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PREFACE.

TH

HE candid Reader is here prefented with a NEW BATH GUIDE, or USEFUL. POCKET COMPANION for the City of BATH.The Utility of the Work fufficiently Speaks for itself; we wish only that the Execution may be equal to the Defign.

This NEW BATH GUIDE contains every Thing relating to Bath, worthy Obfervation, and may therefore be properly called a Ufeful Pocket. Companion. The Reader cannot expect a complete Account of this City in fo narrow e Cam-pajs; but perhaps he may find what is fufficient to afford him fome Amufement.

Notwithstanding this Book is chiefly defigned for the Use of the Strangers who refort hither, yet it will prove equally useful to the Inhabitants them-felves, as particular Regard has been paid to every Information that could be procured to render it as complete as poffible. For this Purpose, an: Account is given of the Antiquity of the City; its Situation; the Difcovery of the Mineral Wa

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ters, and their having medicinal Virtues ; alfo the Reality and Eminence of King BLADUD, the firft Founder of the Baths. The Cuufe of the Heat of thefe Waters; the many Disorders they are of infinite Service in; the best Time of drinking them, and the Quantity generally taken. Orders for the better Regulation of the Chairmen; a correct Table of the Distances from the most public Places of Refort to feveral Parts of the City; and the Prices to be taken for each Fare they carry. Together with an exact Account of the Arrival and going out of the Poft, according to the late Alterations, &c. &c.

This NEW BATH GUIDE is entered in the Hall. Book of the Company of Stationers; and whoever pirates the Whole, or any Fart of it, will be profecuted as the Law directs.

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Concife Account of the City of Bath

ANTIENT and MODERN.

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HE City of BATH is about 13 measured Miles from KRISTOL, and 107 from London; is fituated in the North-Eaft Part, of the County of Somerfet; environ'd with a Number of fruitful Hills, full of excellent Springs, which are conveyed by Leaden Pipes to almost every Houfe in the City ;was famous in the Time of the Romans for its Medicinal Waters, called by PTOLOMY the hot Waters, by ANTONINUS the Waters of the Sun, by the Britons Caer Baden, the City of Baths, and Caer Ennant, the City of Ointments, and by the Saxons, who took it from the Britons, Akmanchester, or the City of Valetudinarians. Its Baths are named the King's Bath, the Queen's Bath, the Hot Bath, the Cross Bath, and the Leper's Bath; of which I fhall treat more fully in fome of the following Pages.

This Place was originally a Refort of Cripples, and diseased Perfons; but is now as much frequented by the Gay and Healthy for their Pleafure, as the Sick for their Health. Its Situation is in a fine fruitful Valley, which every one ought to esteem as a remarkable Gift from Heaven, on Account of the hot Springs that issue out of the Bowels of the Earth in different Parts of the City.

The first Discovery of thefe falubrious Springs (as handed down to us by Tradition) was by a British King called Bly

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den Doith, that his BLADUD, whom Mr. CAMBDEN calls the Sooth-Sayer,

In the King's Bath, there is a Statue of King BLADUD, which was erected in the Year 1699; under which is the following Infcription, engraved on Copper:

BLADUD,

Son of LUD HUDIBRAS,
Eighth King of the Britons,
From BRUTE,

A great Philof pher and Mathematician,
Bred at Athens,

And recorded the first Discoverer and Founder of these Baths,
Eight Hundred and Sixty three Years before CHRIST,

That is,

Two Thousand Six Hundred and Sixty-two Years,
To the prefent Year,

One Thousand, Six Hundred and Ninety-nine.

Of the firft Difcovery of the Mineral Waters of BATH, and their having Medicinal Virtues.

CHA

HANCE being the common Source of fuch Discoveries as bring Mineral Fountains, and the healing Virtues of the Waters, to the Knowledge of Mankind, we fhall find it manifefting itfelf in a very high Degree at Bath; and, in the moft eminent Cafe, leading an ingenious young Prince to one of the greatest Secrets of Nature, for the Cure of a loathfome Difeafe which he laboured under.

The Story touching this Prince having been folemnly handed down to the Elders of the prefent Age; as they received it, we will here repeat the Substance of it.

"While BLADUD, the only Son of LUD HUDIBRAS, the eighth King of the Britons from Brute, was a young Man, he, by fome Accident or other, got the Leprofy; and left he, hould infect the Nobility and Gentry, that attended his Father's Levy, with that Distemper, they all joined in an humble Petition to the King, that the Prince might be banished

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the British Court. LUD HUDIBRAS, finding himself under a Neceffity of complying with the Petition of his principal Subjects, ordered BLADUD to depart his Palace; and the Queen, upon parting with her only Son, prefented him with a Ring, as a Token, by which the fhould know him again, if he should ever get cured of his loath fome Difeafe.

"The young Prince was not long upon his Exile, nor had he travelled far, before he met with a poor Shepherd feeding his Flocks upon the Downs, with whom, after a little Difcourse about the Time of the Day, and the Variations of the Weather, he exchanged his Apparel, and then endeavoured for Employ in the fame Way. Fortune fo far favoured BLADUD'S Defigns, that he foon obtained from a Swineherd, } who lived near where Cainfham now ftands, the Care of a Drove of Pigs, which he in a fhort Time infected with the Leprofy; and to keep the Difafter as long as poffible from his Mafter's Knowledge, propofed to drive the Pigs under his Care to the other Side of the Avon, to fatten them with the Acorns of the Woods that covered the Sides of the neighbour. ing Hills.

"BLADUD had behaved himself fo well in his Service, and had appeared fo honeft in every Thing he did, that his Propofal was readily complied with; and the very next Day was appointed for putting it in Execution: So that the Prince, providing himself with every Thing that was neceffary, fet out with his Herd early in the Morning; and foon meeting with a fhallow Part of the Avon, crofs'd it with his Pigs, in Token whereof he called that Place by the Name of Swineford.

"Here the rifing Sun, breaking through the Clouds, first faluted the Royal Herdfman with his comfortable Beams; and while he was addreffing himself to the glorious Luminary, and praying that the Wrath of Heaven against him might be averted, the whole Drove of Pigs, as if feized with a Phrenzy, ran away, purfuing their Courfe up the Valley by the Side of the River, 'til they reached the Spot of Ground where the hot Springs of Bath boil up.

"The Scum which the Water naturally emits, mixing with Leaves of Trees and decayed Weeds, had then made the

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Lard

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