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 THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE 
 
 OF 
 
 LOS 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 CALIFORNIA 
 ANGELES
 
 - 
 
 7//
 
 HISTORIC HOUSES IN BATH, 
 
 And their Associations. 
 
 DEDICATED, WITH GREAT RESPECT, BY PERMISSION, 
 
 TO 
 
 THE RIGHT HONOURABLE LADY LLANOVER. 
 
 BY 
 
 R. E. PEACH. 
 
 LONDON: SIMPKIN, MARSHALL, & Co., STATIONERS' HALL COURT. 
 BATH: R. E. PEACH, 8, BRIDGE STREET. 
 
 1883.
 
 DA 
 
 5 3P3 
 
 v, l 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 J N presenting this small work to the public, we entreat their kind and indulgent 
 forbearance. We are conscious of its many defects, and we feel, after all, that 
 we may have only been the humble pioneers of some more able worker in the f eld 
 of local Biography, Bibliography, and History. The chief difficulty we have had 
 to contend with has been to condense the ample — too ample — materials which we 
 found existing, into the space at our command, so as to render them interesting and 
 of value to the general reader. Another difficulty, however, 7cas to deal with 
 the local stories and traditions which abound in such endless profusion in relation 
 to the past. Fact and tradition have become so intermingled that the effort to separate 
 them gave us no small trouble, the result being in many instances that the tradition 
 was worthless and the fact useless. The gossip, the scandal, and the follies 
 of a past age are not ivorth reviving; but t lie re is a good deal, besides what is to 
 be found iti books and the ordinary records, which, although possibly beneath 
 the notice of the dignified historian, is not without its intrinsic value in the annals 
 of a city like Bath. What the Romans left us we have long known ; and 
 recently have been brought to light once more the evidences of their ingenuity, 
 skill, and wondrous power, in adapting Nature's bounteous healing springs to the 
 luxuries, as well as to the ills, of a people whose epoch closed sixteen centuries 
 ago. 1 These researches to the comparatively few are all important ; modem art — or 
 
 1 No new discovery has been made, as many suppose, with regard to these Roman Baths. In 
 1754-5, excavations were made, laying bare what we no70 see, and 'what 'was known (imperfectly, no 
 doubt J to exist ccntuiies be/ore. It is due to Major Davis. F.S.A., that the present operations 
 have been undertaken with a more definite object, and are likely to be attended by a permanent and 
 practical result. 
 
 It is certain that much of what the Romans left, much that they either discovered, or on which 
 they brought to bear their superior intelligence and power of development, has been altogether lost, 
 though much perhaps may gradually be re-discovered. An instance is worth (/noting. Lady I'erney 
 fays: " Royat is a watering-place which has lately sprung into favour,- it has hardly yet indeed 
 " attained its majority. Five and twenty years ago a cure remarked that in -winter the sinno always 
 "/netted at a particular spot ; a hole was dug, and the hot water bubbled up from the old volcanic 
 
 f* •' \ A £ \ * > f *
 
 IV. PREFACE. 
 
 relics of the last century which only speak of the taste and grandeur of that period — 
 to them is of mere passing interest ; but to the many it possesses a charm and 
 interest which requires little or no special knowledge to understand and appreciate. 
 It is easier to call up visions of those whose names we bear, whose wit, whose 
 wisdom, whose benevolence, perchance, reflected honour upon the family, than of 
 sturdy Roman, Saxon, or Dane, whose exploits adorn the pages of Palgrave, 
 Kemble, or Freeman. If Mrs. Ridddl had written the following passage with 
 direct and special reference to Bath, she could scarcely have succeeded better in 
 describing the earlier built but now neglected mansions of the last century : — " So 
 
 " the neighbourhood, notwithstanding the depth of the valley in 
 
 " which it is noiv reposing, stood, in the days that are gone, on the very summit 
 "of the hill of fashion ; and there still remain a few of the ancient houses, that 
 " speak, with their wide staircases and massive balustrades, and spacious chambers 
 " and strange carved chimney-pieces, voicelessly yet eloquently, of the wealth and 
 " magnificence that once abode in them." Galloway's Buildings, once the abodes of 
 the lively Mrs. Thrale, of the brilliant Mrs. Delany, and of the amiable Miss Burney, 
 and a few houses scattered about the same locality, fully ans7ver to this description. 
 When we contemplate the substantial character as well as the elegance of these 
 houses, we think they justify the belief that in all the characteristics of substantial 
 advantages in a dwelling they will bear comparison with the best nineteenth century 
 houses of the same class. They are dingy and dirty now, because they have been 
 hidden by modern gim-crack buildings which, not having answered even the pur- 
 pose for which they were intended, have met a worse fate than their older 
 neighbours, which are stately even in their neglect and obscurity. 
 
 If we go back a century earlier, it is clear that the wealthy valetudinarians 
 who sought the Baths for health, or who came for recreation and change of 
 scene, endured no great hardships in the parlours and dining-rooms of those 
 quaint old houses, whose fronts and windows protruded far into the narrow streets, 
 ill-paved and ill-lighted as they were. In the days of Prynne and Henry 
 C ha I'M an (1660), the public health and sanitary precautions gave little trouble to 
 the governing body of the city; and yet, notwithstanding the fad that the city was im- 
 mured within t/u city walls, and thereby excluded from a free current of air, we do not 
 
 " communications in the heart of the out//, which once raised the line of sugar-loaf hills, the now 
 " extinct craters of the l'uy-de-l)t>me and its neighlours. and poured forth the streams of lava which 
 " still can be distinctly traced along their sides. The waters were known to the Romans, who, with the 
 " wondeiful instinct which detected everything of value or interest in a new province, had made their 
 " stone ' pist mi .' and used .'he spring for their wat m baths, traces of which were disinterred when the 
 " ' wurce' w.n /, dl ipvered." " Contemporary Review," December, 1882.
 
 PREFACE. V. 
 
 find any record of those terrible visitations of disease to which most cities at that time 
 were often subjected. A century earlier still we know that Queen Elizabeth etnpha- 
 tically declared, in the very sweetest part of the city, that her Royal nose was offended 
 by a stink; and although " Her Highness" distinctly expressed her good pleasure 
 that the cause of the said " stink " must be removed, and means and money were 
 provided for that purpose, the cause and the " stink " remained. It may be 
 worth mentioning that the extent and boundaries of the city in 1572 are 
 supposed to be delineated in the Map, called Jones's Map, because it is some- 
 times found done up with that old writer's book, " The Bathes of Bathes Ayde," 
 but it is an error made by nearly every writer on Bath. That book ivas published 
 without a Map, and there is no Map entitled to be called Jones's Map at all. 
 The late lamented Dr. Wilbraham Falconer was, previous to his death, engaged 
 upon an enquiry into the genuineness of the so-called " Jones's Map," and he was 
 fully convinced that this Map was published at a later period than Jones's work. 
 This conclusion of Dr. Falconer is partly established by the fact that a 
 gentleman of this city has, amongst many other curious maps and prints, 
 a tracing or drawing of a Map, quite unique, in the Sloane Collection of 
 the British Museum} Now, on comparing this Map of 1572 with the 
 so-called Map of Jones of the same ostensible date, the latter is found to contain 
 a much larger area than the former, and this naturally determines the fact that 
 Bath was smaller in Elizabeth's reign, and during her visit, than it has been 
 commonly supposed to be. At this period it is probable — almost certain, indeed — 
 that Bath had to a great extent regained some of that former emine?ice from which 
 it had declined. Many historians and antiquaries are of opinion that, after the 
 devastating fires and massacres from which Bath suffered after the Norman 
 Conquest, there was a second " Period of Desolation." This seems to receive some 
 confirmation from the words of an early chronicler, which are given in " Malvern 
 " Chase ; an episode of the Wars of Roses and Battle of Tewkesbury" 1472 : — 
 " We rode to the Village of Bath, famous for its hot springs and Roman 
 " ruins, and from thence I sent scouts to the important city of Bristol, where they 
 
 1 " The coloured sketch-book 0/ Geo. Smith, dated 1572., in the Sloane Collection of the British 
 " Museum, and numbered 2596. It consists of coloured Maps he made of Exeter, Bristol, Oxford, 
 " York, and Bath ; and three Views of London, and one of Stonehenge. The Hath Map faces directly 
 " south. The difference bet-ween this and Jones' s map consists in this having a complete row of houses 
 "on each side of Broad Street, continuing up from the church of St. Michael's {extra muros). It has 
 "four small tcrwers on the east Tmuu wall, three on the south east, and three on the south west, and the 
 " wall is equally fortified and complete all round the city, these towers and wall not appearing in 'Jones's 
 " map. '1 here is also a church, which Jones does not give, in Claverton Street, just as the road turns
 
 VI. PREFACE. 
 
 " learned that the Lancastrian army was embarrassed by the presence of Queen 
 "Margaret, her son, Prince Edward, and daughter-in-law, the Princess Anne; 
 " also that they had been well received by the Bristol citizens, who furnished them 
 " with food, men, and money." 
 
 This inversion of chronological order exhibits more clearly the contrasts of the 
 periods referred to. In the earliest it is clear that, although the walls were intact, 
 there was no garrison, and the city offered no strategic point of resistance or attack to 
 the contending forces. Municipal government had either ceased altogether, or had 
 become powerless, if not useless. Trade, which once had been so flourishing, had 
 declined, and all public spirit appears to have been crushed out of the citizens. Pi the 
 following century, when Leland visited . the city (1542), there would seem from his 
 account to have been no municipal archives, and little tradition to guide him in his 
 description of the city. His account of the walls, given entirely from his own obser- 
 vations, is curious, and shows great acuteness and intelligence. P is remarkable, 
 moreover, that his description, when compared with the Map of Smith (1572), 
 confirms the statement made by later writers as to the renovation of the walls and 
 rebuilding of the towers, not long before Queen Elizabeth's visit in 1574. Leland 
 says — " Ln the walles at this tyme be no Tourres, saving over the Tonne Gate." 
 There was also, he says, " a peace (of the wall) lakking about Gascoyu's- Tower." Ln 
 Smith's map the towers are depicted, and the walls are without a rift of any kind. 
 There had evidently been a revival of the trade in this century, though Leland says — 
 " Syns the death of Style, Kent, and Chapman, the clothe trayde hath summewhat 
 " decayed." The trade, however, rapidly revived, and with it the municipal spirit, 
 for it is clear that, at the time of Queen Elizabeth's visit, the Baths and public 
 institutions, which had fallen into neglect, if not decay, were objects of which the 
 citizens were proud. And, no doubt, the visit of the Queen gave so much encouragement 
 to the city, that it led to the obtaining of that Charter under which its liberties 
 were enlarged, and its civic institutions consolidated and improved. The vicissitudes 
 of later and troublous times are too well known. Bath shared, with the rest of the 
 nation, the shocks and turmoil of civil war ; but with the return of more settled 
 government, the city sunk for a time into ignoble contentment and lethargy. 
 The walls remained, though they afforded neither protection nor utility. P was 
 
 " round from llw Old Bridge ; and Ihci e is a continuation of houses on both sides, from the south gate 
 " to tlie bridge, which it not so complete in Jones's, Stall's Church is made to he nearly at the south end 
 " of the High Street, though the in, if of Smith being only one-third the size of Jones' may cause this to 
 ■1 so. St. James's Church and the two Town Mills are not in Smith. There is a church, St. 
 " Michael's, (intra tuurosj close to the Cross Bath, not in 'Jones's. 'There seems /,< be a considerable 
 " difference in the streets and houses west of South gate Street, between Jones and Smith."
 
 PREFACE. VU. 
 
 pardonable that the citizens should cling to them with affection. They could not bring 
 their minds to destroy the historical symbols of an earlier age and ruder times. And 
 when the wave of civilization and advancement came with such irresistible force 
 in the following century, it swept away the whole structure, leaving scarcely a " rack 
 " behind." It seems, indeed, a matter much to be deplored, that some vestiges of 
 t/iese walls were not preserved in localities where, by their preservation, no incon- 
 veniences would have been experienced, and which would not have retarded for one 
 moment the progress of modern enterprise. 
 
 We have exceeded the limits we proposed to ourselves, though leaving much 
 to be done. We hope, however, that whilst completing the work so far as it goes, 
 we shall be able, at no distant day, to bring out a Supplemental Series to 
 comprehend the subjects we are obliged to omit from the present. 
 
 R. E. PEACH. 
 
 July, 1883.
 
 NOTICE. 
 
 We respectfully inform our readers that in consequence of our great desire to 
 include as much as possible in the body of the Work, we have been obliged to omit an 
 Index ; but, as we have already stated, it is our intention to publish either a 
 Supplement to or a Second Series of the present Volume, with which a Copy 
 of the Index will be issued gratis to the Subscribers of the present Series.
 
 Introductory Chapter. 
 
 "They are the abstract, and brief chronicles of the time." 
 
 HE object of this little work is to supply what cannot readily be 
 obtained in the ordinary way from Guide-Books and Local Histories. 
 To the general reader who is interested in Bath and its past associa- 
 tions with eminent personages, who have made it their home by 
 adoption, or who were native-born citizens, this compendious sketch may afford 
 information or amusement, and perchance both. 
 
 It is, perhaps, worth explaining that, from a variety of circumstances, 
 absolute accuracy is difficult of attainment, even in cases coming within com- 
 paratively recent times. Localities which were the fashionable quarters 
 and promenades of the last century, are such no longer. Many of the houses 
 once so elegant and commodious, are either partly removed or are so 
 transformed, that they can no longer be recognized. The portions still 
 remaining are disfigured with mean modern additions or frontages, to adapt 
 them for trading purposes. 
 
 Again : it happens, from the exigencies of changes in localities or 
 other vicissitudes, that many houses occupied by " worthies " of a past age 
 have disappeared altogether, and only the sites can be traced on the 
 old maps. 
 
 Of the City Gates scarcely a trace remains, but the historic interest of 
 these buildings survives ; and we propose in the course of these pages to give 
 them their due share of honour. 
 
 Bath, in common with many other old cities of greater or less historical 
 importance, has suffered severely during the close of the last and the beginning 
 of the present century, from the ruthless hand of the destroyer, or the pesti- 
 lential spirit of utility, which has been too apt to consider rather what goods 
 were to be found in pulling down fine houses, or in hiding them by hideous 
 parasitical surroundings, than the good to be perpetuated in preserving them. 
 To illustrate our meaning, let us mention Ralph Allen's town-house — one
 
 u. Introduction. 
 
 of the elder Wood's masterpieces — a fine example of classic architecture. 
 A stranger might look in vain for it amidst the incongruous and mean structures 
 that hide it from observation ; and many people who have lived years in Bath 
 may have never seen or even heard of its existence, although what remains of it 
 stands in the very heart, and close to the most frequented thoroughfare, of the city. 
 Standing at the north-western end of the North Parade, facing Hampton Down and 
 Sham Castle (built by Allen himself), it must have presented a most beautiful object 
 before it was sacrificed to meet a mean spirit of doubtful utilitarianism. It is 
 incomprehensible that, as soon as the breath w r as out of the body of this genial 
 and generous-hearted man, who had done so much for Bath, and had encouraged 
 by his munificent patronage the genius of Wood, the city should have permitted 
 almost the first and most useful effort of that genius to be utterly obscured by 
 such unsightly buildings as those by which it is surrounded. It has been 
 used as a printing office, and at the present time it is let out in " flats " to 
 working men. 
 
 The imperious demands of modern progress doubtless sometimes 
 render it necessary to sacrifice buildings which from association, if not from 
 any intrinsic architectural importance, are replete with historic interest and 
 touching memories of the past. One such instance may be especially 
 mentioned here — namely, Bell-Tree House, which stood upon a portion of the 
 site now occupied by the Royal United Hospital in Beau Street, then called 
 Bell-Tree Lane.* This house, which is depicted on the maps from 1735 t0 1 785, 
 was formerly the Rectory-House of St. James's parish before the benefice merged 
 in that of St. Peter and St. Paul f during the reign of Elizabeth. This house 
 reverted to the Corporation, and became the Roman-Catholic Mission-House 
 from 1 7 18 to the close, almost, of the century. 
 
 For many of the interesting facts given in the body of the work relating 
 to this Mission, we are indebted to Mrs. Jervis, of 28, Holland Park, London, 
 
 • So called probably from the circumstance related by Wood : — " The next public work at Rath 
 was the Hospital, dedicated to St. Katherine, which was founded by seven maiden sisters, sirnamed 
 Bimburic, and placed south of Bellinus's Tree ; to the eastward of which Tree, r \ honias Bellot founded 
 and built another Hospital." 
 
 t The whole of the Ecclesiastical system of Bath proper, was then consolidated, and the 
 patronage vested in the Corporation, whose nominee to the Rectory appointed the ("urates of the 
 several parishes. It must be noted that Bathwick and Walcot wen; not integral parts of Ecclesiastical 
 Bath, because they were not, as now, parts of civil and municipal Bath.
 
 Introduction. til. 
 
 a lady deeply interested in our city, whose letter we are authorized to insert : — 
 
 "London: 28, Holland Park, W. ; 
 
 "March 23rd, 1882. 
 "My dear Sir, — 
 
 "In the spring of 1878 (or autumn of 1877), I was searching at the 
 " Paris Archives for any records of our English Benedictine Community of Nuns. 
 "The authorities were most kind, and advised me to look over a confused mass 
 " of letters and papers, which were contained in a ' carton,' or box, such as our 
 " milliners use for their goods. 
 
 " It contained several ' liasses/ or separate bundles. 
 
 " One was docketted ' The papers of M. Naylor.' 
 
 " Father Placid Naylor, of the Order of St. Benedict, had served the 
 "Bath Mission nearly twenty years — from 1757 to 1776. He was a man of 
 " some private means, and, I suspect, spent far more of his own money for the 
 " benefit of the Order than ever was repaid to him. He went from Bath to the 
 " English Benedictine Monastery of St. Edmund's, in the Rue du Faubourg-St.- 
 " Jacques at Paris, and was there residing at the outbreak of the French 
 " Revolution. 
 
 " Being Confessor to the English Benedictine Ladies of the adjoining 
 " Rue de l'Alouette, he seems to have retired to his apartments there, for 
 "greater seclusion, as it was imagined that women of a foreign nation would be 
 " respected. But, one night, he was seized, and all his papers carried off. He 
 "died a natural death in January, 1794, at Paris. 
 
 " The bundle of papers are just as they were seized, or confused, by the 
 " ruffianly Republicans. Among them I found the account-book of Bell-Tree 
 " House. There is much more of it — all the tradesmen's bills, masons' accounts, 
 " etc., which any one can see who ever goes to the ' Archives ' at Paris. 
 
 " Ever yours sincerely, 
 
 "MARTHA JERVIS." 
 
 Much as the demolition of houses such as this is to be regretted, it is 
 occasionally a necessity which cannot be resisted. The Royal United Hospital, 
 in itself an institution of no little historic interest, which now occupies the Bell- 
 Tree site, embodies a noble illustration of the progress which, while preserving 
 the continuity of that spirit of beneficence which has long characterized our 
 city, yet calls for occasional sacrifices. The old Rectory-House, little claim
 
 iv. Introduction. 
 
 as it may have on account of its association with the city, or even with the Abbey 
 Church with which it was connected,* is now the site of the new portion of the 
 General Hospital which was raised by Ralph Allen and other worthies in the 
 last century. In one respect this Hospital is unique, in so far as it is national, 
 securing to certain classes of persons in every part of the kingdom, suffering 
 from peculiar chronic affections, the highest benefits derivable from our healing 
 Waters, under the direction of the most eminent and experienced staff of medical 
 men the city can produce. In its internal economy and the general comforts 
 assured to the patients, this institution is a model of wise administration 
 and good management. 
 
 Of the sixteenth century we have little information of a definite character, 
 to guide us in our researches with reference to the special objects we have in 
 view. Many of the current traditions and stories — sad as it may have been to 
 lose them — have already been shown to be baseless ; notably that of Queen 
 Elizabeth's alleged second visitation to Bath ; her sojourn at Sir John Harington's 
 atKelston; her sleeping at St. Catherine's; and afterwards honouring Sherston 
 as a guest at Barton House. All this is mere fiction. But fiction of this 
 kind is not confined to that period. 
 
 Of late many stories, having as little truth in them as the story of Queen 
 Elizabeth, have obtained currency with regard to events of recent times. 
 These stories we shall have to discredit unless we would allow them to obtain 
 general currency as facts. There is little excuse indeed for scattering broadcast 
 hearsay stories and traditions, when a very little research would suffice to get at 
 the facts. One such story is typical of many. Miss Strickland says + that 
 Queen Anne, who visited Batli in 1702 — her latest "Western Progress" — ■ 
 touched Dr. Johnson for "the Evil," on the occasion. As Dr. Johnson was not 
 born until seven years after this period, it is needless to say the statement is 
 erroneous. If Queen Anne did (as the Doctor says she did) touch him for the 
 Evil, it was not during one of her "Western Progresses." If we are to be 
 satisfied with generally accepted traditions, by all means let the story stand ; 
 but if we want facts, we must seek for them with some care and a little regard 
 to historical accuracy. 
 
 In this essay we have done our best to examine and sift such 
 
 * We do not think this was the house occupied by the. Jacobite Rector, Carte, when, 
 
 to avoid nrrcsi for treason, he jumped out of the window "in full canonicals." (Did Jacobite 
 
 always sit in their own houses "in full canonicals"?) If this gentleman did occupy the 
 
 Rectory House, his connection with it, we believe, was its only claim to be regarded as historic. It 
 
 to be occupied as the Rectory-House after the death of the Rev. C. Crook, in 1838. For many 
 
 years afterwards it was used as the Commercial and Literary Institution. 
 
 f Lives of the (Queens of Lngland, vol. 12, p. 115.
 
 Introduction. 
 
 sources of evidence as were open to us, guided as we have been, moreover, as to 
 locality in relation to personages, by the valuable series of Maps collected 
 by Mr. C. P. Russell. Without such aid, it would have been almost impossible 
 to verify a great deal of the information given in regard to the seventeenth and 
 eighteenth centuries, centuries replete with local history and events of 
 characteristic interest, though the interest of the former differed essentially 
 from that of the latter. 
 
 The social life of the seventeenth century was orderly and dull. The 
 springs were pre-eminent. Personages of the highest class visited them for all 
 kinds of maladies. Physicians of that day were the kings of the place ; 
 occupying the best houses, (which were for the most part erected at the close of 
 the former century,) in which they received their most distinguished patients. 
 Some of these mansions were contiguous to the Baths, enabling the 
 cripples and the infirm to enter them by corridors or covered ways. The whole 
 interest of the citizens was centred, during the greater part of the seventeenth 
 century, upon the bathing establishments. It was not until its close that the 
 era of " dancing and dissipation " began. The new order of things grew 
 rapidly, and soon developed that unruly element which Nash conquered and 
 brought into subjection, in the early part of the next century. 
 
 The eighteenth century worked great changes. It was a period of 
 transition, witnessing the demolition of the city-walls — those emblems of a past 
 age and a past civilization — and the beginning of a new development — of a new 
 Bath, with a vigour, a genius, and a completeness, almost unexampled in a 
 provincial city. Although the streets were undoubtedly narrow for the most 
 part, ill-paved and ill-kept, yet, compared with most cities of that day, Bath 
 presented a certain kind of stately magnificence.* Besides those mansions which 
 stood near, and in a few cases actually joined the Baths, Stall Street and 
 Westgate Street contained houses of great dignity and architectural beauty. A 
 few mansions of exceptional pretensions, such as Hetling House, occupied 
 distinct sites, but all seemed to have converged towards what was (at any rate 
 until a later period) the main attraction of the city — the Bathing establishments. 
 
 We feel sure that Lord Macaulay was deceived by the exaggerated terms 
 in which Wood, in the preface to his Book on Path, disparaged the lodging 
 houses of his earlier days. Making every allowance for the difference between 
 the present time and 150 years ago, there is no doubt the inferior lodgings in 
 Bath at that time were mean — almost squalid. Hut the "recognized lodgings,'' 
 especially those used by the wealthy and respectable visitors, were well 
 
 * Defoe confirms this statement.
 
 vi. Introduction. 
 
 appointed and comfortable. Most of these houses belonged to " citizens of 
 renown " — men of local standing — members of the Corporation, lawyers, 
 physicians, apothecaries, and the like. Wood, with all his ability, was vain, and 
 he exaggerated the defects of the past, in order to render the contrast with 
 his own work the more conspicuous. It was unfair to generalize from what 
 was exceptionally bad, and Lord Macaulay was unfortunate in adopting Wood's 
 representation, " to point a moral and adorn a tale." 
 
 There is no doubt that the medical fraternity of the period — including 
 Guidott, Greaves, Peirce, Maplet, Bave, and others of the seventeenth century, 
 were eminent and very able men. In our desire to pick up here and there a 
 crumb of information, we have had to wade through oceans of jargon and 
 archaic literature, in which we were nearly overwhelmed. One of the controversies 
 of the day was between Dr. Peirce and Dr. Guidott ; the former contending for 
 bursting libations of the Waters, the latter for limiting their use almost exclusively 
 to external application. The reflection forced itself upon us, that professional 
 jealousy happily was confined to a past age — all professional men at the present 
 time " loving one another as if they were one another." But the professional 
 feeling prevalent amongst the Doctors is not the only knowledge we obtained. 
 Dr. Peirce's book afforded us a great deal of information as to his own personal 
 observations and experience, which may be sought for in vain elsewhere. 
 
 Bath, in the seventeenth century, during the Rebellion, had been, if not 
 a military, at least, under the influence of Prynne and the Chapmans, a moral 
 stronghold of the Parliament and the Puritan party. Still, it was about the first to 
 give in its adhesion to the Restoration ; and, therefore, it is not surprising that 
 the reaction which followed that event should have been here quickly felt. 
 The consequence was that, at the close of the century, Bath had developed a 
 phase of society more pronounced in all the worst vices that characterized the 
 period than any other place. There is no reason to suppose that the moral 
 disease of the times had infected all classes, but inasmuch as the professional 
 and trading community more or less benefited by it, they did little to check its 
 grossness and revolting vulgarity, and hence Bath became the scene in which the 
 worst specimens of the then " fashionable world " played the most conspicuous 
 parts. They came here because they found, not, perhaps, greater vices than 
 generally characterized the times, but every sort of dissipation to suit the variety 
 of tastes and dispositions of its votaries. 
 
 Such was the aspect of Bath society when Nash came here in the 
 early part of 1700. In it he saw his opportunity, and he quickly turned
 
 Introduction. 
 
 vn. 
 
 it to his own advantage. We do not grudge him any of the credit he obtained 
 for " licking " this chaotic mass " into shape," but we wholly deny that he was 
 entitled to be. called the "maker of Bath," or even one of the "makers of 
 Bath." 
 
 Nash found a seething mass of corruption which in no respect offended 
 his sense of morality. It was the element he wanted. He did not attempt to 
 purify it, because purification meant destruction. It was to be made subservient 
 to his own ends. The coarse and vulgar material needed a veneering of respec- 
 tability, and the rule of "Arbiter Elegantiarum" was just the thing to cover a mul- 
 titude of follies and foppery. Not a vice, not a vanity, which prevailed under the 
 unscrupulous Webster (Nash's predecessor) was repressed or discouraged. The 
 difference, was not essential, but only apparent. Even in those days the 
 grossness and open licentiousness which prevailed might soon have provoked a 
 reaction which would probably have produced a more healthy tone of society. 
 This was not the object of Nash's policy. By bringing the various elements into 
 subjection and throwing over them a cloak of order and mock dignity, he gave a 
 certain durability to them. What might have been an accidental or a mere passing 
 phase of violent reaction against a rigid Puritanism, became an institution, 
 the effects of which at the time were lamentable, and the memories which 
 survived are prejudicial to the city to this day. 
 
 Goldsmith's " Life of Nash " is a vast apology. Reading between the 
 lines, he seems to say how heartily ashamed he was at having to whitewash the 
 subject of his memoir, for the sum of ,£15.* True, Nash curbed the duellist, and 
 he ruled the " Gothic haughtiness " of his noble subjects with firmness, and 
 waged a successful war against " white aprons," the wearing of which was always 
 a casus belli, no matter who the noble ladies might be who donned them. He 
 brought the rude and boisterous beaux into a state of docile obedience, and for 
 a time there was no one his " will to dispute," and, as Goldsmith says, he 
 resembled a "monarch of Cappadocia, whom Cicero somewhere calls, the little 
 king of a little people." 
 
 The fact is that Bath became a hot-bed of gambling and every species of 
 swindling. When Goldsmith comes to the dispute between Wiltshire, the lessee 
 of the then Assembly Rooms, and Nash, one feels for the author of " The Vicar of 
 Wakefield " having to travel over such marshy and unwholesome ground. 
 He "stooped" but not " to conquer '' in such a task. Imperial laws were 
 made to restrain the gambling which had become a national scandal, hut 
 Nash audaciously defied them, and invented new games to evade them. A 
 * The sum which, by agreement, he received from the Corporation.
 
 viii. Introduction. 
 
 more pitiable narrative than Goldsmith's description of Nash's later career it 
 would be difficult to imagine. 
 
 Whatever may have been the good side of Nash's disposition, it wholly 
 failed to counterbalance the sinister and evil influences of his position and 
 character, especially after the Wiltshire affair. 
 
 Goldsmith's closing sketch of Nash is a sad and dreary record of impotent 
 senility, without a single incident to afford any satisfaction or pleasure. Alterna- 
 tions of hope, cowardly fears, and scoffing, characterized the latter days of the 
 King of Bath. The last ten years of his life showed that he had not only 
 outlived his power and influence, but that he was neglected, despised, and 
 almost left to starve. The inference is clear — the moral obvious. If Nash 
 made Modern Bath, Modern Bath valued the service at an allowance of ten 
 guineas per month for a few months before he died, when the helpless monarch 
 could no longer earn an honest guinea at E. O. or Faro, or any other game of 
 his own inventing. When he died, the same bounteous dispensers of the city's 
 gratitude and liberality — the Corporation — "voted Fifty Pounds for the purpose 
 of burying their sovereign with proper respect" ! ! 
 
 It may be, as some contend, that Nash was in some sort a benefactor to 
 Bath ; that society, in its then loose and disorganized condition in this " focus of 
 fashion," needed a strong man of the type of Nash to prevent its lapsing into a 
 state of irrepressible debauchery and open licentiousness. Be this as it may, 
 whatever truth there may be in the argument, we deny that a man is entitled 
 to be regarded as the founder of the city of Bath, because he showed some 
 of the qualities which enabled him to deal with exceptional people in still 
 more exceptional times. 
 
 It must be remembered that, contemporaneously with Nash and his " little 
 kingdom," men of great public spirit and high moral principles here resided, and 
 that a large portion of society never recognized Nash's sway; and that the climate 
 of Bath, and the natural beauty of the country around, were irresistible induce- 
 ments to the enterprizing to make a great and beautiful city such as Bath has 
 become. 
 
 We do not expect all our readers to agree with us in our estimate of 
 Beau Nash. Few of them probably have ever taken the trouble to read 
 Goldsmith's Life, or to discover anything about him. They have formed a sort 
 of general conception of the man — that he was an impudent charlatan, with a 
 large admixture of generosity, good nature, and benevolence. A diligent 
 enquiry would confirm the first part, but would dispel the remainder of this
 
 Introduction. ix. 
 
 estimate, and such readers would, perhaps, be no longer under the delusion that 
 Bath was, even in Nash's own day, so deeply indebted to him for inestimable 
 services and favours. 
 
 Modern Bath is really the work of Ralph Allen and John Wood. The latter 
 built Allen's town-house first, and then his grand mansion of Prior Park. These 
 works afforded striking examples of Wood's genius and practical ability. If Wood 
 had not been the chronicler of his own achievements in what Mr. Earle calls 
 " mountebank diction," it is possible his works might have found a clearer and a 
 better exponent, and future generations would have appreciated his service to 
 Bath more distinctly than they have done. The works of Wood, both father and 
 son, were the result of well-considered plans and arrangements, the ichnography 
 of which was calculated with close regard to unity of design and systematic 
 regularity. 
 
 Ralph Allen was the inventor of the cross-post system, a fact which in 
 itself entitled him to be regarded as a public benefactor; and, coming to a later 
 period, it is not a little singular that the next advance in the development of the 
 modern postal system is due to Palmer, another Bath worthy, who originated the 
 mail-coach system, which, necessarily involving the making of good roads and 
 the opening up of frequent and easy communications throughout the kingdom,* 
 was the beginning of a new civilization — a new national life. 
 
 There was, then, pari passu with Nash and his doings, and altogether 
 apart from them, a community whose pursuits were rational and respectable, and 
 who, not despising the right use of pleasure, had no sympathy with gambling and 
 the other vices associated with it. When Wood designed and built modern Bath, 
 he evidently did not think he was preparing a grand resort for future generations 
 of gamblers, but a residential city, the beauty of which is still unsurpassed, whose 
 salubrity is beyond all question, and whose advantages none can doubt. When 
 he and his no less able son died, their mantle descended, not unworthily, upon 
 Baldwin, who built the Guildhall and the Pump Room, and to whom we are 
 indebted for the important and now integral part of the city — Bathwick, which 
 was partly completed at the close of the last century. The design was never 
 quite carried out, but so far as the architect's plan was accomplished, it has the 
 merit of completeness and no little architectural grandeur. 
 
 The Bathwick Estate, together with Wrington and Burrington, in the 
 
 * It is a singular coincidence, that whilst Ralph Allen may be regarded as the founder of the 
 improved postal system, the founder of the Ocean postage system in our own day should have been 
 Sir Samuel Cunard, Bart., who resided here for a long time, and whose daughter married Major K. S. 
 Allen, a descendant of Ralph Allen's brother, Philip Allen.
 
 x. Introduction. 
 
 lovely vale of Wrington, near the Mendip Hills, in Somersetshire, belonged to 
 the Earl of Essex, by whom, in 1726, it was sold to Sir William Pulteney, the 
 famous statesman and rival of Sir Robert Walpole. In 1742, Pulteney was 
 created Earl of Bath. Having no surviving issue at his death, in 1764, his estates 
 devolved upon his brother, General Harry Pulteney, who distinguished himself at 
 Dettingen and Fontenoy. The general dying the year following without issue, 
 the estates devolved upon Frances Pulteney, daughter and sole heiress of John 
 Pulteney, Esq., uncle of the Earl of Bath. She married William Johnstone, 
 Esq., M.P., of Westerhall, Dumfriesshire, who assumed the name of Pulteney. 
 He was created a Baronet. One daughter was the issue of this marriage — 
 Henrietta Laura Pulteney, who was created Baroness Bath, in 1792, and 
 Countess of Bath in 1803. She married, in 1794, Sir James Murray, Bart., who 
 also assumed the name and arms of Pulteney. On the death of the Countess of 
 Bath, without issue, in 1 808, the Somersetshire property devolved by remainder 
 upon the Earl of Darlington, afterwards first Duke of Cleveland, K.G., of the 
 present creation. Pulteney Bridge was begun by Lady Bath's father, then Mr. 
 William Johnstone Pulteney, and completed by Lady Bath. This, in fact, was 
 the first work undertaken in connection with Baldwin's building-scheme in 
 Bathwick. 
 
 The connection of the City with Bathwick, which, before the construction 
 of the Pulteney Bridge, was accessible only by a series of ferries, was an 
 important event. The addition of so picturesque and lovely a suburb may be 
 regarded as the completion of the general outline of the city, with ample scope 
 for future development and improvement. There is little of historical import- 
 ance connected with Bathwick, so far as this little work is concerned, until we 
 come to the present century. The fact that it was the property of so famous a 
 man as Sir William Pulteney, Earl of Bath, to whom by the way it could have 
 been but a small source of income, is almost its only claim to notice. It was 
 little more than a hamlet, having but a small population. The old Church, dedi- 
 cated to S. Mary, was interesting. It stood in the centre of what is now the 
 road in Bathwick Street, opposite to Rochfort Place. 
 
 Bathwick may now be said to be the most compact parish in the city ; 
 and since the Municipal Reform Act, it has been an integral part of the 
 Parliamentary and Municipal Borough. From the latter part of the last century 
 to the present time, it has played its part in the city, and has been conspicuous 
 as the favourite quarter of some of our most famous visitors. Queen Charlotte, 
 Duke of Clarence, Louis XVIII. , Charles X., Napoleon III., William Pitt,
 
 Introduction. xi. 
 
 Wilberforce, and many other distinguished personages, chose it as their temporary 
 home. 
 
 The growth of Bath, both as regards the extension of its boundaries and 
 the development of its resources and institutions, is a subject of considerable 
 interest, not only to the Antiquary and student of Topography, but to the 
 general reader who is at all interested in its history and almost unique 
 characteristics. If we were comparing the renaissance of Bath with one of those 
 big transatlantic cities which, like Jonah's gourd, grows up in a day, we should 
 be under the disadvantage of having all the circumstances against us. The 
 building or the rebuilding of a city in the " New World " is a work of 
 comparative facility. It has, in the construction, the guidance of past experience, 
 and all" the advantages of modern progress and knowledge, ripe and ready to 
 hand. The ichnography which is to determine the character of a new city 
 is not tentative, but may be as perfect as the plan of a great mansion — 
 replete with all that the highest intellectual refinement and all the commercial 
 wants of the day require, allowing of course needful scope for expansion 
 and increase of population. If we were to take Bath as Wood left it, and 
 compare it with any contemporary town or city of that period, it would stand 
 the severest test of comparison. The architect's plan was much in advance of 
 his day ; but still he failed to provide for many public wants which more 
 advanced civilization or change in the public taste would now demand. 
 
 In Wood's plan there was no Theatre,* no Concert-rooms, no Reading- 
 rooms, no Hotels, besides other adjuncts, without which now a second-rate city 
 would be deemed deficient in enterprise and attraction. But so far as his 
 prescient judgment directed him, he made a city which in domestic comfort, 
 architectural completeness and beauty, leaves little, even in the present day, to 
 be desired. It is not an uncommon expression, indeed, that it is to be regretted 
 that modern architects do not more closely conform to the principles and practice 
 of the Woods — father and son. 
 
 It is, however, not merely with the external and physical beauty of Bath 
 that we have to do. It may be said, that if that alone were our subject, we might 
 have saved ourselves the trouble of proving what is indisputable, what everybody 
 
 * About 1705 a Play-house or Play-room was fitted and decorated for dramatic performances, 
 but it was small and incommodious. A proposal was made to build a Theatre, to be placed under the 
 direction of Mr. Hippisley, the manager of the Public Rooms, but in consequence of his death, the 
 project fell through. Theatres at this time were illegal, but the law was not strictly enforced. 
 Although Mr. Wood did include a Theatre in his plan oi Bath, there were difficulties in the way of its 
 adoption, and the scheme proposed by Wood to Hippisley was ultimately renewed and carried out by 
 John Palmer in Orchard .Street. (See Theatre.)
 
 xii. Introduction. 
 
 admits. Nature has, in her bounteous mood, bestowed upon this " faire citie " 
 Springs of Thermal Waters of inestimable importance — which have been, and 
 will continue to be, more attractive than any feature of man's ingenuity; 
 but what constitutes the supreme importance of Bath, is the combination of 
 this healing agent with such varied climate and all that can please the eye and 
 contribute to the rational happiness of those who seek in the " Queen of the 
 West " a permanent or a temporary home. 
 
 The life at Prior Park was idyllic in its cheerful though subdued grandeur. 
 As Mr. Murch says, it was to Bath what Holland House, fifty years ago, was to 
 London. It is a mistake to suppose that Ralph Allen was "humble-minded." If 
 unpretentious he was dignified, and his disposition was characterized by a certain 
 kind of pride and reserve. If he were lowly, it was the lowliness that is " young 
 ambition's ladder." He observed a good deal of stately pomp, not so much 
 perhaps because it gratified any innate vanity, as because having wealth he 
 deemed it his duty to spend it. Pope when he wrote 
 
 " Let low-born Allen with an awkward shame, 
 Do good by stealth, and blush to find it fame," 
 
 greatly offended Mr. Allen, and altered the words to "humble Allen." Allen 
 did not think there was any real humility in boring his friends about his " low " 
 origin, nor in proclaiming " the pride that apes humility," — the proof of a 
 really vulgar nature. The man who could feel a true companionship with 
 Warburton, the elder Pitt, Pope, Hurd, Sherlock, Fielding, and that doughty 
 lady, the Princess Amelia, must have been a man of culture and breeding. He 
 loved Bath, and he showed the absence of " false pride," by the pleasure he felt 
 in devoting his energies and his great intelligence to the advancement of the true 
 interests of the city in which he had made great wealth, as well as the reputation 
 of a national benefactor. And by the exercise of unbounded hospitality to 
 the citizens of Bath, he has bequeathed a name revered and honoured as a 
 citizen, as well as an unwearied philanthropist. From the portals of Prior Park, he 
 could look down upon the less imposing, though scarcely less beautiful, 
 edifice — Widcombe House — the creation of Inigo Jones, and the residence of 
 that Mr. Baldwin who was the prototype — possibly much exaggerated — of 
 "Squire Western," in "Tom Jones." This house — standing as it were in apposition 
 to the lovely little church of Widcombe — is still one of the gems of Bath. We 
 never traverse the lane — -Church Lane — without thinking of Fielding, who lived 
 here for a while after he left Twerton. When his wife died, he met a friend in 
 the lane to whom he communicated the fact of his bereavement, " and now," he
 
 Introduction. xiii. 
 
 added, "I am come out to dissipate." Those who have read "Tom Jones," will 
 see that the novelist must have been familiar with the scenery and the sylvan 
 glades of Prior Park, which are so singularly picturesque and charming. 
 
 " Scenes must be beautiful which daily viewed, 
 Please daily, and whose novelty survives 
 Long knowledge, and the scrutiny of years." 
 
 The contemplation of these scenes by those who know anything of their 
 past associations raises in the mind visions of the pomp and old-fashioned 
 stateliness which characterized the life and habits of Allen and his friends at 
 this, now, historic mansion of Prior Park.* 
 
 The Parades have been called " the classic ground of Bath " — not 
 without reason. There Burke spent some of his later days; there Sheridan 
 conceived some of the scenes and characters of more than one of his plays ; 
 there Wilberforce stayed more than once ; and there at the close of his honoured 
 life, Wordsworth spent some weeks of calm tranquillity ; and there many others 
 of less importance also dwelt. 
 
 As Wood's work extended so the means of access to the city increased, 
 and larger became the influx of distinguished visitors and residents. Queen 
 Square, Gay Street, and the Circus were occupied by great Parliamentary Men, 
 Ladies of Quality, Savants, Poets, Painters. Mr. Pitt, who represented Bath in 
 two Parliaments, built No. 7 in the Circus, and resided there ; John, Duke of 
 Bedford, lived at No. 15, and in some measure probably, for the time, at least, 
 escaped from the bitter vituperation of Junius. 
 
 We have said that, pari passu with the peculiar pursuits of the subjects of 
 King Nash, flourished another class — as distinct, as separate, as were the 
 Jews from the Hivites and the Hittites. Here the Statesman, the Poet, the 
 Artist, lived in peace and retirement. When Pitt, in 1802, worn and wearied 
 with the cares and responsibilities of office, came to try the effect of the Waters, 
 " which his father had so frequently tried before him," the Bathonians could 
 scarcely understand that the quiet, unobtrusive, dignified gentleman was the great 
 Mr. Pitt — "the pilot who weathered the storm" — the all-powerful minister. They 
 
 •The best description of the building of Prior Park will be found in Mr. Wood's book, 2nd 
 edition, vol. 2, pages 427 to 433, showing the elevations, and giving the details of the method of 
 construction. Mr. Allen was actuated by something more than the desire to build himself a large 
 house. " The reflections cast upon the freestone of the hills of Hath brought him to a resolution to 
 exhibit it in a seat which he had determined to build for himself near his works, to much greater 
 advantage, and in much greater variety of uses than it had ever appeared in any other structure." 
 This was the most important step taken in developing t he resources of the stone-quarries of Hath, 
 and in removing the prejudice against the use of the stone, especially in London, in large buildings. 
 Mr. Wood calls the site of Prior Park the " Widcomb of Camalodunum."
 
 xiv. Introduction. 
 
 could with difficulty believe that he who had wielded England's power as no 
 other minister had ever done, was the gentleman who every night sat down with 
 his friends to a game of penny Speculation. Yet it was so, and those friends 
 were Lord Castlereagh, Lord Malmesbury, Mr. Canning, Mr. Rose, and other 
 great statesmen of the day, who came to advise, to cheer, and to enjoy the 
 society of their great chief. 
 
 It may be observed, that near to RosewelPs House, of which we give an 
 autotype, and which is " hastening to decay," Wood built Chandos Buildings 
 and Chandos House — almost his first important work — for the first Duke of 
 Chandos. As they were the first of his genius, so by a chronological sequence 
 are they the first to experience the blight of time, and are now but the " light of 
 other days." These buildings had a fine garden in front ; they overlooked the 
 City Walls,* beyond which to the west lay the Kingsmead and the open country. 
 The erection of Westgate Buildings and the construction of the roadway in 
 front, when the Walls and the Westgate were removed, destroyed the garden 
 and obscured the Mansion which was then no longer " fit for a Duke." 
 
 The transition in the early part of the eighteenth century, of which we 
 have spoken, was in no respect so remarkable as in its effect upon the intellectual 
 and social life of Bath. In the preceding century little was issued by the local 
 press except occasional Sermons (chiefly controversial) and a few bald treatises on 
 the Waters.t Most of these, however, in smaller or greater numbers, have been 
 miraculously preserved, and in their way are curious, as all local collectors attest. 
 
 It is computed that at the close of the seventeenth century the population, 
 including visitors of all sorts, did not exceed 3,000. At the middle of the next 
 century, it amounted to about 9,000, whilst at the close of the eighteenth and 
 the beginning of the present century, it amounted to about 34,000 souls. % 
 With the expansion of the city, about 1730, there began great activity amongst 
 the printers, publishers, and booksellers, the social life of the city being inseparably 
 connected with them, their art, and their enterprise. 
 
 The bibliography of Bath itself is remarkable, and a study of no small 
 interest to those who delight in local literary lore.§ One of the great attractions 
 to men of letters was afforded by the literary gossip of the day in Bath. The 
 life of the place in some of its phases was a fertile theme for the Satirist, and 
 sometimes supplied ample subject for the Homilist and the Commentator on 
 Men and Morals. The number of Books issued by the Bath press during the 
 
 * Under these Walls, to the Southward, was the Gehenna of the City. 
 
 + Pierce and Guidott are exceptions. J See Appendix. 
 
 § A valuable Essay might be written upon the subject of Bath Books and Bath Booksellers.
 
 Introduction. xv. 
 
 century is not only very large but curious ; and printers and publishers alike 
 were men of high attainments and great respectability. 
 
