryat.

is to be called the King's Circus, and which is to consist of 33 elegant houses, was laid," so runs a paragraph in that periodical. "It is to be a circular area, of 318 feet diameter, surrounded by three equal and similar piles of building, in theatrical style. In the centre is to be an equestrian statue of his Majesty ; and 3 streets, 52 ft. wide, are to lead to it, each terminated with a building. But the principal approach will be one of the streets, called Burton Street, leading from Queen's Square, to the corner, in length 660 ft." Unfortunately the architect did not live to see the completion of his design, which, however, was faithfully carried out by his son, John Wood, junior, who, in 1769, following his father's methods, himself achieved fame with the wonderful Royal Crescent.

Wood, though his merits were generally acknowledged and are now undisputed, was at the time, like all successful men, subject to hostile criticism. "The same artist who planned the Circus has likewise projected a Crescent; when that is finished, we shall probably have a Star; and those who are living thirty years hence, may perhaps see all the signs of the Zodiac exhibited in architecture at Bath," Smollett wrote in " Humphrey Clinker," confusing the father with the son; and Anstey, who was not impressed by the Circus, poured ridicule upon it:

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A Circus that three ranks of columns boast,—
Three ranks of columns, like three rows of posts;
Where not to dangerous merit make pretence,
Or seek a painful, sad pre-eminence.

No kind pilaster at that giddy height
Dispels our terror or relieves our sight,
Because we're told (though different the name)
That massive and majestic are the same." *

Anstey, however, was prejudiced, for the city improvements had been the cause of his being given notice to quit his house and his garden of beech-trees, and he looked with no favourable eye upon the building operations then in progress. In angry mood he delivered himself of an epigram:

Ye men of Bath, who stately mansions rear,
To wait for tenants from the de'il knows where,
Would you pursue a plan which cannot fail,
Erect a madhouse, and enlarge your jail.

Unfortunately for Anstey, when he wrote those lines there were no prisoners in the gaols, whlch gave an easy opening for a reply by some anonymous versifier:

While crowds arrive, fast as our streets increase,
And the gaol only is an empty space;

While health and ease here court the grave and gay,
Madmen and fools alone will keep away.”

To carry out his palatial schemes as a speculation would have required vast sums, but Wood, who had little capital but a good head for business, before embarking upon his different enterprises submitted the plans to persons likely to be interested in them, and so was often able to dispose of the leases of the houses before they were built. Still, even when this *"The New Bath Guide."

was done, he required pecuniary assistance, and he was fortunate enough to enlist among his backers Ralph Allen, whom for five years he served as director of the contracts entered into by the latter.

No account of Bath in the eighteenth century can omit some mention of Ralph Allen, who was distinguished alike for his public spirit, his commercial success, and his generosity. The son of a small Cornish inn-keeper, he acted for a while as a clerk in the Exeter post-office, and, while holding this situation, was fortunate enough to obtain intelligence concerning a consignment of arms sent to Bath for the use of the rebels in 1715. He at once laid this information before Marshal Wade, the commandant of the Western district, who secured for him the appointment of the postmastership of Bath. Subsequently he married Wade's natural daughter, Miss East; entered into a most lucrative contract with the post-office to carry the cross-country mails; and, having amassed a fortune by this means and by developing the free-stone quarries in the neighbourhood of Bath, interested himself in municipal affairs, was elected alderman in 1741, and mayor in the following year.

For a while Allen resided in Lilliput Alley, close by the Abbey Church, and from his house-one wing of which was given over to his postal business—a terrace sloped down to Harrison's Walks. This residence commanded a view of the bare Hampton Down, upon which in 1732, to improve the prospect, Richard Jones erected Sham Castle. In latter years Allen, who, after the death of his first wife, had in 1730