Boys by dozens, offering to be our guides, and six or seven rival
omnibusses begging us for the hotels.
Leaving cloak and shawl, and ordering dinner at three, at the hotel
adjoining the station, we sallied forth to ramble the town over, with
three good hours before us—the return-cars leaving at four. As I just
now said, the bottom of this vase of hills is laid out in gardens, and
we crossed to the other side upon a raised road which looks down upon a
beautiful parterre of gravel walks and flowers, free to the public to
look at. But the stranger stops at every second step, to gaze about and
wonder. I had read very glowing descriptions of Bath, but my
anticipation, even of its size, was three fourths less than the reality.
Its picturesqueness is theatrical. No scene painter could cluster and
pile up palaces, gardens and spires, with more daring extravagance. The
abundant quarries of free-stone in the neighborhood, have furnished all
their building materials, and _every house_ that is not beautifully
antique, is of ornamental architecture. I saw one or two beggars, but I
did not see where they could live. Splendid squares, crescents, terraces
and colonades, monopolize the town.
We made straight for the “Pump-Room,” of course. It lies behind a
prodigally Gothic abbey, (one of the most ornate and beautiful specimens
of the Gothic I ever saw,) and with a large paved court before it,
surrounded by shops. It is merely one large room in a building, which is
one of a block, and though it was doubtless a very splendid hall when
first built, it is now outdone by the saloons of common theatres, and by
the “refreshment rooms” of railroad stations. A semicircular counter
projects from the wall on one side, studded with cake and glasses of
chalybeate water, a large mirror hangs opposite, and the recess at one
end is filled with seats and lounges for rest or gossip. Had I been the
solitary traveller I usually am, I should have sat down in a corner and
“put the screws” to the ghost of Beau Nash and the belles of his
brilliant time and circle—but I had better company than my own
imagination, and the old master of ceremonies had only a thought sent
after him.