 The names of Frederick,* Bull, Hazard, and Leake, f were as well-known 
 almost as the leading metropolitan publishers. They were, moreover, men of 
 enterprise, whose shelves groaned under the big tomes and choice works of the 
 day. One of the brightest and most satisfactory features of Bath life and society, 
 when sources of rational enjoyment and amusement were few, was that resulting 
 from the ample literary provision so wisely made, under admirable rules and 
 regulations, for the public. 
 
 Those who are acquainted with the admirable little book % written by the 
 late Rev. Joseph Hunter,§ may form an adequate estimate of the intellectual life 
 of the city, at a period, too, when dynastic troubles and political disturbances 
 throughout the country were no trifling hindrances to national intellectual 
 advancement. 
 
 In the Libraries and Reading-Rooms all the first men of the age almost 
 met to exchange friendly, social, and literary intercourse. The Libraries were the 
 Clubs, as it were — the common ground to which were attracted gentlemen of leisure 
 and refinement, where they bought and read books, and discussed them and 
 their authors. 
 
 If the cynical maxim be true in any sense, that life would be 
 tolerable but for its amusements, it has, at least to Bathonians of the 
 present day, a most appropriate application to the amusements of a former age. 
 In Webster's time the dancing took place under a tent on the Bowling-Green to 
 the strains of a fiddle and a stridulous wind-instrument. Some of the visitors — 
 especially two of those ladies who were the most notorious in a notorious age of 
 libertinism, the Duchesses of Cleveland and Portsmouth — splashed about in the 
 Baths in a fashion which shocked the Corporation, who checked the unseemly 
 exhibition and stopped the " vocal musick," which at times was more expressive 
 than elegant. 
 
 Subsequently, the conduct of ladies and gentlemen was subject to regulations 
 which in these days would not be needful for the government of big boys and girls. 
 If -Nash did throw a gentleman into the Bath for admiring his own wife whilst 
 
 * Frederick published Wood's first Tractate. 
 
 f Leake published some of the earliest editions of Ken's Hymns. Richardson the novelist 
 married Leake's sister ; Sheridan cultivated Leake, and, it is said, wrote one of his plays chiefly in 
 Leake's Library. 
 
 X Connection of Bath with the Literature and Science of England, 1853. 
 § Author of the History of Hallamshire, and Lditor of vols. 1 and 2 of the Thoresby Diary.
 
 xvi. Introduction. 
 
 bathing, it was the most meritorious act of his reign. But when we read of the 
 habits of the pleasure-seekers of Nash's time, we ask what, in the present day, 
 people mean when they talk of the good old times of Beau Nash? Lolling 
 about in toy-shops, tea and coffee shops, eating Bath buns and drinking 
 threepenny dishes of tea and chocolate, were pleasures not very attractive. 
 "People of fashion" occasionally had a public breakfast, and attended the concerts, 
 some of which were conducted by Herschel or Rauzzini; and occasionally they went 
 to church to " kill time." The concert-breakfasts, which cost " one and twenty 
 pence a-piece " — " a meer trifle " — would astonish some of the "dull" people of 
 the present time, we suspect. The only pleasure-ground was the Bowling-Green, 
 with the walks in the Garden skirting the river, about 200 yards in length. The 
 addition ultimately of " Spring Gardens " was something ; but the " life " there 
 was not comme ilfaut. There is more real enjoyment in these " quiet " times to 
 be realized in one day than there could have been in a whole season under the 
 laws of Nash, when men and women "yawned their heads off" for want of 
 " something to do," until the " witching hour of night " came when they could 
 indulge in a game of chance, and by chance impoverish themselves for the rest 
 of their days. If Nash could revisit us now and see our streets, our mansions, 
 our hotels, our private gardens, our domestic arrangements, our Sydney Gardens, 
 our Park, our amusements — free as air, and plenty of them— he would return to 
 Hades with a feeling akin to wonder that his own times should now find a single 
 admirer, or that any person could be found to compare the past of his own day, 
 notwithstanding his laws and regulations, with the " Bath of to-day." 
 
 It is, if not a study, an employment infinitely amusing, to read the 
 Satires of a past age in Bath. Life in no other place during the last century offered 
 so many salient points for the Satirist's pen, and the result is a literature almost 
 unique in its peculiar character. Satirists lampooned society, quarrelled amongst 
 themselves, and lampooned each other. Nor can it be said that this literature was 
 evanescent and lived only as long as the laugh and amusement it excited. Anstey's 
 Poem, " The New Bath Guide," will have an enduring place in the literature of 
 the nation. For pungency, felicity of expression, and as a truthful representation 
 of the manners and habits of the people of Nash's kingdom, it is simply perfect. 
 
 We have, however, to boast of men and women more eminent than 
 Anstey. Smollett and Fielding left us not merely the characters of their 
 own vivid imaginations, but the scenes in which they played their parts were 
 the realities the authors saw and admired. Jane Austen here also conceived and 
 wrote her most admired fictions. Lytton wrote in Bath a portion of his latest
 
 Introduction. xvii. 
 
 novel, " The Parisians." Here lived Miss Burney, Mrs. Piozzi, Reade, 
 Atherston, Haynes Bayly, and Landor. It is not a small matter that amongst 
 painters we claim as citizens Sir T. Lawrence, Gainsborough, Thomas and 
 Benjamin Barker, and Hewlett, whilst we may be justly proud of the three 
 brothers, James, David, and Heywood Hardy. The late Mr. Duffield was a Bath 
 man, par excellence. He married Miss Rosenberg, who survives him, and in 
 her own line is, at this time, the head of her profession. The late Mrs. J. D. 
 Harris was her sister, and the late Mr. G. Rosenberg her brother — both eminent 
 in the special walk they followed. Mr. Syer, one of the most appreciated 
 artists of the day, may be claimed as a Bath man ; so likewise Mr. 
 Hardwick and Mr. Cranch here persued their calling. Willes Madox, who 
 died too soon for the profession of which he was a distinguished ornament, 
 was a native of our city ; and last, but not least, Mr. Long, R.A., began his 
 distinguished career in this, his native city ; — whilst the father of the President 
 of the Royal Academy — Sir F. Leighton — was long a resident in The Circus. 
 After Nash's death, or rather before he died, great changes began. The 
 system of comparatively rapid travelling changed the population more rapidly. 
 People did not remain long enough to get imbued with Bath habits and old Bath 
 ways. The " old coaching-days " began in Bath and ended in Bath. No city in 
 England was more identified with the coaching t system than this, and in 
 no city was the transition from one kind of social life to another so quickly 
 perceptible. The first mail-coach ever started in England was No. i mail-coach, 
 which left "The Lamb" in the year 1784, and was horsed and driven on 
 its first two stages by John Dover, the owner and landlord of that well-known 
 hostelry. The scenes at The York House, The White Hart, The White Lion, 
 The Lamb, and The Three Tuns, were of the most animated and interesting 
 character. As team after team passed through the city in all directions, they 
 afforded never-ceasing amusement; and visitors experienced no little diversion in 
 watching them draw up at the hotels and in criticising the smart " tits " and the 
 skill of the coachmen in " handling the ribbons." When this ceased, forty years 
 ago, it changed everything, and one of the results to be especially observed is 
 this, that what brings visitors rapidly to Bath or to any other place of pleasure or 
 health resort, as rapidly takes them away. But rapid travelling has done more 
 than this : it has created twenty centres of interest where only one existed before. 
 It has brought distant places within reach of the Metropolis — distant places 
 never heard of until the Fire-King found them out. It is easier now to reach 
 Vienna than formerly it was to visit Edinburgh. It has become, in fact, a race
 
 xv Hi. Introduction. 
 
 amongst nations as well as amongst cities. But amidst all these contending 
 elements, Bath still is beautiful Bath, claiming pre-eminence in all that con- 
 stitutes the attributes of a great and noble city. 
 
 With this exordium, we invite our readers to enter our humble gallery, 
 and if some of the portraits are drawn with a feeble hand, we must plead in 
 extenuation of our shortcomings the difficulties of having little to guide our 
 touch or to help us to a " good sitting." We have endeavoured to be accurate, 
 remembering that — 
 
 "Those that paint them truest, praise them most." 
 
 We fear that some portraits may be placed in the wrong frames ; and, 
 should this be so, we excuse ourselves by the fact we have already referred to — 
 namely, that the frames have been so subject to the " chance and change " of time 
 and circumstances, that here and there they may have deceived not only our- 
 selves, but also the cunning of more experienced friends whom we have consulted. 
 
 R. E. Peach. 
 
 [We have to acknowledge our sincere obligations to Mr. Murch, Mrs. 
 Jervis, Mr. J. N. Willan, M.A., Mr. J. W. Morris, Mr. J. C. Godwin, Major Davis, 
 F.S.A., Mr. C. P. Russell, Mr. Willcox, Mr. W. Titley, Mr. Watts, and others, 
 for their ready and most valuable assistance.] 
 
 [The Woodburytype on the title page is from a negative by Perren, of 
 Milsom Street]
 
 Historic Houses in Bath and their Associations.
 
 HISTORIC HOUSES IN BATH 
 
 And their Associations. 
 
 > > »■«- { ■ 
 
 ROYAL VISITS. — It would profit our readers little if we attempted to 
 trace any Royal visits previous to Queen Elizabeth's reign. No tangible 
 evidence exists to show that any sovereign in modern times ever visited Bath 
 in person until QUEEN ELIZABETH did so in 1574, in the course of that 
 Royal Progress which she made to the Western part of her dominions, of which 
 Gloucester, Bristol, and Bath were the most important cities, and experienced 
 the largest share of her Majesty's favour. 1 Her Majesty, there is little doubt, 
 stayed at the Royal apartments in the WEST GATE, which very shortly 
 before had been repaired and beautified by the authorities, probably in con- 
 templation of this visit. The "Progress" of 1574 was evidently the result 
 of policy, which the Queen, with her characteristic astuteness, turned to good 
 account. The record of her conduct — her frank recognition of the good 
 feeling shown her by the people, and her marked individuality of character — 
 accounts for much of that popularity which distinguished her reign. Whatever 
 pleased the Bristol citizens 2 pleased her Majesty ; the Bathonians had their 
 own little prejudices, and their ways were not the ways of Bristolians, but the 
 Queen understood their peculiarities at a glance, and at once identified herself 
 with them. 3 She " astonished the natives " by her wonderful frills and " rubyes 
 and dyamondes " and those " satten gownds " which she reserved for what even 
 
 1 A full account of the Royal Progress, by Mr. Emanuel Green, will be found in the 
 " Proceedings of the Bath Natural History and Field Club," vol. 2. 
 
 J Mr. Green omits the address of congratulation offered by the citizens of Bristol and the 
 
 Queen's answer; perhaps he did not regard them as "authentic.'' 
 
 Citizens. Queen. 
 
 "We men of Bristol, we "Ye men of Bristol, we 
 
 Are very glad to see Are very glad to see ; 
 
 Your gracious Majestic ; Good lack, what fools ye be ! " 
 Good Lord ! how faire ye be ! 
 
 3 One part of the City, she said, was "dirty of aspect and nasty of smell." — See Sherston.
 
 4 Historic Houses in Bath and their Associations. 
 
 then was a city of polite citizens. Her affectations, her foibles, and apparent 
 love of finery, covered a purpose ' — they were but " outward shows," 2 behind 
 which posed the Queen, who never forgot her imperial dignity. 3 The expense 
 of entertaining the Queen was large, considering the small population and 
 limited resources of the city in those days, but it was paid without a murmur. 
 The luxury of such a sovereign was fully appreciated, and the historical 
 remembrance of good Queen Bess's " visitation " stands out most vividly 
 amongst all the Royal Visits from that period until the present century. 4 
 
 If Queen Elizabeth's visit was one of policy, that of the next Royal 
 personage (1616), ANNE OF DENMARK, WIFE OF JAMES I.,, was 
 undertaken for the benefit of her health by the use of the Waters. Pierce men- 
 tions this visit ; but as her Majesty did not reside in his house, the probability 
 is that she also found accommodation at the ROYAL APARTMENTS in the 
 WEST GATE. At that period, indeed, the Abbey House, then the residence 
 of Dr. Pierce, was the only one (excepting Hetling House, occupied by 
 Sir E. Hungerford) sufficiently capacious for Royalty. In connection with 
 the Queen's visit, Warner relates the following incident : — 
 
 " As the Queen was bathing in the King's Bath, there arose from the 
 " bottom of the cistern just by the side of her Majesty a flame of fire like a 
 " candle, which had no sooner ascended to the top of the water than it spent 
 "itself upon the surface into a large circle of light, and then became extinct. 
 " This so frightened the Queen, that notwithstanding the physicians assured 
 '' her the light proceeded from a natural cause, yet she would bathe no more in 
 " the King's Bath, but betook herself to the New Bath, where there were no 
 
 1 Sir John Harington knew his Royal Mistress well. He relates (April, 1594): — "One 
 Sunday (April last) my lorde of London preachede to the Queene's Majestie, and seemede to touche 
 on the vanitie of deckinge the body too finely. Her Majestie tolde the ladies that if the bishope 
 helde more discorse on such matters, shee wold fitte him for heaven, but he shoulde walke theither 
 withoute a staffe, and leave his mantle behind him ; perchance the bishope hathe never soughte her 
 Highnesse's wardrobe, or he would have chosen another texte." Her Majesty understood more about 
 the uses of "deckinge the bodie " than the Bishop. 
 
 2 "So may the outward shows be least themselves; 
 The world is still deceived with ornament." 
 
 Merchajit of Venice. 
 
 3 ' ' And you shall find, his vanities forespent 
 Were but the outside of the Roman Brutus, 
 Covering discretion with a coat of folly." 
 
 Henry V. 
 
 * For an account of the Royal Charter, see Sherston.
 
 Historic Hotises in Bath and their Associations. 5 
 
 " springs to cause the like phenomena ; and from thence the cistern was called 
 " the Queen's Bath. It was soon enlarged, and the citizens erecting a tower or 
 " cross in the middle of it, in honour of the Queen, finished it at the top with 
 " the figure of the Crown of England over a globe, on which was written in 
 " letters of gold, ' Anna? Reginge Sacrum.' " 
 
 During the Rebellion in 1644, CHAKLES I., accompanied by the QUEEN, 
 in passing westward stayed in Bath for a few days. He had fortified the city 
 previously, and at this time it was held by the Royal Forces. In July of the 
 same year, the PRINCE OF WALES (afterwards Charles II.), having reached 
 Bristol on his way to Barnstaple, returned to Bath, on account of the plague 
 which was then raging at the former city. 
 
 The visit of MARY BEATRICE OF MODENA, second wife of 
 JAMES II., in 1687, is full of romantic interest. Her misfortunes, her beauty, 
 her tender sympathy with her husband in his downfall, and in his banish- 
 ment, and in the painful vicissitudes to which he was exposed — all show her 
 to have been a woman of 
 
 " Amazing brightness, purity, and truth, 
 Eternal joy, and everlasting love." 
 
 The Queen having had four sons, all of whom died prematurely, was naturally 
 desirous of having a living heir. Ronchi, her chaplain, in his diary, says that he 
 shared her hopes that the birth of a Royal Prince would " be the most fitting 
 " antidote for extinguishing the heat which the Prince of Orange doth foment in 
 " the country, and humble the pride of the many whom the hope of a Protestant 
 " successor hath stirred up to oppose openly the Royal transactions." He knew 
 of her visits to miraculous wells, and he, with others, advised her Majesty not 
 only to go to Bath for the Waters, 1 but the Royal pair were to drink at St. 
 Winifred's wonder-working well. 2 A miracle was hinted at by her spiritual 
 guides. The King reached Bath August 18, 1687, and remained three days. 
 On September 6, he returned to it from Holywell. The Queen remained here 
 during the interval, and the whole programme was carried out ; the King and 
 Queen returned ; the Queen to hope and pray, the King to hunt and review 
 his troops. 3 Dr. Oliver, in his interesting work, 4 indicates some special 
 notice by their Majesties of the Benedictine Mission, " of which the Rev. F. 
 Anselm Williams was then the Incumbent." The Queen, the following year, bore 
 a son, who did not prove to be " a fitting antidote " against the Prince of 
 
 1 See Dr. Pierce, chap. 9, pages 157 to 214. 
 
 2 This well was near Winifred's Dale, Sion Mill. All trace of it is lost. 
 
 3 Edinburgh Review, January, 1882. 
 
 4 Oliver's History of the Catholic Religion — Missions of Somersetshire, 1057.
 
 6 Historic Houses in Bath and their Associations. 
 
 Orange. Warner and other local historians say that the Queen's pregnancy was 
 a source of so much joy that Lord Melfort erected a Cross in the centre of the 
 Cross Bath to signalize the happy event. 1 If this be so, it was the renewal 
 probably of an older cross, which was there a century before. 
 
 It would seem, at any rate, that the Bath Waters and St. Winifred's are 
 responsible for the birth of the "Old Pretender," and, consequently, 
 for the political events which directly followed from the existence of that 
 unfortunate Prince. 
 
 The first visit of the PRINCESS ANNE, with her husband (PRINCE 
 GEORGE OF DENMARK,) took place in 1692, during the mayoralty of William 
 Bush. She was received by the Mayor and Corporation in a manner becoming her 
 rank and position, and their sense of what was due to the dignity of the city. 
 This attention gave umbrage to the King and Queen, between whom and the 
 Princess there had been a quarrel, in which it has been generally Jifeld the 
 Princess was technically in the wrong. She had applied to the Parliament for a 
 settlement upon herself of ^£50,000 per annum, without the knowledge of 
 William and Mary ; she had, moreover, espoused the cause of Lord and Lady 
 Marlborough. Amongst other marks of attention (says Warner) shown to the 
 Princess during her stay, it was usual for the Corporation to attend her to the 
 Great Church on Sundays. Their conduct was reported at Court, and the Earl 
 of Nottingham, secretary of state, was ordered to write^pmandatory letter to the 
 Mayor and Corporation prohibiting them from continuing those marks of respect 
 to the Princess. The letter was as follows : — 
 
 "Sir, — The Queen has been informed that yourself and your brethren have attended the 
 " Princess with the same respect and ceremony as have been usually paid to the Royal family. 
 " Perhaps you may not have heard what occasion her Majesty has had to be displeased with the 
 " Princess ; and therefore I am commanded to acquaint you, that you are not for the future to pay 
 " her Highness any such respect or ceremony, without leave from her Majesty, who does not doubt 
 "of receiving from you and your brethren this public mark of your duty. 
 
 " I am, your most humble servant, 
 
 "Nottingham." 
 
 On receipt of this letter, the Mayor dispatched it to John Harington, 
 Esq., at Kelston, and requested his opinion and advice upon the subject. He 
 
 1 Dr. Pierce, who was a contemporary witness of the event, says: — "One Mrs. Booth, of 
 "Cheshire, brought a daughter in July, 1688. She was about eleven or twelve years old ; she also 
 "drank the Waters, and bathed, and recovered in five or six weeks so well as to dance ajigg with 
 " great applause, at a ball, which the gentry met at. A knotted cane of her father's, which she used 
 "to try to go with, was hung up as a trophy, upon the new marble structure in the Cross-Bath, 
 "erected by John, Karl of Melford, in memory of Queen Mary of Modena's bathing there the year 
 "before ; it was the first, of that kind, that was hung upon it, and it continues there to this day." — 
 Bath Memoirs.
 
 Historic Houses in Bath and their Associations. 7 
 
 recommended a compliance with the Queen's command, but suggested, at the 
 same time, that it should be communicated to the Princess in the most respectful 
 manner. This was accordingly done, and Anne, with great good sense, and 
 smiling at the petty malice of the Queen, desired the Corporation to omit any 
 mark of distinction to her in future, expressing herself as particularly anxious that 
 the city of Bath should not incur the displeasure of the Royal pair on her 
 account. In consequence of this voluntary relinquishment of distinctions, the 
 Mayor and Corporation omitted to attend the Princess to the Abbey Church in 
 procession. Determined, however, to make amends for this disrespectful 
 behaviour which they had been obliged to adopt to the Princess, they 
 invited her, as soon as she came to the Crown, in the address presented 
 on that occasion, to repeat her visit to Bath. This she complied with in 
 1702, and was received with every mark of honour and distinction. One 
 hundred young men of the city, uniformly clad and armed, and two hundred 
 of its- female inhabitants dressed after the manner of Amazons, met the 
 Queen and her train on the borders of Somersetshire, and accompanied 
 them by a road cut for the occasion 1 from the summit of Lansdown to the 
 western gate of the city, where the Corporation received the Royal party, and 
 conducted them to their apartments, in the West Gate. 
 
 The next visit we have to record is that of the PRINCESS AMELIA, 
 the second daughter of George II., in 1728. Having been received with 
 due honours by the Corporation and one hundred young men, at the North 
 Gate, she took up her abode at the Royal Quarters — the West Gate. She soon 
 showed some of her Royal mettle. Her energy and resolution almost overcame 
 a king — King Nash — who was more absolute than her Royal father. That 
 potentate resisted her persuasion and her threats. " One more dance, Mr. 
 " Nash ; remember, I am a Princess." " Yes, Madam, but I reign here, and my 
 "laws must be kept." She was beaten, but she was magnanimous, good-hearted, 
 and reasonable. At this time she was about 25 years of age, fair, and comely. 
 She scarcely regarded the etiquette of Royalty and the conventional manners of 
 the period in dress and personal habits. In spite of her eccentricities she was 
 popular, and much beloved for her sympathetic and kindly disposition. Her 
 Royal Highness liked Bath so much that she re-visited it in 1752, staying for a brief 
 period with the Duke and Duchess of Bedford, and then resumed her old quarters 
 in the West Gate. By this time H.R.H. had become rather en bon point— she drank 
 beer like a fast young man of the present day, and took snuff like any old woman 
 
 1 Can this be the road leading from the main road on Lansdown at right angles to Weston ?
 
 8 Historic Houses in Bath and their Associations. 
 
 of her own day. Her costume, compared with young ladies' dresses of the present 
 day, suggests a contrast which might be contemplated by modern dressmakers and 
 milliners with wonder if not with advantage. She Wore a hunting-cap, a laced 
 scarlet coat, rode on horseback at a spanking pace, accompanied by her favourite 
 groom, Spurrier ; she rose early in the morning, sat up late at night, and gambled 
 right royally with the right royal King Nash. Her language, without being vulgar, 
 was emphatic and not quite co?nme il faut. Mr. Hutton Perkins, who writes to 
 Lord-Chancellor Hardwicke from Bath, on the 17th September (1752), relates 
 the following : — 
 
 " Her Royal Highness the Princess Amelia did me the honour to speak 
 "to me in fhe Pump-Room since I came, to inquire after your Lordship's health. 
 " She hoped you were well, and asked whether you were gone to Wimple. She 
 " comes every morning to the Pump-room between 7 and 8 for her first glass of 
 " the smallest size, and about a quarter after 8 for a second glass, which is all she 
 " drinks in publick. She has no doctor with her, nor makes use of any here. 
 " Ranby is the only person that directs her. By what I can learn, her deafness 
 " is much as it was. It is not fixt; some days she hears tolerably, and others not 
 " so. She is very affable and civil, comes to the room at noon lately, and some- 
 " times at nights, and plays at cards there, chiefly at commerce. She takes all 
 " opportunity, when fair, of getting on horseback, and amuses herself almost every 
 " day some hours in angling in the river, in a summer-house by the river-side in 
 " the garden, formerly known by the name of Harrison's Walks, which has two 
 " fire-places in it, and to secure her against cold, puts on a riding-habit, and a 
 " black velvet postillion-cap, tied under her chin." 
 
 The Princess paid a final visit to Bath when she was suffering from her 
 last illness. She died in 1786. 
 
 In 1734, his Royal Highness the PRINCE OF ORANGE paid a visit to 
 our city, and resided in the Royal Apartments at the West Gate. 1 He was 
 received by the Mayor and Corporation, and treated with every mark 
 of respect and consideration. The Mayor and Corporation entertained 
 him at a great banquet, and well sustained the traditional character of 
 the city for hospitality and loyalty. The Prince, on account of whose health the 
 visit was made, departed "with a new lease of life." In consequence of this visit 
 
 1 It has been stated tliat the Prince lived during his visit at a house in Orange Grove, now 
 called Nassau House, a statement without the shadow of truth. The Prince started for Hath on 
 the 2nd of January, and arrived at Bath on the 5th, and was received by the Mayor, Aldermen, 
 and Common Council. On Wednesday, Feb. 27, his Royal Highness arrived at Oxford on his 
 return from Bath. Before leaving Bath, the Town Clerk, Mr. Webb, in his own house, close to the 
 West Gate, delivered an address to the Prince,
 
 Historic Houses in Bath and their Associations. 9 
 
 and the cure of the Prince, several rows of trees were planted, and the Obelisk 
 (designed by the Rev. J. W. Borlase, the historian of Cornwall), now standing, 
 was erected to commemorate the event. The locality was then christened 
 " Orange Grove," an appellation it has ever since retained. The Princess whom 
 he married was Anne, Princess Royal of England, eldest daughter of George II., 
 and therefore elder sister of Amelia. The Prince was amiable and kind in 
 disposition, but devoid of ability and dignity. Lord Hervey, in his Memoirs 
 of George II., says of the Prince : — " His body was deformed, so that if you 
 " looked at him behind, you would say he had no. head, and if you looked at 
 " him in front you would say he had no legs." Lord Hervey says a few 
 more things of the Prince which we refrain from repeating ; though if* any of our 
 readers care to read more of him in these highly-spiced memoirs they may 
 possibly be able to gratify the wish without difficulty. 
 
 The citizens who daily, or more or less frequently, pass through th e 
 classic Square of Wood and observe the Obelisk placed in the enclosure by 
 Nash, perhaps, at least some of them, may still require to be told that it is 
 commemorative of the visit of THE PRINCE AND PRINCESS OF WALES 
 to Bath in the autumn season of 1738. The Prince, as everybody knows, 
 married his cousin, the Princess Augusta, of Saxe Gotha, in 1736. They 
 were received with loyal enthusiasm, feted by the Corporation, and cheered 
 by the citizens. The Prince felt as much gratitude for these evidences of 
 the good feeling of the Bathonians as he was capable of feeling. He gave 
 the Corporation the Loving Cup, ' and the portraits of himself and the 
 Princess were also presented by him to adorn the Guildhall. The Obelisk 
 to which we have referred was put up at the cost of Nash, on much the same 
 principle as — 
 
 " Mr. Smith, of his great bounty, 
 Built this bridge at the expense of the county." 
 
 The architect was Mr. Wood, who, in his book, 2nd edition, page 436, gives 
 all the details of the cost v the sum total being ^80 15s. 7d. The poet Pope 
 wrote the inscription, which is as follows : — 
 
 " In memory of honour conferred, and in gratitude for benefits bestowed, 
 "on our city, by H.R.H. Frederick, Prince of Wales, and his Royal Consort, 
 "in the year 1738, this Obelisk is erected by Richard Nash. - ' 
 
 One would not believe that Mr. Pope was required to write such an 
 inscription as the above. The only merit it possesses is the absence of adula- 
 tion of the Prince. After all, perhaps, Mr. Pope understood best what he was 
 expected to do, though in the correspondence (see Warner, 368, 369) on the
 
 io Historic Houses in Bath and their Associations. 
 
 subject he affected no little modesty. The Prince died at Leicester House, 
 March 31, 1751. 1 
 
 In 1740 the PRINCESS MARY, wife of the Landgrave of Hesse, 4th 
 daughter of George II., and youngest sister of Amelia, accompanied by her 
 niece, the PRINCESS CAROLINE, daughter of Frederick, Prince of Wales, 
 afterwards Queen of Denmark, visited Bath. (In most of the guide-books 
 she is erroneously described as sister of Amelia and Mary.) The pair lived at 
 Hetling House, 2 with little or no state. 3 
 
 Edward Augustus, DUKE OF YORK, who was the second son of Fred- 
 erick, Princ*e of Wales, and brother of George III., visited Bath in 1 761, for a 
 considerable period, occupied the centre house on the North Parade, where he 
 held a levee once a week. He was simple and genial in his habits, delicate in 
 health, and died in 1767, unmarried. 
 
 In 1795, the DUKE OF YORK of the next generation, and the 
 DUCHESS, honoured Bath with their presence, and the former accepted the 
 Freedom of the city. 
 
 1 " Poor Fred was alive and is dead, 
 And as he was alive and is dead, 
 There's no more to be said." 
 
 2 Facing Westgate Buildings, with three well-pointed gables, stands the much-altered shell of 
 the old mansion known as HETLING HOUSE. It is an age-begrimed, black, three-storied building 
 of the sixteenth century, retaining a few only of its original and marked architectural features: 
 amongst these are the gables, a few of the early windows, the oriel window, and the large hall. 
 Towards Hetling Court the side of the house is crowded out by mean low-storied shops. The chief 
 remaining feature of this once fine old mansion is the hall, now in the occupation of the Odd-Fellows. 
 The other part of the building is used by a grocer as a store-room. The hall is about 47 feet long 
 by 1*4 feet wide, and about 15 ft. high. Round a portion of the walls the old characteristic oak 
 wainscot remains, but some of this has been painted and grained to match or defile the real and good 
 material underneath. But the grand feature of this hall (and its nearest vieing neighbour is as distant 
 as South Wraxall) is the beautiful fire-place, which is about 9 feet 6 inches wide and 14 feet high. 
 The lower and bolder stone cornice is supported by two flanking circular Ionic pillars on either side, on 
 pedestals. The upper stone cornice is supported by seven taper pilasters. The whole is emphasised in 
 the centre by a boldly and well-carved coat of arms of the family, supported by a helmet and crest. 
 This fire-place has unfortunately been painted, but it still retains features of worth and excellence of 
 design, and its past history and uses alone should make the Bath people its jealous and careful 
 guardians. The staircase is of oak, and old, but possesses no marked art character. The room in 
 the roof lighted by the gabled windows is unoccupied, and at present even without access. Sir E. 
 Hungerford, K.B., one of the members of the city, in 1625, made this his Bath Town-House. In 
 consequence of this fact, it was always supposed that the house was built by one of the Hungerfords. 
 Canon Jackson, however, says the arms over the mantlepiece are those of an old Somersetshire family 
 named Clarke, by whom in all probability the mansion was erected in the sixteenth century. 
 
 3 It may be remarked here that when Bath once caught a real live Royal party a hundred and 
 fifty years ago, it was not so easy for them to escape ; it meant a visit of some duration. Now, a 
 Royal visit is a matter of ten hours, including the time occupied in travelling.
 
 Historic Houses in Bath and their Associations. 1 1 
 
 In the year following, the PRINCE OF WALES paid a similar com- 
 pliment to the city, and accepted its Freedom also. The Prince of Wales on this 
 occasion, we believe, visited Colonel Leigh at Combe Hay. The Prince 
 was not popular in Bath, nor at this time anywhere. A Bath poet (W. S. 
 Landor) says of him : — 
 
 "When from earth the king descended, 
 God be praised, the Georges ended." 
 
 Thackeray's mocking epitaph, however, on George IV., is, perhaps, 
 as severe as anything that was ever written on that monarch : — 
 
 " He left an example for Age and for Youth to avoid, 
 He never acted well by man or woman, 
 And was false to his mistress as to his wife : 
 He deserted his friends and his principles. 
 He was so ignorant that he could scarcely spell ; 
 But he had some skill in cutting out coats, 
 And an undeniable taste for cookery. 
 He built the palaces of Brighton and of Buckingham. 
 And for these qualities and proofs of genius, 
 An admiring aristocracy 
 
 Christened him ' The first gentleman in Europe.' 
 Friends, respect the King whose statue is here, 
 And the generous aristocracy who admired him." 
 
 In 1807, at the close of the year, His Royal Highness the DUKE OF 
 GLOUCESTER (nephew of George III.) visited Bath, and sojourned some time 
 in a simple and unostentatious style. According to custom on a Royal visit, the 
 Mayor and Corporation congratulated his Royal Highness on his arrival in a 
 suitable address ; and at their request he was pleased to have his name enrolled 
 among the Freemen of the city. He occupied apartments at the York House. 
 
 In 18 1 3, his Royal Highness the DUKE OF CAMBRIDGE arrived at the 
 York House, and received from the authorities the usual compliments, 
 together with the Freedom of the city in a gold box ; and during the same month 
 the COUNT DE PROVENCE, afterwards Louis XVIII., also came hither and 
 remained some time at 34, Pulteney Street. Mainwaring says of these visits 
 during the dull month : — " As much at leisure as a Bath turnspit in the month of 
 "July." At this period it was computed that there were in Bath not less than 
 3,000 of these duck-legged animals, which in the season were the valuable allies 
 of the cooks. 
 
 On the 4th of August, 1817, the imposing ceremony of laying the 
 foundation-stone of the Freemasons' Hall took place. The DUKE OF SUSSEX, 
 the Grand Master, attended in great state, and the ceremonial was conducted 
 with due Masonic pomp. In a cavity of the stone was placed a metal box, which
 
 12 Historic Houses in Bath and t/ieir Associations. 
 
 contained coins of the period, and was covered with a brass plate, bearing the 
 following inscription : — 
 
 " The foundation-stone of this Masonic Hall was laid with the usual 
 "ceremonies, August 4, 1817, in the 57th year of the reign of his present 
 " Majesty, George III., and the year of Masonry, 5817, in presence of the Masters 
 " and Wardens of the Bath Lodges, his Royal Highness, August Frederick, Duke 
 " of Sussex, being Most Worshipful Grand Master of the United Grand Lodge of 
 "England; and Arthur Chichester, Esq., Right Worshipful Provincial Grand 
 " Master for the County of Somerset ; Brother Wilkins, Architect ; Walter Harris, 
 " Builder." 
 
 The Duke re-visited Bath in 18 19, to preside at the Dedication of the 
 Masonic Hall, 1 which took place on the 23rd of September. Perhaps, within 
 the memory of the oldest inhabitant of this city, there never was known so great 
 an influx of strangers as thronged to witness this ceremony, conducted with that 
 splendour which always characterizes the processions of the honourable fra- 
 ternity. The streets, at an early hour, assumed the appearance of the greatest 
 bustle and expectation ; at every window and house-top, in the intended line of 
 procession, groups of spectators of every degree, from the lady of title to the 
 humblest domestic, were situated. 2 The procession moved from the Guildhall, 
 and passed up Broad Street, where it was joined at the York House Hotel 
 by the Royal Grand Master, who walked uncovered down Milsom, 
 Union, and Stall Streets, to the site in York Street. The assemblage 
 consisted of members of the Grand Lodge of England, and of twenty-nine Pro- 
 vincial Grand Lodges, from the counties of Somerset, Devon, Gloucester, 
 Dorset, Hants, and Warwick. The line of immense length formed by these 
 several bodies, advanced with imposing regularity, order, and solemnity ; 
 while the music, the banners, and the various emblems of the craft, heightened 
 the effect of this magnificent sight, and added to the grandeur and animation 
 of the scene. On' the two following days, upwards of two thousand persons 
 
 1 At present there are three Lodges in Rath, namely: — The Royal Cumberland ; The Royal 
 Sussex ; The Lodge of Honour. These Lodges now meet in the building in Orchard Street, which 
 was originally the Theatre, built by John Palmer in or about 1747, and afterwards the Roman 
 Catholic Chapel. 
 
 2 "All tongues speak of him ; and the bleared sights 
 Are spectacled to see him : Your prattling nurse 
 Into a rapture lets her baby cry, 
 While she chats him : the kitchen-malkin pins 
 Her richest lockram 'bout her reechy neck, 
 Clambering the walls to eye him : Stalls, bulks, windows, 
 Are smothered up, leads filled, and ridges hors'd 
 With variable complexions ; all agreeing 
 In earnestness to see him." 
 
 Coriolanus, Act ii., Sc. i.
 
 Historic Houses in Bath and their Associations. 
 
 i3 
 
 (chiefly ladies) were admitted to view the masonic paraphernalia which were dis- 
 played " in due form " in the hall. 1 
 
 On the 24th, his Royal Highness proceeded, by invitation, to the 
 Guildhall, where he was received by the Mayor and Body Corporate in their 
 civic robes. G. H. Tugwell, Esq., addressed his Royal Highness, requesting he 
 would be graciously pleased to accept the Freedom of this ancient and loyal city, 
 as a proof of their respect for his Royal person and firm attachment to his 
 illustrious House. The Freedom was then delivered to his Royal Highness in a 
 gold box of exquisite workmanship, on the inside of which the Bath arms were 
 engraved — the outside being beautifully chased in coloured gold, the border 
 displaying the rose, shamrock, and thistle. His Royal Highness returned thanks 
 to the Corporation in dignified terms. 
 
 Various festivities took place on the foregoing occasion. A Masonic ball 
 and concert at the Lower Rooms, and a grand civic dinner at the Guildhall, in 
 honour of their illustrious visitor, were among the entertainments of the week. 
 The Royal Duke, on taking leave, expressed, in feeling and animated language, 
 the extreme satisfaction he had derived from his visit to Bath. 
 
 In October, 18 17, it was announced officially that QUEEN CHARLOTTE 
 intended to honour Bath with a visit. The two houses, Nos. 93 and 103, 
 Sydney Place, were engaged for the Royal party. 
 
 On Monday, November 3rd, at an early hour, her Majesty, with the 
 Princess Elizabeth and suite, left Windsor Castle for Bath. They proceeded 
 at a rapid rate. In the course of the afternoon, a vast concourse left Bath to 
 meet the Royal party, who entered the city at half-past four, full an hour 
 before they were expected. The Royal carriages, escorted by the 15th Dragoons, 
 passed Walcot Church and proceeded by the York House, down Milsom Street, 
 and through New Bond Street to Sydney Place. In the evening a deputation 
 from the Corporate Body waited on her Majesty, who was graciously pleased to 
 fix a time for receiving an address. The Countesses of Ilchester and Cardigan, 
 Lord John Thynne, Major-General Taylor, and Colonel Stephenson were in 
 attendance. His Royal Highness the Duke of Clarence had previously arrived 
 from Lord Harcourt's seat in Oxfordshire, and occupied No. 103. 
 
 On Wednesday, the 5th, at two o'clock, the Queen was received at the 
 Pump Room by several of the Royal household, a glass of Bath water being 
 handc^ to her Majesty by John Kitson, Esq., the Mayor. 
 
 1 The building is now used as the Meeting-House of the Society of friends.
 
 14 Historic Houses in Bath and their Associations. 
 
 It may be worthy of remark, that the capacious marble font, into which 
 the water from her Majesty's glass overflowed, was the dome of the old cross, 
 which was erected in this city in the year 1616, in commemoration of the 
 visit of the Royal consort of James the First, and was appropriated to its present 
 use under the direction of Mr. Baldwin, when the Pump Room was rebuilt. 
 
 At two o'clock on the 6th, the Mayor, accompanied by the Marquis 
 Camden (the Recorder), the City Representatives in Parliament, the Rector, 
 Aldermen, and Common Council, proceeded to the Queen's residence, where 
 the Marquis delivered a loyal address, to which her Majesty replied in 
 person, with much dignity and expressive animation. The Municipal Body 
 were then severally introduced by Colonel Disbrowe, and had the honour of 
 kissing her Majesty's hand. 
 
 At six on the same evening, a public dinner was served at the Guildhall ; 
 and the Mayor was honoured with the company of his Royal Highness the Duke 
 of Clarence, the Marquisses of Bath and Camden, the principal officers of the 
 Royal household, and several distinguished military and naval officers, with the 
 resident clergy and members of the Corporation. The dinner having passed 
 with much hilarity, and the cloth being removed, a messenger arrived 
 with a letter for the Royal Duke, the perusal of which evidently produced 
 much agitation ; and in a few minutes afterwards his Royal Highness hastened, 
 with hurried steps, from the table. All was consternation ! What could it 
 mean ? In a few minutes the Marquis Camden, in the most feeling manner, 
 announced the death of her Royal Highness the Princess Charlotte of Wales ! 
 It has been stated that her Majesty was at a ball, at the Guildhall, when the 
 intelligence arrived. It is almost needless to say that even if her Majesty had 
 visited Bath for pleasure she would not have attended a public ball, either at 
 the Guildhall or the recognised Assembly Rooms. But it must be remembered 
 that her Majesty was advanced in years, and that her sole object in visiting the 
 city was for the use of its thermal springs. 
 
 Notwithstanding the shock to the Royal family occasioned by the 
 Princess's death, the declining health of her Majesty rendered a recurrence 
 to the healing springs of this city imperatively necessary ; and, accordingly, 
 on Monday, November 24th, 181 7, her Majesty was again on her way for 
 this city, attended by the Duke of Clarence and Princess Elizabeth; and, at 
 six the same evening, the Royal party arrived in Sydney Place. There were 
 no public demonstrations of joy ; and, although a vast concourse of the 
 inhabitants was daily attracted by the appearance of the illustrious party, yet 
 the most marked and respectful decorum was preserved.
 
 Historic Houses in Bath and their Associations. 15 
 
 The Body Corporate presented three several addresses of condolence 
 to the Prince Regent, Her Majesty, and Prince Leopold ; and the Freedom of 
 the city was presented to his Royal Highness the Duke of Clarence, in a gold 
 box. The Freedom of the city was likewise conferred upon the following 
 gentlemen in her Majesty's suite : — Edward Disbrowe, Esq., M.P. ; Major- 
 General Herbert Taylor ; Lieutenant-Colonel Stephenson ; and Lieutenant- 
 General Sir Henry Campbell, K.C.B. 
 
 On Sunday, November 30th, Divine service was performed at the Queen's 
 residence, in Sydney Place, by the Rev. Charles Crook, Rector of Bath, and 
 Domestic Chaplain to her Majesty. Under the expectation that her Majesty 
 would visit the Abbey Church, the wardens, Messrs. Davis and Batchelor, had 
 fitted up Prior Bird's Chapel as a State pew. 
 
 Her Majesty attended the Pump Room punctually every morning, at nine 
 o'clock, being carried in a sedan-chair covered with crimson. After drinking the 
 Waters she held a levee. 
 
 On the 21st of September, i82i,his Royal Highness PRINCE LEOPOLD 
 (afterwards King of the Belgians) visited this city, attended by his secretary, 
 BARON DE STOCKMAR. As soon as his arrival at the York House was made 
 known, the Sheriffs (Messrs. Clutterbuck and Long) waited on his Royal 
 Highness, on behalf of the Mayor and Body Corporate, to request that he 
 would be pleased to accept the freedom of the city. His Royal Highness, 
 accompanied by his Worship the Mayor, proceeded to the inspection of the 
 different buildings ; and afterwards repaired to the Guildhall, where a consider- 
 able body of citizens awaited his arrival. The Mayor then presented his 
 Royal Highness with the Freedom of the city in a handsome gold box, which the 
 Prince received with the most polite condescension ; and replied nearly in these 
 words : — " Mr. Mayor, though a lapse of some years may have weakened the 
 " recollection of past events, it will, nevertheless, be present to you all that, by 
 " one of the severest dispensations of Providence, I was for ever deprived of 
 " domestic happiness, and removed from that high station in which I could not 
 " but have exercised a comparative influence over the affairs of this great nation ; 
 "yet, though my destiny has been changed, my feelings of warm and sincere 
 " attachment to this country remain unaltered : and it will ever give me the 
 " greatest happiness to contribute, in any way, to its welfare and happiness. Mr. 
 " Mayor and gentlemen, I thank you sincerely for the honour you have conferred 
 " on me." 
 
 His Royal Highness then proceeded to visit the Assembly Rooms,
 
 1 6 Historic Houses in Bath and their Associations. 
 
 Sydney Gardens, Beckford's Tower, and Prior Park ; and on the 23rd, left 
 the city on his way to Malvern. Just before leaving, the Prince received a 
 letter in Latin addressed to him by the boys of the Grammar School, praying 
 his Royal Highness to intercede with their master for a holiday. The Prince 
 was highly amused, and observed that he " supposed the young rogues having 
 " heard that he had obtained ' his freedom,' were determined that he should 
 " petition for theirs also." 
 
 His Royal Highness expressed himself much pleased with his short visit, 
 and observed that, with respect to the public baths, they were not equalled in 
 splendour and convenience by any of the most celebrated on the Continent, all 
 of which he had seen ; and the general attractions of the city drew forth his 
 unqualified admiration. 
 
 In 1827, her Royal Highness the DUCHESS OF CLARENCE paid a 
 short and private visit to Sir Hutton Cooper, in the Royal Crescent. 
 
 On the 21st of October, 1830, the DUCHESS OF KENT, accompanied 
 by her illustrious daughter, the PRINCESS VICTORIA, heiress-presumptive to 
 the Throne, arrived at the York House. A congratulatory peal of bells 
 welcomed the Royal party to the city, and immediately the Sheriffs, with the 
 Master of the Ceremonies, waited on their Royal Highnesses to request they 
 would honour the city by inspecting the public buildings and receive an address 
 from the Body Corporate. To these solicitations a gracious assent was given, 
 and preparations were made for receiving the Royal party with every demon- 
 stration of respect. The Mayor and Body Corporate were in attendance, 
 and a large assemblage of ladies and gentlemen. On the arrival of the 
 Royal visitors at the Guildhall, the Mayor (J. F. Davis, Esq., M.D.) welcomed 
 their Royal Highnesses to this city, in terms of warm congratulation, to 
 which a kind and flattering reply was made. It was on the occasion of this 
 visit that an auspicious opportunity of opening the new improvements 
 suggested itself to the Committee, and a request was made to their Royal 
 Highnesses that they would be pleased, after inspecting the different public 
 buildings, &c, to make the first circuit of those improvements. Accordingly, 
 on the 23rd, the Royal visitors, attended by the Mayor, the Lord Bishop of 
 the Diocese, Lord James O'Bryen, and several other distinguished personages, 
 with a numerous train of followers, entered at the approach near Queen's 
 Parade; and, after taking the circuit of the drive, her Royal Highness the 
 Duchess expressed the gratification which she and the Princess had derived
 
 Historic Houses in Bath and their Associations. 17 
 
 from their visit to the city, and signified her desire, that in future the newly- 
 formed pleasure-grounds should be designated the " Royal Victoria Park." 
 
 On Wednesday, July 19, 1843, a reception was given to his Royal 
 Highness the late PRINCE CONSORT at the Bath Station, on his way to 
 Bristol, to take part in the launch of the "Great Britain" Steamship. Prepara- 
 tions were made by the Mayor (John Edridge, Esq.) and the Corporation to 
 give his Royal Highness a welcome and cordial reception. The centre of the 
 down platform was fitted up as a drawing-room, and in this temporary room the 
 Prince was received, and an appropriate address read to him, to which his Royal 
 Highness most graciously replied, and then proceeded to the neighbouring city. 
 A public breakfast afterwards was given by the Mayor at the Guildhall, and the 
 proceedings were of the most gratifying character. 
 
