Crossing over the hills to the north-west of Salisbury Plain, we descend
to the attractive valley of another river Avon, and come to the "Queen
of all the Spas in the World," the city of Bath. It is the chief town of
Somersetshire, and is surrounded by an amphitheatre of hills. The abbey
and principal streets are in the valley, while above, on its northern
slope, rise terraces and crescents, tier upon tier, to a height of
nearly eight hundred feet, the most conspicuous being the Royal and the
Lansdowne Crescents. Many of the buildings are handsome, and are
constructed of the white great-oolite, known as bath-stone. To its
waters this famous resort owes its importance, but from an insignificant
place Bath has risen to the highest point of popularity as a fashionable
watering-place and in architectural magnificence through the genius of
Architect Wood and Master-of-Ceremonies Beau Nash. The legendary king
Bladud is said to have first discovered the Bath waters twenty-seven
hundred years ago, and to have built a town there and dedicated the
medicinal springs to Minerva, so that "Bladud's Well" has passed into a
proverb of sparkling inexhaustibility. The Romans, passionately attached
to the luxury of the hot springs, made Bath one of their chief stations,
and here and in the neighborhood the foundations of their extensive
buildings have been traced, with the remains of altars, baths,
tessellated pavements, and ornaments, and few British towns can produce
such a collection of Roman relics. In the height of the Roman power in
the fifth century the city extended nearly three miles along the valley,
and was surrounded by a wall twenty feet high and nine feet thick. Such
a fascinating spot was naturally selected for the foundation of a
religious house at an early period, and we consequently find that the
abbey of Bath was built by King Offa in the eighth century, and
refounded by King Edgar in the tenth century. It existed until the
dissolution in 1539. The church fell into decay in the reign of Henry
VII., and the present abbey-church was then built, being for a long time
unfinished. It has recently been restored. It stands at the southern
extremity of High Street, and is a fine specimen of Perpendicular
Gothic, the plan being a cross, with a tower at the intersection rising
one hundred and sixty-two feet and flanked by octagonal turrets. The
church is two hundred and ten feet long, and has a fan-traced,
stone-vaulted roof seventy-eight feet high, while the western front
contains a magnificent window flanked by turrets carved with angels, who
are ascending and descending, but have, unfortunately, all lost their
heads. The Pump Room, which is one of the chief buildings, is a
classical structure with a Corinthian portico bearing the motto, "Water,
best of elements!" A band plays in the spacious saloon, which also
contains a statue of the genius of Bath, Beau Nash, whose monument is in
the abbey-church. Here the waters, which are the hottest in England,
reaching a temperature of 120 deg., tumble continually from a
drinking-fountain into a serpentine basin beneath. There are numerous
other baths replete with comforts for the invalid, for this is
essentially a hospital town, and the city also contains many stately
public and private buildings, and its Victoria Park and Sydney Gardens
are beautiful and popular resorts. The wild scenery of the neighborhood
provides myriads of attractive drives and walks, while on top of
Lansdowne Hill, where Beckford is buried, is his tower, one hundred and
fifty feet high and commanding extensive views. The Bath waters, which
are alkaline-sulphurous with a slight proportion of iron, are considered
beneficial for palsy, rheumatism, gout, and scrofulous and cutaneous
affections. The chief spring discharges one hundred and twenty-eight
gallons a minute. While a hundred years ago Bath was at the height of
its celebrity, the German spas have since diverted part of the stream of
visitors.