 The DUKE AND DUCHESS OF CONNAUGHT paid a brief visit to 
 Bath on the 20th of July, 1881. 
 
 The occasion was one of much importance and no little interest — namely, 
 the Annual Distribution of Prizes at the Lansdown School for the Daughters 
 of Officers of the Army, who have not been able to make adequate provision 
 for their education. It was a peculiarly appropriate opportunity for the 
 Prince, immediately after his marriage, to show his special interest in an 
 institution so worthy of his sympathy as a Royal Prince and a Soldier. The 
 occasion, moreover, was rendered the more impressive from the fact that it 
 enabled the Prince to introduce his Royal bride, herself the daughter of one of 
 the most illustrious soldiers of modern times— the Red Prince — to witness a 
 ceremony simple in itself, but really one of the highest national importance. 
 Her R.H. saw for the first time in this country, the country of her adoption, 
 that phase of practical and helpful benevolence which marks the national 
 character. The Royal School, in the work of education, assists a class of young 
 ladies who have the highest claim upon the nation at large, and that too in a 
 manner which leaves no sense of humiliation and detracts in no wise from a due 
 sense of independence in the recipients. The soldier who dies in the service of 
 his country has established a strong claim upon his countrymen to provide some 
 help towards the expense of educating those loved ones he leaves behind — his 
 girls — whose chances of a high-class education are not equal to those of hoys, for 
 whom also more abundant provision lias been made in other respects, and 
 to whom a greater choice of professions is open. 'We say the School is 
 practically " helpful," because it is not free ; but, as will be seen, whilst giving
 
 Historic Houses in Bath and their Associations. 
 
 the highest and best possible education, it does so on a scale of charges adapted 
 to the circumstances of the parent, or parents. 
 
 The pupils are admitted on a graduated scale of payment ; by election ; 
 by purchase of life presentations ; by presentations for the occasion. Some 
 elected pupils are admitted on payment of ^12 per annum, others on a higher 
 scale of payment. The expenses are met by Legacies, Sale of Presentations, 
 Donations, and Annual Subscriptions. The fundamental rule is as follows : — 
 
 " The Daughters of all Officers in her Majesty's Army, inclusive of the Royal Marines, and of 
 " Officers who have sold out, or otherwise retired from the service (provided those children were born 
 "prior to such retirement), are eligible. The religious education shall be, in all cases, in accordance 
 " with the doctrines of the Church of England and Ireland ; and a Clergyman of that Church shall 
 "be selected by the Governing Body to act as Clerical Visitor to the Institution." 
 
 To promote the increased prosperity of this School was the object of 
 their Royal Highnesses. It was a mission becoming a soldier Prince and 
 Princess, who can so well understand, from their own training and instincts, the 
 value and importance of an institution such as the Royal School to those for 
 whom its privileges and advantages are intended. 
 
 The Duke and Duchess were received with due honour, and the 
 proceedings were conducted with skill, order, and eminent success. The 
 Royal visitors returned to London on the evening of the same day. 
 
 The history of Royal visits to our city shows that many of them have been 
 purely of a political or State character ; whilst others — and these concern us far 
 more — have been undertaken on the part of the Royal visitors altogether for the 
 benefits of the Bath waters. These waters are nature's gift, which cannot be 
 taken from us, but it certainly depends upon the public spirit of the citizens, 
 represented by the Corporation as the trustees and legal guardians of these 
 thermal springs, to keep them more prominently before the world. True, we 
 have baths and appliances, which, by universal admission, are the finest in the 
 world ; but we have too long taken it for granted that in providing them, we 
 have done all that we are called upon to do. Nothing is more probable than that 
 at some future time we may be honoured by Royal visits for the sake of these 
 waters. It cannot be supposed that the benefits received by various members 
 of the Royal Family during many centuries are likely to be forgotten.
 
 Historic Houses in Bath and their Associations. 19 
 
 THE INNS OF OTHER DAYS. 1 The Inns of the past have no small claim 
 to be considered "historic." They were associated with the social and commercial 
 life of the city by special and peculiar ties ; they were the links as it were that 
 connected Bath with every other part of the kingdom. Each Inn had its own 
 distinctive uniform and badge for its servants and waiters, and each was 
 connected with other Inns throughout the country, to whom it sent, and from 
 whom it received, its guests. Each had its own peculiar method of con- 
 ducting its affairs, according to the quality of its visitors and the standing 
 of the house. 
 
 THE BEAR INN was for more than a hundred years the most famous in 
 the city. Its yard and stables were parallel with the whole length of Lock's 
 Lane (now called Union Passage), extending on the East side from the Upper 
 Borough Walls to the corner of Westgate Street. The site of The Bear Inn 
 and premises is now represented by Union Street. The Inn faced Stall Street, 
 and was a capacious and comfortable house. 2 It is more widely known than 
 any other inn from having been the headquarters of the hero in Mr. Anstey's 
 famous Satire, " The New Bath Guide." 3 Its china was characteristic and of 
 a most delicate texture, The Bear being pourtrayed on each piece. The last 
 landlord by whom it was kept was Henry Phillott, brother of the Rector 
 of Bath, of Joseph Phillott, surgeon, and of Charles Phillott, banker. When 
 street improvements began, under the Acts of 1766 and 1789, the Inn was 
 doomed. It was closed, dismantled, and the furniture sold about 1797. The 
 
 1 The Inns of the present day which were contemporary with those here described, and others 
 not so well known, are 'I he Angel ; The Castle ; The Christopher; The White Lion. The York 
 House, and other excellent hostelries came into existence between 1770 and 1780. The Grand Pump 
 Room Hotel may be said to be the successor of the White Hart on a larger scale. 
 
 2 John Britton says — " It was the chief house in Bath for carriage company." Smollett, no doubt, 
 was a guest in the Inn ; he makes Humphrey Clinker describe his own experiences at the famous 
 " Bear." The Inn, with its yard, coaches, stables, horses, and men, became a great public nuisance. 
 There was no approaching the Baths from the upper parts of the city, except through the Inn-yard, 
 and frequently ''the poor trembling valetudinarian was carried in a chair, between the heels of a 
 "double row of horses wincing under the currycombs of grooms and postillions." The removal of 
 the premises became an absolute necessity when street improvements began. 
 
 3 "When I came here to Bath, not a bit could I eat, 
 Though the man at The Bear had provided a treat." 
 
 Anstey's Balk Guide.
 
 20 Historic Houses in Bath and theii- Associations. 
 
 Bear appears first on the map of Gilmore, 1694,' and was removed when 
 Union Street was constructed, about 1806 or 1807. The Lodge of Freemasons 
 met at the Inn in the early part of the last century. This Lodge was the prede- 
 cessor of the Royal Cumberland Lodge, No. 41, which has existed from that time 
 in unbroken continuity. 
 
 THE WHITE HART appears first on Gilmore's map of 1694 on the site 
 of the house at the " White Hart Lodgings." The success of this Inn was owing 
 to the enterprize of Mr. Brookman, who was succeeded by Eleazer Pickwick, 
 who had been a postboy at The Bear. He attracted a large share of stage- 
 coach business, and The White Hart became proverbially one of the most popular 
 Inns in the city. The waiters wore breeches and silk stockings, 2 and the women 
 a peculiar kind of close-fitting dress and white neat muslin caps, with white "bibs" 
 hanging from their necks ; and these uniforms continued almost to the closing of 
 the Hotel in 1864. In 1869, the premises and others adjoining were pulled 
 down, and upon the site now stands the Grand Pump-Room Hotel. The figure 
 of The White Hart which was over the portico now surmounts the Refreshment 
 Rooms opposite to the Mineral-Water Hospital. 
 
 THE LAMB INN, in Stall Street, now a grocer's shop, was also a house 
 of great celebrity. It appears on the map first in 177 1. When John Palmer 
 originated the mail-coach system in 1784, The Lamb was then conducted by 
 Dover and Weeks. The London and Exeter Mails, which were originally started 
 from The Three Tuns in 1784, were, in 1787, removed to The Lamb. John 
 Dover and John Palmer, the originator of mail, coaches, were great friends. 
 The waiters and porters wore a silver badge upon the right arm, and the 
 women were attired in a neat dress or uniform. The figure of the Lamb, 
 which surmounted the entrance, is now over the entrance to a public-house 
 called " The Lamb," in the Lower Borough Walls. 
 
 THE THREE TUNS occupied the site of Mr. Manchip's shop in Stall 
 Street, and was an Inn of high reputation. The first mail-coach from Bath to 
 London started from The Three Tuns, and many coaches were "horsed" from it. 
 
 1 This is Gilmore's Map, published in 1694, for which the survey was made in 1692. It is 
 curious that in this map, whilst of course the Inn occupies the same relative position as in subsequent 
 maps, between The Bear and Stall Street there is a block of houses intervening, leaving a narrow 
 passage only to the latter s;reet. In subsequent maps, these houses disappear, and the sites are 
 absorbed into The Bear premises. 
 
 2 In the salad days of the late Lords Lytton and Beaconsfield, they arrived in Bath and took up 
 their quarters at The White Hart. At dinner they appeared in black velvet tights, cut-away coats 
 and waistcoats of the same, and magnificent frill shirts, black-silk hose, and polished shoes with silver 
 buckles. The waiters were struck dumb with astonishment. " Pelham " and " Coningsby " beat 
 them out of sight in the way of superb attire, and a waiter in those days at The White Hart required 
 some beating.
 
 Historic Houses in Bath and their Associations. 21 
 
 The landlord whose name was best known in connection with it, was Mr. Ballinger. 1 
 THE GREYHOUND, or, as it was at one time called, THE GREYHOUND 
 AND SHAKSPERE, was a Commercial Inn. It stood in High Street, opposite 
 Bridge Street, and was closed in 1864. It is first depicted on the map of 1694. 
 Sometimes it was called " The Dog," and by some the appellation was thought 
 to have reference to the special animal from whose tail was to be plucked the 
 hair which was to cure them of his bite of the previous night. The figure of 
 the Greyhound, in a sitting position, a graceful enough object, still crouches on a 
 wall at the back of one of the houses in Paragon Buildings, and can be seen 
 from Walcot Street, below. 
 
 THE GUILDHALL.— The old Guildhall and Market-House, built by 
 Inigo Jones and finished in 1625, stood in the middle of High Street, oppo- 
 site The Christopher. Wood says : — " That edifice seems to have been built to 
 " resemble, in some measure, the Stadt-House, at Delft, in Holland, erected and 
 " finished five years before, under the direction of Cornelius Danckerts. For 
 " it is well known, that in the year 1620, Mr. Jones surveyed Stonehenge, and, if 
 " I am not deceived in my information, he came to Bath the same year, or very 
 "soon after; at which time, there having been many curious workmen in the 
 " place that had been employed on the Church of St. Peter and Paul, the 
 " citizens embraced the opportunity that then offered, and so procured a design 
 " of Mr. Jones, to rebuild their Market-House, 2 with a hall over it, while there 
 " were proper artificers to execute it. 
 
 " This structure is of the Dorick and Ionick order, placed one upon the 
 " other ; and nothing but the particular directions of an Inigo Jones could have 
 " produced the capitals with which the upper columns are adorned. 
 
 " But the strongest circumstances to prove Inigo Jones the architect of 
 " this Basilica, are the excellent proportions of the edifice, which is formed upon 
 " an area of two squares and a half. The clear hall is also a figure of two 
 " squares and a half, and so is the side front. The end front is a perfect square. 
 "And the second order is a fifth part less in height than the rest." 
 
 In the wall of the front were stationed, in ghastly majesty, the statues of 
 King Offa, the fabulous founder, and King Edgar, 3 the real founder of the liberties 
 of the city. In Webster's time, balls were held in the hall on great occasions only. 
 
 1 It was called originally the " Three Tuns Lodgings." The While Hart was called the 
 "White Hart Lodgings." — See Gilmore's Map, 1694. 
 
 2 It is obvious from this, that it stood upon the site of an edifice previously existing. 
 3 These effigies are now to be seen in niches on the house, No. 8, Bath Sued.
 
 22 Historic Houses in Bath and their Associations. 
 
 The associations of the old Guildhall are not without interest. It was identified 
 with the public business of the city and the judicial patronage, and consequently 
 the administration of justice. The distinguished visitors were entertained here on 
 all public occasions with hospitality and dignity ; the representatives of the city 
 during a period of 150 years were chosen within its walls, and those gentlemen 
 to whom was entrusted the business of the city did their work fearlessly and 
 honourably. Bishop Warburton, when he used Ralph Allen to chide Pitt in the 
 matter of the " Adequate Peace," made a chapter which puzzled the members of 
 the Corporation who were not behind the scenes; but it was no small distinction, 
 looking at the list of eminent men by whom Bath was represented during that 
 century, that it should be able to boast amongst them the greatest orator, if not 
 the greatest statesman, of the age. Around the Council-Hall hung the portraits 
 of the members of the Corporation by whom Marshal Wade was elected (the 
 fourth time) in 1741. These portraits were painted at the cost of the Marshal in 
 1742, and, together with his own, presented to the Corporation. The portrait of 
 the Marshal is still to be seen on the grand staircase in admirable preservation, 
 but the worthy Councillors — where are they ? 
 
 It is not possible to look back without interest upon the history and 
 traditions of the municipal government of the city, the political contentions, 
 and the peaceful rivalries of public men ; and the old Guildhall was associated 
 with the most important events of which we have any definite knowledge. 
 Those masterful Chapmans who exercised so large an influence on the fortunes 
 of the city, sometimes sinister, sometimes beneficent, though the earliest of them 
 was first known in the early part of Elizabeth's reign, lived almost to the 
 beginning of the next century, and the race was perpetuated for two centuries 
 beyond that period. Previous to 1678, we find some thirteen of the family were 
 buried in the Abbey, which seems to have been a great charnel-house. Some of 
 these Chapmans during the Rebellion were occasionally Royalists, occasionally 
 Rumpers, according to the varying fortunes of the contending factions. Henry 
 Chapman was the great political ally of Prynne, so long as Prynne was a Rumper, 
 but his bitter opponent when he became a Royalist. Henry lived to be a 
 Royalist, and to praise the virtues of Charles II. It was no longer safe to be a 
 Rumper, but it was safe to be a lickspittle. Henry, however, was a man of 
 mark, and he left an amusing little book — " Thermae Rediviva; " — which gives a 
 faithful account of the city and the springs at that period (1673). There was 
 little to disturb the political serenity of the city from this time until the 
 Pretender found a few partizans, headed by the historian Carte, the Rector
 
 Historic Houses in Bath and their Associations. 23 
 
 of Bath, who proposed to proclaim him king; but the movement was never 
 formidable, Ralph Allen having, by means never fully known, revealed the plot. 
 Bath was, no doubt, loyal to the Hanoverian dynasty, and the Corporation, on 
 four successive occasions (1722, 1727, 1734, 1741), elected the redoubtable 
 Marshal Wade as one of the Members of Parliament. It was manifestly better 
 to have him as a friend than as an enemy. It is clear that the Corporation, 
 which, with few exceptions, consisted, from the earliest to the latest times, of 
 men of integrity and position, discharged its duties with ability and with a due 
 regard to the honour and the best interests of the city. 
 
 This old Guildhall, like many other old buildings, yielded to the exigencies 
 of necessity rather than time. It had long been an obstruction to the business 
 and traffic of the High Street, and upon the completion of the building in 1777, 
 it was at once removed as a useless piece of antiquity. The foundation-stone of 
 the new structure was laid the nth of February, 1768; but in consequence of 
 the refusal of the householders to give up their houses which stood on the site, a 
 total stop was put to the building until 1775, when the plan was reconsidered, 
 and being thought insufficient for the business of the Corporation, fresh designs 
 were prepared by Mr. Thos. Baldwin, the city architect, and the building 
 completed in 1777. It has two fronts, of which Mr. Warner says that the 
 facade towards the Market is preferable to that facing the street. The ground 
 floor contains the ordinary business-rooms ; but on the principal storey above is 
 the council-chamber, which opens into the banqueting-room. The great hall is 
 a noble room, 80 feet in length by 40 in breadth, and 31 in height, containing 
 portraits of Frederick, Prince of Wales, and his Consort, George III. and Queen 
 Charlotte, Pitt — Earl of Chatham, Marquis Camden, 1 Anstey, Ralph Allen, and 
 Alderman Hunt. In the Mayor's room is Turnerelli's bust of George III. ; and 
 in the council-chamber one of Ralph Allen, set up during his mayoralty. In 
 this room also are duplicate portraits of George III. and Queen Charlotte. On 
 the landing of the grand staircase is a fine portrait of Marshal Wade. In the 
 
 1 When Camden Crescent was built, it was called Camden Place, after the ancestral residence 
 of the Camden family. There was, therefore, a purpose in this. A few years ago, for some reason 
 no one can understand, this name was changed to Camden Crescent. About the same time, Lilliput 
 Alley was changed to North-Parade Passage, and Gallaway's Buildings to North-Parade Place. In 
 this case, the original names which were identified with Allen and Wood (the mother of all Post- 
 Offices was presided over by the former) were changed, as in the former instance, for no conceivable 
 reason. It is a wanton act of folly to tamper needlessly with street nomenclature, the only effect of 
 which is to puzzle future students of local history. What would Sally I.vnn say if she could see her 
 beloved Lilliput, where she invented her famous tea-cake, transformed into a trumpery passage f !
 
 24 Historic Houses in Bath a?id their Associations. 
 
 lobby are two busts : one of the late Sir W. Tite, M.P., and the other of the 
 late T. Phinn, Esq., Q.C. 
 
 THE ABBEY HOUSE. — This house existed as late as 1755, when it 
 was pulled down to make room for " modern improvements." The house, 
 previous to the dissolution of the Monasteries, had been the Monastic House, con- 
 nected with the Abbey of St. Peter and St. Paul and of the Benedictine Order, 
 and stood upon the site of a former building of a similar character on the South 
 side of the Abbey. The first Monastic House was destroyed when the city was 
 sacked and burned by De Mowbray.' It was rebuilt by John de Villula, whose 
 tomb was to be seen in the Monastic Church, built by himself, as late as 
 the time of Leland. This was the Church which preceded the present building. 
 In the earlier Monastic House, a fine collection of manuscripts and books, 
 including the works of Abelard, one of the most famous philosophers of the 
 twelfth century, himself a friend of Bishop John de Villula, was also referred 
 to by Leland. Prior Bird, Prior Holway, and Charnock were no doubt associated 
 with the same house, and doubtless added to that store of learned works, of 
 which not a vestige has ever been traced. When the building was pulled down, 
 in 1755, a closet was revealed, in which several vestments were found, which on 
 being exposed to the air crumbled into fine dust. 
 
 The Abbey House to which we are referring, after the Dissolution, 
 passed through many vicissitudes, until, in 1653 it was occupied by DB,. 
 ROBERT FIERCE for the reception of patients in connection with the Baths. 
 He speaks of " the convenient situation of my house, having on one side a 
 " Gallery and a door that goes into the King's Bath, and on the other side, 
 " out of my Garden, a private door into the Abbey Church." It is pretty clear 
 from this description, and from the print, No. 1, in Gilmore's Illustrated Map 
 (see Mr. Russell's collection), that the house touched the Abbey on the western 
 end of the south aisle, and overlooked from the upper storeys the King's Bath 
 from the west front. The house evidently was of considerable capacity. The 
 doctor gives the names of his principal patients, and he describes their ailments 
 with a minuteness which would be tedious if it were not for his complacent 
 quaintness. In 1663 he says: — 
 
 " Amongst others that greatly encouraged the drinking of the waters, was Sir Alexander 
 " Frayser, chief Physitian to King Charles the II. He waiting upon His Majesty and Queen 
 
 1 The remote period when this occurred precluded the possibility of any minute account of it ; 
 but the best extant is that just given by Mr. E. A. Freeman, in his History of the Reign of William 
 Rufus and the Accession of Henry I.
 
 Historic Houses in Baih and their Associations. 
 
 2 5 
 
 " Katherine in 63, (whose Court was then at my House, the Abbey, in Bath,) I had the advantage 
 "of being first known to him, and it was the first time that ever he had been here. He then 
 "made several enquiries concerning these waters, and wrote to me afterwards about them, to which 
 "letters I gave answer. He from that time sent several persons (and some of great quality) hither 
 "and recommended them to my care, and came at length himself with his countryman, the Duke 
 " of Lauderdale (purposely to drink these Waters) in the year 73. The Duke, for more than 
 " ordinary Corpulency, and Scorbutical Distemper ; and he himself for an old cough, and Cachethic 
 "habit of body, and both went off much advantaged ; the Duke loosing a large Span of his Girt ; 
 " and Sir Alexander getting more Breath, and a fresh and better colour'd Countenance ; being pale, 
 " and sallow, and black under the Eyes, when he first came down. It was he that occasion'd the 
 "erecting of the little Drinking Pump, in the middle of the King's Bath, but done at the charge 
 "of the City." 
 
 BELL-TREE HOUSE and Benedictine Mission.— In the reign of Elizabeth 
 the churches within the jurisdiction of her Charter, having previously been 
 unjustly deprived of all their revenues, were consolidated, and the patronage 
 vested in the Corporation. In consequence, St. James's was degraded to a 
 curacy dependent upon the Abbey, and its Rectory-house was necessarily alienated. 
 What its history may have been from that time until the period we are coming to, 
 we cannot tell, but in 1 7 1 3 the house became the property of the .Bath Roman 
 Catholics, with a ground-rent of £$ per annum, payable to the Corporation. The 
 house occupied a portion of the site of the Royal United Hospital. At 
 this time the Rev. Father Bernard Quin was " the incumbent." The history 
 of the Mission until 1745 is one chiefly relating to the internal conduct 
 of the house, the distinguished quality of some of its visitors, the kindly and 
 friendly toleration of the Bath people and authorities during a time of disgraceful 
 intolerance, and the simple every-day life of those who dwelt there. The house 
 seems to have been used as an asylum for the Roman Catholic community who 
 at that time came to the city, as well as a place for religious worship, the chapel 
 being on the top storey. "During the rebellion of 1745, a fabricated letter was 
 "forwarded to the Mayor of Bath, ***** * anc j addressed, by 
 " a supposed anonymous partisan of the rebellion, to the Right Rev. Dr. York. 
 " It thanked the bishop for the men and money which he had already provided, 
 "and for the supplies which he had promised; and engaged to him the see 
 "of Carlisle, in the event of the Prince's success. The mayor, satisfied in his 
 " own mind of the forgery, waited on Dr. York, at Bell-Tree House, and was 
 "soon convinced of the perfect innocence of the prelate, and of the malice of 
 "the attempt on his life and character; but, under all the circumstances of the 
 " times, suggested the expediency of withdrawing himself, until the storm blew 
 "over. This prudent counsel was duly acquiesced in." The Benedictine
 
 26 Historic Houses in Bath and their Associations. 
 
 Mission from this time continued its labours without ostentation. In 1776, 
 John Bede Brewer was appointed to the Bath Mission ; in 1778 he commenced 
 the Chapel on St. James's Parade. It was to have been opened for public worship 
 on Sunday, June 11, 1780, but on Friday, 9th, the delegates from Lord George 
 Gordon's association stirred up the mob ; the Chapel was gutted and demolished, 
 and all registers, archives, and Bishop Walmesley's Library and MSS. perished 
 in the flames. The attack upon Bell-Tree House was beaten off. John Butler, 
 the ringleader in this mob, was convicted at the following assizes at Wells, and 
 hung on the 28th of August, at the end of Pear-Tree Lane, in Bath, without the least 
 disturbance. 1 An action for damages was brought against the Hundred of Bath 
 at Taunton, 30th March, 1781, and Dr. Brewer recovered ^3,734 19s. 6d. 
 He escaped himself, almost by miracle, from the infuriated rioters, was refused 
 admission by two of the principle inns, and even at the Town Hall by the 
 Beadles ; but at last found refuge at the White Lion, and thence got away by 
 a back door, across the river. 
 
 We are indebted to Mrs. Jervis {vide Letter, Introductory Chapter) for the 
 discovery of all the papers that were saved, 2 from which she has made copious 
 extracts, which are curious and interesting. They extend over a period of thirty 
 years or more, and relate to persons, some of whom came there for economy and 
 religious freedom, others for occasional change, others for these purposes as well 
 as to exercise their religious opinions in peace and quietude, others who were 
 rich — members of the old Roman Catholic families and aristocracy — to help 
 the institution by their sympathy and their bounty. The names of the Countess 
 of Leicester, the Pendrels, the Southwells, the Barkleys, the Arundells, the 
 Pastons, the Doughtys, and Tichbornes, and many others, frequently occur in 
 connection with the Accounts and in such incidents as Mrs. Jervis has collected. 
 
 1 The Bath Chronicle of 15th June, 1780, gives a full account of these riots. From this account 
 it appears that the rioters broke open the doors, destroyed the inside of the Chapel, and the materials 
 and ornaments they set on fire on the Parade, and they were wholly consumed. It seems also that 
 Dr. Brewer, the priest, occupied a house next door to the Chapel, which was very elegantly furnished, 
 and was the occasional residence of Lord Arundell, of Wardour ; and demolished the windows and 
 window-panes, and threw all the furniture, linen, books, etc., into the flames, rifled the cellars, and drank 
 or wasted all the wines and other liquors. Mrs. Mary English says —"I have heard my father say (and 
 "his family often spoke of those times, though they occurred before his birth) that the man whom they 
 " put to death, a poor drummer, whom the real instigators got to accompany them, beating his drum, 
 " was the most innocent of the whole party. The real culprits were left at large, and this poor man 
 " sacrificed to screen them— who, it is said, took no other part in the attack than beating his drum. 
 " My father often pointed out the White Lion to me, and, as far as occasion occurred, patronized it 
 " on this account." 
 
 2 Copies of the original papers could be obtained from the Taris Archives for literary purposes, 
 if it were desirable, but Mrs Jervis has extracted all that would be essential to an extended notice of 
 the Bell-Tree Mission, which at some future time may be undertaken by a hand more competent than 
 our own. It would, we think, be found that none of the papers connected with the Mission 
 House were lost or destroyed.
 
 Historic Houses in Bath and their Associations. 27 
 
 This Mission, planted at the close of the seventeenth century, has existed in 
 unbroken continuity to this day. Our concern, however, is limited to Bell-Tree 
 House and its associations. The situation of the mansion was pleasant, being 
 just within the walls, with a garden in front, and an uninterrupted view over the 
 Ambury Mead to the south, and the King's Mead to the west. 
 
 At No. 11, NORTH PARADE.— In this house, in 1771, the EARL of 
 
 CLARE x sojourned some years previous to that last visit of Mr. Burke's, which 
 we have described in the next notice. The Earl was a genial, kind-hearted 
 nobleman. He was the friend of Johnson and of Johnson's beloved friend, 
 OLIVER GOLDSMITH. Lord Clare, on this as on former occasions, invited 
 Goldsmith to visit him in Bath, and this was, we believe, his latest. In the same 
 year, and at the same time, THE DUKE AND DUCHESS OF NORTHUMBER- 
 LAND * were at No. 10, NORTH PARADE. This was the first Duke of the 
 present creation. He was Sir Hugh Smithson, who, after his marriage with 
 Lady Elizabeth Seymour, whose mother, the Duchess of Somerset, was the sole 
 heir of the Percys, assumed the name of Percy, and was created Duke of 
 Northumberland in 1766. In Foster's " Life of Goldsmith," the following 
 incident is related : — 
 
 " Goldsmith continued with Lord Clare during the opening months of 
 " 1 77 1. They were together at Gosfield and at Bath; and it was in the latter 
 "city the amusing incident occurred, yEt. 43, 1 771, which Bishop Percy has 
 " related, as told to him by the Duchess of Northumberland. The Duke and 
 " Duchess occupied a house on one of the Parades, next door to Lord Clare's, 
 " and were surprised one day, when about to sit down to breakfast, to see 
 " Goldsmith enter the breakfast-room as from the street, and, without notice of 
 " them, or the conversation they continued, fling himself unconcernedly ' in a 
 " ' manner the most free and easy,' on a sofa. After a few minutes, ' as he was 
 " ' then perfectly known to them both, they enquired of him the Bath news of 
 
 1 The Earl of Clare must not be confounded with the family at present connected with that 
 title. He was Richard Nugent, a member of an old Westmeath family, and was created Earl of 
 Clare. The name and minor title of Baron Nugent ultimately merged into the Buckingham family. 
 The Earl's daughter married the first Marquis of Buckingham, whose second son succeeded to the 
 Irish Barony of Nugent and to a portion of his grandfather's estate on the death of his mother. 1 le was 
 an author of some repute, best known by his " Memorials of John Hampden," on which Lord 
 Macaulay's exquisite essay was written. Lord Nugent was well known in Bath. 
 
 * In a little book, entitled " Memorable Houses," it is mentioned that the Dukes of 
 Northumberland occupied a house in Westgate Street from 1683 to 1720. During that period there 
 was no Duke nor Earl of Northumberland. The error was pardonable, because Mr. II. V. Lansdown, 
 in his paper delivered before the Archaeological Institute in Bath, in 1858, fell into a similar error, 
 and the author of " Memorable Houses " seems to have adopted it and enlarged upon it. We can find 
 no evidence to connect the Percy family with the house in question (See Article " Grapes Tavern").
 
 28 Historic Houses in Bath and their Associations. 
 
 " ' the day ; and imagining there was some mistake, endeavoured by easy and 
 " ' cheerful conversation to prevent his being too much embarrassed, till, 
 " ' breakfast being served up, they invited him to stay and partake of it ' ; but 
 " upon this, the invitation calling him back from the dreamland he had been 
 " visiting, he declared, with profuse apologies, that he had thought he was in his 
 " friend Lord Clare's house, and in irrevocable confusion hastily withdrew. 
 " ' But not,' adds the Bishop, ' till they had kindly made him promise to dine 
 " ' with them.' " The Duke purchased 11, Laura Place, when it was in course 
 of erection, and made it his occasional residence, until his death, in 1766. 
 
 At No. 11, North Parade, from Jan. until May, 1797, lived EDMUND BURKE. 
 
 It was that brief but painful period which immediately preceded the " last scene 
 of all." He came here, in his last illness, to try the effect of Bath air and the 
 Baths, but only to return home, to use his own feeling words, to be " nearer a 
 habitation more permanent." He died on July 9 of the same year. THE RIGHT 
 HON. W. WYNDHAM, 1 who came to Bath at this time, says, " Feb. 4, arrived 
 at Bath between six and seven. At Mr. Burke's, No. 1 1, North Parade, until 
 bedtime. (6) Called upon Mr. Burke ; went with him to Wilberforce ; a Mr. 
 Fuller against Dr. Priestly. Again to North Parade, when finding Mr. B. well, 
 went to Ball to Miss Cholmondeley's. (7) Stayed at Mr. Burke's till half-past 
 ten, he having had a return of his vomitings. I almost despair. Called again. 
 Home — wrote letter to Dutheil. (8) Walked to Parade before breakfast to 
 enquire after Mr. Burke. Again to Parade. Wrote till dressing for the Duchess 
 of York ; present, Lady Altamont and Lady M. Howe, Miss Cholmondeley, 2 
 Duchess of Newcastle, Lords Coleraine, Somerville, Northey, Fitzgerald." Mr. 
 W. returned to London the following day. 
 
 Mr. Wilberforce, in speaking of the last interview that he and Mr. Wind- 
 ham had with Mr. Burke, says, " the attention shown to Mr. Burke by all that 
 " party was just like the treatment of Ahitophel of old, ' it was as if one went to 
 "enquire of the oracle of the Lord.'" 
 
 Bath was a place endeared to Mr. Burke by many earlier and interesting 
 memories. At Turlcy House, near Bradford, he visited more than once his 
 friend Mr. Atwood, whose family for two centuries had been connected with Bath. 
 Mrs. Burke, of whom her husband spoke and wrote with such tender love and 
 
 1 Mr. Windham stayed at the York House. 
 
 2 This is the lady who afterwards married Lord Mulgrave, grandfather of the present 
 Marquis of Normanby. Her portrait was painted by Gainsborough in Bath, and was sold May 27, 
 1882, at Christie's for 1070 gs., the purchaser being Mr. Agnew.
 
 Historic Houses in Bath and their Associations. 29 
 
 respect, was a Bath lady, whose father, DR. CHRISTOPHER NUGENT, lived 
 at Circus House. After, or just before, her marriage with Mr. Burke, Dr. Nugent 
 removed to London, and became a member of the famous Gerrard Street Club. 
 Frequent mention is made of him in connection with Burke, Johnson, Goldsmith, 
 Bennett Langton, Beauclerc, etc., etc. 
 
 Mr. Windham, it appears from his Diary, had been to Bath on many 
 occasions besides that referred to above. In 1791, June 10. — "During the 
 journey to Bath I don't think I felt quite the same as on other similar 
 occasions. The air seemed as usual to refresh me, but I doubt if I felt the 
 same enjoyment of the country. (12) Went to the Abbey Church. Walked 
 after church with Wilberforce, who had arrived the night before, and whom I 
 had called upon as he was at supper ; our conversation on religious subjects. 
 He adopts, as I understand, the Trinitarian doctrine, but not in any absurd way. 
 I had settled with Mr. Lukin to go to Marlborough in the evening, but having in 
 the meanwhile met with Elliot, he prevailed upon me to stay that evening, to 
 which, indeed, I was further inclined by having received intelligence of a boxing- 
 match that was to take place on the Tuesday, and to which I proposed to go with 
 him. Went in the evening by agreement with him to the Duke of Devonshire's, 
 where I settled to dine with the Duke next day, and to meet Lord Charlemont." 
 
 THE EARL OF CHESTERFIELD'S mansion (built by Wood) was 
 in PIERREPONT STREET, opposite the Doric Portico. It is now divided 
 into two (3a and 4). He was one of those who took an active part, in 
 conjunction with the Earl of Bath, Ralph Allen, Nash, and others, who 
 laid the foundation-stone July the 6th, 1738, in promoting the General Water 
 Hospital, and forming its " Scheme of Rules." His name stands immediately 
 after that of Ralph Allen. Lord Chesterfield married Melosina de Schulem- 
 burgh, natural daughter of King George I., but had no legitimate issue. The 
 Letters to his natural son, Philip Stanhope, were, some of them at least, written 
 in Bath. On the death of the latter, the following epigram appeared : — 
 
 "Vile Stanhope ! demons blush to tell, 
 In twice two hundred places, 
 Has shown his son the road to hell, 
 Escorted by the graces. 
 
 But little did th' ungenerous lad 
 
 Concern himself about them ; 
 For base, degenerate, meanly bad, 
 
 He sneak'd to hell without them."
 
 3o Historic Houses in Bath and their Associations. 
 
 THOMAS LINLEY lived at 5, Pierrepont Street, in which house his 
 lovely daughter, Mrs. Sheridan, was born. Linley was by trade a builder ; but 
 having studied music under the famous organist, Chilcott, he ultimately confined 
 his attention exclusively to that profession. Linley conducted the oratorios and 
 concerts of the city. When Sheridan became the lessee of Drury Lane Theatre, 
 on the death of Garrick, Linley became joint patentee with him, and conducted 
 the musical department (see article, Sheridan). Mr. Linley's highly-gifted son, 
 Thomas Linley the younger, was drowned. 
 
 At No. 2, Pierrepont Street, the house of Mr. Spry (father of Dr. Spry, 
 physician, a writer on the Bath Waters), from the autumn of 1780 to August, 
 1 78 1, lived England's future greatest Naval Hero — ADMIRAL VISCOUNT 
 NELSON. 
 
 " Unbounded courage and compassion joined, 
 Tempering each other in the victor's mind, 
 Alternately proclaim him good and great, 
 And make the hero and the man complete." 
 
 After distinguishing himself in a thousand ways, he in 1780 (being in 
 his 22nd year) was appointed to command the sea part of the Expedition against 
 Fort St. Juan, on the Rio San Juan, which runs from the great American lake 
 Nicaragua into the Atlantic. The object of the Expedition was, by taking 
 possession of the Fort, to cut off the Spaniards' communications between their 
 northern and southern dominions in America. By the climate, and by his great 
 exertions, Nelson's health became most seriously deranged, and he was obliged 
 to be removed to the lodging-house of Cuba in his cot. Some idea may be 
 formed of his exertions and the climatic sufferings he endured, when, as he says, 
 he " carried troops in boats 100 miles up a river, whilst none but Spaniards since 
 " the time of the buccaneers, had ever ascended that river." He says : — " He made 
 " batteries and fought them," and as usual, wherever he went, he contributed largely 
 to the success of the Expedition. On his return to Europe, he was ordered to Bath. 1 
 He tells his friend Capt. Locker that he is attended by Dr. Woodward, of whom 
 he always spoke and wrote in terms of gratitude ; he relates his experience of 
 the Baths ; says he is a most docile patient ; that his friend is to send all his sick 
 
 1 Captain Mark Robinson was the Commander of the Worcester, in which Nelson served as 
 acting Lieutenant in 1776-7. Captain Thomas Pitt Robinson, R.N., his grandson, lived for many 
 years at 20, Henrietta Street, and died in Bath a few years ago. Admiral Joskph Bullf.n, who lived 
 for many years at No. 13, Raby Place, and who died at the patriarchal age of 97, in 1858, was a Lieut, in 
 the Royal Navy, and took part in Rodney's action, of 1782. He was personally acquainted with 
 Lord Nelson, of whom he always spoke in affectionate terms. Admiral Bullen, besides the severe 
 action of " '82,'' was under fire in some seventy " affairs," but was never touched.
 
 Historic Houses in Baih and their Associations. 
 
 3i 
 
 friends, especially those suffering from climatic disorders, to Bath. On Feb. 15, 
 1 78 1, he writes : — " My health, thank God, is very near perfectly restored, and I 
 have the perfect use of my limbs, except my left arm." On the 21st he says 
 to the same friend : — " I wish you had come to Bath. ... I am sure yours 
 is a Bath case. . . . As to my health, it is perfectly restored, although I 
 shall remain here a few weeks longer, that it may be firmly fixed." He 
 remained in Bath, in fact, until August, when he was appointed to the Albemarle, 
 of 28 guns, and was employed in the North Sea. In 1784, Captain Nelson 
 came again to Bath to visit his father, the Rev. Edmund Nelson, Rector of Burn- 
 ham Thorpe, Norfolk, who had been ill. Writing to his brother, the Rev. William 
 Nelson, Rector of Brandon Parva (who succeeded to the ultimate honours 
 and wealth conferred upon his great and heroic brother), he says : — -" I am 
 happy I can say that our father never was so well since I can remember ; he is 
 grown quite lusty. His cheeks are plumped out . . . and it is all solid 
 flesh." He then refers to his niece and expresses an intention of spending the 
 autumn at Brandon ; but in March he was appointed to the Boreas frigate. 
 In September, 1 1797, and in January, 1798, then Lord Nelson, he came most 
 probably to visit his father, who was in declining health. After the Copenhagen 
 affair his father was still in Bath, where he died, on the 26th of April, 1802. Lord 
 Nelson was too ill to visit his father in his last illness, but the husband of the 
 " Kitty " referred to, Mr. Matcham, wrote as follows to Lord Nelson, his uncle- 
 in-law : — 
 
 " My dear Lord, — 
 
 " Your good old father is very ill, and I have directions from Dr. Parry 
 " and Mr. Spry to say to you that he is certainly in great danger. Whatever 
 " orders you send me shall be executed. 
 
 " Believe me, my dear Lord, 
 
 " Yours affectionately, 
 "April 24th, 1802. "G. MATCHAM." 
 
 The Rev. Edmund Nelson was buried at Burnham Thorpe on the nth of 
 May. 
 
 In the "Bath Journal" of January 27, 1766, appears the following 
 obituary notice: — "Tuesday morning, died at his Lodgings in this city, 
 " MR. Q,UIN, the celebrated comedian, who had retired from the stage some 
 years." There seems to have been little known locally of this famous actor, and 
 his death, judging from this notice, excited little or no interest ; the house in which 
 
 1 On March 20, 1797, the Corporation conferred upon Lord Nelson the Freedom of the city.
 
 32 Historic Houses in Bath and their Associations. 
 
 he died not even being mentioned, though there is little doubt it occurred in the 
 same house which long before had been occupied by Lord Chesterfield in 
 Pierrepont Street. 1 Quin really came to Bath for rest and tranquillity. He 
 walked about the meadows, frequented the reading-rooms and the pump-room, 
 where he met and conversed with the famous men of the day. In the latter, 
 sauntering about in quiet conversation with a friend one day, a young buck put 
 his hands upon the actor's shoulders and vaulted over his head, much to his 
 astonishment and indignation. Turning complacently round to Mr. Quin, the 
 buck said, " There, Mr. Quin, what would you give to be able to do that ? " 
 " Why, sir," said Mr. Quin, "I would give a thousand pounds to be able to make 
 " half such a fool of myself ! " He was buried in the Abbey, and Garrick wrote 
 his epitaph, and, as this is in nearly every guide-book, and can be seen in the 
 Abbey, we think it needless to quote it here. Upon the grave-stone, in the 
 centre aisle of the nave, is the inscription : — 
 
 " Here lies the Body of Mr. James Quin. 
 
 " The scene is chang'd — I am no more : 
 
 " Death's the last act — now all is o'er." 
 
 Quin used to say that he did not know a better place than Bath for an old 
 cock to roost in. 
 
 SIR WALTER SCOTT, in his early boyhood, was brought to Bath in 
 1777 ; he was slightly lame from a congenital affection of the foot, to cure which 
 recourse was had, with great effect, to the Thermal Douche. Robert Scott, his 
 uncle, had charge of him, and they resided at 6, South Parade. Sir Walter 
 never saw Bath again, though he retained " the most minute recollection of all 
 " the striking features of the city " to his latest years. It was in Bath, where 
 (as also with Southey), in the Old Orchard-Street Theatre, he first experienced the 
 sensation peculiar to his imaginative nature on seeing his first play. He has 
 himself alluded, in his Memoir, to the lively recollection he retained of his first 
 visit to the theatre, to which his uncle Robert carried him to witness a represen- 
 tation of " As You Like It." In his " Reviewal of the Life of John Kemble," 
 written in 1826, he has recorded that impression more fully, and in terms so 
 striking, that we give it full : — 
 
 1 This is partly confirmed by the following extract from Quin's will : — " Item, I give and be- 
 " queath unto Mrs. Mary Simpson, landlady of the center house, in Pierrepont Street, Bath, One 
 "hundred pounds, to be paid by my executors into her own hands, independent of all creditors 
 " whatever." 
 
 Richard I^ovell Edgeworth was born in this street (the number of the house we do not know), 
 in 1744. Himself eminent, he was the father of a still more eminent daughter, Maria Edgeworth, 
 the novelist.
 
 Historic Houses in Bath and their Associations. 33 
 
 " There are few things which those gifted with any degree of imagination recollect with a sense 
 " of more anxious and mysterious delight than the first dramatic representation which they have 
 "witnessed. The unusual form of the house, filled with such groups of -crowded spectators, them- 
 " selves forming an extraordinary spectacle to the eye which had never witnessed it before; yet all 
 "intent upon that wide and mystic curtain, whose dusky undulations permit us now and then to 
 "discern the momentary glitter of some gaudy form, or the spangles of some sandalled foot, which 
 " trips lightly within ; then the light, brilliant as that of day ; then the music, which, in itself a treat 
 "sufficient in every other situation, our inexperience mistakes for the very play we came to witness ; 
 " then the slow rise of the shadowy curtain, disclosing, as if by actual magic, a new land, with woods, 
 "and mountains, and lakes, lighted, it seems to us, by another sun, and inhabited by a race of beings 
 "different from ourselves, whose language is poetry, — whose dress, demeanour, and sentiments seem 
 " something supernatural, — and whose whole actions and discourse are calculated not for the ordinary 
 " tone of every-day life, but to excite the stronger and more powerful faculties — to melt with sorrow, 
 " overpower with terror, astonish with the marvellous, or convulse with irresistible laughter : — all these 
 "wonders stamp indelible impressions on the memory. Those mixed feelings, also, which perplex us 
 " between a sense that the scene is but a plaything, and an interest which ever and anon surprises us 
 "into a transient belief that that which so strongly affects us cannot be fictitious ; those mixed and 
 "puzzling feelings, also, are exciting in the highest degree. Then there are the bursts of applause, 
 "like distant thunder, and the permission afforded to clap our little hands, and add our own scream 
 " of delight to a sound so commanding. All this, and much, much more, is fresh in our memory, 
 " although, when we felt these sensations, we looked on the stage which Garrick had not yet left. It 
 " is now a long while since ; yet we have not passed many hours of such unmixed delight, and we 
 " still remember the sinking lights, the dispersing crowd, with the vain longings which we felt that the 
 " music would again sound, the magic curtain once more arise, and the enchanting dream recom- 
 " mence ; and the astonishment with which we look upon the apathy of the elder part of our 
 "company, who, having the means, did not spend every evening in the theatre. "--/.//£, vol. I. 
 
 He was particularly struck with the stone figure of Neptune, which stood 
 at that time near the South-Parade ferry. 
 
 SOTTTHEY'S early youth, too, was spent in Bath. He was brought up by 
 his aunt, Miss Tyler, who lived in a detached house within a walled garden 
 sloping down to the river in Walcot Street. The premises were formerly 
 Messrs. Holmes's timber-yard, but are now in the occupation of Messrs. 
 Hayward and Wooster, builders, and the house may still be seen. Miss Tyler 
 was a friend of Gainsborough, who painted her portrait, which was disposed 
 of by Christie and Manson on May 27, 1882, for 600 guineas. It was during 
 his residence here with his aunt that Southey first enjoyed that bright evening 
 in boyhood's life — the sight of his first play in the old Orchard-Street Theatre. 1 
 As he grew older, he was sent to a boarding-school at Corston, near Bath, of 
 which the son records his father's impressions. 2 
 
 1 See "Life of Southey," vol. I. 2 Ibid, vol. I., Letters i to 15.
 
 34 Historic Houses in Bath and their Associations. 
 
 WORDSWORTH, the Poet, visited Bath on several occasions. In May, 
 1 841, the poet came to Bath, on the occasion of his daughter's marriage with Mr. 
 Quillinan at St. James's Church. On that occasion he occupied apartments at 
 9, North Parade, and during his sojourn in Bath he was a constant visitor to Sum- 
 mer-hill, the residence of his intimate friend, Dr. Parry. In March, 1847, the poet 
 again visited the city, and lodged in Queen Square. The late Mr. C. Godwin, who 
 was known to Mr. Wordsworth, showed us a copy of his Poems, which the latter 
 had most courteously presented to him, during his stay in Bath, at that period. 
 
 No. 7, ORANGE GROVE— now " The Cross Keys Inn"— in the former 
 half of the last century was a watchmaker's shop, kept by a respectable 
 citizen named Lawrence. He had two sons born in this house — FRENCH 
 LAWRENCE and RICHARD LAWRENCE. French was a distinguished politi- 
 cian, the friend and executor of Edmund Burke. Dr. Richard Lawrence was the 
 last Archbishop of Cashel, having succeeded Archbishop Brodrick, father of the 
 former Rector of Bath, who became Viscount Midleton. 
 
 NASSAU HOUSE — a modern name — in the Orange Grove, 1 has been 
 erroneously described as the residence of the Prince of Orange. The mansion 
 was most probably first occupied by the nobleman who built and designed it — about 
 1730— the EARL OF CORK AND BURLINGTON. 2 The Earl was a man of 
 taste, an architect of no mean pretensions, as this edifice attests. Lord Cork 
 was the friend and companion of Pope, who, in his " Epistle to Richard Boyle," 
 
 says : — 
 
 "Who then shall grace, or who improve the soil? 
 Who plants like Bathurst, 3 or who builds like Boyle?" 
 
 After the Earl of Cork and Burlington's death, the house became the 
 Bath residence of the EARL OF HOWTH, about 1780. Lord Howth's daughter, 
 Lady Frances St. Lawrence, married, in 1808, the Rector and Archdeacon of 
 Bath, the Rev. J. Phillott. Lord Howth was maternal grandfather of the present 
 Earl of Cork and Orrery. There was also a house situated on St. James's 
 Rampier (part of the site of R.U. Hospital) — the design and architecture of which 
 were also attributed to the Earl of Cork and Burlington — occupied by DR. BAVE, 
 a physician of great eminence. He was born at Colen, in Germany, in 
 
 1 The gabled houses on the south side were built in 1706. 
 
 » The Earl of Cork and Burlington died in 1753, when the English honours became extinct, 
 the Irish honours devolving upon his kinsman, the 5th Earl of Orrery, who thus became Earl of Cork 
 and Orrery, from whom is descended the present Earl of Cork and Orrery. 
 
 3 Earl Bathurst, who planted Oakley Park, near Cirencester.
 
 (To go Opposite Page 31)
 
 Historic Houses in Bath and their Associations. 35 
 
 1588. Dr. Guidott describes him in very laudatory terms, and wrote his Latin 
 Epitaph in the Abbey. The tablet cannot be found. Bave seems to have been 
 one of the " old school," dressed in purple velvet and fine linen, gave " himself 
 airs," strutted like a dandy, which he affected to be, but no doubt was a man of 
 ability and great benevolence. 
 
 The EARL OF SANDWICH occupied Nos. 14 & 15, Orange Grove in 1 794. 
 
 The character of Orange Grove has been greatly changed. It was at one 
 time, when the trees were standing, and it was intersected only by neat paths, 
 a little russe in urbe. Several of the houses were, as we have shown, 
 occupied by high-class residents, and others were highly respectable Boarding- 
 houses, where visitors were " taken in and done for," in a sense not conformable 
 to modern usuage. In 1838, the trees were cut down, and the carriage-road 
 constructed to the North Parade. Macadam has superseded the shady groves, 
 and the whisperings of lovers have given place to the perpetual clatter of wheels. 
 Where formerly stood the LOWER ROOMS, and on the identical site, we have the 
 ROYAL LITERARY AND SCIENTIFIC INSTITUTION, 1 in which the 
 exertions of the toes have given place to the exertions of the head ; where quiet 
 contemplation prevails, instead of the mirth of the days when Mrs. Piozzi, in 1819, 
 at 80 was equal in agility to the youngest of her guests assembled to do her honour 
 on her birthday. (See Note on "Nash" for an account of duel in the Grove.) 
 
 BATH ABBEY. — When Wells successfully re-asserted her claim to 
 become the residential city of the Bishop, Bath, though nominally (as it continues 
 to be) the titular head of the United See, was administered by a Prior, who was 
 also the chief of the monastic order. The Prior, there is little doubt, lived in 
 the monastery. The Reformation not only brought this to an end, but destroyed 
 the continuity of even the semblance of an ecclesiastical establishment' The 
 result was, for a time at least, that, after the unjust spoliation by the king, the 
 incumbent was dependent for his income, either on his private fortune, or gifts, 
 offerings, and such other small legal pickings as remained, amongst which were the 
 fees for interment in the Abbey. 2 Persons in former days had an irresistible 
 fancy for "snug lying." Personal distinction in itself was not necessary to 
 
 1 The origin of the Institution is given in the late Rev. ]. Hunter's little work "The Connee- 
 "tion of Hath with the Literature and Seience of England,'' ami a more recent account will he found 
 in " Rambles about Hath." 
 
 / 
 
 2 In 1666, ANTHONY A WOOD compiled an account of the mural tablets and other memorial 
 stones to persons most of whom were, up to that period, interred in the Abbey. Tins account was 
 deposited in the Bodleian Library, Oxford, but not published. Mr. John Godwin has can-iully tran- 
 scribed Wood's record, and in r 83 1 printed a very small number ol copies for his personal friends. 
 From this account, it appears that at as early a period as 1666, as manv a* 130 tablets and stones were 
 counted of persons buried (and of others not buried) in the church. About the time when intramural
 
 36 Historic Houses in Bath and their Associations. 
 
 obtain the privilege of sepulture in the Abbey ; the sole qualification was the 
 ability of the survivors to pay a lumping fee. The source of revenue gradually 
 resolved itself into the ordinary official fees and pew-rents, the latter of which 
 only necessity in such a church as the Abbey can justify. In the list of Rectors 
 a great many were local men, nominees of the Council, and we do not remember 
 any, except the Rev. Joseph Glanville, writer on " Witchcraft and Apparitions " 
 (1666 — 1684), and Carte, the historian, who emerged from local obscurity. 
 In later days, the Rectors of Bath have been men of high social position, 
 distinguished by zeal, ability, and the highest attributes of Christian gentlemen : — 
 Dean Law, the Hon. and Rev. W. J. Brodrick : (afterwards Dean of Exeter and 
 Viscount Midleton), Bishop Carr (formerly Bishop of Bombay), the Rev. Charles 
 Kemble, and Canon Brooke. Mr. Kemble was a man of singular energy and force 
 of character. To him we are no doubt indebted, first, for that work of restoration 
 and reconstruction, which involved an outlay of ^30,000, of which at least one half 
 he contributed himself; 2 and then for purifying the Abbey as a charnel-house. 
 However much one might differ from him on many points, no fault could be found 
 with him as to his habit and prudent method of giving. The name of Charles 
 Kemble will occupy a prominent if not the very first place amongst the benefactors 
 of Bath, and they are many. It was, however, not only with regard to the Abbey 
 and its restoration he made his influence felt. He took a warm interest in all im- 
 portant institutions, on which he brought his vigorous judgment to bear. On all 
 
 interments were forbidden by law, about 40 years ago, 580 tablets and about 750 stones were counted. 
 Assuming that a large proportion of persons were interred to whom no memorial was raised, it is 
 probable that from first to last 2.500 persons were buried in the building. A correct copy of the 
 inscriptions upon the floor now covered by the seats has been made by Mr. Russell, and a list of all 
 the tablets upon the walls. 
 
 1 Shortly after the appointment of the Rev. \V. J. Brodrick to the living, his attention was 
 called to the fact that the only place of sepulture provided for parishioners of the Abbey parish was 
 within the walls of the church itself. He at once took steps to remedy this evil by establishing at his 
 own cost the " Abbey cemetery," and thus rescuing the sacred edifice from its character as a charnel- 
 house. The last interment in the church was on the 29th Jan., 1845. 
 
 2 This little work has to do with Historic Houses and their Associations, and takes no note of 
 the ecclesiastical history, as such, of the city, a subject which may be dealt with at some future time in 
 a separate paper. Still, it is not possible to avoid incidentally referring to men who, whilst their lives 
 and primary labours have been identified with ecclesiastical functions, have left their mark upon the 
 temporal and secular history of the city. When the Abbey was in the course of erection, the monas- 
 tery and the revenues of the Abbey were surrendered to Henry the Eighth, and the edifice was left a 
 mere shell ; and as to revenue there was not so much left as a mere endowment for a parish rectory. 
 The Abbey was partly roofless, and only by the munificence of Bishop Montagu, Rellot, Pelling, and 
 others, was it ren lered fit for public worship as late as 1616. In the year 1573, under letters-patent of 
 Queen lili/.abeth, the several parishes of the city were consolidated into one rectory, with the vicarage 
 of I.yncombe and Widcombe appended, and the incumbent of the Abbey was instituted as Rector of 
 Hath and Vicar of I.yncombe and Widcombe, each several parish being under the charge of a curate. 
 By the same letters-patent, its patronage was vested in the Corporation, and exercised by that body 
 until the passing of the Municipal Corporation Act in 1836. In June, 1837, the advowson was sold for 
 £6330, to the late Rev. Charles Simeon, in whose Trustees it is now vested.
 
 Historic Houses in Bath and their Associations. 37 
 
 occasions when a firm hand and a clear head were necessary to guide the counsels 
 of important public movements, he was ever ready with his purse and his co-opera- 
 tion. It may be said that he exhausted himself with details connected with public 
 business which inferior men could have done equally well ; but if he once set 
 himself a task he allowed no one else to perform it. If wealth did exercise any 
 prejudicial effect upon his character, it was that occasionally he seemed to think 
 that what he could do by the aid of wealth, others might do with equal facility 
 without it. He thought so little of wealth in itself that he appeared to be 
 unconscious of its power and importance. 
 
 On the north side of the Abbey, previous to 1830, there stood a congeries 
 of mean parasitical houses. They seemed as if they clung to the Abbey, and were 
 making ineffectual efforts to climb its venerable sides. The history of them is as 
 follows : — In 1584 a Sir Richard Meredith was presented to the Abbey Rectory. 
 A corrupt stipulation was made to the effect that he should grant a lease to the 
 Mayor and chief citizens of all the property belonging to the five churches, their 
 church-yards, lands, rents, issues, and profits, including even obventions and obla- 
 tions, reserving nothing for himself but the vicarage-house of Stalls. This lease 
 was made for 50 years, if the lessor should so long live, under the yearly rent of 
 sixty-two pounds. Availing themselves of this opportunity to apply the lands 
 belonging to the churches to their own use, the Mayor and chief citizens imme- 
 diately began to erect mansions l upon the consecrated ground for the residence 
 of themselves and their connections. Stalls churchyard was covered with houses 
 and the Abbey Church polluted, disgraced, and spoiled by the mean residences 
 of private individuals being attached to its august walls. 2 From this period Stalls 
 Church declined; service was discontinued there ; neglect permitted time gradually 
 to crumble it into ruins ; its remains were removed, and even the remembrance 
 of its exact site is lost and forgotten. 3 Nor was this all, for so completely did 
 these buildings cover the ground that all egress from the church-yard was blocked, 
 and a common passage was tnade through the north aisle of the Abbey. To 
 remedy the evil, Marshal Wade took a most active part, contributing very 
 "bountifully" towards meeting the expense incurred, in making an alley of "com- 
 " munication between the Walks and the pump," which was called Wade's Alley.' 1 
 
 1 A photograph from an old print is published by Cloakley. 2 Warner, p. 241. 
 3 Warner, p. 241. Since Warner wrote, a crypt of well-built masonry was discovered under the 
 premises now occupied by Mr. Winstone opposite the Grand Pump-room Hotel, and there is little 
 doubt it formed a part of Stalls Church. 
 
 * Wood, p. 329.
 
 38 Historic Houses in Bath and their Associations. 
 
 The unreformed Corporation were engaged from 1823 until 1834 in 
 clearing away these vile deformities — the cost of doing which was ;£i 0,640. 
 
 " The citizens of Bath, with vast delight, 
 To hide their noble church from vulgar sight, 
 Surround its venerable sides with shops, 
 And decorate its walls with chimney-tops." 
 
 No.*14, Abbey Churchyard was the Bath residence of MARSHAL WADE, 
 
 who represented the city in several Parliaments. There is every reason to 
 believe that the Marshal was much liked in the city, and rendered the Hanoverian 
 cause, of which he was such a resolute champion, popular. Whatever he might 
 have been when repressing the Stuart insurrections, he showed little of the 
 coarseness and austerity of manner to the Bathonians which were said to charac- 
 terise him in his military commands. There was a bluff, good nature about him 
 in his intercourse with the citizens ; and he certainly exhibited no little generosity 
 in the support he rendered to the local charities and the various institutions of 
 the city. We are left in doubt as to the precise nature of the services he 
 entrusted to Ralph Allen ; but whatever they were, the Marshal was duly sensible 
 of their importance and of the manner in which they were performed. In that 
 little post-office in Lilliput Alley, where Allen was a clerk, some grave political 
 conspiracy was first revealed, with so much care and circumspection, that in all 
 probability it enabled the Government to take timely measures of precaution; 
 and, if we are right in supposing that the facts brought to light occurred after the 
 first ineffectual Jacobite rising, it is probable that any contemplated renewal of 
 that attempt 1 was prevented. 2 The Marshal died in 1748. 
 
 The houses on that side of the Abbey Churchyard were much deeper than 
 they are at present, extending some feet into Cheap Street, then a narrow, 
 irregular street, and which was made what it now is when street improvements 
 were made in the early part of the century. 
 
 "GRAPES TAVERN," Westgate Street.— This house is sometimes 
 called " Northumberland House" but for what reason we cannot tell. We can 
 find no trace of its connection with the family of Percy. There are other 
 traditions relating to this house, but little information on which any reliance can 
 
 1 In " Memorable I louses " it is said that Ralph Allen's services to the Government had reference 
 to " the '45." This is absurd, as by that time he was over middle age, and had long been rich and 
 famous. 
 
 2 It is said that the discovery was connected with a supply of arms and ammunition for those 
 who were favourable to the cause of the Pretender, but it is only conjectural.
 
 (To £o Opposite Page 39)
 
 Historic Houses in Bath and their Associations. 39 
 
 be placed. About the time which may be called the Renaissance period — i.e., 
 from 1720 to the close of the century — this, with the other old mansions in the 
 same locality, was greatly altered, the old front having been removed and the present 
 substituted. Mr. H. V. Lansdown, 1 who had given much study to the old mansions 
 of the city, had not the courage to dismiss the Northumberland theory, which is 
 quite incompatible with what he says afterwards with better reasons : — " It is 
 "probable that, before that time (1720), the house belonged to the Earl of Bath, 
 " as the Rotnan Eagle appears on the escutcheons in the interior; and this privilege 
 " of bearing the paternal coat of arms was granted to Charles, Lord Bath's son, for 
 "his great services at Vienna in 1683, for which services he was created Earl of 
 " Lansdowne." J The only evidence as to this connection of the Grenville 
 family with this house is the heraldic device, and it seems very likely that, Sir 
 Bevil's son having selected Bath as the place from which to derive his title, and 
 the associations of his gallant father with the city having especial attraction for 
 for him, he would make it the place of his occasional abode. No reference 
 is made in any historical record of any interest having been taken by the family 
 in the city. 
 
 At present, the chief feature of this interesting house is preserved in the 
 plaster ceiling of the drawing-room, to which Mr. Lansdown refers. It is 
 a geometrical, elaborate, and fantastical ribbed piece of skilful plasterer's work, 
 similar to ceilings at Wraxall and other Jacobean manor-houses. It is con- 
 temporary most likely with the gabled eastern end of the house, the northern 
 end of which faces Westgate Street. Its date is probably about 1680 to 1700, 
 and it may be that the northern front was altered on a later occasion ; but this 
 plaster ceiling is very beautiful, exhibiting birds and heads in low relief, and 
 is well worth a visit. (See articles, " Goldsmith" and " Duke of Northumberland.") 
 
 LONDONDERRY, or ROSEWELL'S HOUSE. 3 — Beyond the West Gate 
 of the old city walls — now destroyed — and on the west side of Kingsmead Square, 
 stand the remains of an almost unique type of the Muscular Architecture of the 
 
 1 The Monument on Lansdown was erected in 1720, by George, Lord Lansdowne, grandson of 
 Sir Bevil Grenville, and nephew of the Earl of Bath (Sir Bevil's eldest son). The Earldom of Bath 
 became extinct in 1711, and in December of that year the Barony of Lansdowne was conferred upon 
 the above-mentioned George Grenville, who died without male issue in 173^. Neither Warner nor 
 Wood makes it clear who this Lord Lansdowne was by whom the Monument was erected. It 
 should be mentioned that Johnson thought him worthy of a place in his '• Lives of the Poets." 
 
 * This is an error. He was not created Earl of Lansdowne, but was called to the House of 
 Peers in his father's Barony of Grenville of Kilkhampton in Cornwall, in 1696. He was made a 
 Count of the Empire. He succeeded his father as Earl of Bath in 1701, and was accidentally shot 
 the same year. 
 
 The Earls of Bath have been as follows : — Philibcrt do Shaunder (1), Bouchier (5), Grenville 
 (3), Pulteney (1). 
 
 3 See Frontispiece. 
 
 J
 
 40 Historic Houses in Bath and their Associations. 
 
 early part of the immediately past century. It is now a sooty-coloured three-storey- 
 ed dwelling; its main and most elaborate though narrowest front is facing the square, 
 its length facing Kingsmead Street. The other faces are of a mean character. 
 Considering its interesting past history and its connection with those who had 
 more than a local celebrity, its present humbled use may almost be said to be a 
 desecration, as it now serves as the abodes, on the flat-system, of several families 
 of a lower class. The chief front is divided vertically into three main divisions, 
 by means of slightly projecting pilasters. The curved-pediment grouping of the 
 central part is rather an unusual feature, whilst the architraves of the win- 
 dows are elaborated by the still lingering scrolls and men supporting pilasters 
 of the Elizabethan era. On the ground floor is the porticoed main entrance. 
 
 The window architraves of the flanking divisions are also well and 
 characteristically moulded, and the keystones of the middle storey have well- 
 modelled and finished heads, carved in high relief; those of the upper storey have 
 rather heavy and obtrusive-looking cornices. Over the top window of the 
 central division, the cornice bears a shield, on which is carved the rebus of a 
 Rose and a Well, to indicate the connection of the Rosewells with the house ; 
 this shield stands on a base, which bears the date 1736. 
 
 The elevation facing Kingsmead Street is of much greater length than 
 that facing the Square, and notwithstanding the many obliterative and destructive 
 alterations of the varied owners and residents since the Square was occupied by 
 the wealthy, it still bears evidence of its original importance and skilful design. 
 On each of the two upper floors there are eight recessed and well-moulded 
 window-openings, the third and sixth from either end being emphasised by large 
 scrolled terminations. A good projecting cornice completes this elevation. 
 
 But little remains of the corresponding internal completeness of this 
 interesting house. The humbler and lesser requirements of its various occupants 
 have from time to time destroyed its ichnography. The oak staircase, however, 
 is the original one — wide, easy, massive, and good. 
 
 At one time, this house had a considerable garden attached to it in the 
 Kings Mead, which had an unobstructed breadth to the river. 
 
 The house has been known under various names : — Londonderry ; RosewelFs 
 House; and Chapman's House, Its associations are varied and interesting. It 
 was built in 1736 by a rival of Wood, a Bristol architect, named John Strahan, 
 for T. Rosewell, who was, we believe, a builder by trade. He disposed of the 
 house in 1 744. Besides many occupants of local celebrity, it was rendered more 
 famous by being selected as the residence of Bishop Butler, author of " The
 
 Historic Houses in Bath and their Associations. 41 
 
 Analogy of Religion" who died in it in 1752. Dr. Abel Moysey, a celebrated 
 physician, lived here. His son was President of the Bath General Hospital in 
 1784, Mayor of Bath in 1792 and 18 10, and represented this city in Parliament 
 in 1774, T775, 1780, and 1784 to 1790. The late Archdeacon Moysey was his 
 grandson. There is no evidence of any of the Chapmans having resided in the 
 house, and we cannot explain the connection of the name with it. 
 
 No 13, KINGSMEAD STREET, occupied by Messrs. Green and Marsh. 
 There is nothing in the architectural features of this house, or in its history, to 
 connect it with any known interesting associations. But in one respect it gives 
 rise to some speculative assumptions, and that is the series of exquisite medal- 
 lions, which we will endeavour to describe. 
 
 The internal evidences of the importance and taste of an early owner or 
 occupier of these premises marks a period of the Renaissance of ceramic or 
 plastic art, about contemporary with Wedgwood and Flaxman. 
 
 The room at the rear of the premises is well-modelled. On the North 
 side are two large oval medallions, symbolical of Autumn and Winter. 
 
 Over the door is an allegory which is difficult to make out — a lion 
 on what appears to be rockwork immediately over the architrave ; or possibly 
 it may be a crest, the wreath, if it be a wreath, being partly obliterated. 
 
 On the South, corresponding with those of the opposite side, are two 
 lozenge medallions, symbolizing Spring and Summer, and two smaller oblong 
 panels denoting sacrificial subjects. 
 
 The Eastern side has two similar lozenge medallions, which may be 
 Hebe and Pomona, and two smaller oblong medallions, both of which derive 
 their inspiration and design from Cupid and his Loves. 
 
 The centre is occupied by a large mirror frame embedded in the wall in 
 similar style, and into which are incorporated six classical figure-subjects. 
 
 On the West side are two lozenge medallions of dancing-girls. Two 
 small mirror frames and two oblong medallions of Europa and the Bull, a square 
 Bacchanalian subject, and a well-modelled group of the death of the stag, and 
 two subjects of Cupid and the golden apple and the burning torch. 
 
 The Ceiling is well designed in low relief. 
 
 The subjects are executed in plaster, and are very suggestive of 
 Wedgwood and Flaxman. May it not be probable that when Wedgwood was 
 here with his wife this house was then drawing towards completion, and that to 
 shew the special aptitude of the ceramic art for decorative purposes, he walked
 
 42 Historic Houses in Bath and their Associations. 
 
 down from his " show-rooms " in Westgate Buildings, close by, and executed 
 these very medallions ? 
 
 In 1 7 72-1 7 73, JOSIAH "WEDGWOOD established a branch business here 
 for the sale of his Pottery. Mrs. Wedgwood, it appears, was a martyr to 
 chronic rheumatism, brought on "from her residence in newly-built houses." In 
 April of 1772, Wedgwood, accompanied by his wife, came to Bath by slow 
 stages. " The show-rooms in Westgate Buildings, 1 which Mr. Bentley had chosen 
 " early in the year, were not yet opened,* and such time therefore that Wedgwood 
 " could spare from attending the invalid to the pump rooms or in country drives, 
 "was devoted to their preparation, and of this we have some interesting 
 " particulars." In a letter from Wedgwood to Bentley, dated from Bath, June 2, 
 1772, he writes : — " Though the season is now nearly over, yet there seems (to 
 " me at least) a good deal of company here ; and I wish you would enable us to 
 "open our Rooms, as I have found some of my good friends here would 
 " bestow some pains in advertising for us. These good folks will stay a week or 
 "10 days here, if you could but send us something worth shewing immediately, 
 " but we must not baulk the thing in its first starting — Green Bayze — we shall 
 " want a good deal & the lowest we can buy here is 2/4. I have a notion you 
 "buy it much cheaper about i8 d P. yd . , . . Yellow paper for a back 
 " ground for the black Vases, & the colour (we none of us know what it is) we 
 " put behind the pebble Vases ; we must trouble you to send it as there is none 
 " to be got here at any rate. . . . The carpenters are more expeditious than 
 " I expected & will have things so forward in another day or two, that we could 
 " open the Rooms if we had anything to shew. We have rec d the packages you 
 " mention, but those I understand are only Pebble Vases & painted Deserts, we 
 " must have all the Gimcracks in the useful ware, gems, Pictures, flowerpots, &c. 
 " &c, in short it is our united opinion that we should not open at all till you 
 " enable us to make a very complete shew, for there are tolerably decent shops 
 " enow here already — we found Mr. Palmer — and Mrs. Chatterly here. It was 
 " currently reported in Staffordshire, that Mr. Palmer was trying here to establish 
 " a warehouse of his goods. He is gone home this morning, Mrs. Wedgwood 
 " and I took him a few miles on his way, but have not heard anything of this 
 " design from him or Mrs. Chatterly, but I think we can know from the latter if 
 " there is any truth in it." ("Mctcyard's Life of Wedgwood" vol. 2, pp. 270—271.) 
 
 1 This disposes of the statement in " Memorable Houses" that Wedgwood's show-rooms were 
 at 1, Milsom Street. We suspect it was Palmer (Wedgwood's unworthy rival) who lived there and 
 who is referred to above. 
 
 2 The " Bath Chronicle" of the period announces in an advertisement that the show-rooms are 
 " opened at Mr. Ward's," but the number of the house is not given.
 
 Historic Houses in Bath and their Associations. 43 
 
 In Chapel Court, once a fashionable quarter, when visitors liked to be 
 near the Baths, there is a house in the north-east corner of some dignity still, though 
 defaced, dirty, and inhabited by several families. , The house was the residence 
 of the fastidious HORACE WALPOLE, in 1765. One cannot pass through this 
 now dingy Court without noticing this fine mansion, possessing as it does all the 
 characteristics of the best houses built in Bath during the early part of the last 
 century. 
 
 BEAU NASH. — Having endeavoured in our Preface to analyse the 
 character of Mr. Nash, we shall limit the notice in this article to a few of the 
 " associations " connected with the monarch of pleasure. We know he was born 
 at Swansea, Oct. 16, 1674 ; that his father was a man of respectability ; that he 
 sent Richard to the University, that he became an idler, gave his father trouble, 
 and anxiety, and showed few qualities of a redeeming character. Goldsmith ' puts 
 the case with his usual neatness. 2 Mr. Nash first tried the Army ; but it inter- 
 fered with his pleasure. We suspect that fighting was to be done at that time, 
 and we know he was too humane for that. At any rate, he gave up the army. It 
 would be a mistake to say that he studied law ; he did not, though he made a 
 pretence of doing so, whilst he was really going through an arduous preparation 
 for those regal duties which he was afterwards called upon to perform. 
 
 Dr. Cheyne said Nash had no father ; but he certainly had, and the only 
 touch of nature he ever evinced was when the Duchess of Marlborough once 
 twitted him with the obscurity of his birth, and compared him to Gil Bias. He 
 said, " Madam, I seldom mention my father in company, not because I have any 
 " reason to be ashamed of him, but because he has some reason to be ashamed 
 " of me." 3 We know that the special training of Mr. Nash made some progress 
 by the fact that when William III. was entertained by the members of the Middle 
 Temple, he was then so far advanced in the law as to be chosen Master of 
 the Ceremonies. Goldsmith assures us that Mr. Nash had " some virtues," one 
 
 1 Life, p. 9. 
 
 2 In the Preface we have stated that Goldsmith received £15 from the Corporation to write the 
 Life of Beau Nash. The statement is not a new one ; it was made and published many years ago by 
 Dr. Tunstall, whose alleged authority was the minute-book of the Corporation. On examining that 
 book (which we ought to have done before printing the sheet), no such statement can be found. It is 
 clear from Goldsmith's "Life" that he sold the copyright to Newbery, the publisher, in St. Paul's 
 Churchyard. The name of Frederick, a local bookseller, is also in the title-page, and it is not unlikely 
 he may have negotiated the purchase. The following is a copy of Goldsmith's receipt for the money he 
 received for the copyright, and, as Mr. Foster observes, "it appears quite a surprising performance for 
 "fourteen guineas" : — " Reeeiv'd from Mr. Newbery at different times, and for which I gave receipts 
 " fourteen guineas, which is in full for the Copy of the Life of Mr. Nash. Oliver Goldsmith." 
 
 3 Life, p. 7.
 
 44 Historic Houses in Bath and their Associations. 
 
 of which was that "he never went in a dirty shirt to disgrace the table of his patron 
 " or his friend." Mr. Nash's virtues, he assures us, sprung from "an honest, bene- 
 " volent mind," and his vices from " too much good nature ;" so that good nature 
 is the parent of vice. What we cannot understand in Goldsmith's definition of 
 Nash's virtues and vices is that they seem so much alike, and both proceed from 
 what appears to us to be one and the same cause, as it is difficult to perceive the 
 distinction between an " honest, benevolent mind " and " good nature." As a 
 rule, Nash tried to evade the payment of his just debts, and when he exercised 
 his great spirit of benevolence, he did so by borrowing the means from others, whom 
 he never repaid. Perhaps this may be the difference between a " benevolent 
 " mind " and " too much good nature." 
 
 We do not go so far as to deny that Mr. Nash did not seek to promote 
 benevolent objects in the city in which he acquired such unwonted ascendancy ; 
 but we unhesitatingly affirm that his efforts have been greatly exaggerated, and 
 his motives attributed to pure benevolence rather than to policy. Reference to 
 Wood will show that many private individuals, whose names scarcely survived the 
 occasion, collected larger sums for the Hospital than Mr. Nash. Yes, but then 
 he abolished duelling, 1 white aprons, 2 coarse manners, and top-boots. So far, he 
 has fairly earned all the credit to which such an achievement entitles him. He 
 went with the times, and although public opinion generally was bringing about a 
 great social change in the habits and manners of " fashionable society," it required 
 more than ordinary moral courage to attempt to put down duelling and bullying 
 in Bath at that time, and Nash showed not merely courage, but tact, wisdom, and 
 persistency. There was once a king upon whom Divine commands were laid to 
 do certain great things. His name was Jehu; he slew the prophets of Baal ; put 
 an end to Jezebel; smote the house of Ahab ; and shewed in various ways his 
 zeal for the Lord. But he spared the groves and left a few abominations in 
 Bethel and Dan. These were his own cherished vices and sins. The king of 
 Bath warred against the " violent man ; " but the groves of gambling and the 
 golden calves of sharping and swindling were left to disgrace the city, in spite of 
 
 1 In the early part of his reign, a duel was fought by torchlight in the Orange Grove between a 
 gamester, named Taylor, and another, named Clarke, in which Taylor was run through the body, but 
 lived seven years after, but the wound breaking out afresh, he died. This incident caused a great deal 
 of public indignation, and Nash saw in it a favourable opportunity for repressing the custom of 
 duelling and wearing swords within his dominions. Great monarchs, and great ministers too, are 
 occasionally led to adopt a particular line of policy by some toward or untoward occurrence. These 
 two stupid and (perhaps^ drunken ruffians quarrelled and fought at midnight : one all but received his 
 immediate quietus ; the other, it appears, was disquieted for life in his conscience, and died in poverty 
 and contrition. Here was a fine basis for a peace policy ; not " peace at any price," but peace, subject 
 to the arbitration of h\s puissant majesty, King Nash. It consolidated his kingdom. 
 
 2 See Goldsmith, p. 36.
 
 Historic Houses in Bath and their Associations. 45 
 
 special enactments, laws, public opinion, and common decency. 1 Nash 
 found the pigeons ; Wiltshire plucked them. They shared the plunder until they 
 quarrelled about the spoil, and then occurred the lawsuit and the expose and the 
 disgrace. 
 
 Well, then, Nash was a devout man — also on Jehu's principle : — he went 
 to church, held the basin, looked sleek and solemn, and then in private scoffed 
 at all things sacred and holy. 2 He was a profligate ; and although he never 
 spoke the truth, he deceived no one, for the truth was never expected from him. 
 It was only when by accident he spoke the truth that he deceived, for nobody 
 believed him. His jokes were bad, his wit worse ; he swore like a drayman ; 
 and when not in fear of death he blasphemed, but his fits of contrition excited 
 contempt. 3 
 
 In the "London Magazine," 1745, appears the following: — 
 
 "I cannot quit Mr. Nash without observing, to his honour, that he is no less a promoter of 
 " public charity than a hero in every diversion. You see him as complaisant and diligent with the 
 " basin at the Abbey, to collect alms for the Hospital and charity children as he is busy in getting 
 " subscriptions for balls. His memory, perhaps, will be revered and loved from the good accruing 
 " from the General Hospital, which he zealously forwards, and hath already brought to some perfec- 
 ' ' tion, long after his foibles have been passed over by the humane, and his favour has ceased to be the 
 "ambition of the king and gay." 
 
 Such was the impression at the time. Mr. Nash knew the importance of 
 simulating a virtue if he had it not. He knew how to make the best of both 
 worlds. At any rate, he tried. 
 
 We have in vain endeavoured to discover where Nash lived when he 
 arrived in Bath in quest of a kingdom, about 1705 ; but Wood leaves us in no 
 doubt as to the houses which he afterwards occupied : — 
 
 "Thomas Greenway, after building a house in Saint John's Court so profuse in ornament as to 
 " tempt the King of Bath to make part of it his palace, particularly applied himself to small orna- 
 " ments in freestone, such as crests, vases, fruits, etc., and several that served their apprenticeships to 
 " him pursued the business, till they brought it to such a perfection as to merit public encouragement, 
 " and render their works a rising branch of the trade of Bath." 
 
 The house referred to at present is called the " GarricKs Head" and is a 
 very ornamental building, erected about 1 7 20. The atrium of the Theatre occupies 
 almost the whole of the ground floor of the eastern part. The six windows 
 above, and also the five windows of its southern front, have unusually boldly 
 moulded architraves, and the cornices of these windows merge into and are 
 
 1 See Wood, chap. 7. 
 2 Goldsmith's Life, pp. 56, 57, 66. 
 3 Ibid, pp. 174, 175 ; and Appendix in Rambles about Bath, p. 499.
 
 46 Historic Houses in Bath and their Associations. 
 
 incorporated with the main cornice above, which is a somewhat eclectic and 
 unusual feature in classic work. The main cornice is above, and in three of its 
 members is a handsomely carved one. The windows of the attic on both 
 fronts are also boldly treated. The balustrade which crowned the fronts is taken 
 away, but the corner pedestals remain. A much finer treatment is obtained in 
 the design of this house, than in the usual classic and prevailing style. A fair 
 bust of Garrick, by Gahagan, completed in 1831, surmounts the doorway of the 
 Inn. The old staircase remains, and the room on the first floor partly so, 
 but the various changes and vicissitudes of the house during the past century 
 have destroyed its ichnography. The interior is characterised by none of the 
 superior details and arrangements which distinguishes the work of Wood. 
 When Nash left this house, it was for a time occupied by the famous Mrs. Delany. 
 Wood also refers to the next and latest house occupied by Nash — the 
 house now with a tablet upon it as follows : — 
 
 "St. John's Court is likewise new; it is fifteen feet broad, contains four houses, and was 
 " formerly the town mixen, till the Right to the land was recovered, in favour of St. John's Hospital. 
 " In the return of the building of this court, next Barton Lane, there is a. fifth house which makes the 
 "present habitation of the King of Bath, whose former palace, to the south of it, is so profuse in 
 "ornaments, that none but a mason to shew his art would have gone to the expense of those 
 " Inrichments." 
 
 This extract clearly shows that Nash lived first in the house now called 
 " The Garrick 's Head," and from what follows that he then removed to the house 
 we are about to describe. It seems probable that, as Wood states the fact in 
 his first edition, p. 97, published in 1743, Nash did not occupy the former 
 house very long. He died Feb. 3, 1761, aged 87. 1 
 
 This "fifth house " is a three-storeyed building, the plan of which is a simple 
 parallelogram, and it originally stood alone. The six windows occupying its east- 
 ern aspect have remarkably plain architraves compared with those of the adjoining 
 building, in fact the treatment of the three fronts which now remain, shows that 
 the architect must have been restricted in his desire for elaboration. The 
 entrance-door casing, however, on the south side, has been emphasised by 
 skilful and beautiful ornamentation ; and the purity of its classic detail is far in 
 advance of the work of most of the contemporary architects. The basement 
 still retains evidences of large kitchens, and the ample demands of the culinary 
 
 1 Corporation Minute-Book, 1761, Feb 14, Atwood, Mayor. " Shall the funeral of Mr. Nash 
 "be defrayed at the expense of the Chamber at a sum not exceeding Fifty Guineas, under the 
 "direction of Mr. Mayor and Mr. Chamberlain? Yes, 20. No, 1." 
 
 Feb. 20. "Shall the offer of Mr. William Hoare of a portrait of Mr. Nash's picture, to be set 
 " up in the Townhall be accepted, with the thanks of the Corporation for the same? Yes, 20."
 
 Historic Houses in Bath and their Associations. 47 
 
 art. The ground-floor is occupied as a furniture-store. The first floor retains 
 its old wainscoting and ornamental cornice in the large room, which is 25 feet 
 6 inches by 19 feet ; adjoining is a smaller room, and above on the second floor 
 are 3 small chambers. 
 
 Note. — Mrs. Delany {nee Berry) was the great-grand-daughter of Sir 
 Bevil Grenville. She was frequently in Bath, and has recorded her impressions 
 and experience of Bath society at its most brilliant period. She was a well-bred, 
 as well as a high-born lady ; frank, genial, and generous. On one occasion she 
 resided in Gallaway's Buildings ; on another, on the South Parade ; but her 
 longest residence was in the house we have referred to as Nash's mansion in St. 
 /0/1/is Court — " The Gar rick's Head." Lady Llanover has edited the Memoirs 
 and Journals of Mrs. Delany in 6 vols. 8vo. 
 
 Weymouth House.— The Bath Town-House formerly of the THYNNE 
 family. At the end of Mr. Murch's pamphlet on The Elder and the Younger 
 Pitt, it is stated that " the title depends upon the property." This implies that 
 the Marquis of Bath holds his title by tenure, which cannot be the case ; no 
 titles being held now by any other tenure than creation or hereditary descent. 
 Weymouth House, moreover, was occupied by VISCOUNT WEYMOUTH in the last 
 century, but it is more than doubtful whether any Marquis of Bath (as such), the first 
 of whom was created in 1789, ever resided at Weymouth House at all. ' When 
 this Lord Weymouth was created Marquis of Bath, his son became Lord Wey- 
 mouth, and represented the city till his father's death, in 1796, and was succeeded 
 in the representation by his brother, Lord John Thynne, 3rd son of the first 
 Marquis, who sat until 1832. It does not follow that a nobleman must hold proper- 
 ty in any place from which he takes his title. With the exception of Pulteney, Earl 
 of Bath, not one of the other eight Earls possessed property in the City. Pulteney 
 had held the estate of Bathwick only a few years before he was created Earl of bath. 
 
 SIR WILLIAM HERSCHEL.— It would not be too much to say that of 
 all the men who have distinguished themselves in Bath, of whom we are 
 enabled to give a goodly list, no one is entitled to higher praise or deserves 
 warmer admiration than William Herschel. Scarcely any man ever rose to such 
 eminence with so many difficulties to overcome, by his own unaided genius, 
 cheerful persistency of purpose, and never-failing courage, as he. A 
 
 1 The Viscounl Weymouth, who, in th<: earlier pari of Ins life, occasionally lived in this house, u.is 
 
 hum in 1 7;i-(- Macaulay says of him : " Weymouth had a natural eloquence u huh astonished those 
 
 " who knew how little he owed to study. But he was indolent and dissolute, and had carl) impaired a fine 
 
 ■ with the dice-box, and a fine constitution with the bottle." lie died in r/<yo, seven years after 
 
 he was created Marquis of Bath.
 
 48 Historic Houses in Bath and their Associations. 
 
 foreigner, with even little education in his own tongue, accustomed to many 
 privations in his early youth, and apparently with little more culture in his 
 ostensible profession of a musician than he had acquired in the rude school of a 
 military band, 1 he came to Bath in 1766, when he was 28 years old, to seek his 
 fortune. With no patrons, none of the adventitious aids of a local reputation, 
 being also ignorant of the language (except what he may have acquired by his 
 short residence at Halifax), and without experience of any kind, he yet, by his 
 simplicity, his noble nature, and the knowledge he displayed both of the theory 
 and practice of music, soon established a name in this, at that time, pre-emi- 
 nently practical school of music. We know little of the manner in which he 
 attained to the excellence he exhibited in the profession ; but we may assume, 
 from what we know of him in his more prominent and important character of 
 an astronomer, that the labours he had given to the mastery of this abstruse 
 study had been previously applied to his earlier pursuit, by which he long 
 subsisted, and through which it may be said he attained to that higher and more 
 enduring fame as the Royal Astrononier. The peculiar characteristic about 
 Herschel was that he neglected nothing. As a teacher of music, as a leader 
 of the orchestra, as the organist of the Octagon, he did all things well and 
 diligently. It was this faculty of concentrating all his attention upon what he 
 was doing at the time, which enabled him to pursue the calling by which he lived 
 and to make it subservient to that which was, after all, the great work 
 of his life, and which resulted in practical discoveries and scientific triumphs 
 which are for all time. It appears to have been the great sustaining enthusiasm, 
 the calm contentment, and the never-ceasing labours of William Herschel, that 
 excited the loving admiration of his sister, CAROLINE HERSCHEL, and which 
 prompted that helpful co-operation which was the pride of her life, and of the 
 importance of which she scarcely seems to have entertained a thought. She was 
 content to look upon him and encourage him. In fact, she may be compared to 
 the satellite, whilst he was the brightest planet in the firmament. 
 
 1 " In the review of the ' Memoirs and Correspondence of Caroline Herschel,' in the Athcntrum 
 "of this day, it is said that William Herschel 'could not hear the hardships he had to endure (in the 
 " band of the Duke of Cumberland's army), so that the parents quickly sent him away.' It was 
 " related by the Duke of Sussex to Professor Sedgwick, and by Professor Sedgwick to me, that William 
 " Herschel had deserted his military band, and that on the occasion of his first presentation to George 
 " III., the king drew from his pocket and presented to Herschel a free pardon for desertion. 
 
 "On matters of Astronomical Science the Duke of Sussex was entirely in the king's confidence. 
 " I have seen in his possession several papers of observations, comparisons of clocks, etc., in the hand 
 " writing of George- III. 
 
 "In the year 1846 I saw Miss Herschel at Hanover; she was as active as could possibly be 
 "expected from a person of her age, 96, and was still most enthusiastic on Astronomy and precise 
 " in her enquiries about some publications in which she had been concerned. — G. B. AlKY. 
 
 " Royal Observatory, Greenwich ; Jan. 29th, 1876."
 
 Historic Houses in Bath and their Associations. 49 
 
 In comparing Herschel with many other great men, it must be remem- 
 bered that he not only entered upon this most difficult astronomical investigation 
 and study, but that he had to invent and fashion the very instruments needful for 
 his purpose ; and in this he may be said to have made a double discovery — a 
 discovery that is the basis of all subsequent improvements in telescopic appliances. 
 
 When Herschel first came to Bath in 1766, he and his sister took apart- 
 ments at No. 7, New King Street, and, so far as Bath people knew, he was a 
 simple professor of music, though there is no doubt he was also engaged in his 
 astronomical studies. After remaining here for a short time, they removed in 
 1774 to Rivers Street, 1 on the upper side, then more open to the country. It 
 was during his residence in this street that the incident occurred, 2 which first 
 introduced him to Dr. William Watson (afterwards Sir William). 3 
 
 This occurred at his residence in Rivers Street, which was soon changed 
 (1780) for 19, New King Street. At the back of this new residence there was a 
 neat, sloping garden and a fairly open country. It is incidentally mentioned "that 
 " here many interesting discoveries, besides the Georgium Sidus, were made." 
 Caroline mentions in a note, that "in this house the Georgium Sidus was dis- 
 covered, 1 78 1. Here the forty-foot was finished, which revealed two more 
 "volcanic mountains in the moon, 1789." She adds: — 
 
 " Since the discovery of the Georgium Sidus ( Uranus), March the 
 " 13th, 1781, I believe few men of learning or consequence left Bath before they 
 " had seen or conversed with its discoverer, and thought themselves fortunate in 
 " finding him at home on their repeated visits. Sir William Watson was almost an 
 " intimate, for hardly a day passed but he had something to communicate from the 
 " letters which he received from Sir Joseph Banks and other members of the 
 " Royal Society, from which it appeared that my brother was expected in town to 
 " receive the gold medal." 
 
 1 The number we cannot tell. Mr. Monkland, in his Literature and Literati of Hath, pt. 1, 
 says Herschel lived at 13, Kingsmead Street, which is an error. 
 
 2 "About the latter end of this month (Dee. ,1779), T happened to be engaged in a series of 
 " observations on the lunar mountains, and the moon being in the Iront of my house, late in the evening 
 " 1 brought my seven-feet reflector into the street, and directed it to the object (if my observations. 
 "Whilst 1 was looking into the telescope a gentleman, coming by the place where I was stationed, 
 '' stopped to look at the instrument. When I took my eye ol'i' the telescope, he very politely asked if 
 " he might be permitted to look in, and this being immediately conceded, lie expressed great satisfaction 
 "at the view. Next morning the' gentleman, who proved to be I )r. Watson, junr. (now Sir Wiiliatn), 
 " called at my house to thank me for my civility in showing him the moon, and told me there was a 
 " Literary Society then forming at Hath, and invited me to become a member ol it, to which 1 readily 
 " i onsented." 
 
 '■' Sir William resided at 21, l'uheney Street for some years, and died in 102.).
 
 50 Historic Houses in Bath and their Associations. 
 
 Speaking at this time, 1781, of future prospects, it will be seen that after 
 he had become to some extent famous, and after the public recognition of his 
 services had been duly made, he stuck to his original profession. His sister 
 says :- — " Now a very busy winter was commencing ; for my brother had engaged 
 " himself to conduct the oratorios conjointly with Rauzzini} and he had made 
 " himself answerable for the payment of the engaged performers, for his credit 
 "ever stood high in the opinion of everyone he had to deal with." 
 
 It seems indeed probable, that, until he finally left Bath to take charge of 
 the Royal Astronomical Establishment at Datchet, he had no other source of 
 income than what he derived from the musical profession. 
 
 RALPH ALLEN' 2 — born in 1602 at St. Blaizey, in Cornwall— came to 
 Bath a youth, early in the 18th century, and obtained an appointment in 
 the Post-Office. His aptitude for business, his intelligence, rectitude, and fore- 
 sight, quickly led to his advancement to the Postmastership. That he rendered 
 important services to the Government is certain, and that Marshal Wade, on 
 behalf of it, recognized and rewarded those services, is equally certain. It is 
 more than probable that the commands of the Government were laid upon Allen, 
 and that they extended over a period of time and were not limited to a single 
 event, as is generally supposed. Be this as it may, he established his reputation 
 for prudence and loyalty, and laid the foundation of that career of prosperity and 
 usefulness which has so long been the theme of well-deserved praise and 
 honourable pride in all writers on local topics. He married Miss Earl, the 
 natural daughter of Marshal Wade, who, no doubt, for the remainder of his life gave 
 his son-in-law the aid of that powerful influence which he exercised so well and so 
 bountifully on the city of his adoption. We have not space, even if we had 
 the materials, to add new facts to the comparatively simple life of Ralph Allen. 
 But it has always appeared to us that Warner, and all the guide- writers, and even 
 Mr. Kilvert, in his exquisite Essay, have not dwelt with sufficient emphasis upon 
 Mr. Allen's services to the nation at large, whilst they have been too solicitous to 
 vindicate his memory from the petty slanders of such men as Thicknesse on the 
 ground of an unscrupulous desire for the acquisition of wealth. 
 
 We cannot too highly extol the virtues of the man : his warm but unos- 
 tentatious benevolence ; his never-ceasing energy in promoting the interests of the 
 
 1 Rauzzini was nil eminent professor of music. 
 
 2 An admirable jwrtrait is photographed by Cloakley, and the same; artist has also published 
 a photograph of the Tram-Road from Combe Down to the Stone-yard on the banks of the Avon.
 
 Historic Houses . in Bath and their Associations. 5 1 
 
 city, of which he may be said to have been one of the makers ; his noble 
 hospitality to the great and good, to the stately and the simple. These were 
 graces of character — the natural manifestations of a kindly, genial, and refined 
 nature. But we should rest Mr. Allen's claim to universal gratitude and admira- 
 tion upon a broader basis than that of philanthropy and personal qualities of head 
 and heart. Ralph Allen was a pioneer in the cause of civilization and 
 advancement. By organizing and perfecting the Post-Office Cross-Post System, 
 he became a public benefactor — one of that band of men through whose public 
 services England has become what she is. It is enough that Allen conferred 
 immense advantages upon the nation ; that he was the precursor of that system— 
 the postal system — which unites every class — poor and rich, high and low, Whig, 
 Radical, and Tory — in its unqualified praise, and which is deemed worthy of the 
 admiration and imitation of the civilized world. Only a churl of the type of 
 Thicknesse would sneer at such a man as Allen because he had honourably 
 acquired riches, by his head and by his genius, and spent them with a lavish hand 
 upon all that was good and noble. The statesman, the warrior, the lawyer, may 
 become rich amidst the applause of the taxpayers ; it will be a bad day for a 
 nation when the inventor and the wise promoter of great national benefits are 
 alone to be regarded as unworthy of a nation's gratitude. 1 
 
 In the old Post-Office, which stood in that quaint Alley, called Lilliput, 
 Allen thought out and perfected his scheme ; close to that corner he raised up 
 that beautiful residence, the remains of which may be seen now if our readers 
 will seek out and enter that narrow passage near Mr. Archer's Wine- Vaults, at 
 the west end of the North Parade. When it was built it was the Postmaster's 
 House. The reader will be good enough to exercise his imagination in 
 removing those ugly surroundings, and thus to conceive, "in the mind's eye,"' the 
 old English garden, which included a portion of the old bowling-green, and 
 stretched to the east and the north, and then, contemplating the present hideous 
 buildings, with Hamlet exclaim, "To what base uses we may return !" It was a 
 pretty picture — a picture associated with a great public work, and with the 
 memory of the man who wrought it. 
 
 The vulgar story of Allen calling in Wood to show him his wealth, by way 
 of convincing him of his ability to build PRIOR PARK, the extent and 
 grandeur of which had been indicated to the great architect, is a foolish romance. 
 If such a scene had occurred, Wood would have told the story himself in the last 
 edition of his work. Mr. Allen was a gentleman, and in that great mansion he 
 
 1 We hope 011 a future occasion to attempt a briel liioijraphv of Ralph Allen.
 
 52 Historic Houses in Bath and their Associations. 
 
 dispensed its honours with the ease, the bounty, and the dignity of a prince. Of 
 his public life in Bath, we really know less than is desirable and attainable, and we 
 have not space to add to it. He was bounteous in his gifts, and foremost in pro- 
 moting all the institutions of the city. Like all men of eminence who take an active 
 part in local matters, and who at the same time ally themselves with a political 
 party, he did not escape censure and criticism. He was the Coryphccus of the 
 Corporation, which, in consequence, was dubbed the One-Headed Corporation. 
 He might have been their chosen representative in Parliament ; he preferred 
 choosing the representatives himself, and wisely and well he chose. 1 He com- 
 mitted some errors of judgment, but no one accused him of self-seeking. He 
 treated Pope with infinite respect and consideration, who, for some real or fancied 
 wrong, insulted the man whose salt he had eaten, and who, in all the attributes, of 
 a gentleman, was as superior to the poet as the poet was superior to him in 
 genius. 2 He loved the city in which he had acquired wealth, and he lived in it to 
 the end of his days, having apparently no other ambition than to strengthen its 
 institutions, and to leave Bath, which he had found mean and unsavoury, sweet, 
 bright, and beautiful. 
 
 We can form some clear idea of the enterprise which Allen exhibited in 
 developing the stone quarries upon his estate, and the importance at such a period 
 in Bath of the supply of stone which they afforded when the city was growing 
 as if by the enchanter's wand. Richardson, in his Continuation of Defoe's Descrip- 
 tion of Bath, gives us a graphic account of the Stone Yard and the Tramway, 
 connecting it with the Combe Down quarries- 
 Allen's Stone Yard, 1761. " Tour in Great Britain," 4 vols., i2mo., 1761. Written originally 
 by Defoe, in 1724-25-27, vols. 1, 2, 3, re-published by Richardson, the Novelist, in 1762-69-78 : — 
 
 " The stone yard of this great because good man, who may be styled the Genius of Bath, is on 
 " the banks of the Avon. In it is wrought the freestone dug from the quarries in Combe Down, which 
 " is another part of Odin's Down, purchased by him. He has likewise a wharf to embark the same 
 "stone in unwrought blocks, which are brought down from the quarry by an admirable machine, that 
 " runs upon a frame of timber of about a mile and a half in length, placed partly upon walls and partly 
 " upon the ground, like the waggon-ways belonging to the collieries in the North of England. Two 
 " horses draw one of these machines, generally loaded with two or three tons of stone, over the most 
 " easy part of the descent, but afterwards its own velocity carries it down the rest, and with so much 
 
 1 See Article, " Earl of Chatham." 
 
 2 The usual story is that Pope wished his friend Mr. Allen to grant him the use of Hamilton 
 Manor, to which he proposed bringing Martha Blount, whose relations with Pope were said to have 
 been of a questionable nature. Now il this imputation had then not been conclusively disproved, as it 
 has been since by the late Mr. Dilke, Pope, with his knowledge of Allen's character, is not likely to 
 have preferred any such request. It is not difficult to conceive, from the conduct of the Poet on many 
 occasions, that he had taken offence at some trivial annoyance, and resented it in the manner with 
 which we are familiar.
 
 Historic Houses in Bath and their Associations. 53 
 
 " precipitation that the man who guides it is sometimes obliged to lock every wheel of the carriage to 
 "stop it, which he can do with great ease by means of bolts applied to the front wheels, and levers 
 " to the back wheels. The freestone can be carried by the Avon to Bristol, whence it may be 
 " transmitted to any part of England, and the new works of St. Bartholomew's Hospital in London, 
 " as well as the Exchange of Bristol, are built with stone from Mr. Allen's Quarry." 
 
 Mrs. Chandler, in her poetical "Description of Bath," thus mentions the machinery 
 referred to :— 
 
 ". . . . Here is seen the new-made road and wonderful machine, 
 
 Self-moving downward from the mountain height, 
 
 A Rock its burden of a mountain's weight." 
 
 As Allen had attached himself to the political fortunes of Marshal Wade, 
 so he became an equally ardent adherent of Mr. Pitt. Two caricatures of the 
 period show that, however submissive his colleagues of the Council may have 
 been, he was not without his detractors, who held him up to ridicule by the 
 method then more powerful than the Press itself — the pencil of the caricaturist. 
 These two prints touched both Mr. Allen and Mr. Pitt acutely, both of whom 1 
 were unusually annoyed by the two prints, a description of which is attempted in 
 a foot-note to article " Earl of Chatham." 
 
 No. 6, HENRY STREET was the residence of the Rev. JOHN GENEST, M.A., 
 
 who compiled " Some Account of the English Staqe, from the Restorations in 1660 
 " to 1830," in 10 vols., 8vo. It is little more than a List of Plays, Actors who 
 have played in them, and Theatres in which the drama has been played in London 
 and Bath, but with no literary disquisition. No special mention is made of the 
 Path Theatre, nor its associations with the great actors who have made it 
 famous or have been made famous by it. 
 
 DUKE OF CHANDOS.— Almost the first patron of Wood was the first 
 Duke of Chandos, for whom he built Chandos House, opposite to the northern 
 end of Westgate Buildings. This house must have been a bright and beauti- 
 ful residence, standing in its own court, with little or no obstruction between 
 it and the open country. It suffered prematurely from the removal of the city 
 walls and the consequently rapid increase of buildings around it. The house 
 has lost a good deal of its original stately exterior. That part of Bath, indeed, 
 in which Wood first exhibited his genius and his versatility of resource has long 
 shown symptoms of decadence and dinginess. We believe that both the first and 
 second Dukes occasionally resided in Chandos House, but the third and last 
 Duke never. 
 
 1 Sec Article, " Earl of Chatham"
 
 54 Historic Bouses in Bath and their Associations. 
 
 DUKE OF KINGSTON. — The house built for this nobleman stands 
 opposite to the Kingston Baths, and from 1875 to 1880 was used as the Free 
 Library. The Duke was the last of his race, and on his death his estate' passed 
 to a collateral branch through the female line, the representative of which, whose 
 name was Meadows, assumed the name of Pierrepont, and was created Earl 
 Manvers. The Duke possessed a considerable estate in Bath. He also pos- 
 sessed a very beautiful wife, whose early habits were not quite what they should 
 have been. Before she married the Duke, she had contracted a " Fleet marriage," 
 and her loving husband, being still alive, prosecuted and convicted her of 
 bigamy. It is doubtful whether the Duke ever lived in the house. The greater 
 part of the estate — which devolved tip on Lord Manvers — was sold a few years 
 ago. The Kingston Arms are carved on the pediment of the house. 
 
 GENERAL WOLFE.— At No. 5, Trim Street, near St. John's Gate or 
 Trim Bridge — over the door of which is still to be seen a group of warlike 
 emblems — lived General Wolfe. He had seen much service, when, enfeebled in 
 health and seeking rest, he came to reside in Bath. It was in Bath where the 
 first intimation reached him that he was chosen to command the Expedition 
 against Quebec. Who does not remember Lord Chatham's despair, when, having 
 invited the hero to dine with him, instead of the prudent, reserved commander, 
 he found the man to whom he had entrusted England's honour and glory, appa- 
 rently a vain-glorious boaster. 1 Wolfe, in fact, was like Nelson, with whom he 
 lias been compared — a man whose one idea was " duty," a man of burning zeal, 
 who, when not weighted with responsibility, said foolish things, but who in the 
 face of " duty :; never did foolish things. Short of stature, spare and attenuated 
 in person, he seemed to be on land what Nelson was at sea — an instinctive hero. 
 His death in action, and the enthusiasm which sustained him in his agonies, 
 remind one very much of the death of Nelson. 
 
 1 "After Wolfe's appointment, and on the day preceding his embarkation for America, Pitt, 
 '' desirous of giving his last verbal instructions, invited him to dinner, Lord Temple being the 
 '' only other guest. As the evening advanced, Wolfe — heated, perhaps, by his own aspiring 
 "thoughts, and the unwonted society of statesmen, -broke forth into a strain of gasconade and 
 " bravado. He drew his sword, lie rapped the table with it, he flourished it round the room, he 
 '■ talked of the mighty tilings which that sword was to achieve. The two Ministers sat aghast at an 
 "exhibition so unusual Irom any man of real sense and real spirit. And when at last Wolfe had 
 " taken his leave, and his carriage was heard to roll from the door, I'itt seemed for the moment 
 "shaken in the high opinion which his deliberate judgment had formed of Wolfe; he lifted up 
 " his eyes and arms, and exclaimed to Lord Temple: 'Good (Jod! that 1 should have entrusted 
 " the fate of the country and of the administration to such hands ! ' " — Mahoiis History of England, 
 vol. 4, pp. 162-3.
 
 Historic Houses in Bath and their Associations. 55 
 
 The name and literary fame of RICHARD BRINSLEY SHERIDAN, 
 Dramatist and Statesman, have been associated with Bath and its past history 
 during its most brilliant epoch. We cannot assign to him any definite place of 
 abode, though there is little doubt that in his many visits to Bath he resided 
 on or somewhere near the Parades, and not unlikely at the house of his 
 wife's father. The society of Bath was evidently the subject of his study, 
 his wit, and his dramatic genius. It is said, but we have little evidence 
 besides this " // is said," and the probabilities of the case to prove it, that he was 
 a constant habitue of Leake's Library, and that much of his literary work was 
 executed in the Reading-Room of that famous Bibliopole. Nothing is more 
 probable than that he, with his acute critical faculty, should have relished the 
 scenes of which he was an observer, and in which he evidently played his own 
 part. He had an eye for beauty, and if he fought for one so lovely as " Delia " 
 and wrote elegant verses in her honour, one cannot blame him much, when we 
 remember the gentle and lovely woman who was the theme of general praise and 
 esteem. There is no reason to suppose that Sheridan did not treat his wife with 
 great personal tenderness ; but a woman so gentle and susceptible must have had 
 much to endure from a man whose habits were irregular, and whose career was 
 characterized by all the mad eccentricities of the period, to say nothing of his 
 habitual impecuniosity. He was born in 1 751, and was therefore three years 
 senior to ELIZA ANN LINLEY, born at 5, Pierrepont Street, in 1754, to whom 
 he was married in 1773. She was the daughter of Mr. Linley, of whom we have 
 written. Miss Linley was a woman of exquisite beauty and sweet disposition — 
 the " fair maid of Bath," the enchantress, whose voice and execution were the 
 admiration of her age ; her songs and ballads were like 
 
 "Little dewdrops of celestial melody." 
 
 She was in the front rank in her own particular line. She died at the early 
 age of 38, leaving one son, Tom Sheridan. He left three daughters and one son, 
 namely : — Mrs. Norton, afterwards Lady Stirling-Maxwell ; Lady Duffer in, 1 
 afterwards Countess of Gifford ; the Duchess of Somerset, who, as Lady 
 Seymour, was " The Queen of Beauty " at Lord Eglinton's Tournament, in 
 1839; and Mr. Sheridan, of Frampton, Dorset. 
 
 Wood Street, so named in honour of John Wood the Elder. At No. 1, 
 the first Earl of Hardwicke resided, about 1760 ; and some years later his second 
 son, Charles Yorke, who also attained to the Chancellorship, and just before 
 that event, took up his abode in the same house. He had impaired his health by 
 hard drinking, and derived much benefit from the Waters. The circumstances 
 
 1 Mother of the present Earl of Dufferin.
 
 56 Historic Houses in Bath and their Associations. 
 
 under which he accepted the Seals were said to have reflected upon his honour, 
 in the then state of parties. The patent of a Peerage, as Lord Morden, was 
 made out, but before it was actually conferred, he died by his own hand. 
 
 It will be remembered that the Lord Chancellor, at this time, 1770, was 
 Lord and then Earl Camden, Recorder of Bath, whose son, the Hon. John 
 Jeffreys Pratt, was the honoured representative of this city in Parliament, from 
 1780 to 1794. 1 He lost the Seals through the alleged duplicity of the Duke of 
 Grafton. After they had been offered and refused by Lord Mansfield, they 
 were offered to Charles Yorke, a good lawyer and an ambitious man. 
 
 " After struggling with all the convulsions of ambition, interest, fear, honour, dread of abuse, 
 " and, above all, with the difficulty of refusing the object of his whole life's wishes, and with the 
 " despair of recovering the instant if once suffered to escape, Charles Yorke, having taken three days 
 " to consider, refused to accept the Seals of Chancellor. Mr. Conway acquainted me, in the greatest 
 "secrecy, that the Duke of Grafton, dismayed at Yorke's refusal of the Great Seal, would give up 
 " the Administration. Not a lawyer could be found able enough — or if able, bold enough — or if bold, 
 "decent enough — to fill the employment. Norton had all the requisites of knowledge and capacity, 
 "but wanted even the semblance of integrity, though for that reason was probably the secret wish of 
 " the Court. He was enraged at the preference given to Yorke ; yet nobody dared to propose him, 
 " even when Yorke had refused. Sir Eardley Wilmot had character and abilities, but wanted health. 
 "The Attorney-General, De Grey, wanted health and weight, and yet asked too extravagant terms. 
 " Dunning, the Solicitor-General, had taken the same part as his friends, Lord Camden and Lord 
 "Shelburne. Hussey, so far from being inclined to accept the office, determined to resign with his 
 "friend, Lord Camden, though earnest against the dissolution of the Parliament. Of Lord Mansfield 
 " there could be no question ; when the post was dangerous, his cowardice was too well known to 
 " give hopes that he could be pressed to defend it. In his exigence, Grafton's courage was not more 
 " conspicuous. His first thought, without consulting the King's inclination, was to offer the Adminis- 
 " tration to lx>rd Chatham or Lord Rockingham ; but inclining to the latter. He had desired Mr. 
 "Conway to come to him in the evening and meet Lord Gower, Lord Weymouth, and Lord North, 
 "in the most private manner, for consultation. Conway went away in haste to Court, promising to 
 " return and dine with me, that he might consider what advice he would give to the Duke at night; 
 " but what was my astonishment, when, in two hours, Mr. Onslow came and told me that Mr. Yorke 
 " had accepted the Seals! He had been with the King over night (without the knowledge of the 
 " Duke of Grafton), and had again declined ; but being pressed to reconsider, and returning in 
 " the morning, the King had so overwhelmed him with flatteries, entreaties, prayers, and at last with 
 "commands and threats, of never giving him the post if not accepted now, that the poor man-sunk 
 " under the importunity, though he had given a solemn promise to his brother, Lord Hardwicke, and 
 " Lord Rockingham, that he would not yield. He betrayed, however, none of the rapaciousness of 
 " the times, nor exacted but one condition, the grant of which fixed his irresolution. The Chancellor 
 " must of necessity be a peer, or cannot sit in the House of Lords. The Coronet was announced to 
 " Yorke ; but he slighted it as of no consequence to his eldest son, who would, probably, succeed his 
 
 1 On his father being created an Earl in 1784, Mr. Pratt sat as Viscount Bayham, and succeeded 
 his father in 1794 as Earl Camden. He was advanced to the dignity of a Marquis in 1812, and was 
 Recorder of Bath until the Municipal Reform Act was passed. The son, George Charles, Earl 
 Brecknock, represented Rath at intervals from 1799 to 1835, being then summoned to the House of 
 Lords in his father's Barony of Camden. The portrait of Charles, first Earl Camden, adorns the 
 banqueting-room, in the Guildhall.
 
 Historic Houses in Bath and their Associations. 57 
 
 "uncle, Lord Hardwicke, the latter having been long married, and having only two daughters. But 
 " Mr. Yorke himself had a second wife, a very beautiful woman, and by her had another son. She, 
 " it is supposed, urged him to accept the Chancery, as the King offered, or consented, that the new 
 "peerage should descend to her son, and not to the eldest. The rest of his story was indeed 
 " melancholy, and his fate so rapid, as to intercept the completion of his elevation. 
 
 " He kissed the King's hand on the Thursday ; and from Court drove to his brother, Lord 
 " Hardwicke's — the precise steps of the tragedy have never been ascertained. Lord Rockingham was 
 " with the Earl. By some it was affirmed, that both the Marquis and the Earl received the unhappy 
 " renegade with bitter reproaches. Others, whom I rather believe, maintained that the Marquis left 
 "the House directly ; and that Lord Hardwicke refused to hear his brother's excuses, and retiring 
 " from the room, shut himself into another chamber, obdurately denying Mr. Yorke an audience. At 
 "night it was whispered that the agitation of his mind, working on a most sanguine habit of body, 
 "inflamed of late by excessive indulgence both in meats and wine, had occasioned the bursting of a 
 "blood-vessel ; and the attendance of surgeons was accounted for by the necessity of bleeding him 
 " four times on Friday. Certain it is that he expired on the Saturday between four and six in the 
 "evening. His servants, in the first confusion, had dropped too much to leave it in the family's 
 " power to stifle the truth : and though they endeavoured to colour over the catastrophe by declaring 
 " the accident natural, the want of evidence and of the testimony of surgeons to colour the tale 
 " given out, and which they never took any public method of authenticating, convinced everybody 
 "that he had fallen by his own hand— whether on his sword, or by a razor, was uncertain." 
 
 "Horace Walpole's Life of Geo. III." vol. 4, //. 48 to 53. 
 
 On the right-hand side of St. John's Gate, in Trim Street, there stands a 
 very handsome house, with highly ornate windows and a pediment. This house was 
 the property and residence of Dr. French Lawrence, M.P., of whom we have 
 already made mention in connection with his brother and father (7, Orange 
 Grove). 1 
 
 No. 7, John Street was the residence of an eccentric Bathonian named 
 Fleming. He wrote Tim Gin?iadrake y and a History of Bath, now scarce, 
 though it possesses no considerable merit. The two daughters of Mr. Fleming 
 here also conducted a very famous Dancing Academy. 
 
 The upper part of John Street terminates in a large house, in which, Mr. 
 Lansdown informs us, there resided a firm of famous Milliners — the Misses 
 Hoblyn. The Duke and Duchess of York, about 1794, or 1795, visited these 
 ladies' establishment, and from that time it became the rage. The Misses Hoblyn 
 
 1 Mr. Monkland says :— " Dr. French Lawrence, LL.D.— a scholar, a senator, an eminent 
 "civilian, and the intimate friend of Fdmund Burke— was the eldest son of Mr. Richard Lawrence, a 
 " watchmaker, and member of the Bath Corporation. He was born April 3rd, 1757. He was a man 
 " highly esteemed for his talent and integrity ; in 1797 he was appointed Regius Professor of Civil Law 
 "in the University of Oxford. Among his published works, which were much distinguished, wero 
 " 'An Ode on the Witches and Fairies of Shakspere,' and 'A School Exercise,' written when at 
 " Winchester, and thought so good as to bo set to music by Linley, and performed as an Oratorio in 
 " London. Many of the papers in the ' Rolliad ' were written by him, as were some of the 1'roba- 
 " nonary Odes, otc. He was also the author of a volume of ' Remarks on the Apocalypse ; " and, as 
 " the executor of Burke, was a joint editor of his works. He wroto an lilcgy on the Death ot his 
 " Lather." — "Literature and Literati of Hath," vol. 1.
 
 58 Historic Houses in Bath and their Associations. 
 
 saved a large fortune. The Duchess, it was said, was a very untidy " dresser ; " 
 perhaps these dexterous ladies improved H.R. Highness's taste and her "top gear." 
 
 SHERSTON, whose name has been associated with the Charter of Queen 
 Elizabeth, and under which either in 1591 or 1596, 1 he was the first Mayor, 2 is 
 said to have lived at Barton House in John Street, which runs parallel with the 
 eastern side of Queen Square. Sherston was chosen by his colleagues of the 
 Corporation as one of the Representatives in four consecutive Parliaments, 
 namely 1596, 1600, 1603 and 1605 ; this favours the presumption that the first 
 Parliamentary Election under the Charter occurred in 1596. The story of the 
 Queen visiting him at Barton House is a fable. We can find no record of there 
 having been any house on the site other than that now standing, and it is obvious that 
 such a house was wholly inadequate to the residential requirements of a man of the 
 fortune and position of William Sherston. There is no proof that he lived in this 
 cottage, and we do not believe any can be adduced. It rests upon no other testi- 
 mony than the fact that Sherston was the occupier of the estate on which the cottage 
 stands ; and it is more than probable that it was a little cottage in which the 
 business of the farm was conducted, and nothing more. Sherston resided at 
 Swainswick, and during his Mayoralty, his official residence would be in the 
 Guildhall of the period. This Guildhall was superseded by the one designed 
 by Inigo Jones. Under the Charter, special powers were granted to build a 
 new Guildhall. The history of the Charter is simple enough. All the adroitness 
 imputed to Sherston may be true, but there is no proof of any abuse of his 
 power intrinsically afforded in the text of the Charter. If we received the 
 stories of Sherston as true, we should have to conclude that it was obtained by 
 elaborate and deliberate fraud. Queen Elizabeth's ministers were not likely to 
 be imposed upon ; nor indeed is there a single clause in the document which 
 denotes anything more than a very simple matter of business in every particular. 
 Wood, it is curious to observe, alleges that, in ' his own day, the Charter 
 occasioned some trouble from doubtful jurisdiction, but the doubt arose from time 
 having rendered it uncertain as to whether a portion of the territory in Walcot 
 really came within the scope of the Charter, a remedy for which was easily 
 obtained in the reign of George III. 
 
 1 It is a matter of doubt whether the Charter came into practical operation earlier than 1596, 
 even locally. 
 
 2 Sherston was one of the representatives of Bath before the Charter, in 1583. The fact, that, 
 no intermediate election being recorded between 1587 and 1596, seems to favour our theory as to 
 the Charter.
 
 Historic Houses in Bath and their Associations. 59 
 
 When we read the several accounts of this Charter, 1 the circumstances 
 connected with it, and the objects it was intended to secure, we cannot help 
 feeling surprised that so able a local historian as Mr. Warner should have given 
 perpetuity to Wood's infatuated nonsense. Barton Farm was close upon the 
 confines of the old city boundaries, and the enlargement of those boundaries of 
 necessity incorporated the lands occupied by Sherston, and extended the jurisdiction 
 and liberties of the local government, which in itself was not only necessary, but 
 secured immense advantages to the city. The Ecclesiastical lands, which had 
 formerly been under an independent jurisdiction and enjoyed certain especial 
 immunities, were brought within the perambulations and control of the corporate 
 government. It follows as a matter of course that in all arrangements of this 
 nature some individual is likely to derive especial advantages. That Sherston was 
 a shrewd, able man, is certain. As a clothier he had done much to develop the 
 trade, and to make Bath the centre of it. He was, in truth, just one of those men 
 of whom we have types in every age, who leave the stamp of their individuality 
 upon the institutions and the history of the places with which they have been 
 connected. Neither Wood nor Warner advances one iota of evidence to show 
 that Sherston's transactions were otherwise than honourable, or that they were 
 not conceived in a spirit favourable to the interests of the city. 2 
 
 Warner says : — 
 
 " By the above-mentioned charter, the city not only gained a confirmation of its former fran- 
 chises, and an addition of rights and privileges, but also a considerable extension of its ancient 
 ' ' jurisdiction. Hitherto its own walls, which did not include more than fifty acres, had been considered 
 "as limiting the authority of its mayor and justices ; but by the description of the metes and bounda- 
 " ries in Elizabeth's charter, it is evident that a large sweep of new territory was then added to the 
 "city, and the jurisdiction of the corporation made to embrace the whole farm of Rerton, the 
 " privileged lordship of the dissolved priory, and a large part of the parish of Walcot. This 
 "acquisition seems to have been effected by the management of Mr. Sherston, who, being at that time 
 " tenant of Berton demesne (of which he became absolute purchaser in the year 1621), and owner of 
 "other property about Bath, contrived to procure the boundaries of his own tenures to be inserted as 
 " the limits of the city ; but aware that an immediate exercise of this novel jurisdiction might possibly 
 " awaken enquiry into the legality of it, ' the corporation,' observes Mr. Wood, 'were wise enough 
 " 'to be silent in their claims, till the memory of man from the date of the charter was 
 " 'quite worn out.' The extension, indeed, with regard to the priory, was formerly so strongly 
 " opposed by the lords of that privileged manor, that they would not permit the mayor of the city so 
 " much as to set his foot on the abbey land ; and it was but lately that the magistrates of Bath began 
 
 1 See Charter, Appendix in Warner, p. 81, 
 8 See Hyde's Award, 1619, Appendix in Warner, p. 95.
 
 60 Historic Houses in Bath and their Associations. 
 
 " to claim jurisdiction over the farm of Berton, and the other part of the county of Somerset that lies 
 " within their common perambulations." 1 
 
 Sherston died in 1621, and was buried in St. Michael's Church — "in the 
 " chancell on the east wall." This Church preceded Harvey's wretched struc- 
 ture, which was built in the elder Wood's time, and received his well-merited 
 condemnation. It was pulled down, when the present church was erected on 
 its site, in 1837. 
 
 WOOL, JOHN, the Elder, resided in the centre house on the north side of 
 Queen Square. No more appropriate residence could have been chosen. To 
 his creative genius we owe the square, and it was fitting he should be surrounded 
 by the work he had brought into existence. He also built himself a Villa at 
 Batheaston, near the Church. An eagle in stone is on the pediment, and the 
 house possesses many of the well-known characteristics of Wood's style. At a 
 later period he removed from 24, Queen Square, to 41, Gay Street, which is at 
 the corner of Old King Street, and really forms a portion of Queen Square. It is 
 almost impossible to say anything of Wood without saying too much ; but his 
 works speak for him in stone more eloquently than the ablest pen can express in 
 words. Wood was a self-made north countryman, and the fact is borne out by a 
 few peculiar expressions in his diction. He died in 1754. His work on Bath, on 
 the preface of which Lord Macaulay based his description of Bath, was published 
 in 1742, in 1 vol. He died in Queen Square, May 23, 1754. 
 
 WOOL JOHN, the Younger. Less is known of Wood the Younger than 
 of his father. He never wrote a book, though presumably he revised the second 
 edition of his father's work on Bath, published in 1765, in 2 vols. He completed 
 the Circus, which his father designed; he was the architect of Camden Crescent, and 
 if we wanted an epitaph to sum up his work and the result of his genius we should 
 say, "HE BUILT THE ROYAL CRESCENT." He resided in his father's house, 
 41, Gay Street, and at his father's villa, at Batheaston, in which he died, 1781. 
 In the edition he issued of his father's work, after quoting the former preface 
 to which we have referred, he draws a contrast between the Bath then described 
 and the Bath of his own day, and this we quote : — 
 
 1 " He (Sherston) having then rented Berton farm, in the parish of Waldcot, of the above- 
 " mentioned Edmund Colthurste, just before he sold it to Sir George Snigge, Berton-llouse was the 
 " first that was honoured with the new regalia of the city ; and by the artifices of Mr. Sherston, the 
 " whole farm was included in the perambulation which the citizens were then empowered for the time 
 " to come to make. The site of the priory was taken into the same perambulation ; and the court 
 '' of record, as well as courtleet, then granted to the corporation, were extended over the precincts of 
 "the dissolved monastery, notwithstanding the rights and privileges of that house had been sold to 
 " Mr. Colics by King Henry VIII. in the year 1542.'' — " Wood's Essay," p. 203.
 
 Historic Houses in Bath and their Associations. 61 
 
 " As the new buildings advanced, carpets were introduced to cover the floors, though laid with 
 " the finest clean deals, or Dutch oak boards ; the rooms were all wainscoted and painted in a costly 
 " and handsome manner ; marble slabs, and even chimney pieces, became common ; the doors in 
 ' ' general were not only made thick and substantial, but they had the best sort of brass locks put on 
 " them ; walnut tree chairs, some with leather, and some with damask or worked bottoms supplied the 
 "place of such as were seated with cane of rushes ; the oak tables and chests of drawers were 
 " exchanged, the former for such as were made of mahogany, the latter for such as were made either 
 "with the same wood, or with walnut tree ; handsome glasses were added to the dressing tables, nor 
 "did the proper chimneys or peers of any of the rooms long remain without well framed mirrors of 
 " no inconsiderable size ; and the furniture for every chief chimney was composed of a brass fender, 
 " with tongs, poker and shovel agreeable to it. 
 
 " Beds, window curtains and other chamber furniture, as well woollen as linen, were, from 
 " time to time, renewed with such as was more fit for gentlemen's capital seats, than houses appropri- 
 " ated for common lodgings ; and the linen for the table and bed grew better and better till it 
 " became suitable even for people of the highest rank, 
 
 " With all this increase of goodness in the furniture of the Bath houses, and with the addition 
 " of screens and many other useful things, lodgings received no advance during the seasons ; the 
 "seasons, however, were almost every year lengthened ; and when the Lodgings were abated, it was 
 "only the price of the principal rooms that was reduced, and that was lowered from ten to seven 
 " shillings and sixpence a week for each room. 
 
 " To make a just comparison between the public accommodations of Bath at this time and 
 " one and twenty years back, the best chambers for Gentlemen were then just what the garrets for 
 " servants now are." (This, be it remembered, was in 1765.) 
 
 If any proof were wanting of the truth of this representation, the houses on the Parades, and in 
 Gallaway's Buildings, and the earlier buildings of the Elder Wood would amply supply it ; but we contend 
 that the comparison drawn is between houses not of the same relative class of an earlier date, but of 
 an inferior class altogether. See Preface to " Rambles about Bath," last edition. 
 
 Mr. Wood was a county magistrate and was highly esteemed. 
 The career of these two eminent men extended over a period of sixty 
 years. 
 
 MRS. PIOZZI, as Mrs. Thrale, had visited Bath, with her husband, on 
 many occasions. After Mr. Thrale's death, she, in 1781, adopted Bath as her 
 permanent residence. 
 
 The house, No. 8, Gay Street, with the floral decorations, built for 
 Mr. Gay, 1 who was the owner of much property in the city, was, after a short 
 time, fixed upon as her residence, and she certainly kept it alive with her revels 
 and her parties. As a recent writer says, " She was in a perpetual state of 
 "rampant senility." In 181 9, she gave a grand ball at the Lower Rooms to 
 celebrate the 80th anniversary of her birthday, and led off the ball with her 
 nephew, Sir John Salusbury. All the incidents of Mrs. Piozzi's life are so well 
 known that nothing new can be said. We have, indeed, in the Autobiography, 
 1 Mr. Gay was M.P. for the city in 1727, and Lord of the Manor of Walcot.
 
 62 Historic Houses i?i Bath and their Associations. 
 
 edited by Mr. Hay ward, Q.C., little new in connection with her life in Bath. 
 Her energy, love of pleasure, affectation, good nature, wit, and sprightliness, 
 rendered her popular. Nobody could understand why she married Piozzi, 
 amiable and estimable as he seems to have been. 1 She wanted some one to 
 domineer over, to reverse the order of things, and Piozzi was more submissive 
 than Thrale. It was in 1776 that Dr. Johnson visited Mr. and Mrs. Thrale, who 
 were then residing on the North Parade. The Doctor made his quarters at 
 The Pelican Inn, in Walcot Street. This inn is now called The Three Cups? 
 At that time, Walcot was a bright suburb of Bath. 3 The character of the street 
 is changed completely. Then there was a series of good villas extending from The 
 Pelican to Walcot Church, each standing in its own grounds, with sloping gardens 
 to the river. The verdant hills on the opposite side were not built upon, or only 
 partly so, the road was wide and well kept, and Walcot Street, therefore, was the locus 
 in quo of wealthy citizens and residents. The Pelican in 1776 was an inn for the 
 " quality," and Dr. Johnson, fond as he was of Fleet Street, selected it as a 
 quiet retreat. He was free from 'the " young bloods " of the day at The Bear 
 or The White Hart. Walcot Street changed its character when the lower 
 were abandoned for the higher levels, and when Bathwick superseded the older 
 streets about the time to which we are referring. Boswell, as we know, visited 
 Dr. Johnson in April of the year 1776, and he also found good quarters at 
 The Pelican. 
 
 1 Her own family were incensed with her, and an estrangement ensued. Johnson said she had 
 done everything wrong since Thrale's bridle was off her neck. But this was an exaggeration, arising 
 probably from the fact that the Doctor's influence over her had diminished, Piozzi, it is clear, behaved 
 with admirable disinterestedness, and conducted his capering little wife's pecuniary affairs with 
 prudence. 
 
 1 There was a " Three Cups," in 1771, in Northgate Street, as, in the Bath Chronicle of Dec. 
 5th, of that year, the following announcement appears : — " The modern Colossus or Wonderful Giant, 
 " which has been exhibited at the 'Three Cups,' in Northgate Street, has been removed to a more 
 " genteel and airy room, at ' The Rose,' in Avon Street." The deduction from this is that Avon Street 
 was a "genteel and airy street " in 1771. In 1882 its gentility would have to be determined by a 
 community of the sweeping fraternity, and its airyness by those who are obliged occasionally to go 
 through it. Our Northgate citizens would be not a little indignant to have their locality and their 
 status compared with Avon Street and its denizens. 
 
 3 The Villas were built upon the sites of the Cloth Factories after the decline of that industry in Bath.
 
 Historic Houses in Bath and their Associations. 63 
 
 THE EARL OF NORTHINGTON and EARL CAMDEN. -It was said 
 that Ralph Allen refused to become one of the representatives of Bath in 
 Parliament, but that he took care to choose the members himself; that is, he 
 exercised unbounded influence over the Council; he was its "one head." It 
 may be well to see how he used his power. Allen, we know, was a warm 
 adherent of the Hanoverian dynasty. He was attached to it by ties of interest, 
 conviction, and personal connection with Marshal Wade. The Marshal, 1 as the 
 representative of Bath, from 1722 to 1748, (the year of his death,) had little 
 sympathy with any particular shade of politics which existed amongst the 
 " Revolution party " ; ' he cared for the dynasty and for that alone. The Marshal 
 was much more than the representative of the city in Parliament ; he was its 
 fast friend; he lived in it and loved it, and identified himself with its local 
 institutions. So long as the Marshal lived, Allen seems to have contented 
 himself with giving him and his colleague a steady and loyal support. The 
 Jacobite and the High Tory party were relatively small and insignificant, but the 
 great Whig party was split into two separate factions, and the conflicts in 
 Parliament were almost limited to those two sections, Allen choosing the 
 section which was led by William Pitt, in opposition to Walpole. 
 
 At the general election of 1747, Marshal Wade was again chosen 
 a representative of the city, in conjunction with ROBERT HENLEY, who was 
 descended from an ancient Somersetshire family. Henley's father was Anthony 
 Henley, a man of great distinction, the friend of Dorset, Sunderland, Swift, 
 Pope, and Arbuthnot. Generous and bounteous, learned and witty, he was one 
 of the most popular men of his time. He represented Andover, and afterwards, 
 till his death, Melcombe Regis. Considerable wealth came to him through his 
 wife, who was sole heiress of the Hon. Peregrine Bertie, second son of 
 Montague, Earl of Lindsey. Robert Henley was the second son of the 
 marriage, and was born in 1708, ultimately succeeding to the family estate, 3 
 on the death of his elder brother, Anthony. Educated at Westminster and 
 Christ Church, he was entered of the Middle Temple and called to the bar in 
 1732. Handsome in person, jovial in habits, he used to pass his vacations at 
 
 1 It should be mentioned that the house in the Churchyard in which he lived was designed by 
 the Earl of Cork and Burlington. 
 
 2 A term applied to the political parly favourable to the Revolution of 1688, the Hanoverian 
 dynasty, and to Whig principles. 
 
 3 "The Orange," Hampshire. The original mansion was built by Inigo Jones. When tin- 
 property passed into the possession of the first Lord Ashburton, he pulled down the old house and 
 built the present magnificent mansion on the site
 
 64 
 
 Historic Houses in Bath and their Associations. 
 
 Bath, and was one of the best known of the fashionable men at "The Bear." 
 He was the gayest of the gay in the Pump-room in the morning, and amongst 
 the most jovial of the topers in " The Bear " at night. His briefs at this time 
 did not give him much trouble, but he cultivated the friendship of the Bath 
 citizens, and was singularly popular. Lord Campbell relates the romantic story 
 of his courtship and marriage, which is very similar to that previously told by 
 Lord Henley, 1 in his " Life of the Earl of Northington." 
 
 There was at Bath, for the benefit of the waters, a very young girl of 
 exquisite beauty, who from illness had lost the use of her limbs so completely 
 that she was only able to appear in public wheeled about in a chair. She was 
 the daughter and co-heiress of Sir Jno. Husband, of Ipsley, in Warwickshire, 
 who was the last male of a time-honoured race, whom Dugdale states to 
 have been lords of that manor in lineal succession from the Conquest. 
 Henley, struck by the charms of her face, contrived to be introduced to her, 
 when he was still more fascinated by her conversation. His admiration 
 soon ripened into a warm and tender attachment, which he had reason to hope 
 was reciprocated. But it seemed as if he had fallen in love with a Peri, and 
 that he must for ever be contented with sighing and worshipping at her shrine, 
 when suddenly the waters produced so effectual and complete a cure, that Miss 
 Husband was enabled to comply with the custom of the place by hanging up her 
 votive crutches to the nymph of the spring, and to dance the " Minuet de la 
 " Cour " at the Lower Rooms with her lover. Soon after, with the full consent 
 of her family, she gave her hand to the suitor who had so sedulously attended 
 her. To the end of a long life, she continued to enjoy a most perfect state of 
 health, and their affection remaining unabated, she gave him that first of human 
 blessings — a serene and happy home. 
 
 They were married by Henley's old schoolfellow, Bishop Newton, at the 
 chapel in South Audley Street. After describing his settling in London and 
 the family property descending to him, the memoir goes on : — 
 
 " After his marriage, Henley continued to go frequently to Bath, carrying 
 " his wife along with him. He now led comparatively a sober life, but 
 " occasionally he would indulge in his old convivial habits, and, by his toasts and 
 " his stories and his very agreeable manners, he ingratiated himself so much with 
 
 1 The Earl had eight children — three sons and five daughters. Only one son survived his 
 father, and he seems to have been a man of unusual promise. His abilities were considerable and his 
 manners popular. In 1783 he was appointed by the Coalition Ministry Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland. 
 The daughters all formed high alliances, but they all died without issue except the Lady Elizabeth, 
 who married Sir Morton Eden, who was raised to the Irish Peerage by the title of Lord Henley. His 
 son (who wrote his Grandfather's Life) married the sister of the second Sir R. Peel, and left by her a 
 son, the present Lord Henley.
 
 Historic Houses in Bath and t/uir Associations. 65 
 
 " the Mayor and Common Council, forming a very small corporation, with the 
 " right of returning Members to Parliament exclusively vested in them, that they 
 " made him their Recorder, and agreed to elect him at the next vacancy one of 
 " their representatives ; being swayed, perhaps, not merely by his personal good 
 " qualities, but the prospect of his being now able to show his gratitude for their 
 " kindness to him. Accordingly, on the dissolution of Parliament, which took 
 " place in the summer of the year 1747, he was elected a representative for Bath 
 " along with Field-Marshal Wade." 
 
 It is certain that he had ingratiated himself with the Marshal and Ralph 
 Allen, and although he never distinguished himself as a speaker, he was a good 
 lawyer and a fair debater. He- was subsequently Solicitor-General to the Prince 
 of Wales (afterwards George III.). In Nov., 1756, he succeeded Murray 1 as 
 Attorney-General to the Crown, and on Dec. 2 in the same year, on the issue of 
 a new writ, was re-elected. In the following year he was made Lord Keeper by 
 Pitt (by whom he was succeeded in the representation), an office which rendered 
 his seat vacant and precluded him from sitting in the Commons, though it did 
 not involve a peerage. In 1760, the Lord Keeper Henley was elevated to the 
 dignity of Lord Chancellor and the Earldom of Northington. He held the 
 Great Seal nine years, in two reigns (Geo. II. and Geo. III.), and during four 
 administrations. 
 
 Marshal Wade died in 1748, and was succeeded in the representation by 
 SIR JOHN LlfJONIER, a distinguished military commander. Sir John was 
 re-elected at the general election in 1754. In 1757 he was created an Irish 
 Viscount; at the following general election, in 1 761, he was re-elected in 
 conjunction with the same colleague, Mr. Pitt ; and in 1763 he was made a Peer 
 of the Realm as Earl Ligonier, when SIR JOHN SEBRIGHT, Bart., was elected. 
 
 EARL CAMDEN. — The connection of this eminent man with Bath was 
 
 of long duration, and reflected the highest honour upon the city. We cannot 
 
 discover whether Lord Camden occupied a private residence, but we are 
 
 inclined to think that, like Lord Northington, he continued the habit of going to 
 
 the famous hostelry, THE BEAR, (which as a young barrister on the Western 
 
 Circuit he adopted,) during his occasional visits, after he had become one of 
 
 the foremost men of his time. 2 
 
 1 Afterwards Earl Mansfield. 
 2 Wood, who built what is now, by a perversion of historical association, called Camden 
 Crescent, named it Camden I'lace, which was the name of Lord Camden's place of residence. The 
 pre iervation of historical nomenclature is important, except perhaps to noodles, to whom one thin:; is 
 much the same as another. Camden I'lace was a monument to the conncciion ol Hath with its 
 greatest Recorder (if we excepl l'rynne), and one of England's greatest Chief Justices and Ccrd 
 < hancellors.
 
 66 Historic Houses in Bath and their Associations. 
 
 It was the custom for the barristers on this circuit, before and after the 
 County. Assizes, to make Bath their headquarters. They prepared themselves for 
 the business of the law by a course of the pleasures of Bath, and afterwards 
 compensated themselves for their arduous labour by renewing them. Charles Pratt 
 had less inclination for the attractions of the Pump-room, and, unlike Lord 
 Northington, none whatever for the carousing habits of the tavern. For 
 many years — 1738 to 1745 — Pratt scarcely held a brief. In the following 
 year, he greatly distinguished himself as junior to Henley. 1 He had begun 
 almost to despair of success, and contemplated entering the Church — a 
 proposal Henley would not listen to. By special contrivance (it was supposed) 
 Pratt was retained in a case in which his leader, Henley, was, at the right 
 moment, to be seized with an attack of gout. Be this as it may, " the lead 
 "was suddenly cast upon Pratt, who opened the plaintiff's case with great 
 " clearness and precision, made a most animated and eloquent reply, obtained 
 "the verdict, was complimented by the judge, was applauded by the audience, 
 " and received several retainers before, he left the hall." His fame was at once 
 established, and his progress was rapid. Pratt's first judicial appointment was that 
 of Recorder of Bath, of which Lord Campbell makes no mention, 2 an office in 
 which he succeeded Henley, whom he also succeeded as Attorney-General when 
 Henley was made Lord Keeper, and nine or ten years after as Lord Chancellor. 3 
 These two eminent men, who were so closely connected with Bath, were also 
 connected with Pitt. They were identified with the same political parties, and 
 although in the earlier part of their legal careers a warm friendship existed 
 between the two men, in later times great divergencies of opinion occurred 
 between them on some of the great legal and constitutional questions of that 
 momentous period, the solution of which w r as due in a great measure to the 
 courage of Lord Camden, whose successors in the peerage to the third 
 generation were politically and judicially connected with the city.* 
 
 1 Lord Campbell does not say where, but we believe it was at Bristol. 
 
 2 " Lives of the Chancellors," vol. 5. 
 
 3 See " Charles York," p. 56, and footnote. 
 
 * Rath was represented by the Earl's son, the Hon. John Jeffreys Pratt, in three Parliaments — 
 1780 to 1784 — and as Viscount Bayham, 1790-94, when he succeeded to the Earldom of Camden. 
 In 1812 he was created Earl of Brecknock and Marquis Camden. He was Recorder of Rath from 
 1812 until the passing of the Municipal Corporation Reform Act, in 1835. In 1818, the Karl of Breck- 
 nock, the only son of the Marquis, was elected -one oi the representatives of the city (1818 to 1832).
 
 Historic Houses in Bath and their Associations. 67 
 
 No. 7, Circus was the Bath town residence of WILLIAM PITT, EARL 
 OF CHATHAM. The Earl of Northington and Earl Camden we claim to have 
 been of and for Bath, but we cannot show that they were citizens. William Pitt 
 was a citizen, 1 and proud of the city in which, from his early manhood, he had 
 spent so much of his time, and from whose famous waters he had experienced 
 such signal benefits during the terrible attacks of his constitutional malady. We 
 are unable to trace where Pitt lived during any of his occasional visits to Bath, 
 but there is no doubt that on two of his visits he was entertained by Ralph 
 Allen at his town-house, and once, if not twice, at Prior Park. He is said to 
 have suggested the erection of the Palladian Bridge at the lower part of the 
 grounds in that noble domain. If anything, in the absence of positive evidence, 
 leads us to doubt the fact, it is that Wood's exuberant fancy needed little 
 stimulus from others. His plans were usually very complete, and in those 
 relating to Prior Park he refers especially to the external ornate perfection of 
 the .scheme submitted to Allen, which was adopted. It is no part of our 
 purpose to enter upon any historical or political disquisition, except so far as it may 
 enable us to make clear the relation of Pitt with Bath, and to put into a 
 more definite form some of the very interesting associations connected with him 
 and with those other statesmen who either were the choice of Allen, or in 
 the choice of whom Allen had the largest share. Allen looked after the big 
 fish ; the meshes of his net allowed the minnows to escape ; he caught the 
 tritons ; he left the minnows to more degenerate tifnes. The representatives 
 chosen, we have shown, were some of the foremost men of the age, who thought 
 it an honour to be representatives of Bath. 
 
 When a special vacancy occurred in the representation of the city, by 
 the elevation of Attorney-General Henley to be Lord Keeper, Pitt was 
 unanimously chosen as his successor. At the general election of 1761, he was 
 re-elected in conjunction with his former colleague, Viscount Ligonier? 
 
 1 It is well known that the elder Wood designed the Circus, and that the execution of it was 
 left to the younger. The house No. 7, with all its covenants and obligations, was conveyed to 
 Pitt on the 3rd day of January, 1755. The property was re-sold by Pitt in 1763, the year in 
 which the breach between him and the Corporation occurred. The house is now the property of, and 
 is occupied by, W. Bush, Esq., formerly mayor of the city. 
 
 2 A distinguished soldier, by birth a French subject. Not a man of great abilities, yet he had risen 
 by steady and sterling qualities to become a Field-Marshal and a Peer of "the Realm. He (then Sir 
 John Ligonier) served under the Duke of Cumberland at Lanfield in 1747. where he was taken 
 prisoner. During his captivity, Marshal Saxe made overtures of peace to him, which, but for her 
 allies, England might have listened to. In 1703, the Marshal, through an unworthy intrigue, much 
 commented upon at the tune, was removed from the Mastership of the Ordnance, a post he had tilled 
 efficiently. lie was made an Knglish Earl with a pension for life. It seems, from the position he is 
 made to occupy in the Caricature, No. 2. to which reference is made on page 85, that the Marshal 
 sympathised with Mr. Pitt in his breach with the Corporation. (See Appendix).
 
 68 Historic Houses in Bath and their Associations. 
 
 In 1763, this nobleman having been created a Peer of the Realm, a vacancy 
 occurred, to supply which Sir John S. Sebright was elected, and thus became the 
 colleague of Pitt. We refer to the fact that Pitt, in his early political career, 
 had joined that section of the Whigs which opposed Walpole, and that he 
 declaimed with " unabated violence and with increasing ability " against that 
 minister, because there is no doubt that it had much to do with his popularity in 
 Bath, and especially with Allen and the other members of the Corporation. 
 Pitt vehemently clamoured for war with Spain, which Walpole resisted, but 
 Walpole, against his better judgment, was ultimately compelled to declare war, 
 which, after all, did not arrest his downfall. Burke has denounced this war as 
 unjust, and history has almost universally endorsed his judgment. Pitt was 
 obliged himself to declare that the war was needless and unjustifiable. Not- 
 withstanding, from this period (1740 — 1) until he became the representative of 
 the city, he was always received with special honour by the municipal body and 
 the citizens. His eloquence and his unswerving honesty covered a multitude of 
 political sins, 1 and certain it is, that the admiration felt for this great man by 
 Ralph Allen was shared by his colleagues and the citizens. At this time, a 
 man who resisted the opportunity to. rob his country was regarded as a 
 prodigy, and we can easily conceive that the rigid integrity of Pitt altogether apart 
 from his commanding genius, would, to -a man like Allen, prove an irresistible 
 attraction. So great, so dazzling, had become the reputation of Pitt as an 
 orator and patriot, that he exercised an influence individually over men's minds 
 as well as over the country generally, such probably as had never been felt 
 before; 2 and Bath, having once set her affections on the great man, steadfastly 
 
 1 Macaulay says of him— "Yet, with all his faults and affectations, Pitt had, in a very extraor- 
 '• dinary degree, many of the elements of greatness. He had genius, strong passions, quick 
 " sensibility, and vehement enthusiasm for the grand and the beautiful. 'J here was something about 
 " him which ennobled tergiversation itself. He often went wrong, very wrong. But, to quote the 
 ' ' language of Wordsworth — 
 
 " ' He still retained, 
 " "Mid such abasement, what he had received 
 " ' From nature — an intense and glowing mind.' 
 " In an age of low and dirty prostitution, in the age of Dodington and Sandys, it was some- 
 " thing to have a man who might, perhaps, under some strong excitement, have been tempted to ruin 
 " his country, but who never would have stooped to pilfer from her — a man whose errors arose, not 
 " from a sordid desire for gain, but from a fierce thirst for power, for glory, and for vengeance." 
 
 2 In 1744, the old Duchess of Marlborough died. In a codicil to her will, she left a legacy to 
 Pitt—" 1 give to William 1'itt, Esq., the sum of Ten Thousand Pounds upon account of his merit in 
 " the noble defence he made for the support of the laws of England, and to prevent the ruin of his 
 "country." In 1765, an eccentric Somersetshire Baronet, Sir William Pynsent, bequeathed the whole 
 of his fortune, ,£3,000 per annum, to Mr. Pitt. The estate of Burton Pynsent became his residence. 
 Sir William had no near surviving relations, and therefore Pitt could accept the bequest without 
 compunction. Lord Stanhope says :—" There was no enemy of Pitt could whisper against him the 
 "name of legacy-hunter, since he had never once seen nor even written to Sir William. The voice 
 " of faction itself must be mute, or must acknowledge that this was an unsought tribute most
 
 Historic Houses in Bath and their Associations. 69 
 
 adhered to him through evil and good report, and finally chose him, through her 
 trusted leader, Ralph Allen, as her representative in Parliament. His triumphs 
 were the triumphs of the city ; his defeats and failures were shared by all classes 
 of the citizens as their own. The old Whigs, pure and simple, could not endure 
 a man like Pitt, who, whilst professing the same or even a greater love of 
 constitutional liberty, yet spurned their methods and despised their traditions. 
 Lord Stanhope says of Pitt that he and he alone at this time {i.e., about 1765), 
 like some lofty pine-tree in the forest, soars high above the undergrowth of 
 Rockinghams, 1 etc. 
 
 In 1754, when Pelham died, Pitt was ill in this city, and on that occasion 
 the Corporation paid him the most marked attention. That body, with its most 
 important member, Ralph Allen, showed the great Commoner almost regal 
 honours. The past and the present in his conduct as a statesman to them as 
 the elective body were deserving of the warmest approbation, and they felt great 
 
 "honourably paid to high public character and eminent public services." Notwithstanding the sharp 
 pangs of regret and vexation occasioned Ralph Allen by the severance of Pitt's political tie with Bath, 
 Allen felt no resentment, as will be seen by an extract from the Codicil to his Will, dated November 10, 
 1763 — the year preceding his death : — " For the last instance of my friendly and grateful regard for 
 " the best of friends, as well as the most upright and ablest of ministers that has adorned our Country, 
 " I give to the Right Honourable William Pitt, the sum of One Thousand Pounds, to be disposed of 
 " by him to any of his children that he may be pleased to appoint." 
 
 1 The contrast between Chatham and Rockingham was expressed in a witty epigram that 
 appeared after the latter became Prime Minister in 1765 : — 
 
 "The truth to declare, if we may without shocking 'em, 
 "The nation's asleep, and the minister's Rockingham." 
 
 Lord Albemarle, in his Life of Rockingham, of whom and of whose ability lie is an ardent 
 admirer, says of Pitt — " The effect of his eloquence is unquestioned, but his speeches have been 
 " scantily recorded. He was at once the Cicero and the Roscius of his age — a great orator and a 
 "consummate actor. As a member of the Cabinet, lie was incredibly haughty, impracticable, and 
 "even obstructive to his colleagues. As a leader of opposition, he was more formidable as an 
 " assailant than faithful to his adherents or consistent in his measures. To his sovereign he was ulti- 
 " mately harsh and subservient ; to the nation he was an energetic, but a costly and a hazardous 
 " guide, never scrupling to arouse passion, or to incur debt where glory was to be won ' in flood and 
 " 'field.' Finally, as a statesman, he displayed rather the accomplishments of a Bolingbroke than 
 " the solid prudence of a Burleigh. His talent for conducting military operations blinded him to the 
 "disastrous effects of war to his own country and to mankind. Of social improvements or financial 
 "skill he exhibited no proofs. He rendered his country glorious rather than prosperous; and he 
 " bequeathed to his successors the dangerous rather than the salutary precedent of preferring ' arms to 
 " ' the gown.' These were his defects, and they were grievous, but his virtues too were singular and 
 " illustrious, especially if they be measured by the general standard of his age." Lord Chesterfield 
 says of him : -" His private life was stained by no vice and sullied by no meanness. His habits were 
 "domestic, and his sentiments lofty ; his knowledge was various and his taste refined. His letters to 
 "his nephew, Lord ( 'amelford, breathe a noble and generous spirit, and abound in weighty sense and 
 "graceful diction. Throughout his correspondence with his wife and his illustrious son pervades a 
 "tenderness which shows that his arrogance was part of his theatrical rather than his natural temper. 
 " Heiuas made uf> of contrasts. It is much easier to eulogise or to condemn him than to draio o ///it 
 "portrait. To him belongs the merit of having been tin- first to raise the standard of morality in 
 "public men." Lord Stanhope, in a very elaborate and admirably-written pagegyric on I'iit. in one 
 passage says : — " But that which gave tin; brightest lustre, not only to the eloquence of ( hatham, but 
 " to his character, was his loftiness and nobleness of soul. If ever there has lived a man in modern 
 " times to whom the praise of a Roman spirit might be truly applied, that man beyond all doubt was 
 "William Pitt." Similar testimony is borne to the qualities of I'm by I. inky in Ins "History of 
 "England in the Eighteenth Century."
 
 70 Historic Houses in Bath and their Associations. 
 
 resentment at the manner in which he was treated by Newcastle in the con- 
 struction of the new Administration. They applauded his opposition to the 
 subsidies to the German States. They adopted an address to the king on the 
 disasters which followed the war. 1 It is clear they did not look for consistency 
 in their idol. If he opposed at one time what he afterwards supported, 
 they probably thought that the capacity of the man made all the difference 
 between the soundness and the unsoundness of the policy pursued. In April, 
 1 757, he and his colleague, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Legge, received 
 each the freedom of the city in a gold box for " their services to the country 
 " during their late short administration." J In July following, on the elevation of 
 Henley to the Lord Keepership, Pitt resigned Old Sarum and was unanimously 
 chosen for Bath. 
 
 Lord Macaulay says, " This was the turning-point of Pitt's life." The 
 disasters under the feeble administration of Newcastle had occasioned great 
 national indignation, and the public voice proclaimed Pitt to be the man to 
 " save the country." Up to this period, the Bath Corporation had enthusias- 
 tically supported their illustrious representative. After he entered upon the 
 Administration — which lasted from June 17, 1757, to Oct., 1761, and in which 
 he was practically all-powerful — he received the cordial approval and the repeated 
 thanks of the Corporation, by whom he was elected, and of the citizens, who 
 worshipped him. His conduct of the war, the policy of the war — indeed, every 
 act of his public life — inspired his friends in Bath with exultant pride and com- 
 manded their unfaltering allegiance. In Oct., 1760, the Mayor and Corporation 
 unanimously adopted the following address to Mr. Pitt and his colleague, Lord 
 Ligonier : — 
 
 " Bath; Oct. 6, 1760. 
 " Sirs,— 
 
 " We, the Mayor, Aldermen, and Common Council of this city, do 
 " transmit to you, our representatives in Parliament, our most grateful thanks, 
 " for exerting your great abilities with so much zeal and unwearied diligence in 
 " the service of his Majesty and our country, as hath reflected particular honour 
 " on our city. We are convinced we should not do justice to ourselves and 
 " brother citizens, if we did not pay that regard which is justly due to your 
 
 1 In November, 1755, legge and Pitt were dismissed from office — the former (as Chancellor of 
 the Exchequer) for refusing to sign the Treasury Warrants for the payment of the subsidies granted, 
 and the latter, as Paymaster of the Forces, for his fierce denunciation of the principle of subsidies. 
 
 2 Under the Duke of Devonshire. It began in Nov., 1756, and ended in April, 1757. It was 
 during this Administration that Admiral Byng was tried, and Pitt used the noblest efforts, in vain, to 
 save him.
 
 Historic Houses in Bath and their Associations. 71 
 
 " distinguished merit, by taking the earliest opportunity of offering to you the 
 " same trust at the next general election ; and which we hereby beg the favour of 
 " your acceptance of, from, 
 
 " Gentlemen, 
 " Your much obliged and very humble Servants." 
 
 Mr. Pitt's Answer. 
 
 "St. James's Square, Oct. 9, 1760. 
 
 " Mr. Mayor and Gentlemen of the Corporation, — 
 
 " I am this day honoured with your letter, and cannot defer a moment to 
 " express the sentiments of the warmest and most respectful gratitude for such a 
 " fresh mark of your condescension and goodness to me, after the many great 
 " and unmerited favours which you have already conferred upon me. 
 
 " Happy ! that my feeble endeayours for the king's service have, in your 
 " candid interpretation, stood in the place of more effectual deservings ; and that, 
 •' actuated by the generous motives of zeal and steady attachment to his 
 " Majesty's Government, you are pleased again to think of committing to me the 
 " important and honourable trust of representing you at the next general election. 
 
 " Be assured, gentlemen, that I am justly proud of the title of servant of 
 " the city of Bath, and that I can never sufficiently manifest the deep sense I 
 " have of your distinguished and repeated favours ; nor express the respect, 
 " gratitude, and affection with which I remain, 
 
 " Mr. Mayor and Gentlemen of the Corporation, 
 
 " Your most faithful and most obliged humble Servant, 
 
 "W. Pitt." 
 
 Lord Ligonier's Answer. 
 
 " To the Worshipful the Mayor and tJie rest of the Corporation of the City of Bath. 
 
 "North Audley Street; Oct. 10, 1760- 
 " Gentlemen, — 
 
 " The very great honour done me by your letter of the 6th instant 
 " requires my earnest and most grateful thanks. Though your noble and 
 "generous way of acting is no new thing to me, who have had the honour to 
 "represent you in the two preceding Parliaments, and have experienced so olten 
 '• your goodness to me, nevertheless I must feel a very great satisfaction at the 
 "approbation you are pleased to express of my endeavours to serve my king and 
 our representative. I ■< < •twitli ' atitude this di tinguislud
 
 72 Historic Houses in Bath and their Associations. 
 
 " mark of your favour. The interest and honour of your city of Bath it will be 
 " ever my study to promote. 
 
 " I am, with the greatest regard and esteem, 
 " Gentlemen, 
 " Your most obliged and most faithful Servant, 
 
 " LlGONIER." 
 
 These cordial relations between the electors and the two representatives 
 were creditable to both parties. There was neither servility on the one side nor 
 arrogance on the other. Everything pointed to the continuance of those 
 relations, which was indicated in the Address, and at the general election in 
 March, 1761, 1 the two members were unanimously re-elected. Pitt had steadily 
 maintained his war policy ; 2 he was judged by it, and he was ready to stand or 
 fall by it. The Corporation not only re-elected their members, but honoured 
 them publicly at the Guildhall, and the citizens vied with each other in doing 
 honour to the men, especially to Pitt, of whom they were justly proud. In Oct., 
 Pitt was defeated in the cabinet on the question of war with Spain. In 
 December of the same year, the following gushing Address was sent to Mr. Pitt 
 by the Corporation : — 
 
 "Bath; Dec. 18th, 1761. 
 " Sir — 
 
 " Had it not been for the particular relation in which we have the honour 
 " to stand towards you, we should, perhaps, have been still content, as others 
 " are, to enjoy in silence those fervours of gratitude which every true British 
 " heart must feel for the great, unparalleled services which you have done your 
 " king and country throughout the course of your late ministry. 
 
 "It is true that after so ample and honourable a testimony, borne to them 
 " by your royal master himself, it would be extremely vain in us to think that 
 " anything could be wanting to the glory of a character thus illustriously estab- 
 " lished. But though we can add nothing to you, we have ventured to employ 
 " this occasion to do credit to ourselves in that light, and are most ambitious to 
 " be seen of faithful and loyal subjects, for in these expressions of our great 
 " regard to you, we have only presumed to follow the gracious example of the 
 " best of kings. 
 
 1 By an oversight or misprint, Mr. Murch gives the date as March, 1760. 
 
 2 The term Jingo was not then known, but if it had been it might probably have served a noble 
 or ignoble purpose, as the case may be,
 
 Historic Houses in Bath and their Associations. 73 
 
 " For the rest, there is no station where you can be found in which your 
 "country will not need and will not be sure to have your most effectual 
 " assistance. 
 
 " We have nothing, sir, further to offer but our ardent prayers for your 
 " health, a blessing so precious and so important to the public. 
 
 "We have the honour to be, Sir, 
 
 " Your most humble and affectionate Servants." 
 
 Mr. Pitt's Answer. 
 
 "Hayes; Dec. 22, 1761. 
 " Mr. Mayor, 1 — 
 
 " I have received the particular honour of a letter signed by you, sir, and 
 " by a great many other gentlemen of the Corporation, containing the most 
 " condescending and endearing remarks, marks of personal regard and favour 
 " towards me, and at the same time bestowing on such inconsiderable efforts as I 
 " have been able to exert in the service of my king and my country — testimonies 
 " of so distinguished and honourable a nature, that I only accept them with a 
 " confusion joined to unceasing gratitude. 
 
 "Allow me, Mr. Mayor, to entreat that you will please to communicate* to 
 " the other gentlemen of the Corporation these my most unfeigned and 
 '• respectful acknowledgments, and to assure them of my ardent and continual 
 " wishes for the prosperity of the City of Bath, and for the particular welfare and 
 " happiness of the several members of that ancient and considerable Corporation. 
 
 " I am, with the warmest sentiments of regard and respectful considera- 
 " tion, sir, your most obedient and most obliged humble Servant, 
 
 "W. Pitt." 
 
 This correspondence, it must be remembered, followed the energetic 
 counsels given by the Minister to the King, as to the expediency of a declaration 
 of war against Spain on account of the " family compact," 2 and her equivocal 
 conduct towards those with whom we were at war, and it leaves no doubt that 
 the great minister felt that in resigning office he had the sympathy and confidence 
 of those from whom that address came, whatever it was worth. 
 
 The war against Spain — which Mr. Pitt urged in vain in October of 
 
 1 At this time, Alderman John Chapman. 
 
 2 With reference to which, as Lord Stanhope says, "the commencement of the war of sneces- 
 " sion was never yet so hilly vindicated as by the conclusion of the family compart." History of 
 England, vol, 4, p. 234.
 
 74 Historic Houses in Baih and their Associations. 
 
 1761, and which his prescience had foreseen as inevitable — was declared by- 
 Lord Bute, in Jan., 1762, three months after Pitt quitted office. It seems probable 
 that this short delay and the retirement of the great minister had encouraged 
 Spain in the insolent and offensive course she had taken against Great Britain. 
 Be this as it may, the attitude of Spain, and her intrigues with France, if they 
 justified war in January, equally justified it in the previous October, when Pitt 
 " would have had the first blow, which is often half the battle." " When once 
 " convinced of their hostile designs, why allow them further time for prepara- 
 " tion ? " — which, indeed, was just what that fatal delay accomplished. The war 
 was declared on the 4th January, 1762, and was concluded early in 1763. Bute 
 resigned in April. The war had been carried on languidly, and much against his 
 inclination. Pitt opposed the peace, because he deemed it inadequate; it did not 
 secure the objects for which it was undertaken. When Parliament met, he 
 denounced the peace with vehement eloquence, but all to no purpose. Elo- 
 quence could not prevail against the corruption employed to buy over a majority 
 of members in favour of peace. 
 
 There has been nothing to show that, as between Pitt . and the Corpora- 
 tion, either collectively or individually, there had been any misunderstanding. 1 
 When the peace was concluded which Pitt had so vehemently opposed, the 
 Corporation, at a special meeting, 2 held in May, 1763, 3 over which Ralph Allen 
 presided, adopted the following Address. It is printed in italics, because it 
 will be observed that on the terms of the document hinged the whole future 
 relations of Pitt with the Bath Corporation. It is the more necessary to make 
 this clear, because in the late Rev. F. Kilvert's paper on Ralph Allen he leaves 
 the Address out of the Correspondence ; so in like manner Mr. Murch omits it. 
 So that in each case the reader is left in a state of utter ignorance as to the 
 character and wording of that document which gave Pitt so much offence 
 
 1 It would seem indeed that Pitt's resignation was regarded by the citizens and the Corporation 
 as a great public calamity. It inspired Mr. T. Atwood (who was Mayor, 1756-60-69) to write— well, a 
 stanza, which, if it does not exhibit poetic genius, perhaps faithfully expresses the feelings of his 
 colleague : — 
 
 " Whence does the Gaul exult? Can Broglie* boast 
 "At length one battle not entirely lost? 
 " Or has the Spaniard their alliance joined? 
 . "Alas ! much worse — our Patriot has resigned!" 
 
 * Due de Broglie, who commanded a portion of the French Army. 
 
 2 Of which I can find no record in the Journals. 
 
 3 It should be mentioned here that in April of this year Viscount Ligonier (in the Irish Peerage) 
 was created an English Pari. His seat being thus vacated, two candidates were proposed— Mr. Long 
 and Sir John Saunders Sebright, when the hitter was elected.
 
 Historic Houses in Bath and their Associations. 75 
 
 and led to the termination of his political connection with a city in which he 
 had received so many proofs of the confidence and admiration of all classes. 
 
 " TO THE KING'S MOST EXCELLENT MAJESTY. 
 
 " We, the Mayor, Aldermen, and Common Council of the a?icient and loyal 
 " city of Bath, do beg leave to congratulate, and most humbly to thank your Majesty 
 '■'■for an adequate and advantageous peace, which you have graciously procured for 
 " your people, after a long and very expensive, though necessary and glorious war, 
 " which your Majesty, upon your accession to the throne, found your kingdoms 
 " engaged in. 
 
 " And 7t>e take the liberty to assure your Majesty, that upon all occasions we 
 " shall be ready to give the most evident proojs of the truest zeal and duty, which the 
 " most dutiful subjects can testify to the most gracious and best of princes. 
 "In testimony whereof we have hereunto affixed our 
 ." Common Seal, the 28th day of May, 1763." 
 
 "Hayes; June 2, 1763. 
 "Dear Sir — 
 
 " Having declined accompanying Sir John Sebright in presenting the 
 " address from Bath, transmitted to us jointly by the Town-Clerk, I think it, on 
 " all accounts, indispensably necessary that I should inform you of the reason of 
 " my conduct. The epithet of adequate given to the peace contains a description 
 " of the conditions of it, so repugnant to my unalterable opinion concerning 
 "many of them, and fully declared by me in Parliament, that it was as impos- 
 " sible for me to obey the Corporation's commands in presenting their address, 
 " as it was unexpected to receive such a commission. As to my opinion of the 
 "peace, I will only say, that I formed it with sincerity according to such lights as 
 " my little experience and small portion of understanding could afford me. This 
 " conviction must remain to myself the constant rule of my conduct ; and I 
 " leave to others, with much deference to their better information, to follow their 
 "own judgment. Cive me leave, my dear, good sir, to desire to convey, 
 " through you, to Mr. Mayor and to the gentlemen of the Corporation, these my 
 " free sentiments ; and with the justest sense of their past goodness towards me, 
 " plainly to confess that I perceive I am but ill qualified to form pretensions to 
 " the future favour of gentlemen, who are come to think so differently from me, 
 "on matters of the highest importance to the national welfare. 
 
 " I am ever, with respectful and affectionate esteem, my dear sir, 
 
 " Your faithful friend and obliged humble Servant, 
 
 " (Signed) W. Pitt.
 
 76 Historic Houses in Bath and their Associations. 
 
 " Lady Chatham joins with me in all compliments to the family of Prior Park." 
 "To Ralph Allen, Esq." 
 
 "Prior Park; June 4, 1763. 
 " My Dearest Sir, — 
 
 " It is extremely painful to me to find by the letter which you was pleased 
 " to send to me the 2nd of this month, that the word adequate, in the Bath 
 " address, has been so very offensive to you, as to hinder the sincerest and most 
 " zealous of your friends in the Corporation from testifying for the future their 
 " great attachment to you. 
 
 " Upon this occasion, in justice to them, it is incumbent on me to 
 " acquaint_ you, that the unexceptionable word does not rest with them, but 
 " myself; who suddenly drew up that address, to prevent their sending of 
 " another, which the Mayor 1 brought to me, in terms that I could not concur in ; 
 " copies of the two forms I have taken the liberty to send to you in the enclosed 
 " paper, for your private perusal ; and Sir John Sebright having, in his letter to 
 " Mr. Clutterbuck, only acquainted him, that in your absence in the country he 
 " delivered the address, I shall decline executing of your commands to the 
 " Corporation on this delicate point, unless you renew them, upon your perusal of 
 " this letter, which for safety I have sent by a messenger, and I beg your answer 
 " to it by him, who has orders to wait for it. 
 
 " Permit me to say that I have not the least objection to, but the highest 
 " regard and even veneration for, your whole conduct ; neither have I any 
 " apology to make for the expression in which I am so unfortunate to differ from 
 " you. And with the utmost respect, affection, and gratitude, you will always 
 " find me to be, my dearest sir, your most humble and obedient servant, 
 
 " (Signed) R. Allen. 
 
 " To the Right Hon. Mr. Pitt. 
 
 " The best wishes of this family always attend Lady Chatham. 
 
 "R. A." 
 
 " Hayes; June 5, 1763. 
 "My Dear Sir,— 
 
 " I am sorry that my letter of the 2nd inst. should give you uneasiness, 
 " and occasion to you the trouble of sending a messenger to Hayes. I desire 
 " you to be assured, that few things can give me more real concern, than to find 
 " that my notions of the public good differ so widely from those of the man 
 " whose goodness of heart and private virtues I shall ever respect and love. I 
 " am not insensible to your kind motives for wishing to interpose time for second 
 
 1 Alderman Samuel Bush.
 
 Historic Houses in Bath and their Associations. 77 
 
 " thoughts ; but knowing how much you approve an open and ingenuous 
 " proceeding, I trust that you will see the unfitness of my concealing from my 
 " constituents the insurmountable reasons, which prevented my obeying their 
 " commands in presenting an address, containing a disavowal of my opinion 
 " delivered in Parliament relating to the peace. As their servant, I owe to these 
 " gentlemen an explanation of my conduct on this occasion, and as a man not 
 " forgetful of the distinguished honour of having been invited to represent them, 
 " I owe it, in gratitude, to them, not to think of embarrassing and encumbering, 
 " for the future, friends to whom I have such obligations ; and who now view 
 " with approbation measures of an administration, founded on the subversion of 
 " that system which once procured me the countenance and favour of the city of 
 " Bath. On these plain grounds, very coolly weighed, I will venture to beg 
 " again that my equitable good friend will be so good to convey to Mr. Mayor 
 " and the gentlemen of the Corporation my sentiments, as contained in my 
 " letter of the 2nd instant. 
 
 " I am ever, with unchanging sentiments of respect and affection, 
 " My dear sir, most faithfully yours, 
 
 "W. Pitt. 
 
 " Prior Park ; June 9. 
 " My Dearest Sir, — 
 
 " With the greatest anxiety and concern, I have in obedience to your 
 " positive and repeated commands executed the most painful commission that I 
 " ever received. 
 
 " Upon this disagreeable occasion, give me leave just to say that, however 
 " different our abilities may be, it is the duty of every honest man, after he has 
 " made the strictest enquiry, to act pursuant to the light which the Supreme 
 " Being has been pleased to dispense to him ; and this being the rule that I am 
 " persuaded we both govern ourselves by, I shall take the liberty, not only to 
 " add, that it is impossible for any person to retain higher sentiments of your late 
 " glorious administration than I do, nor can be with truer fidelity, zeal, affection, 
 " and respect than I have been, still am, and always shall be, my dearest sir, 
 Your most humble and most obedient servant, 
 
 "(Signed) R. Allen. 
 
 "To the Right Hon. Mr. Pitt. 
 
 " The best wishes of this family wait upon Lady Chatham." 
 
 Lord Stanhope thinks the word adequate slipped into the Address without 
 design or the intention of conveying a meaning of especial significance. If it be so,
 
 78 Historic Houses in Bath and tJieir Associations. 
 
 it is singular that a word should have been used which, in itself, is so plenary in 
 the sense it bears, and at the same time is the very converse of that which Pitt 
 had used over and over again to characterize the peace — inadequate. It is not 
 surprising that he should have regarded the Address with scornful indignation, 
 not simply as approving the peace, but as by implication reversing all the judg- 
 ments the Corporation had passed upon his previous policy and conduct. The 
 word was " untoward," and Pitt thought that not only the word, but the whole 
 Address, was the artful work of Bishop Warburton. 1 Pitt sold his house in the 
 Circus at the close of the year, and, although he visited the city again in 1766 for 
 the use of the waters, he does not seem to have renewed his intercourse with his 
 former friends. He retained his seat until 1766, when he was created Earl of 
 Chatham, 2 the dignity of Baroness Chatham having been already conferred upon 
 his wife, Lady Hester Pitt (sister of the Earl Temple). The events were not 
 without their amusing features, and in a book of this nature, the history of the 
 caricatures relating to the contretemps, of which mention has been made, may 
 appropriately find a place. 
 
 Ralph Allen, it needs not again to be proved, was a man who exercised 
 great influence for good. It may be safely asserted that he was incapable of 
 committing a sinister or unworthy act. His errors sometimes arose from his 
 generous disposition, and it will be seen from the rupture with Pitt how sensi- 
 tive he was and how much he suffered. There is no doubt that the Corporate 
 body of the period deferred to him on most public matters in which he felt an 
 unusual interest, but it does not appear from the Minutes of the Council, that he 
 was a regular or even a frequent attendant at its meetings. Yet there remains 
 the fact that the municipal body, from the circumstance that his authority and 
 
 1 Bishop Warburton, who married Gertrude Tucker, Mrs. Allen's niece, had received his Bishop- 
 ric from Pitt, and having promoted a similar Address from his own Chapter, the only Chapter in 
 the Kingdom from which a similar Address was sent, it was natural that the Bishop should have 
 been suspected of being " the power behind the throne " who had prompted Allen. The Bishop 
 denied the accusation, but it is fair to presume that as he was constantly at Prior Park, lie may have 
 made known his intention of sending an Address and the sense of it, and thus unintentionally, or it 
 may be too adroitly, influenced Allen's judgment. The Bishop wrote to Pitt, whose reply left a wound 
 which troubled him not a little : — '' I will only venture to observe, my Lord, that the Cathedral of 
 " Gloucester, which certainly does not stand alone in true duty and wise zeal towards His Majesty, has 
 " however the fate not to be imitated by any other Episcopal See in the Kingdom, in this unaccustomed 
 "effusion of fervent congratulations on the Peace." 
 
 2 In an amusing passage in Barry Lyndon, Thackeray puts some trenchnnt remarks into the 
 mouth of his hero with regard to the Seven Years' War in which he had taken a part, and concludes 
 by a short reference to the " Martinis of Tiptoff ' and Lord ( 'hat ham : — " Though a Whig, or, perhaps, 
 "because he was a Whig, the Marquis was one of the haughtiest men breathing, and treated eom- 
 " moners as his idol, the great Karl, used to treat them after he came to a coronet himself— as so 
 " many low vassals who might be proud to lick his shoe-buckles."
 
 Historic Houses in Bath and their Associations. 79 
 
 influence were so much deferred to, was nicknamed " The One-headed Corpora- 
 " tion," and that he assumed on this particular occasion the sole responsibility for 
 the fatal composition. The transaction no doubt excited much animadversion and 
 public dissatisfaction, which found expression in two humorous but somewhat coarse 
 caricatures of the day. In the first of these, dated 1763, the central figure is a 
 large head— an admirable portrait — of Allen ; perched on it is a raven who is 
 croaking " poor Raafe, poor Raafe ; " Allen is holding a scroll in his hands, on 
 which the word " Adequate " is conspicuously written. A bishop (Warburton) in 
 full canonicals is whispering into Allen's right ear, " 'Tis I did this great work 
 " for you ! " The devil, however, who is close upon the bishop's back, says, 
 " No, no, friend, 'twas I, the father of political lies, that first thought 
 "of Addressing /" to which Coward replies, "Don't drive me, St. John, 1 I'll 
 "go graze on the Common or in PRIOR PARK." In the right-hand upper 
 corner is a portrait of Lord Ligonier, and in the left a portrait of Pitt. 
 Around the figure of Allen are gathered the members of the Corporation, each 
 in the character which symbolized his calling. The death's head and gallipots 
 signified the several medical men. The wagon — Walter Wiltshire, carrier ; the 
 horse's head — John Glazier, coachman ; greyhound's head — Sir John S. Sebright, 
 M.P. ; the ass's head — Leonard Coward ; the bishop — Bishop Warburton ; the 
 double-faced head— Aid. Biggs, lawyer ; the clock-face — French Laurance, watch- 
 maker ; the E. O. Tables — J. Leake, publisher ; the latticed window — Axford, 
 glazier 2 ; the lock — Hales, ironmonger; the -£500 and doll — Davis, jeweller and 
 toyman ; the inkpot — Clutterbuck, the town-clerk, who is exclaiming, " What is 
 "all this clutter about"; the soldering-irons — Atwood, glazier 3 ; the hoop — 
 Milsom, cooper. To the left stands the figure of Falstaff, whose identity 4 
 is not so certain. He is very angry, and evidently was a man who thought 
 he did well to be angry. From the part played by Thicknesse in Bath about 
 this time, and from a close study of the character of the man, we feel al- 
 most certain that he it is who is intended to be represented by Falstaff. It is 
 the more probable from the language he is made to use, " Damn 'e for a set of 
 poltroons, I'll drive you from hence with this dagger." The sturdy, thick-set 
 
 1 St. John was apparently a citizen who exercised some influence upon Coward ; there was no 
 
 person of the name in tin? Council. 
 
 -Axford Buildings are so called after the worthy Councillor. 
 
 3 Atwood was a man of considerable wealth and local importance!. lie possessed a pretty villa 
 
 at Turley, in which hi; is said to have entertained Romaine, and, at a later period, the great I'.urke 
 
 himself. Henry Atwood, the last male representative of the family, died at Crunley House, Weston 
 
 Road, on the 14th of December, 1814. 
 
 'We are indebted to Mr. T. W. CJibbs for the clear identification of the figures in the group, 
 
 except falstaff.
 
 80 Historic Houses in Bath and their Associations. 
 
 figure, the attitude, and the true nature of Thicknesse's courage, are all so 
 admirably depicted in the Falstaffian figure. It is difficult to conceive any 
 " outsider " in Bath at this period who combined in himself so many unamia- 
 able qualities as Philip Thicknesse. The caricature gave deep pain to Allen, 
 because it imputed to him gross dissimulation — which was utterly foreign to his 
 nature, and he was so little accustomed to be chidden by his Bath friends. Bishop 
 Warburton thought it not beneath his dignity to write to Pitt to vindicate 
 himself from the implied charge of duplicity, or, what was worse, treachery, and 
 complained of the character he is made to assume in the caricature. Shortly 
 after the first caricature appeared, the second was published, "A Sequel to the 
 "Knights of Baythe, or the One-headed Corporation." The Committee is here 
 represented, the members of which are most likely discussing Pitt's reply. 
 Allen is presiding. After others have spoken, he is just saying " An Adequate 
 " Peace merits an Adequate Address," when the curtain is drawn aside by a 
 character whose identity we fail to recognise, who says, " I'll show them in their 
 " proper colours," and there stand Bishop Warburton, Pitt, Ligonier, and the 
 redoubtable swash buckler Falstaff. The Bishop says, " And I must have a 
 " stroke at 'em." Falstaff says, " They should drink the Waters, for the Body 
 
 " wants cleansing, by G ." Pitt exclaims, " Let who will represent such 
 
 " Wretches, I wont." Ligonier put in, " Faith, Brother, they deserve to have no 
 " Members at all." Underneath the picture the following lines are printed : — - 
 
 " See Liberty 's Champions still loyal and true, 
 
 '• Displaying the tricks of poor R h and his crew ; 
 
 "Who thinking to shew himself courtly and civil, 
 " Is eagerly riding post-haste to the Devil ! 
 
 " 'My friends (Hark, he crys) of this wise Corporation, 
 
 " 'This Adequate Peace deserves Congratulation. 
 
 " ' His Lordship by me too his compliments sends, 
 
 " ' And promises shortly to make you amends.' " 
 
 " Then to it they go, but, ye Clods ! such a Thing 
 
 "Was never presented before to a ; 
 
 " For Reason her sentiments wisely expresses — 
 
 " A Peace that is patch'd should have patch'd-up Addresses." 
 
 Allen retired from the Council and died the year following. He had 
 served the city as no other man could have done, and the treatment he received 
 in this matter was but a very ungenerous return. 
 
 At 6, WALCOT TERRACE; at 9, ROYAL CRESCENT; at THE 
 LODGE, Bathampton ;' and at THE HERMITAGE; in the order in which 
 we give them, lived, at various periods, PHILIP THICKNESSE, a man of 
 
 1 Now occupied by Mr. Ross.
 
 Historic Houses in Bath and their Associations. 81 
 
 whom that accomplished gentleman, the Rev. Joseph Hunter, said he had 
 attained a " bad eminence." Sir Bernard Burke, in his " Landed Gentry," says 
 Philip Thicknesse was " a celebrated writer." Thicknesse tells us himself that he 
 " was late Lieut.-Governour of Landguard Fort, and unfortunately the father of 
 " Lord Audley." 1 Family History will irrefragably show that Philip Thicknesse 
 belonged to a distinguished and highly respected family of Staffordshire and 
 Lancashire, and the life and career of Philip will prove that in him that family 
 had one who by no means added to its respectability. We have tried to form 
 a dispassionate and just estimate of Philip Thicknesse as a " literary character," 
 and to do this it was necessary to read his works. In our desire to extend 
 our knowledge of Thicknesse's writings we derived little edification, whilst our 
 impressions of his personal character were deepened. A man may be a 
 charming writer and at the same time a very bad man ; Thicknesse attained 
 to a " bad eminence " in the various characters he assumed. Milton says — 
 
 "Satan exatted sat, by merit rais'd 
 "To that bad eminence," 
 
 and we really cannot find in Philip Thicknesse a single merit, except of that kind 
 which Milton describes. 
 
 It would be exceedingly difficult, if not impossible, to discern, within the 
 scope of the investigations needed for this work, the record of any man so utterly 
 devoid of every generous and manly quality as the subject of this notice. It is 
 not that he was ill-natured, or envious, or unamiable merely — he was all these ; 
 but he was rancorous, uniformly vindictive, slanderous, and malicious. And 
 it must be observed that when he gave utterance to his " sentiments " on his 
 opponents, or deliberately committed them to paper for publication, he did so 
 after long reflection, and in many instances after he had been through the 
 ceremony of forgiveness and reconciliation with them. There would he some 
 allowance to be made for a man of this kind, if he lacked the capacity of 
 discerning the difference between good and evil. Thicknesse showed that he 
 had a clear perception of the difference, especially when an opponent got the 
 better of him. Some compensation might be derived from reading his works, ii 
 they possessed satirical humour, or real sarcastic force ; but they are dull, 
 ponderous, stupid, egotistical diatribes, abounding in libellous, coarse, indecent, 
 and revolting ribaldry, unredeemed by a single generous thought or a well- 
 expressed sentence. We should like to believe that the love he professed for his 
 
 1 The misfortune seems to have been on tiie side of the miii.
 
 82 Historic Houses in Bath and their Associations. 
 
 eldest brother, George Thicknesse, 1 High-Master of the Charter-house, was real, if 
 he did not so irresistibly prove that such a feeling was foreign to his nature. 
 
 Philip Thicknesse was the third son of the Rev. Ralph Thicknesse, of 
 Farthinghoe, Northamptonshire. Born in 17 19, he was in due time placed in the 
 Marines, rising to the rank of Captain. About 1750, through the interest of his 
 family, he was appointed to the Governorship of Landguard Fort, on the Coast of 
 Suffolk, and in that capacity he exhibited not merely a total unfitness for 
 command, but some of the worst traits of his character. One of the officers in 
 command of a regiment of volunteers was a Col. Vernon, (nephew of the famous 
 Admiral of that name, whose heir he was,) afterwards Lord Orwell and Earl of 
 Shipbrook. With him Thicknesse quarrelled. In the first instance the Governor 
 was strictly in the right ; but, not satisfied with the support he obtained from 
 CHARLES TOWNSHEND, then Secretary at War, he showed the Minister's 
 private letter to " everybody," to show his victory over his opponent. 2 Then 
 again, by way of annoying the Colonel, he put up on his own private dwelling, 
 which stood opposite the Colonel's mansion, a Wooden Gun, with offensive lines 
 under it, for the purpose of reflecting upon Vernon's courage and honour. The 
 Colonel becoming a candidate to represent Bury St. Edmunds in parliament, 
 Thicknesse issued the most libellous and shameful handbills reflecting upon the 
 Colonel. For these he was prosecuted, fined, and imprisoned for one year. 
 He admits that he was the libeller, but protests that the prosecution should have 
 been called a persecution, inasmuch as one witness, he alleges, swore to a fact he 
 could not have had any knowledge of, though the fact was true ! In certain 
 cases, in which he affected a great zeal for reforms in the garrison in some small 
 matters, he succeeded only in picking quarrels with everybody about him. Every 
 person with whom he thus gets at loggerheads is a wretch, an infamous person, a 
 scoundrel, or something only to be described by even stronger terms. Happily 
 for Landguard Fort, he was permitted to retire, as he says, by " Lord Rockingham 
 " (during his virtuous administration) with a recompense of two thousand four 
 " hundred pounds from the present possessor, Capt. Singleton " ! This was 
 in 1763. 
 
 'Mr. Monkland, in his amusing book, " Literature and Literati of Bath," says :— " Ralph 
 " Thicknesse died suddenly while performing some of his own music at a concert at Bath." Ralph 
 Thicknesse here referred to was brother of Philip, and was a man of distinguished parts, as many 
 of the Thicknesses were. The family is represented in Archdeacon Thicknesse. whose name was 
 Coldwell, and who married the only surviving child (Anne) of Ralph Anthony Thicknesse, Esq., of 
 Beech Hill, M.P. for Wigan, and assumed the name of Thicknesse. 
 
 * In a copy of Thicknesse's Memoirs, with notes in the handwriting of that excellent man, 
 Dr. Harington, one of them on this fact is "shameful conduct " !
 
 Historic Houses in Bath and their Associations. 83 
 
 The account which Thicknesse gives of his first marriage, when he was 42 
 years old, is the most shameful narrative ever penned by any man of himself. 
 Under a feigned marriage he seduced the woman, who he expected was rich, 
 in order that he might make his own terms with her parents before he really 
 married her ! Her name was Lanove, her father being the grandson of a French 
 Protestant Refugee. Thicknesse brought his wife to Bath ; after giving birth 
 to three daughters, she died (and two of her children also) of what was then 
 called " Pelham sore throat." The rest of this part of his Memoirs is sicken- 
 ing from the revolting selfishness which it reveals. 
 
 After the death of Thicknesse's first wife, he, according to his own story, 
 at the suggestion of a learned and indecent old Judge, 1 made love to a widow 
 lady named Concanen, 2 who was willing to marry him if a little longer time only 
 were permitted her to forget the sainted and departed Concanen. It is well to 
 mention here that the narrative is preceded by the writer's views and feeling on 
 religion. Being a Whig, and an advocate of liberal government, he denounces 
 everybody who does not agree with him, and amongst others Burke, who was 
 pleading the cause of the Dissenters and Roman Catholics with his usual power 
 and earnestness. Thicknesse blended his piety with a good deal of dirty morality, 
 which reveals the character of the man. In telling the story of this courtship, 
 Thicknesse seemed to think it a fine joke. The widow, however, was unequal to 
 the task of a courting match with the gentleman, for he goes on to tell his readers 
 that when Lady Elizabeth Touchet (sister to the Earl of Castlehaven and Baron 
 Audley), and heir-presumptive to the latter title, heard of this courtship, she 
 thought she would rather marry him herself, which she did. As the gallant gentle- 
 man puts it, — " So I left the widow to finish her second mourning, and was soon 
 "after married to Lady Elizabeth Touchet." 3 By this lady he had two sons, 
 George and Philip, and two daughters. Of the sons we shall see more ; the 
 
 1 The Judge suggested to him as an infallible method of winning the widow, who lived on the 
 South Parade, to "get into the lady's bedroom, put on his night-cap, and look out of window when 
 " the walks are full of company." 
 
 2 Widow of Matthew Concanen, who is mentioned in '' The Dunciad," Pope satirizing him as 
 a pretender — 
 
 ''Cook shall be Prior, and Concanen, Swift ! " 
 
 Concanen was an Irishman, by profession a lawyer, but took to journalism, and imagined himself to 
 
 be a Swift. He was author of several dull and dead scurrilities, and in a paper called The 
 
 Speculatist, he attacked Pope, who in another reference to his assailant says — 
 
 " True to the bottom see < oncanen creep, 
 
 "A cold, long-winded native of the deep." 
 
 :t November 10, 1749. Her ladyship's brother, the Karl of Castlehaven, dying in 1777, the 
 Barony of Audley descended to her elder son, George, who married Kh/.abeth, 2nd daughter ol Lord 
 Delaval, and by her had two sons and one daughter. The elder succeeded his lather. 1818; the younger 
 was never married, and was killed at the battle of Copenhagen. '1 he title is now in abeyance.
 
 84 Historic Houses in Bath and their Associations. 
 
 daughters being brought up in the Roman Catholic faith, they were sent to a 
 Convent ' in France. Thicknesse quarrelled with both his sons, and assuming 
 that all the blame was on the part of the young men, what can be thought of a 
 father who, to the end of his days, held up his children to contumely and 
 execration ? But, taking Thicknesse's own account of the quarrel with his sons, 
 it is clear that if any fault was attributable to the sons, it was a fault that a good 
 father would have corrected with " good counsels, which are chains to grace." At 
 the age of 19, George became Lord Audley, and Philip inherited part of the 
 personal property of his late uncle, the Earl of Castlehaven. 
 
 First, Thicknesse promotes a quarrel between the brothers, and the father 
 accompanies the younger son (then about 17) to a magisterial bench to swear that 
 the elder brother had set him upon a runaway horse with the wicked intention of 
 killing him, in order that he might obtain his fortune; the charge was unquestionably 
 suggested by the father, and was a shameful falsehood. Then the two brothers, after 
 a while, became reconciled, and the father on every occasion applied to them the 
 vilest and most opprobrious epithets. It is not easy to discover from Thicknesse's 
 tumid and envenomed narrative what were the ostensible grounds of his animosity 
 against his sons, but it is almost certain that the real cause arose from his inability 
 to help himself to their fortunes. The elder son, whether blamable or not, bore 
 his father's abuse and malignity in silence. The younger, on one occasion, 
 acting under advice, repelled, in an affidavit, certain statements made by his 
 father. One statement made by the father, with an ingenious but ineffectual 
 attempt to obscure the facts, will exhibit him in his true colours. Thicknesse at 
 
 1 The elder daughter was sent to the English Benedictine Convent, at Pontoise — united, on 
 account of poverty, with the English Benedictines of Dunkirk. The United Community, which came over 
 to Hammersmith during the French Revolution, now reside at St. Scholastica's Abbey, Teignmouth, 
 which was built for them by the Countess English, sister of A. H. English, Esq., Coroner for the 
 City of Bath. The papers are now in the Archives at Versailles. 
 
 1769. February 24. Came for Noviceship, Mrs. Elizabeth Thicknesse, aged 18 last August. 
 
 Ee Mardi, 20 Juin, 1769, a recue l'habit religieux, Dlle. Elizabeth Thicknesse, Fille de Messire 
 Philippe Thicknesse, et de My lady Elizabeth Touchet, nee a, Turnam-Green dans la Province de 
 Middlesex, en Angleterre, le 15 Aout, 1750. Elizabeth Thicknesse, ditteen religion Sceur Anne Marie. 
 
 (Temoins qui out signe" leurs noms.) 
 
 Marie Anne Clavering, Abbesse. 
 Henry Venue, Directeur. 
 D'Amoinville, Curd de N. Dame. 
 L. Havard, Pretre. 
 Jacques Mather, Curd de S. Vincent. 
 !•'. de Jerningham. 
 Henry Belasyse. 
 Charles Belasyse. 
 
 Dame Elizabeth was professed on -31 July, 1770, there being only one additional witness — 
 Bermingham Chanoine. In 1786 she went to the English Benedictines in the Rue de l'Alouette, 
 Paris, with a pension of 600 francs per annum.
 
 Historic Houses in Bath and their Associations. 85 
 
 this period lived in a small house he called The Hermitage ' (in the grounds of 
 which he tells us he buried his last surviving daughter by his first marriage). 
 The younger son, on his father announcing his intention of going abroad, was 
 willing to purchase the property, and the amount agreed upon was ^500 ; not 
 having the money, and being only 18 years of age, he gave his father an 
 acceptance for the amount. Some time after, having the money, he paid the 
 •£500, together with another _^ioo as a free gift, to his father. The father 
 craftily availed himself of the son's inexperience to retain the acceptance. When 
 a few years had elapsed, and after the son had expended much money upon the 
 house, he allowed his father to repurchase his former residence on repayment of the 
 ^500. The father then claimed payment of the acceptance ! The son denied 
 at first that he had given any such acceptance, but after a while, he remembered 
 the transaction. Thicknesse held up his son to scorn and contempt, though he 
 does not deny, what indeed was abundantly proved, that he had received ^100 
 over and above the amount for which the document was given ! The son, 
 Philip, joined the Independent Nonconformists, and his father, actuated by those 
 enlightened principles of which he so often boasted — his attachment to liberal 
 government and his love of pure Protestantism and generous toleration — after 
 exhausting his rich vocabulary of epithets against this unhappy son, crowned 
 them all with the terrible charge of " Independency"! He occasionally met his 
 match. Once Dr. William Falconer condescended to crush him. 
 
 His most terrible and doughty antagonist, however, was Dr. Mackittrick, 
 who had added the name Adair 2 to his patronymic. Thicknesse was an 
 empiric. He advocated the use of a peculiar cordial or setherial spirit, which 
 was made by Tickell, who then resided in Bath ; it was a nostrum in which he 
 affected great faith, and profited by the sale of it. He wrote the Valetudinarian's 
 Guide, in which he prescribed opium and rolling the patient upon a barrel 
 in cases of bilious disorders. His books of Travels, when they do not verge 
 
 1 The Hermitage is situate between the west wing of Lansdown Crescent and Somerset Place. 
 Thicknesse, writing to a friend, describes the place as a spot of" exceeding loveliness. As a matter of 
 fact, it was a very mean wretched place. 1 le i iffered to let it unfurnished at a rent of ,£30 per annum, 
 and furnished at £7,7 10s. During the lifetime of Lady Kliznbeth he resided at No. 9, Royal 
 (Jrescent, except when he was at Landguard Fort. The Hermitage, as it is now, is a very dif- 
 ferent place. 
 
 2 Adair exposed with crushing force and ability the pretension of this charlatan. Thicknesse, 
 in his Memoirs, had nothing worse to say of Adair than thai he had changed, or rather added to, lus 
 name, yet for this there is no language too strong for him to use against his antagonist. In 1700, 
 Adair, under the name of Benjamin don*,;//////, criticised Thieknesse's Memoirs, published in 
 1788. He laid bare the character of Thicknesse with richly deserved severity; showed up his 
 malignity; his ignorant empiricism; his treachery; his false scholarship; his baseness to his sons, 
 who, if they were not good, had before them an example which accounted for the fact. In the
 
 86 Historic Houses in Bath and their Associations. 
 
 upon indecency, are sickening in their egotistical references to himself. He 
 wrote a Bath Guide in 1778, in which he abused poor Mrs. Catherine 
 Macauley, the author of the History of England, as if she had committed a crime. 
 He was by turns " capricious, gloomy, and resentful." He boasted that enemies 
 were more useful to him than friends, because it enabled him to vilify them in 
 pamphlets, and then he derived a profit by compelling his "friends" to buy them, 
 under a feeling of terror lest they might be the next victims of his malignity. 
 Poor Gainsborough had the misfortune to be numbered amongst his 
 friends. Thicknesse wrote a sketch of Gainsborough's career, in which he 
 endeavoured by " inuendo " — to use his own word — to show that the great 
 painter owed all success to him, and though it is pretty clear that Gainsborough 
 despised him, and that his intolerable tyranny had much to do with driving the 
 artist out of Bath, yet Thicknesse did observe a little prudence by not coming to 
 a rupture with his friend, but he made up for his " Christian " forbearance by 
 vilifying Mrs. Gainsborough, who was a careful woman and protected her 
 husband's interests (he himself was a careless man) against the rapacity of the 
 man, whom, with Scottish shrewdness, she 1 saw through and utterly distrusted 
 and despised. Thicknesse married as his third wife Miss Ford, niece of 
 Sir Richard Ford. She was a woman of great beauty, and of varied accomplishments 
 as a writer. 2 Mrs. Thicknesse survived her husband thirty -two years, dying in 
 Edgware Road, London, June 20, 1824. Thicknesse, always embarrassed by 
 debt, relieved Bath of his presence, which for years had become a nuisance, and 
 went to Boulogne in 179 1. At the close of 1792, when about to start for Italy, 
 
 closing Vol., Thicknesse retorts in language so virulent, in defamation so abominable, that the 
 Volume was suppressed, perhaps in consequence of his death, which occurred in 1792. Adair, in 
 reference to Thicknesse's quarrel with his sons, wrote the following : — 
 
 " THINK what you please about your son, 
 
 '• But ne'er DIVULGE your thoughts ; 
 " For Nature says, you ought to hide, 
 " And not expose his faults. 
 
 " Suppose the ' wretch's ' conduct should 
 
 " Our tend'rest feeling shock, 
 " The world will only smile, and say 
 
 "The chip is like the block. 
 
 " Know, then, and knowing, pray be still, 
 
 '' (Thou base, malignant elf,) 
 " That he, who'd make his SON a KNAVE 
 
 " Must be a knave himself." 
 Dr. Mackittrick Adair died at Harrowgate, April 24, 1802. 
 
 1 See Gainsborough. 
 
 2 She was the author of "Sketches of the Lives and Writings of the Ladies of France," in 
 3 vols. London, 1778-82. She had a son, Capt. Thicknesse, R.N.
 
 Historic Houses in Bath and their Associations. 87 
 
 he died suddenly. The first clause of his Will runs thus : — " I leave my right 
 " hand, to be cut off after my death, to my son, Lord Audley ;' I desire it may be 
 " sent to him, in hopes that such a sight may remind him of his duty to God, 
 " after having so long abandoned the duty he owed to a father, who once so 
 " affectionately loved. him." It is strange, indeed, that any father should boast that 
 he once loved a son ! 2 The end of the man was worthy of his life. He carried 
 his resentment beyond the grave itself. 
 
 MAJOR ANDRE, 23, CIRCUS.— John Andre", a British officer, of French 
 extraction, educated at Geneva, and originally intended for a commercial career, 
 entered the army in 1 77 1, at the age of 20. At the outbreak of the American 
 War, he was sent to Canada, and taken prisoner at St. John's, but, being 
 exchanged, in 1778, he joined Sir W. Howe's force at Philadelphia, and 
 it was he who, to infuse cheerfulness into the troops who were beginning to feel 
 the dispiriting influence of inactivity, got up a remarkable fete called the 
 Mischianza (Medley). It consisted of every sort of knight errantry, fantastic 
 dances, processions, and elegant amusements. Captain Andre was the life 
 and soul of the affair. The " gayest of the gay " ; the brilliant, handsome, 
 fearless young officer, destined in all probability to high distinction and 
 command, met with that fate which even his enemies regretted, and 
 his friends and the British Nation universally deplored. But the life-long 
 bitterness — the loving sorrow — was reserved for his mother and sisters, who, 
 residing at 23, Circus, devoted the rest of their lives to works of charity, in a spirit 
 of meek endurance and resignation, and in memory of one whose life was so 
 joyous and whose death was so tragic. 3 Andre, who was equally distinguished 
 for his love of art and literature, as for his gallantry and chivalrous character, 
 
 1 Lord Audley died at the age of 61 in August, 1818, at his seat, Sandridge Lodge, Wiltshire. 
 
 ' J As a proof of malignity, and coarse and radically vulgar nature, Thicknesse, after his quarrel 
 with his son, to inflict pain and mortification upon him, put up a board over his own window with the 
 following inscription upon it "Boots and shoes mended, carpets heat, etc., etc., by I'./l'hic 1 . 
 "father of Lord Audley." 
 
 3 "The execution of Major Andre - is, indeed, one of the saddest episodes of the American war, 
 "and in the judgment of many it left a deep stain on tin- reputation of Washington. The victim was 
 " well fined to attract to himself a halo ol romantic interest. Though only twenty-nine, he had already 
 "shown the promise ol a brilliant career, lie was a skilful artist; and the singular charm of his 
 " conversation, and the singular beauty of his frank, generous, and amiable character, endeared him to 
 "all with whom he came in contact, and was acknowledged by no one more fully than by (hose 
 " American officers with whom he spent the la- 1 sad daws of his life. Nothing could be more dignified, 
 "more courageous, more candid, and at the same time more free from everything like boasting or
 
 88 Historic Houses in Bath and their Associations. 
 
 had been engaged for some years to Miss Honora Sneyd, a lady of great beauty 
 and accomplishments. It should be mentioned that after General Howe retired 
 with his forces from Philadelphia, Andre was attached to the force under 
 General Clinton at New York, to whom he was aide-de-camp, and adjutant-general. 
 The event which led to his death may to some of our readers not be without 
 interest : — 
 
 " The Americans had a strong fortress at West Point, on the Hudson river. It was one of the 
 " most important places in the country, and its acquisition was anxiously desired by the English. 
 " Possession of West Point would have given them command of the Hudson, up which their ships of 
 "war could have sailed for more than a hundred miles. But that fort, sitting impregnably on rocks, 
 " two hundred feet above the level of the river, was hard to win ; and the Americans were careful to 
 "garrison effectively a position so vitally important. 
 
 "In the American army was an officer named Arnold, who had served, not without distinction, 
 "from the beginning of the war. He had fought in Canada when the Americans unsuccessfully 
 " invaded that province. His courage and skill had been conspicuous in the engagements which led 
 " to the surrender of Burgoyne. He was, however, a vain, reckless, unscrupulous person. He had 
 "by extravagance in living involved himself in debt, which he aggravated hopelessly by ill-judged 
 " mercantile speculations. He had influence with Washington to obtain the command of West Point. 
 "There is little doubt that when he sought the appointment it was with the full intention of selling 
 " that important fortress to the enemy. He opened negotiations at once with Sir Henry Clinton, then 
 " in command of the English army at New York. 
 
 "At midnight Major Andre landed from the boat of a British ship of war, at a lonely place 
 " where Arnold waited him. The conference lasted so long that it was deemed unsafe for Andre" 
 " to return to the ship. He was conducted to a place of concealment within the American lines, 
 "to await the return of darkness. He completed his arrangement with Arnold, and received 
 "drawings of the betrayed fortress. His mission was now accomplished. The ship from which he 
 "had come lay full in view. Would that he could reach her! But difficulties arose, and it was 
 "resolved that he must ride to New York, a distance of fifty miles. Disguising himself as he best 
 " could, Andre reluctantly accepted this very doubtful method of escape from his fearful jeopardy. 
 
 " Within the American lines he had some narrow escapes, but the pass given by Arnold carried 
 " him through. He was at length beyond the lines. His danger might now be considered at an end, 
 " and he rode cheerfully on his lonely journey. He was crossing a small stream — thick woods on his 
 "right hand and his left enhanced the darkness of the night. Three armed men stepped suddenly 
 " from among the trees and ordered him to stand Prom the dress of one of them, Andre" 
 " thought he was among friends. He hastened to tell them he was a British officer, on very special 
 " business, and he must not be detained. Alas for poor Major Andre", they were not friends ; and the 
 
 " ostentation, than his conduct under the terrible trial that had fallen upon him, and it is even now 
 "impossible to read without emotion those last letters in which he commended to his country and his 
 "old commander the care of his widowed mother, and asked Washington to grant him a single 
 " favour- that he might die the death of a soldier and not of a spy. At the same time it is but justice 
 " to remember that he suffered under the unanimous sentence of a board consisting of fourteen general 
 " officers, and that two of these Steuben and Lafayette —were not Americans. Nor can the justice 
 "of the sentence in my opinion be reasonably impugned. Asa matter of strict right, the American 
 "sentence against Andre appears to me unassailable, and it is only on grounds of mercy and magna- 
 " nimity that it can be questioned." — Lecky's History of the Eighteenth Century, vol. iv.
 
 Historic Houses in Bath and tJicir Associations. 89 
 
 " dress which deceived him had been given to the man who wore it when he was a prisoner with the 
 " English, in place of a better garment of which his captors had stripped him. 
 
 " Andre" was searched ; but at first nothing was found. It seemed as if he might yet be allowed 
 " to proceed, when one of the three exclaimed, ' Roys, I am not satisfied. His boots must come off.' 
 "Andre's countenance fell. His boots were searched, and Arnold's drawings of West Point were 
 "discovered. The men knew then that he was a spy. He vainly offered them money ; they were 
 '' incorruptible. He was taken to the nearest military station, and the tidings were at once sent to 
 " Washington, who chanced to be then at West Point. Arnold had timely intimation of the disaster, 
 " and fled for refuge to a British ship of war. 
 
 " Andre" was tried by a court formed of officers of the American army. He gave a frank and 
 "truthful account of his part in the unhappy transaction — bringing into due prominence the 
 "circumstance that he was brought, without intention or knowledge on his part, within the 
 '■ American lines. The court judged him on his own statement, and condemned him to be hanged 
 "as a spy. 
 
 " His capture and sentence caused deep sensation in the English army, and every effort was 
 "made to save him. But Washington was resolute that he should die. The danger to the patriot 
 "cause had been too great to leave any place for relenting. There were dark intimations of other 
 '■ treasons yet unrevealed. It was needful to give emphatic warning of the perils which waited on 
 " such unlawful negotiations. Andre begged that he might be allowed to die a soldier's death. Even 
 " this poor boon was refused to the unhappy man. Since the awful lesson must be given, Washington 
 " considered that no circumstance fitted to enhance its terrors should be withheld. But this was 
 '■ mercifully concealed from Andre to the very last. 
 
 " Ten days after his arrest, Andre was led forth to die. He was under the impression that his 
 "last request had been granted, and that he would die by the bullet. It was a fresh pang when the 
 '•gibbet, with its ghastly preparations, stood before him. 'How hard is my fate,' he said; 'but it 
 " ' will soon be over.' He bandaged his own eyes ; with his own hands adjusted the noose to his 
 " neck. The cart on which he stood moved away, and poor Major Andre was no longer in the world of 
 " living men. Forty years afterwards his remains were brought home to England and laid in 
 " Westminster Abbey," — Mackenzie's America. London: Nelson, 1882. 
 
 GAINSB0R0UGH-14, ABBEY CHURCHYARD ; 8, AINSLIE'S BEL- 
 VEDERE ; 24, CIRCUS, were successively the residences of this eminent Painter. 
 No adequate biography has ever been written of Thomas Gainsborough. The 
 fact may be owing to the circumstance that, unlike Reynolds, Lawrence, or Hayden, 
 Gainsborough did not add to his wonderful genius as a painter any great love for 
 literature, and left little or nothing in the way of correspondence on which an 
 interesting biography could be based. He was shy, sensitive, and retiring ; he 
 seemed to care little for literary men, as such, and this may be accounted for by 
 the consciousness that he was not qualified to shine in conversation with iiis com- 
 peers, many of whom he eclipsed with his pencil. Certain it is that Gainsborough 
 added nothing to the literature of his art, though he has left a name immortalised 
 in his works, the adequate description of which would form in itself a noble monu- 
 ment to art literature. Gainsborough was born at Sudbury, in 17^7. The history
 
 90 Historic Houses in Bath and their Associations. 
 
 of his earlier years shows that he cared little for learning, and that his every 
 faculty was absorbed in his efforts to acquire a knowledge of his future art, 
 which he was obliged to pursue furtively and as he best could. His youthful 
 genius and the means he adopted for its cultivation and development appear to 
 have been regarded by his father as sheer waywardness and eccentricity. But, in 
 spite of all opposition, and with little else to help him besides nature and his 
 innate love of the beautiful, he acquired that knowledge of his art which rendered 
 him the first, or one of the first, painters of the eighteenth century. 1 What is 
 so singular with regard to Gainsborough is the intuitive soundness of all the 
 methods he adopted in the pursuit of his art. He was a born painter, and, as Sir 
 Joshua Reynolds 2 says of him, after that interview he had with Gains- 
 borough on his deathbed : — " Without entering into a detail of what passed 
 "at this last interview, the impression of it upon my mind was, that his regret at 
 " losing life was principally the regret of leaving his art ; and more especially as 
 " he now began, he said, to see what his deficiencies were, which, he said, he 
 " flattered himself in his last works were in some measure supplied." 
 
 He married, early in life — -when he was about 19 — Margaret Burr, a girl 
 of Scottish descent, pretty, lively, and, fortunately for Gainsborough, with a good 
 deal of canny carefulness about her. Dr. Harington says : — " A Scotch Duke 
 " had placed her at school, perhaps with no good intent. She was beautiful, and 
 " when he died left her an annuity of ^200 a-year." Gainsborough first tried 
 his fortunes in London, but Thicknesse asserts he had " not formed any high 
 " ideas of his own powers," and that he thought his chances of success were 
 greater in the country. At any rate, he took his pretty wife to Ipswich, and 
 there, in a small cottage at six pounds a-year, made a second attempt. It was at 
 this time Philip Thicknesse met with him, took him under his sinister patronage, 
 brought him to Bath, and induced him to take apartments at 14, Abbey Church- 
 yard, at ,£50 per annum, but the risk was not undertaken without a strong pro- 
 test on the part of the canny little wife, whose instinctive aversion to Thicknesse 
 ultimately developed into avowed antagonism, for which she had very good 
 reason. Thicknesse's patronage was equalled only by Rehoboam's tyranny ; and 
 
 1 Speaking of Gainsborough's "intuitive perception," Sir Joshua Reynolds says — " lie found out 
 "away of his own to accomplish his purpose. It is no disgrace to the genius of Gainsborough to 
 " compare him to such men as we meet with, whom natural eloquence appears, even in speaking, a 
 " language which they can scarce be said to understand; and who. without knowing the appropriate 
 " expression of almost any one idea, contrive to communicate the lively and forcible impressions of 
 " an energetic mind." 
 
 2 Fourteenth Discourse.
 
 Historic Houses in Bath and their Associations. 91 
 
 at length, after vainly attempting to suppress his feelings and his disgust, Gains- 
 borough suddenly left Bath and fled to London, where the repute he had 
 achieved in the city of his adoption attained its full growth. In telling the 
 story of Gainsborough, Thicknesse, as usual, has one word for his hero and two 
 for himself. He praises Gainsborough with a sort of pitying patronage, and then 
 gives vent, by way of relieving his pent-up wrath, to unmanly abuse of the poor 
 little wife, because she protected the interests of her husband against the crafty 
 patron. Thicknesse tells a story in which he tries to insinuate that Gainsborough 
 treated him with something like shabbiness, if not dishonourably, but if Gains- 
 borough had ever condescended to give his version of the affair, there would have 
 appeared facts which Thicknesse did not care to tell. Gainsborough began by 
 painting portraits at Five Guineas, then Eight Guineas, then Forty Guineas for a 
 half-length, and One Hundred for a full-length. From the Abbey Churchyard, 
 Gainsborough went to live in Ainslie's Belvedere, and we believe from thence to 
 24, Circus. 1 
 
 Fiddler's Life of Gainsborough, written under every possible disadvantage, 
 we must allow, gives little that is interesting as to the works that he executed in 
 Bath. This is attributable to the fact to which we have alluded, namely, the 
 paucity of Gainsborough's notes and correspondence relating to his professional 
 life and experience. The reason of this may be ascribed to that sensitive, half- 
 suspicious temperament which was peculiar to him. In the " Leisure Hour " for 
 1882, a series of Letters, written in the year 1769, is published. These Letters, 
 addressed to his friend, Jackson, of Exeter, 2 are very characteristic. We regret 
 that we are not permitted to make use of them except in piecemeal, as they bear 
 out our estimate of Gainsborough's disposition. While they exhibit a shrewd 
 and keen perception of art and other kindred subjects, they are erratic, and 
 possess none of the literary polish of his great contemporary, Sir Joshua 
 
 1 The late Dr. Ranrlle Wilbraham Falconer thought it was at the house occupied by his 
 grandfather (Dr. William Falconer), and then later by his father (the Rev. Thomas Falconer, M.D.), 
 but this could not be, Dr. \V. Falconer having been in possession of No. 29 some years before 
 Gainsborough took up his residence in the Circus. 
 
 2 " To the above narrative it maybe added, for the information of the reader, that William Jackson, of 
 Exeter, raised himself and his family, by his talent as a musician and an artist, much above their original position in 
 life. His son William Jackson went to India in the Civil Service, and was afterwards sent as one of the 
 Commissioners to China in Lord Amherst's expedition. Returning with an ample fortune, he married Mi>s Frances 
 Baring, daughter of Mr. (.'Maries Baring ol Exeter. Shfl w;is one of a family of beautiful and accomplished sisters, one 
 of whom married Sir Stafford Xorthcote, another Sir William Young, grandfathers of the prescnl baronets. As 
 Mr. Jackson (of the Indian Civil Service) had no family, he and his wife adopted and educated an orphan relative of 
 his own, William Elmsley, who became a successful lawyer. (;.(,'., and County Court Judge of Derbyshire. To him 
 Mr. Jackson bequeathed ids father's autobiography and many art treasures collected by him." Jackson wrote a notice 
 of Gainsboiough after his death, not in a flattering spirit.
 
 92 Historic Houses in Bath and their Associations. 
 
 Reynolds. These letters were written to his friend in the full confidence of 
 friendship, and leave a very pleasant impression upon the mind as to his 
 generous and kindly disposition. 
 
 The friendship between Walter Wiltshire 1 and the painter was sincere and 
 creditable to both. The former was a man of much local reputation, trusted -by 
 the citizens, given to hospitality, and greatly esteemed for his probity and good 
 qualities. He was generous to Gainsborough, but he affected nothing of the 
 patron, and the return Gainsborough made to him now seems out of all pro- 
 portion to the services rendered. But the half-dozen pictures presented to 
 Wiltshire a hundred years ago would represent at that time a very different value 
 from the prices they realized on the death of that excellent man, John Wiltshire, 
 fifteen years ago. 
 
 The portraits painted in Bath by Gainsborough, although scattered about 
 in various directions, are carefully preserved, and from time to time delight the 
 eye at our public exhibitions. In Bath, besides his many exquisite landscapes, 
 he painted Lord Clare during that visit which Goldsmith has rendered immortal. 
 This portrait hung over the mantel-piece in the dining-room at Stowe, and was 
 sold Sept. 14, 1848, to Field-Marshal Sir George Nugent, Bart. (Lord Clare's 
 grandson), for ^io6. 2 In Bath he painted the portraits of Lord Killmorey, 
 Foote, 3 the actor, Mr. Medlicote, Mr. Moysey, Doctor Charlton, Mr. Fischer the 
 oboe-player (son-in-law), Mrs. Thicknesse, 4 Bishop Hurd, Sterne, Richardson, 
 Sheridan, Burke, Lord Camden, Graves of Claverton, and above all in " pre- 
 " eminent merit," the parish clerk of Bradford, now to be seen near that other 
 glorious portrait from his pencil, Mrs. Siddons, in the National Gallery. Here 
 also he painted that lovely woman, Miss Cholmondeley (afterwards Countess of 
 Mulgrave), and that not less charming idol, Miss Linley 5 (Mrs. Sheridan). 
 
 1 Walter Wiltshire, the great Carrier of that day, who gratuitously conveyed all Gainsborough's 
 pictures to London. He employed Baldwin to build his mansion at Shockerwick, and served 
 the office of Mayor in 1780-91. John Wiltshire was Walter's grandson. 
 
 2 As it has not been sold since, we presume it is in the possession of the family still. 
 
 3 It is said the portraits of Foote and Garrick are not good likenesses. But, as Gainsborough 
 said, " Rot them for a couple of Rogues, they have everybody's faces but their own." 
 
 4 This was Philip Thicknesse's third wife, an enchanting woman. By this lady there was one 
 son, Capt. Thicknesse, R.N., whose widow survives, and who is the possessor of this portrait — 
 a portrait rendered tin; more famous because the subject of it gave the last finishing touch to the 
 quarrel between her husband and Gainsborough. 
 
 : > Gainsborough had a passion for music, and a story is told by Thicknesse in relation to 
 Miss Linley, highly characteristic of the painter: — "After returning from a concert where we had been 
 " charmed by Miss l.inley's voice, I went home to supper with my friend, who sent his servant for a 
 " bit of clay from the small beer-barrel, with which he fust modelled, and then coloured her head, and 
 "that too in a quarter of an hour, in such a manner that 1 protest it appeared to me even superior 
 " to his paintings ! The next day 1 took a friend or two to his house to see it, but it was not to be 
 " seen the servant had thrown it down from the mantle-piece and broke it."
 
 Historic Houses in Bath and their Associations. 93 
 
 Mrs. Delany, one of the most witty and brilliant women of her day, said 
 Gainsborough's paintings were " splendid impositions," but who now will be 
 found to agree with her ? 
 
 Gainsborough had two daughters, very beautiful women ; Gainsborough 
 himself had a handsome countenance, but there is that furtive, shy expression 
 which was indicative of his true character.' His sister married the Rev. Daniel 
 Gibbons. 2 Three of his nieces, the Miss Gardiners, were milliners — when to be 
 milliners in Bath, with a high connection, meant a certain fortune— in Brock 
 Street, and a nephew of the same name either founded the once-famous Northgate 
 Brewery, or was a partner in it in its early days. 
 
 Gainsborough died at the age of 62, from cancer in the neck; almost his 
 last words to Sir Joshua Reynolds being " We are all going to heaven, and 
 "Vandyke is of the company." Truly, it may be said of Gainsborough that he 
 was an honour to Bath. It is something to boast of that in this city his trans- 
 cendent ability was, at any rate, partly recognized. There is no sad story of 
 neglected genius, starving children, and selfish indifference. Gainsborough 
 himself, it seems probable, was unconscious of the full extent of his power, 
 which successive generations have more fully understood and appreciated. 
 
 14, CIRCUS, in 1774, was, for a brief period, the residence of the famous 
 LORD CLIVE. His visit was ostensibly for the use of the Bath Waters, but the 
 epileptic fits, induced by long exposure to an Indian clime, and by immense 
 mental strain, precluded the use of the Waters, the ostensible object of his visit. 
 
 15, CIRCUS, was the property and residence of JOHN, DUKE OF 
 
 BEDFORD. Junius said to him, in his letter, dated Sept. 19, 1769, that he was 
 " so little accustomed to receive any mark of respect or esteem from the public, 
 that if by accident a complimentary expression escaped him, the Duke might 
 regard it as an insult to his understanding.'' The Duke and Duchess previously 
 resided in Queen Square, and although the Duke appears to have been a man 
 
 1 " Soon after Gainsborough settled in London. Sir [oshua thought himself hound in civility to 
 pay him a visit. That painter, however, as our author told me, took not the least notice of him for several 
 years; but at length called upon him and requested him to sit for his picture. Sir Joshua con. plied, 
 and sat once, but being soon afterwards taken ill, lie was obliged to go to Hath for his health. t>n his 
 return to London, perfectly restored, he sent Gainsborough word that he was returned, to which 
 Gainsborough, who was extremely capricious, only replied that he was glad to hear that Sir Joshua 
 was well ; and he never afterwards desired Sir |oshua to sit, nor had he any other intercourse with him 
 till ;i short time before his (Gainsborough's) death, when he sent a request to see Sir |oshua, and 
 thanked him for the very liberal and favourable manner in winch he had always spoken ol his works." 
 — Beachys Literary Works oj Sir J. Reynolds. 
 
 •i One of Lady Huntingdon's " Students," and afterwards a minister in the ( 
 
 ouucction.
 
 94 Historic Houses in Bath and their Associations. 
 
 easily led away by party and by the more subtle influences of political friends, 
 there is nothing connected with the Duke's career in Bath to justify the extremely 
 harsh judgment of Junius. The Duke and Duchess were the subjects of especial 
 attention of Lady Huntingdon, and were regarded as converts to the faith. 
 Junius understood little, and cared less, about the revivalists or the revival 
 movement in Bath, but be this as it may, he never ceased to regard the Duke as 
 a " vessel of wrath." It was during the period when the Duke resided in Queen 
 Square, that the Princess Amelia visited him. The Duchess was one of The 
 Duchesses} 
 
 4, EDGAR BUILDINGS.-In this house lived the COUNTESS OF 
 HUNTINGDON ; Lady Selina Shirley, second daughter of Washington, second 
 Earl Ferrers. She was cousin to Laurence, the fourth Earl Ferrers, 2 who 
 succeeded his uncle, Henry, the third Earl, a younger brother of. Lady Selina's 
 father, who had no male issue. Lady Selina married, on the 3rd of June, 
 1728, Theophilus, Earl of Huntingdon. There were two great "Revivals" in 
 Bath during the eighteenth century, both fraught with the elements of excite- 
 ment, but eminently antagonistic. The Countess of Huntingdon was the 
 central figure, the source of authority and power of the Religious Revival. 
 Beau Nash was the head of the other Revival ; he was the king, the autocrat, 
 the centre of authority, in the realms of fashion and gambling. To read the 
 history of these conflicting movements is rather a wearisome task. If a casual 
 reader were to take up " The Life and Times of Selina, "Countess of Hunting- 
 " don," he would at once come to the conclusion that he had opened a copy of 
 the Companion to the Peerage by mistake. He would scarcely expect to 
 read so much about illustrious descmt, high rank, brilliant positions, ancestral 
 grandeur, and a good deal more of that sort of locution, in connection with so 
 much lowly piety and disregard of worldly distinctions ; but so it is. The editor 
 of the book, a cadet of the noble families of Shirley and Hastings, is deeply 
 impressed with the fact that in proportion to his 3 kinswoman's superior rank, so 
 was her piety and godliness above that of ordinary plebian Christians. 
 
 It would be impossible to give, in the limited space at our command, 
 
 1 The Duke died in 1771. The spirit shown by the Duke during his last illness is very remark- 
 able, notwithstanding the langour and depression attendant on the complaint (paralysis) under which 
 he laboured, he neglected no part of his business, either public or private. — Horace Walpole. The 
 Duke was the father of the Duchess of Marlborough, wife of George, third Duke of Marlborough. 
 
 2 This was the Earl Ferrers, who was executed for the murder of his steward, Johnson. 
 
 3 We assume the writer to be, or to have been, a man. though we are obliged to admit our ignorance 
 
 of the fact.
 
 Historic Houses in Bath and their Associations. 95 
 
 more than a very brief account of the Religious Revival, of which Lady Hunting- 
 don was the director, and of which Bath was the head-quarters. The movement is 
 almost forgotten in Bath, and few traditions have survived the period. Lady 
 Huntingdon's memory, and the cause to which she devoted her life and energies, 
 have suffered from the ill-written " Life and Times of Lady Huntingdon," by a 
 " Member of the Houses of Shirley and Hastings." Amidst all the exaggeration 
 and the extravagant nonsense with which the book abounds, it is difficult to 
 arrive at a clear and dispassionate judgment, either upon the Countess herself, or 
 the cause with which her name is identified. The following extract will suffice 
 as a key to the whole tenor and spirit which pervade the book throughout : — 
 " Wherever she was called by the providence of God, she was acknowledged as 
 " ' a burning and shining light.' The common tights of Christians were eclipsed 
 " before her, and even her spiritual friends could never stand in her presence, without 
 " being overwhelmed with a consciousness of their oiun unprofitableness." Mr. 
 Toplady " considered her Ladyship the most precious saint of God he ever knew /" 
 
 That Lady Huntingdon was a woman of energy, fervid spirit, and great 
 piety, admits of no doubt, but when such claims are put forward as those we have 
 quoted, they can only be regarded as presumptuous hyperbole, bordering upon 
 irreverence. There was one peculiarity about this Bath Revival, and that is the 
 fact that, so far as its religious operations were concerned, they were almost 
 — nay, in their earlier stage, exclusively — confined to the upper classes. 
 Around Lady Huntingdon, as the centre of the system, revolved a number 
 of inferior " burning and shining lights." It does not appear from this 
 " Life and Times " that there were any regular ministrations to the poor, and this 
 may account for the fact that we do not find any instances recorded in Bath of 
 those painful and distressing physical manifestations, which sometimes resulted 
 from Wesley's and Whitefield's preaching elsewhere. The aristocratic converts 
 were not apparently susceptible of the same influences and the same convulsive 
 phenomena as the less refined and uneducated classes. If the Earl of Bath 
 (Pulteney), who is claimed as a convert by the author of " The Life and Times," 
 had fallen down in a convulsive fit and bitten the dust, it would have been a 
 striking testimony to the supernatural character of such manifestations. 
 
 The Earl did not object to being regarded as one of the elect ; it saved 
 him no little trouble, but neither in his public nor private life did he manifest any 
 of the fruits of the spirit. 
 
 " Esse bonum facile est, ubi quod vatel esse remotum est." 
 
 The Earl, moreover, was a type of many others, who, from curiosity, or from a
 
 96 Historic Houses in Bath and their Associations, 
 
 real interest in listening to the eloquence of Whitefield, attended the services in 
 the private room of Lady Huntingdon. The Earl of Chesterfield was, in 
 common with many others of the nobility, a frequent attendant at these private 
 services, and the difference — according to the author of the " Life and Times " — 
 between the two Earls, was that his lordship of Bath contributed to the funds, and 
 allowed his name to appear, and himself to be placed in the category of saints ; 
 whilst his lordship of Chesterfield contributed anonymously, and was accordingly 
 dubbed " an infidel," and relegated to the kingdom of Satan. The logic of the 
 writer, if sound, is inconvenient, because the young Earl of Huntingdon was a 
 prote'ge of Chesterfield's, and although a young man of ability, ambition, and 
 fairly good character, he did not share his mother's opinions, nor did he 
 promote her work of religious propaganda, and it must have disturbed the 
 Countess' happiness, despite her own creed, and the assurance of her own 
 acceptance with God, to believe that her son was no better than Lord 
 Chesterfield, and was destined to the same everlasting wrath. The Countess of 
 Huntingdon, shortly after marriage, was a frequent visitor to Bath. It was during 
 these visits that she gathered round her all those eminent persons who became 
 more or less her coadjutors in the work in which she was engaged. At first she 
 seems to have had no definite plan, and no distinct organization. Nor, indeed, 
 does she appear to have contemplated the establishment of a sect. The object 
 obviously was to arouse amongst her personal friends and patrician acquaintances 
 a deeper sense of religious responsibility, and a more earnest spirit of devotion. 
 For some years, it is evident that the services which she instituted were limited 
 to her own house, in London as well as Bath, and were conducted by Wesley, 
 Whitefield, Romaine, Hervey, and others, who were especially invited to do 
 so. In 1747 she emphatically declared that "she had impartially examined 
 " the controversy between the Dissenters and the Church of England, and 
 " thought it her duty to adhere to the latter." There can be no doubt that, so 
 far at least as Bath is concerned, that these chamber-services were confined 
 exclusively to persons of her own rank ; and there is no reason to find fault 
 with her on that account, as it is beyond all doubt that she often succeeded 
 in compelling her noble and aristocratic friends to listen to serious discourses, 
 who otherwise would have remained inaccessible to the ordinary ministrations of 
 the Church. 
 
 At this period — that is, from about 1734 until the close of Lady Hunting- 
 don's life — Bath, apart from the peculiar influence exercised by Nash upon that 
 " little kingdom " of which he was the acknowledged sovereign, was no exception
 
 Historic Houses in Bath and their Associations. 97 
 
 in its spiritual condition to the rest of the nation. But it is clear that whatever 
 might have been Lady Huntingdon's influence, and the effect of her own example 
 on the coteries of high-born dames whom she invited to hear her chosen 
 preachers in her drawing-rooms, they had no effect whatever upon the religious life 
 and condition of the people at large in Bath. Whitefield's ' preaching was 
 addressed chiefly to these limited select audiences. We read of none of those 
 impassioned sermons to great masses of people, which were addressed to 
 vast assemblages elsewhere, and therefore we hear of none of those exciting 
 exhibitions of religious ecstacy and fervour, which were regarded as the evi- 
 dences of supernatural conversion. The result of Whitefield's preaching to 
 the exalted ladies who were invited to Lady Huntingdon's house to hear him, 
 occasionally produced results less affecting, but yet not without their melancholy 
 aspects. 2 Lords Bolingbroke, Bath, Chesterfield, and other noblemen and great 
 ladies who came to Bath, including the Duchesses of Marlborough and Queens- 
 berry, and others, who attended the services, showed no external symptoms of 
 conversion. They paid hollow compliments to the preachers, but those who 
 were " infidels " remained " infidels " still, and those arrogant, self-willed 
 Duchesses remained so to the end of the chapter. Lady Huntingdon, no doubt, 
 was a woman of " no small mental powers, with a most ardent and somewhat 
 " imperious character " ; and though it is clear that the results of her efforts, 
 beyond her own immediate circle of friends, was almost inappreciable in this 
 city, yet it is equally clear that Bath was the head-quarters of the movement with 
 which her name is, and ever will be, associated. It was here where she conferred 
 with her ministers ; from hence she issued her mandates ; here she entertained 
 
 1 " So swells each wind-pipe ; ass intones to ass ; 
 " Harmonic twang ! of leather, horn, and brass. 
 "Such as from labouring lungs the enthusiast blows, 
 " High sound, attemper'd to the vocal nose ; 
 " Or such as bellow from the deep divine ; 
 " There Webster peal'd thy voice, and Whitefield thine." - DunciaJ. 
 
 2 The Duchess of Buckingham (wife of John Sheffield, Duke of Buckingham, whose first husband 
 was William I'hipps, F.sq., father of the first Lord Mulgrave) consented to hear Whitefield, and in a 
 letter to Lady Huntingdon, which, as Mr. Lecky says, is "amusingly characteristic both of the 
 " writer and of her time," she thus delivers herself: — " I thank your Ladyship for the information 
 " concerning the Methodist preachers. Their doctrines are most repulsive and strongly tinctured 
 " with impertinence and disrespect towards their superiors, in perpetually endeavouring to level all 
 " ranks and do away with all distinctions. It is monstrous to be told that you have a heart as sinful 
 "as the common wretches that crawl the earth. Tliis is highly offensive and insulting, and 1 cannot 
 "but wonder that your Ladyship should relish any sentiments so much at variance with high rank 
 " and good breeding." 
 
 The Countess of Suffolk, the mistress of George II., attended once, and was bitterly offended, 
 because Whitefield, who was ignorant of her presence, introduced a passage into his sermon winch 
 she construed as an attack upon herself. It was hardly fair, she thought, that her particular foible 
 should be exposed.
 
 98 Historic Houses in Bath ami their Associations. 
 
 her intimate friends, whose names are more or less identified with her own in the 
 work of proselytism. In Bath were written those letters to her ministers and 
 friends, which are such a curious admixture of humility and aristocratic arrogance ; 
 such a wonderful combination of elements, showing a spirit of submissiveness with 
 an unconscious tone of command. Whitefield never forgot the difference in rank 
 between him and the lady he served ; he always addressed her in his letters as 
 " Honoured Madam," and a tone of great deference pervaded the letters of all 
 her correspondents. She was without doubt an eminent Christian and a great 
 patrician lady. Lady Huntingdon's creed was of the strictest Calvinistic type. 1 
 It was a creed admitting of no sort of doubt, and was not to be questioned. Lady 
 Huntingdon felt no doubt on this point, why should anybody else ? The doctrine 
 of Justification by Faith alone was to her as clear as — nay, it was the Revelation. 
 Sir R. Steele's dictum as to the difference between the Romish Church and the 
 Anglican Church of his day, applies to the system Lady Huntingdon espoused, 
 namely, that " the Romish Church claimed to be infallible, and the Anglican was 
 always right." No infalliblist had less doubt about his Church than Lady 
 Huntingdon about her Creed. It was on this matter of creed that John Wesley 
 formally separated from Whitefield, and it was on the subject of this same revolting 
 creed, involving a difference of opinion but not of practice, that Toplady forgot 
 himself as a gentleman and a Christian, and abused John Wesley with all the vehe- 
 mence of bitter and unsaintly acrimony. Lady Huntingdon and her friends affected, 
 and no doubt sincerely, a great regard for Christian liberty, but they practically 
 denied it. The faintest resistance to their commands was a proof of fatal error, 
 and met with immediate punishment. All amusements and recreation were 
 
 1 Anstey, of course, would find matter for his satirical pen in the Religious Revival in Bath. 
 *' I am very sorry to find at the City of Rath, 
 " Many folks are uneasy concerning their faith ; 
 " Nicodemus, the preacher, strives all he can do 
 " To quiet the conscience of good sister Prue. 
 " But Tabby from scruples of mind is released, 
 " Since she met with a learned Moravian priest ; 
 ' ' Who says, There is neither transgression nor sin ; 
 " A doctrine that brings many customers in. 
 " She thinks this the prettiest ode upon earth. 
 " Which he made on his infant that dy'd in its birth." 
 
 "ODE.* 
 " Chicken blessed 
 " And caressed, 
 " Little bee on Jesus' breast ; 
 " From the hurry 
 "And the flurry, 
 " Of the earth thou'rt now at rest. 
 " * Tho learned Moravian has pirated this Ode from Count Zinzendorfs Honk of Hymns. Vide Hymn 33." 
 Zinzendorf was a Mend of Lady Huntingdon's, but she subsequently quarrelled with him. Anstey rather confounds 
 Lady Huntingdon's Connection with the .Vlorav ians,.with whom at first she affected much sympathy.
 
 Historic Houses in Bath and their Associations. 99 
 
 proscribed. As to literature, it was repressed amongst the faithful with relentless 
 severity, no matter how pure, how moral, how elevating, as being antagonistic to 
 spiritual progress and true piety. The author of the " Life and Times " sums it 
 up thus, speaking of the writers of the " Augustan Age " of Queen Anne : — 
 " These writers obtained great influence over the nation, and whatever good they 
 "effected by giving currency to thought, they directed it in channels leading from 
 " evangelical piety to sentiment, ethics, and taste, or to physical knowledge. 
 " The waters were indeed clean and beautiful, but they were unhealthy, and, in 
 " some respects, the opposite of the Prophetic stream of which it is predicated — 
 " ' Everything shall live whither the river cometh.' The most chaste and moral 
 "of these popular works, though recognizing Christianity, are unvivified by its 
 " spirit ; and while they advocate the claims of virtue, found not their argument 
 " on the principles of the Gospel, and teach, often not otherwise than as a 
 " heathen would have taught, sound duties and graces rather than the ' obedience 
 " ' of faith.' The founder of Methodism was not far from the truth when he 
 " said, ' That few things were more unfriendly to the progress of the Gospel, than 
 " 'the national fondness for Addison's Spectator?" Could stupidity and fanaticism 
 go further than this? It was written as late as 1840, and it shows that the 
 writer, and those who sympathise with him, cannot discern the difference between 
 things totally distinct in themselves. The human intellect needs culture, and 
 variety of intellectual food, even as the body needs physical nurture by a variety 
 of God's good gifts to His creatures. It would be as reasonable to assert that 
 man must not eat, as that he should not employ his mental faculties on those 
 pursuits and objects for which his capacity is adapted. We have experienced, as 
 Sydney Smith says, " some of the worst evils of fanaticism two centuries ago, and 
 " it is one of those evils from which society is never wholly exempt ; but which 
 "bursts out at different periods The last eruption destroyed both Church 
 "and Throne with its tremendous force. Though irresistible, it was short — 
 " enthusiasm spent its force — the usual reaction took place, and England was 
 " deluged with ribaldry and indecency, because it had been worried with fanatical 
 " restrictions." 
 
 If the contending forces in Bath during the past century had been 
 differently constituted ; that is, if Nash's ' vicious rule had been met by a more 
 
 1 "When Mr. John Wesley was preaching at Bath, some time twfore the coming of Charles, 
 " Beau Nash entered the room, and approaching the preacher, demanded by what authority he was 
 "acting? Mr. Wesley answered, ' By that of Jesus Christ, conveyed to me by the present Arch I ishop 
 ''of Canterbury, when he laid his hands upon me and said Take thou authority to preach the Gospel /' 
 " Nash then affirmed that he was acting contrary to law. ' Besides (said he) your preaching Irightens 
 " people out of their wits.' ' Sir (replied Mr. Wesley) did you ever hear me preach ? ' ' No,' said the
 
 ioo Historic Houses in Bath and their Associations. 
 
 rational, manly, healthy moral system, it would have had less chance of resisting 
 it. The fanatical denunciations which treated all amusements as wicked, and 
 put all recreations under the one category of " frivolous and sinful," was regarded 
 as pure fanaticism, and made no impression upon the habits and vices of the age. 
 We have lived through two or three revivals within the last 30 years, but it is reserved 
 to us in this penultimate decade of the nineteenth century to witness the worst and 
 most contemptible manifestation of that fanaticism (combined with hypocrisy) of 
 which we are speaking. It is something shocking to see the middling and lower 
 classes giving up the sober and rational worship in their respective Churches and 
 Chapels, to run after a set of men and women who have no more claim to 
 superior sanctity, than the tub thumpers and fanatics of other days. This thing 
 will have its day ; but if through any misfortune the system should become 
 permanent, we shall then have realized to some extent what Sydney Smith, in 
 1808, regarded as not impossible : — "If such, in future, should be the situation 
 " of this country, it is impossible to say what political animosities may not be 
 " engrafted upon this dangerous division of mankind into the godly and the 
 " ungodly. At all events, we are quite sure that happiness will be destroyed, 
 " reason degraded, sound religion banished from the world ; and that when 
 " fanaticism becomes too foolish and too prurient to be endured, it will be suc- 
 ceeded by a long period of the grossest immorality, atheism, and debauchery." 
 
 The abiding influences of Lady Huntingdon's religious operations 
 are comparatively insignificant. The communities called after her name are few 
 in number, and as a sect numbering few in the aggregate. But it is only just to 
 say that, like the noble founder, those who are her followers, and who justly 
 revere her name and memory, show in their practice and everyday lives that they 
 are better than their creed, in the ever-abounding evidence they give of good works. 
 Lady Huntingdon, in her mode of conducting business, was impulsive, uncertain, 
 
 " Master of the Ceremonies, ' How then can you judge of what you never heard ?' 'By common re- 
 port,' replied Nash. 'Sir,' said Mr. Wesley, 'is not your name N'ash ? I dare not judge of you by 
 "common report.' Nash, finding himself a very different person in the meeting-house from what he 
 "was in the pump-room, thought it best to withdraw. 
 
 " Nash sometimes conversed with Lady Huntingdon on religious subjects, and was once 
 " prevailed on to hear Mr. Whitefield at her house. Beau Nash was congratulated on his conversion 
 " by his gay associates, who failed not to rally him on his turning Methodist. Verses were written 
 "on her Ladyship and Mr. Nash, which were fastened to the walls of the pump-room and the 
 "assembly-room; and printed notices were circulated in every direction, one of which was shown 
 "to the writer many years ago by Dr. Ilaweis, stating that ' the Countess of Huntingdon, attended 
 " ' by some saintly sister, purposed preaching at the pump-room the following morning, and that 
 " ' Mr. Nash, henceforth to be known as the Rev. Richard Nash,' was expected to preach in the 
 "evening at the assembly-room. It was hoped that the audience would be numerous, as a collection 
 " was intended for the late Master of Ceremonies, who was retiring from office. This profane raillery 
 " never discomposed the Countess, but gave great offence to Mr. Nash ; and no inducement could ever 
 "after prevail upon him to go to Lady Huntingdon's house." — Life and Times, vol. i, /. 445.
 
 Historic Houses in Bath and their Associations. 101 
 
 and consequently unsuccessful. She possessed none of the forethought of 
 Wesley, and she lacked, or failed to avail herself of, that common-sense wisdom 
 which distinguished him in the organization of his great work, and hence she 
 failed, and her influence scarcely survived her own day. Lady Huntingdon, 
 like Wesley, intended her labours to be in connection with, and an auxiliary to, 
 the Church ; the result, as in his case, was the establishment of a sect. Wesley's 
 success, so far as he succeeded in doing what he never intended to do, no doubt 
 was owing to his more flexible and workable organization, and the less cold and re- 
 pelling doctrines which he taught. Wesley had little private fortune, and the wealth 
 he devoted to the cause which he directed came from his faithful band of followers. 
 After the Earl of Huntingdon's death, in 1746, 1 the Countess devoted her whole 
 fortune to the organization of the Calvinistic section of the Methodists. The 
 College of Trevecca she founded in 1768, and it sent forth missionaries to every 
 part of the United Kingdom. 
 
 It was in the year 1765 that Lady Huntingdon purchased the ground in 
 the Vineyards, and built the house and the Chapel in which Romaine (who 
 ultimately seceded in deference to the wishes of his Bishop) and Whitefield were 
 the chaplains in chief. Romaine steadily " refused to be a field-preacher." The 
 Chapel was opened on the 6th of October, 1765, and from this time until Lady 
 Huntingdon's death in 1791, it was " supplied " by the most eminent men in the 
 " Connection." Madan, Fletcher, Whitefield, Wesley, Shirley, Venn, and other 
 clergymen of the Established Church preached in it. Occasionally " itinerant 
 " labourers " were invited to preach, and to be the " bearers of grace," and 
 amongst others one Mr. Relly, from whose discourses and letters extracts are 
 given in " The Life and Times," but whether as examples of eloquence, or proofs 
 of the possession of unusual unction, does not appear. Mr. Relly, in reference 
 
 1 The Earl was succeeded by his only surviving son, Francis, to whom reference has already 
 been made. Of him Horace Walpole writes bitterly — " He was a man too much vaunted for talents 
 " which he had proved he did not possess, and destitute of that wealth and interest which so often 
 " supply the want of talents. By affecting personal attachment to the King, he had escaped in all the 
 " late changes ; though his post would often have accommodated the administration, but the vanity of 
 " his royal descent * having prompted him to ask the title of Duke of Clarence, and a refusal following, 
 " he had flattered himself with obtaining it, as so many other titles had been wrenched from the 
 " Crown by opposition. He absented himself on the first day of the session, and kept away his 
 '' relation, Earl Ferrers. The King, glad of an opportunity of getting rid of him, sent for the 
 '' golden key." 
 
 The Earl died during his mother's lifetime, in 1789, without issue, when the barony devolved 
 upon his only sister, Elizabeth, Countess of Mona, and on her death descended to her son, the 
 Marquis of Hastings, while the Earldom remained dormant. After 30 years it was successfully claimed 
 by Capt. Hans Francis Hastings, K.N'., who became eleventh Earl of Huntingdon (tin.- author of 
 " '1 he Life and Times " says he was the twelfth Earl). 
 
 • The Karl was the direct heir of <ieor(re, Duke of Clarence, wlios<> (laughter, Margaret, Countess of Salis- 
 bury, was mother of Henry l'ole, Lord Montacute, whose eldest daughter and heiress married an Karl of Huntingdon.
 
 102 Historic Houses in Bath and their Associations. 
 
 to Bristol, says, " There seems to be a shaking among the dry bones at Bristol ; 
 " I trust the scales will fall from their eyes shortly" The dry bones at Bristol had 
 eyes, it seems. He paid some visits to Bath also when "people of fashion heard '' 
 him ; " amongst them," he said, the " word seems to run and be glorified." But, 
 he adds with some inconsistency, "my greatest grief at present is to see the Church 
 " fallen from her first love, and iniquity running down our streets, and very few 
 " laying it to heart." Poor man ! did he want "people of fashion" to "lay iniquity 
 "to heart?" This is a specimen of the rubbish which the author of " The Life 
 " and Times " quotes as if it were a kind of inspiration, and if such extravagances 
 were permitted, it seems to have been one of the evils resulting from that 
 imperfect supervision which characterized the organization. It is clear that men 
 who might have been good carpenters or blacksmiths, if they had possessed in- 
 dustry, had only to assume superior sanctity, and they were at once dubbed 
 " Reverend," and allowed to pollute things sacred with irreverent balderdash. 
 
 In 1766, after the Chapel was built, the "itinerants" are, happily, little 
 seen and seldom heard. In the same year, Wesley being in Bristol, magnani- 
 mously l tendered his services to preach on each Sunday morning for a given 
 period. Lady Huntingdon accepted his offer, because, as she put it, " the 
 " morning was more suitable to her," the " great and the noble " whom she 
 invited being able to attend ; whilst the common people could partake later of 
 the " crumbs that fell from the rich man's table." On this occasion, the first 
 sermon preached by John Wesley, the Chapel was filled with distinguished 
 members of the nobility. Amongst them was Horace Walpole, who describes 
 the service and Wesley as follows : — 
 
 "They have (says he) boys and girls with charming voices that sing hymns in parts. The 
 "chapel is very neat, with true Gothic windows. I was glad to see that luxury is creeping in upon 
 "them before persecution. They have very neat mahogany stands for branches, and brackets of the 
 "same in taste. At the upper end is a broad hautpas oi four steps, advancing in the middle ; at each 
 "end of the broadest part are two eagles with red cushions for the parson and clerk. Behind them 
 "rise three more steps, in the midst of which is a third eagle for a pulpit. Scarlet arm chairs to all 
 " three. On either hand a balcony for elect ladies. The rest of the congregation sits on forms. Be- 
 " hind the pit, in a dark niche, is a plain table within rails ; so you see the throne is for the apostle. 
 " Wesley is a clean elderly man, fresh coloured, his hair smoothly combed, but with a little soup$on of 
 " curl at the ends. Wondrous clever, but as evidently an actor as Garrick. He spoke his sermon, 
 " but so fast, and with so little accent, that I am sure he has often uttered it, for it was like a lesson. 
 "There were parts and eloquence in it ; but towards the end he exalted his voice, and acted very 
 " vulgar enthusiasm." 
 
 • We say " magnanimously," inasmuch as Charles Wesley, who had previously tendered his 
 services, was refused the pulpit. Throughout this " Life and Times" we felt a loving sympathy with 
 Charles Wesley, who was one of the few who showed perfect self-respect, combined with the attributes 
 of a true Christian gentleman. The reason for rejecting Charles Wesley's assistance was purely be- 
 cause he would not teach the doctrine of Election.
 
 Historic Houses in Bath and their Associations. 103 
 
 This is cynical, but contains a good deal of truth. The shallowness, the 
 hollowness of a system which depended upon mere impulsive emotions, and 
 made its appeal exclusively to the nobles, as such, had no elements of vitality 
 in it 1 The personal influence of Lady Huntingdon was already beginning 
 to fail at this time, and before her death, twenty years later, her personal authority 
 had almost ceased. The scheme she formulated for the perpetuation of her 
 system, if so unsystematic an organisation could be called a system at all, was 
 resisted by Haweis, 2 her chaplain (who succeeded Whitefield and Townsend), and 
 when she died, the net result, so far as Bath was concerned, was one chapel, which 
 was not claimed as a gain by Nonconformists, and added nothing to the strength 
 of the Church. Whitefield's reputation gained nothing by his association with this 
 movement in Bath. It seems incongruous, and even humiliating, to find a man of 
 his earnestness and sincerity, complacently boasting of the numbers of "the great 
 and noble," because they were such, to whom he had administered the sacrament, 
 and to read of his submissive docility, we might say subserviency, to his patroness. 
 The Whitefield in Bath was not the Whitefield away from the influence of his 
 imperiously pious director, whose rank and that of her great circle of noble 
 friends seemed to overpower him. 
 
 1 There was a great deal connected with it that was not without its amusing side. Lady Betty 
 Cobbe and others were not above a joke, and they occasionally indulged in a little humour at the 
 expense of some benighted Church, or some dull Christian to whom Calvinism did not present a 
 Scriptural view of Christianity, and did not afford a very pleasant subject of contemplation, in the 
 absence of that calm assumption of being in the ranks of the Elect, which Lady Hetty always took 
 for granted. This view of the case, we are told, is presumptuous ; well, so it may be, but what 
 about the right of private judgment ? 
 
 Lady Betty Cobbe was a combination of Calvinistic piety and aristocratic waggery. She thought 
 evidently that, in order to attain her ends, a little pious fraud was justifiable. There was a snug little 
 corner in the chapel, curtained off to conceal the occupants, who, whether from shame or excessive 
 modesty, preferred not being seen in the chapel. This corner was called Nicodemus's Corner. The 
 author of The Life and Times says this corner was frequented by the Bishops. But Lady Betty only 
 claims to have smuggled one Bishop into it — Dr. Barnard, the Bishop of Derry, who had formerly 
 been Dean of Rochester, and it seems the poor old gentleman was in his second childhood. Lady 
 Betty was a sort of head fuglewoman — a busy, merry, witty lady, who thought the limitation of 
 God's mercies to a very select few the finest joke of the day. Lady Betty Cobbe was cousin to Lady 
 Huntingdon, and her husband was a son of Dr. Charles Cobbe, Archbishop of Dublin. 
 
 2 Haweis* died at his house, in Beaufort Buildings, in 1820. There was a very singular man 
 during Haweis' connection with the Vineyards Chapel -a Rev. Dr. Sheppard, who lived in Chatham 
 Row. He had seceded from the Church of England, and preached occasionally in " Calvinistic 
 "pulpits." In " Bath Characters," he is described as Doctor Skipper, and the author puts into his 
 mouth some very characteristic sayings. "Dr. Drawcansir " (Dr. Daubeny), his antagonist, says to 
 him— " Sir, you're (racked." "So much the better, Mr. l'uff. cracks let in light, you know." He 
 said his own Calvinistic Church was sound, and to be preferred to the "worm-eaten establishment," 
 which " shuts the doors against all those who have not a bishop, as a master of the ceremonies, to 
 " introduce them.'' The dialogue indeed is the finest in this amusing satire (see "Bath Characters, 
 by Peter Paul Palette"). Sheppard was a most eccentric man. Some one sairl that his manner of 
 preaching resembled " a windmill in convulsions." He was short in stature, spare in person, and 
 dressed in the most fantastic style. He preached during I.ady Huntingdon's life, and occasionally for 
 many years after her death. He died in 1815. 
 
 • In " Bath Characters " lie In called Dr. Vineyards.
 
 104 Historic Houses in Bath and their Associations. 
 
 BECKFORD HOUSE, Lansdown Crescent, was the residence of 
 WILLIAM BECKFORD, Esq. William Beckford was the son of Alderman 
 Beckford. Some men gain immortality by one means and some by another. 
 Alderman Beckford insulted George III., served as Lord Mayor of London, was 
 a toady of Lord Chatham, possessed sacks full of money, prated in bad English 
 about liberty, denounced the tyranny of monarchs, but spared the tyranny of 
 the slave-owner and the dealers in human flesh. To insult the King was a 
 sure passport in Beckford's time to popular favour. Lord Albermarle, in his 
 " Memoirs of the Marquis of Rockingham," speaks thus of Beckford : — 
 
 " William Beckford, a wealthy West Indian planter, was a noisy, vulgar 
 " flatterer of Lord Chatham — and bombastic, as became the priest of such an 
 " idol. 1 The satellite was content with the lustre he derived from the orb round 
 " which he moved. To be the great man's mouth-piece eastward of Temple Bar, 
 " appears to have been the height of his ambition. Beckford spoke a strong 
 " cockney dialect, he had a great contempt for the rules of grammar, and was 
 "very fond of quoting Latin." 
 
 " Mr. Burke's mispronunciation of the word vcdigal" 2 writes Cowper to 
 Unwin, " brings to my remembrance a peculiar altercation that passed when I 
 " was in the gallery, between Mr. Rigby and Alderman Beckford. The latter was 
 " a very incorrect speaker, and the former, I imagine, not a very accurate scholar. 
 " He ventured however upon a quotation from Terence, and delivered it thus — Sine 
 " Scere et Baccho friget Venus. The Alderman interrupted him, was very severe 
 " upon his mistake, and restored Ceres to her place in the sentence. Mr. Rigby 
 "replied that he was obliged to his worthy friend for teaching him Lathi, and 
 " would take the first opportunity to return the favour by teaching him English ! " 3 
 
 " Under a semblance of good humour, Beckford concealed an overbearing 
 " and tyrannical disposition. Obsequious to his political chieftain, he was 
 " haughty and supercilious to everyone else. A spouter of liberty to the citizens 
 " of London, he proved a hard task-master to his ill-used slaves in Jamaica."* 
 
 These portraits of Alderman Beckford are drawn by his political friends. 
 His political opponents, perhaps, thought he was not worthy of their delineation. 
 
 i Walpole. 
 * Everyone remembers Mr. Burke's trip in the quantity of vectigal, but perhaps not so well 
 another offence against prosody on the same evening. In a previous Latin quotation he had said 
 nimirum. Lord North replied, that not to know the quantity of nimirum was very excusable, since 
 only one man understood the true quantity. 
 
 ''Septimius, Claudi, nimirum intelligit unus." 
 
 Hor., lib. »'., Ep. o, v. 1. 
 3 Cowper's Works, edited by Southey, vol. 3, p. 317. 
 4 Walpole's Memoirs of the Reign of George III.
 
 Historic Houses in Bath and their Associations. 105 
 
 He, being a popular politician, and affecting a warm sympathy with mobocracy 
 and noisy demagogues, prided himself upon his illustrious descent from the Saxon 
 Kings, and therefore claimed to be entitled to sepulture above ground. We do 
 not know whether this distinction was accorded to the Alderman, but it is 
 certain that his son's body lies above ground. 1 
 
 William Beckford, of Bath, resembled his father in nothing, except 
 in his irascible temper. The father liked and courted notoriety, even in 
 its vulgar and most repelling form. He boasted of his amours, and prided 
 himself upon his vices. The son was reserved, proud, haughty, and avoided 
 society. He obtruded neither his virtues nor his vices upon the world. If he 
 cared at all about public opinion, he was successful in concealing it ; and his love 
 of magnificence and pageantry — if he did love them — gratified no one but himself. 
 He hid himself from mankind, lived to himself and for himself, with the result 
 that his life was one of mystery, and he died unregretted — his death excited only 
 a short-lived curiosity — and added one more name to the list of selfish, departed 
 misanthropes. Yet, withal, it is just to accord to Mr. Beckford a wonderful 
 capacity for work, and an excellent knowledge of Bibliography. The sales of 
 his books, during 1882, indicate unrivalled judgment in the collection of works 
 of rarest merit. With all the aid he could have received from skilled and 
 ingenious booksellers, there remains the fact that the directing mind, the accurate 
 taste, and the fulness of knowledge which supervised and approved all, were his 
 own. Price, condition, " perfect " or " imperfect," were questions never left to 
 others; and the Hamilton Library was a stupendous monument to the industry 
 of this remarkable man. Since Lord Sunderland's Collection (dispersed about 
 the same time), the Beckford Collection is the most remarkable that has been 
 made, and especially if it be taken in conjunction with the Duke of Hamilton's, 
 which was made simultaneously, and of which, at the time of the sale, it formed a 
 part. It must be remembered, too, that the labours he bestowed upon his library 
 were small, when compared with the time he must have devoted to building 
 schemes, landscape gardening, bric-a-brac, art collecting, and other minor pursuits. 
 The great work of his life had spent itself before he made Bath his residence. The 
 choicest gems in literature and art were sent to Hamilton Palace before the sale 
 at Fonthill,* and the extent therefore of his collections were not, could not be, 
 
 1 Tunstall, in his Rambles, 1st edition, said the family claimed the privilege of being buried 
 above ground I 
 
 * The best account of Fonthill is by Britton. Of the contents, without rcferenco to tho 
 Library, which was transferred to Hamilton Palace, Huzlitt says in his sharp, cynical, but true 
 critical stylo : "Fonthill Abliey, after l>eing enveloped in impenetrable mystery for a length of 
 ''years, has boon unexpectedly thrown open to the vulgar gaze, and has Nisi none of its reputation
 
 106 Historic Houses in Bath and their Associations. 
 
 fully known until the Hamilton sales in 1882. The amusement of his later years 
 was to build the Tower on Lansdown, from which he could gaze upon the earlier 
 folly of his manhood ; ' and if that tower were a type of his career, so perhaps the 
 diminished grandeur of his later palace, when his fortune was impaired by 
 extravagance and depreciation in the value of Colonial property, might have 
 shown him that even in this world there is something more to live for than 
 selfish gratification and unmanly isolation. He had long ago perhaps discovered that 
 
 " Years steal 
 " Fire from the mind as vigour from the limb ; 
 " And life's«enchanted cup but sparkles near the brim." 
 
 The Tower Beckford built, in which to indulge his lonely fancy, and to meditate 
 upon the past, now seems to look down with melancholy stateliness upon his 
 
 " for magnificence — though, perhaps, its visionary glory, its classic renown, have vanished from the 
 "public mind for ever. It is, in a word, a desert of magnificence, a glittering waste of laborious 
 " idleness, a cathedral turned into a toy-shop, an immense Museum of all that is most curious and 
 " costly, and, at the same time, most worthless, in the productions of art and nature. Ships of 
 '' pearl and seas of amber are scarce a fable here— a nautilus's shell surmounted with a gilt triumph 
 "of Neptune — tables of agate, cabinets of ebony, and precious stones, painted windows 'shedding 
 " 'a gaudy, crimson light,' satin borders, marble floors, and lamps of solid gold — Chinese pagodas 
 " and Persian tapestry — all the splendour of Solomon's Temple is displayed to the view — in miniature 
 " whatever is far-fetched and dear-bought, rich in the materials, or rare and difficult in the work- 
 " manship — but scarce one genuine work of art, one solid proof of taste, one lofty relic of sentiment 
 " or imagination ! 
 
 " The difficult, the unattainable, the exclusive, are to be found here in profusion, in perfection; 
 " all else is wanting, or is brought in merely as a foil or as a stop-gap. In this respect the collection 
 "is as satisfactory as it is unique. The specimens exhibited are the best, the most highly finished, 
 " the most costly and curious, of that kind of ostentatious magnificence which is calculated to gratify 
 " the sense of property in the owner, and to excite the wondering curiosity of the stranger, who 
 " is permitted to see or (as a choice privilege and favour) even to touch baubles so dazzling and of 
 "such exquisite nicety of execution ; and which, if broken or defaced, it would be next to impos- 
 sible to replace. The same character extends to the pictures, which are mere furniture-pictures, 
 "remarkable chiefly for their antiquity or painful finishing, without beauty, without interest, and 
 " with about the same pretensions to attract the eye or delight the fancy as a well-polished mahogany 
 "table or a waxed oak floor. Not one great work by one great name, scarce one or two of the 
 " worst specimens of the first masters, Lionardo's Laughing Boy, or a copy from Raphael, or 
 " Correggio, as if to make the thing remote and finical — but heaps of the most elaborate pieces 
 " of the worst of the Dutch masters, Breughel's Sea-horses with coats of mother-of-pearl, and 
 " Rothenhamer's Elements turned into a Flower-piece. The Catalogue, in short, is guiltless of the 
 " names of any of those works of art 
 
 " Which like a trumpet make the spirits dance ; 
 "and is sacred to those which rank no higher than veneering, and where the painter is on a precise 
 " par with the carver and gilder. 
 
 " Mr. Beckford has undoubtedly shown himself an industrious bijoutier, a prodigious virtuoso, 
 "an accomplished patron of unproductive labour, an enthusiastic collector of expensive trifles — 
 "the only proof of taste (to our thinking) he has shown in this collection is his yett ing rid of it. 
 " What splendour, what grace, what grandeur might he substitute in lieu of it ! What a hand- 
 
 1 The Abbey of Fonthill, built by torchlight, and insecure from the first, passed into the posses- 
 sion of Col. Farquhar. Each morning as Beckford passed into the South Chamber of the Lansdown 
 Tower, he directed his telescope to the distant one at Fonthill, once his own. On the morning after 
 it fell it would have been curious to note the expression on (hat proud face, as he laid down the glass 
 which no longer brought within view of his usual observation the familiar object which had now 
 disappeared.
 
 Historic Houses in Bath and their Associations. 107 
 
 tomb. The pleasure-grounds so lovely, and yet so appropriate to the massive 
 temple within them, now contain the fitting " companions of his solitude." 
 
 The Fonthill collection, it must be mentioned, was the second, a former 
 having been disposed of in 1801, after which he went abroad. On his return he 
 built the Abbey, in which he made the collection we have referred to, the 
 sale of which took place in 1822, when he made Bath his residence, in 
 Lansdown Crescent. Beckford died in 1844. His body at first rested 
 in the Abbey Cemetery, but in 1847 it was transferred to the grounds sur- 
 
 " writing might be spread out upon the walls ! What a spirit of poetry and philosophy might 
 " breathe there ! What a solemn gloom, what gay vistas of fancy, like chequered light and shade, 
 " might genius, guided by art, shed around ! The author of Vathek is a scholar ; the proprietor of 
 " Fonthill has travelled abroad, and has seen all the finest remains of antiquity and boasted speci- 
 " mens of modern art. Why not lay his hands on some of these ? He had power to carry them 
 " away. One might have expected to see, at least, a few fine old pictures, marble copies of the 
 " celebrated statues, the Apollo, the Venus, the Dying Gladiator, the Antinous, antique vases with 
 " their elegant sculptures, or casts from them, coins, medals, bas-reliefs, something connected with 
 " the beautiful forms of external nature, or with what is great in the mind or memorable in the 
 "history of man, — Egyptian hieroglyphics, or Chaldee manuscripts on paper made of the reeds of 
 " the Nile, or mummies from the Pyramids ! Not so ; not a trace lor scarcely so) of any of these ; — 
 " as little as may be of what is classical or imposing to the imagination from association or well- 
 -founded prejudice ; hardly any article of any consequence that does not seem to be labelled to the 
 "following effect — This is mine, and there is no one else in the whole world in whom it can inspire the 
 " least interest, or any feeling beyond a momentary surprise ! To show another your poverty is an act 
 "in itself ungracious, or null and void. It excites no pleasure from sympathy. Everyone must 
 "have remarked the difference in his feelings on entering a venerable old cathedral, for instance, 
 " and a modern-built private mansion. The one seems to fill the mind and expand the form, while 
 " the other only produces a sense of listless vacuity, and disposes us to shrink into our own littleness. 
 
 " If it were an apprehension of an invidious comparison between the proprietor and the 
 " author of any signal work of genius, which the former did not covet, one would think he must be 
 "at least equally mortified at sinking to a level in taste and pursuits with the maker of a Dutch toy. 
 " Mr. Beckford, however, has always had the credit of the highest taste in- works of art as well as in 
 "(•//'(. As the showman in Goldsmith's comedy declares that 'his bear dances to none but the 
 " genteelest of tunes — 'Water parted from the Sea, The Minuet in Ariadne ;' * — so it was supposed 
 " that this celebrated collector's money went for none but the finest Claudes and the choicest speci- 
 " mens of some rare Italian master. The two Claudes are gone. It is as well — they must have felt 
 "a little out of their place here- they are kept in countenance, where they are, by the very best 
 " company. 
 
 " We once happened to have the pleasure of seeing Mr. Beckford in the Great Gallery of the 
 "Louvre — he was very plainly dressed in a loose great coat, and looked somewhat pale and thin — 
 " but what brought the circumstance to our minds was that we were told on this occasion one of 
 "those thumping matter-of-fact lies which are pretty common to other Frenchmen besides Gascons, 
 " viz., That he luul offered the First Consul no less a sun than tiro h undred- thousand guineas for the purchase 
 "of the St. Peter Martyr. Would that he had ! and that Napoleon had taken him at his word !— which 
 " we think not unlikely. With two hundred thousand guineas he might have taken some almost 
 " impregnable fortress. ' Magdeburg,' said Buonaparte, 'is worth a hundred queens : ' and he would 
 " have thought such another stronghold worth at least one Saint. 
 
 "The painted windows in the centre of the Abbey have a surprising effect -the form of the 
 "building (which was raised by torch-light) is fantastical, to say the least — and the grounds, which 
 "are extensive and fine from situation, are laid out with the hand of a master. A quantity of coot, 
 "teal, and wild fowl sport in a crystal stream that winds along the park; and their dark brown 
 "coats, seen in the green shadows of the water, have a most picturesque effect. Upon the whole, if 
 "we were not much pleased by our excursion to Fonthill, we were very little disappointed ; and the 
 " place altogether is consistent and characteristic." 
 
 • Thev, and otlier finer things, and the hest portion of the Library, were sent to Hamilton Palace, and sold 
 with the Collection In \H&2.
 
 108 Historic Houses in Bath and their Associations. 
 
 rounding the Tower, which had then become the property of the Rector of Walcot 
 in trust for the parish, and had been converted into a cemetery. The property 
 having devolved upon his elder daughter, the Duchess of Hamilton, was sold by 
 her grace to a publican, who proposed to make the Tower a beer-house, and the 
 grounds public pleasure-gardens. The duchess, on a representation of the facts 
 being made to her, re-purchased the property, and invested it in the Rector of 
 Walcot for the time being, for the purpose described. On the tablet of Beckford's 
 tomb is inscribed — 
 
 WILLIAM BECKFORD, ESQ., 
 
 Late of Fonthill, Wilts, 
 
 Died 2nd May, 1844, 
 
 Aged 84. 
 
 " Eternal Power ! 
 
 "Grant me, through obvious clouds, one transient gleam " 
 " Of Thy bright essence in my dying hour ! " 
 
 Beckford was the author of " Biographical Memoirs of extraordinary Painters," ^80, and 
 "An Arabian Tale (Vathek)," 1 from an unpublished MS., with Notes critical and explanatory (by Mr. 
 Henley), 1786. In his 80th year, he wrote "Italy, with Sketches of Spain and Portugal, and 
 Recollections of Alcobaca and Batalha," 2 vols., 1835. 
 
 1, LANSDOWN CRESCENT. JAMES HEYWOOD MARKLAND, F.R.S., 
 
 D.C.L. — From 1839 to 1864, the name of this estimable gentleman was asso- 
 ciated with the city of his adoption. Mr. Markland was formerly a member of 
 an eminent firm of solicitors in London. In 1821 he married Charlotte, sister 
 of Sir Francis Freeling, Bart, by whom he had one daughter, who in 1853 
 married the Rev. Charles H. Conybeare, Rector of Itchen Stoke. Mr. 
 Markland died in 1864, and -Mrs. Markland in 1867. His residence was fre- 
 quently designated " the Bishops' headquarters," because few came to Bath, 
 either for business or rest, to whom he did not extend his hospitality, colonial 
 bishops especially. Indeed, he seems to have had a very special love for 
 bishops. No doubt Mr. Markland gave the preference to bishops with 
 " Anglican " leanings, but an- episcopal smile of any kind was irresistible. Well 
 indeed that it was so, for in this great city, forming a part of the united See of 
 Bath and Wells, there was, there is, no church dignitary to offer an occasional 
 reception to an episcopal chief. So long as Mr. Markland lived, the public 
 mind was never uneasy as to the fate of any ill-starred bishop or lesser dignitary 
 
 1 "There thou, too, Vathek ! England's wealthiest son, 
 " Once form'd thy paradise, as not aware 
 " When wanton Wealth her mightiest deeds.hath done, 
 " Meek Peace voluptuous lures was ever wont to shun." 
 
 Childe Harold.
 
 Historic Houses in Bath and their Associations. 109 
 
 who, by stress of circumstances, was obliged to put into the ecclesiastical port of 
 Bath. The odour of sanctity clung to No. r, Lansdovvn Crescent with tenacity. 
 Mr. Markland's hospitality was not confined to bishops, deans, and dis- 
 tinguished clerics. The young man preparing himself for the Church Mission 
 work, or any special field of an exceptionally arduous nature, found in Mr. 
 Markland a kind and encouraging friend and a most judicious adviser. His 
 fine library was the delight of his bookish visitors, especially as he invariably 
 left the key in each case, and made the room the most luxurious and attractive 
 in his house. It must not be supposed that Mr. Markland limited his society to 
 bishops, priests, and deacons ; certainly not. He mixed freely with men of all shades 
 of opinion, and though he seldom, if ever, came into collision with any, it was 
 because he said very clearly by his manner that he claimed the right to hold his 
 own opinions, and he distinctly disclaimed the right to interfere with others. So 
 far as his limited fortune enabled him, he supported the institutions of the city '} 
 he promoted and kept alive its intellectual life by his own example, and by asso- 
 ciating freely and unreservedly with his contemporaries for that object. He 
 was not a speaker, and, we take leave to say, not a correct, much less an able, 
 writer. In the works he published, "Essay on the Reverence due to Holy Places" 
 " Remarks on English Churches and on Sepulchral Memorials," he received 
 important assistance from others ; but in all things he was judicious, and, what is 
 more, he was moderate, simple, and earnestly sincere. He edited an edition of 
 Bishop Ken's Prayers for those, who came to take the Bath Waters — a most 
 useful manual, and he lent himself on all occasions with a heartiness and a 
 cheerful willingness, which enabled him to do more good than many others who 
 far excelled him in ability, and he has left a name which will long be held in 
 honoured remembrance as one of the many " worthies " of whom Bath can boast. 
 
 HARTLEY HOUSE, Belvedere.— Tins house, now in the possession of 
 
 1 It must be borne in mind that, if Mr. Markland's means did not enable him to gratify his 
 disposition in promoting either local charity or those Church institutions with which he so strongly 
 sympathised, so largely as he otherwise would have done, the measure of his power in the cause of 
 Christian philanthropy and Church mission work, at home and abroad, was largely augmented by the 
 munificence of others. We are about to make no indiscreet revelations. The fact we are about to 
 state is, if a secret at all, one of those secrets which is known to many, and openly spoken about. A 
 sum of £14,000 was placed at the disposal of Mr. Markland shortly after he settled in this citv, to be 
 used by him generally in the support of such Church purposes as he in his judgment might select. 
 The ladies by whi.se liberality the institutions to which we have referred benefited were the three MISS 
 MITFORDS, of Somerset Place. They were long inhabitants of this city, and although in the matter 
 of this large sum they constituted Mr. Markland the almoner of their bounty, it in no respect inter- 
 fered with their generous regard for every case of distress, public or private, and for the larger claims 
 of our hospitals and public institutions. Those who knew them in private life admired the simple 
 bearing of these three well-bred ladies — the most unselfish, cheerful, and devoted of Christians. They 
 lived for others, and as Cod had bestowed abundantly they grudged nothing in His service. 
 
 MRS. C. RAMSDEN, also through Mr. Markland, founded the Missionary Sermons at Oxford 
 and Cambridge.
 
 no Historic Houses in Bath and their Associations. 
 
 Mr. Birth, a builder, was for many years the residence of DAVID HARTLEY. 
 Mr. Monkland, in his Literature and Literati of Bath, says of him, he was "born 
 "in 1705, was not only a physician, but a metaphysician, and was held in high 
 " esteem as a philosophical writer ; he was the author of an excellent and 
 " much admired work, entitled ' Observations on Man.' " He built the house 
 wherein he resided in Belvedere, and there he died (1757). " He had become 
 " so enamoured of a nostrum, composed of soap and lime water, for dysuria 
 " calculosa, with which complaint he himself was afflicted, that it is said he 
 " swallowed no less than 200 lbs. weight of soap ! But this, alas ! by no means 
 " proved the virtue of the specific, for which he had obtained the parliamentary 
 "grant of ^5000, for the female empiric Mrs. Stephens 11 since he at length fell 
 " a sacrifice to the disease." 
 
 " He was succeeded by his son, who became M.P. for Hull, and was 
 " remarkable for his strenuous opposition to the American War, and also as being 
 " one of the early promoters of the abolition of the slave trade." Hartley was a 
 skilled financier, and a man who for his integrity and benevolence was highly 
 esteemed, but as a speaker was dull and prosy. He was greatly opposed to the 
 American War, and consequently to the policy and administration of Grenville ; 
 and in 1764 he wrote a celebrated pamphlet, entitled "The Budget," exposing 
 the blunders and fallacies of Grenville's budget. In a note to Walpole's " Memoirs 
 of the Reign of George III.," vol. 2, p. 7, the editor, Sir Denis Le Marchant, gives 
 an interesting note in reference to this pamphlet, which we append : — 
 
 " The title is ' The Budget ; inscribed to the man who thinks himself a minister. 
 " 'Emendare tuos quamvis Faustine libellos 
 " ' Non multa? poterunt, mea litura prodest.' " 
 (Either the author or the printer has made an error in this line. We think it should be — 
 " Non multse poterunt, una litura potest.") 
 " It is a quarto of only twenty -two pages, slovenly written, and with little vivacity of expression. 
 
 " Mr. Hartley was a frequent writer of pamphlets on the side of the Opposition, chiefly on 
 " the Revenue. He was attached both to Lord Rockingham and Mr. Pitt, and was the son of a 
 " physician (who was also the most eminent metaphysician of his day). Mr. Hartley had the 
 "honour of negotiating and signing the preliminaries of Peace with America in 1781, and of 
 " moving the first resolution in the House of Commons against the Slave Trade. He was much 
 " respected by all parties, but his speeches seldom found a willing audience. Tickell has parodied 
 " him with the most ludicrous effect in the 'Anticipation ; ' and he is thus described by another 
 " co-temporary — 
 
 " ' Peace to the rest, for Faction now, 
 " 'To shield her sons with poppied brow, 
 " ' Bids Hartley stand before me. 
 " ' Goddess, the potent charm I own ; 
 " ' My breath is lost, my voice has flown, 
 " ' And dulness creeps all o'er me.' 
 
 New Foundling Hospital for Wit.
 
 Historic Houses in Bath and their Associations. in 
 
 " H« was a Fellow of Merton College, Oxford, until his death in 1813 at Bath, at a very advanced 
 "age. Flattering obituaries appea/ of him in the Annual Register and the Gentleman's Magazine of 
 " that year. A clergyman of his College, now deceased, described him to a friend of the Editor 
 "as 'an honest, high-principled man, but a dull talker, and a prosy speaker.' " 
 
 Hartley was eccentric in manner and dress. 1 In days when men wore 
 cravats up to the crowns of their heads, as stiff as hair linings could make them, 
 he donned a loose, large turn-down collar, fastened by a narrow black ribbon. 
 
 At No. 6, EDGAR BUILDINGS, lived William Hoare, R.A., who was 
 
 born in 1707, and at an early age, shewing great taste for the arts, was sent to 
 Italy, where he studied for some years, first under Grisoni, and then under 
 Francesco Imperiale. On his return to England, he settled in this city, where he 
 died in 1792. Soon after the establishment of the Royal Academy, he was 
 chosen one of its members. In the board-room of the Water Hospital is one 
 of his pictures; it represents the first physician of the Hospital (Dr. Oliver), 
 attended by the house apothecary (Mr. Pearce), consulting on the cases of three 
 patients, who may be considered as personifying the maladies for the relief of 
 which this noble institution is especially intended. In this board-room are other 
 creations of Hoare 's pencil, as also his own portrait, in crayons. His altar- 
 pieces were in much repute ; for that at the Octagon Chapel, " The lame man 
 "healed at the pool of Bethesda," he received ,£100, and was presented with a 
 pew in the chapel. 
 
 His eldest son, Prince Hoare, was born in Bath, 1755 ; though best 
 known as a dramatist, he was educated as a painter, and was a pupil of Raphael 
 Mengs ; he studied some time in Rome, and also visited other cities of Italy ; * 
 but just as he was rising into eminence his health failed, and he was obliged to 
 relinquish the palette. He then gave his mind and his genius to authorship, 
 wrote several works on the fine arts, and also a life of Granville Sharp; but he 
 was more particularly distinguished as a dramatic writer. Some of his produc- 
 tions are still " stock pieces ; " among them " The Haunted Tower," for which 
 
 1 The Rev. Richard Warner, who knew him well, writes :— " David Hartley was singular in his 
 " dress and simple in his manners, and (perhaps) rather affected the quaint apparel of the puritans ; 
 "he never wore stockings!" * * * "One day after dinner" (in the fellows' room of Merton 
 College, Oxford, of which he was the second oldest fellow), " allusion was made to Hartley's stocking- 
 " less legs, and denounced as a dirty practice. ' 1 beg your pardon,' said Hartley, and throwing off 
 " his shoe, and spreading his naked limb upon the table, ' There, gentlemen, you see that there is 
 " not a speck of dust upon my foot.' " 
 
 * His autograph portrait hangs in the hall of painters in the Uffizii Palace, in Florence, and is 
 inscribed " Princes Hoare." An anecdote is told of him in Murray, that on his first arrival at Florence 
 he received an unexpected honour. Having written his name in the hotel book Prince Hoare, he was 
 immediately saluted as " II Principe Hoare,'' and charged accordingly !
 
 Historic Houses in Bath and their Associations. 
 
 Stephano Storace composed the music ; and those amusing farces, " My Grand- 
 mother," " The Prize," etc., never forgetting that charming little musical piece, 
 " No Song, No Supper," which must ever be in requisition when among the 
 successive ornaments of the stage are to be found the whims of a Banister, the 
 humour of a Suet, or the sweet warbling of a Storace. 
 
 After the death of Mr. Boswell, in 1799, Prince Hoare was elected Secre- 
 tary for Foreign Correspondence to the Royal Academy. He died in 1835. 
 
 2, ALFRED STREET was the home of SIR THOMAS LAWRENCE'S 
 
 boyhood. Thomas Lawrence, the father of our subject, was formerly Supervisor 
 of Excise in Bristol, which office he resigned in June, 1769 , and took the White 
 Lion Inn. Thomas, his second son, was born in the parish of St. Philip, on the 
 4th of May previously. In 1772, the father left the White Lion, and took The Bear, 
 at Devizes, and it was at this Inn ' that the boy — a boy of most beautiful mien, 
 full of expression and precocious intelligence — was brought up (and we may add 
 educated), until he was ten years old; when his father left Devizes and came to 
 live in Bath in 1782. 2 The family for two years lived on St. James's Parade, and 
 then at 2, Alfred Street. Lawrence was by profession an attorney, and being a man 
 of superior education and attainments, it seems more than probable that, inasmuch 
 as this precocious son never went to any school after he was eight years old, that 
 his father gave him the education which, by his own intelligence and innate 
 superiority, enabled him to take his place in the society of which he became one 
 of the brightest and most dignified ornaments. His mother was, moreover, of a 
 good family, and a refined and sensible woman. Her father was the Rev. William 
 Reed, and she exercised an admirable influence over her numerous children, 
 especially Thomas, who was not only the pet of his parents, but also of his 
 brothers and sisters. It has been generally thought that Thomas Lawrence was a 
 
 1 It was the most celebrated Inn in the " old coaching days," on the Exeter and London road, 
 except its namesake " The Bear," in Bath. Anstey refers to it : • 
 
 " Miss Jenny made fun, as she always is wont, 
 
 " Of Prudence my sister and Tabitha Runt ; 
 
 " And every moment she heard me complain, 
 
 " Declared I was vapoured, and laughed at my pain. 
 
 " What though at Devizes I fed pretty hearty, 
 
 " And made a good meal, like the rest of the party." 
 
 2 Mr. Monkland in his Literature and Literati of Bath, says he kept a lodging-house, which is 
 not strictly the case. A Mrs. Alcock, sister of Cumberland the dramatist, boarded with the family, 
 and Lawrence's eldest son, Andrew, who was in Holy Orders, obtained the Lectureship of St. 
 Michael's, with a stipend of .£140 a year, out of which he paid his father ,£8o. These sources of 
 income, together with the young artist's earnings, constituted the bulk of the family means of living. 
 The Rev. Andrew Lawrence became a Chaplain in the Navy, and in that capacity served at various 
 periods with the most famous commanders of the day, including Nelson. He died at Ilaslar in 1820. 
 The third son was William Read Lawrence, who attained to the rank of major, and died in 1818.
 
 Historic Houses in Bath and their Associations. 113 
 
 pupil of William Hoare, but if he received any instruction from that artist, it 
 would have been only occasional, not systematic. From the time his father 
 settled in this city, until 1788, when he left it, this wonderful youth, from n to 
 17, performed prodigies of labour. It is difficult to conceive a lad of 11 years 
 old becoming a professional portrait painter, yet so it was. Hoare, himself, in 
 painting a figure of Christ, took as his model a head and bust designed by 
 Lawrence. But apart from the professional and technical instruction which he 
 may have obtained in his art, he received the valuable assistance of Dr. William 
 Falconer — a mentor of great intellectual gifts and attainments, without any 
 prejudices of the schools to warp his judgment or to affect the disinterestedness 
 of his counsel. One source of advantage also was his access to an admirable 
 collection of the old masters belonging to the Honourable Mr. Hamilton (great 
 uncle of the present Duke of Abercorn), who resided at Rock House, 1 and felt an 
 immense interest in the youthful student, and to this must be attributed much of 
 that excellence which showed itself in a later period of his career. The oval crayon 
 drawings executed in Bath were done rapidly. He received four sitters a day, 
 and at 12 and 13 years of age was (during professional hours) "as solemn as a 
 "judge." One of the most beautiful of these drawings was that which he executed 
 in 1783 of Miss Shakspeare. He saw her in the Theatre, and it is characteristic 
 of the boy's appreciation of beauty and graceful expression, that the following day 
 he drew her portrait from memory. 2 From an artistic point of view, however, 
 the pencil drawing which he made about the same period of Mrs. Siddons, in her 
 character of Euphrasia in The Grecian Daughter, when she stabs the tyrant, is 
 more valuable. Lawrence witnessed the play in the Bath Theatre, and, although 
 she " sat " to him afterwards, he had caught and carried in his " mind's eye " the 
 impassioned expression of the great actress, which characterises the portrait. It 
 was subsequently published and was largely purchased. 
 
 In 1788, when the artist was in his 18th year, his father went to reside for 
 a brief period at Salisbury, and from thence to London, where the precocious 
 youthful Bath professor developed into one of the most accomplished, dignified 
 gentlemen of the time, and not the least able President of the Royal Academy. 
 
 5, ROYAL CRESCENT. CHRISTOPHER ANSTEY.-" The New Bath 
 " Guide ; or, Memoirs of the B-n-r-d Family," was the most successful satire 
 published in an age which afforded too much scope for the satirist's pen. The 
 
 1 The residence at a later period of the Hon. and Rev. W. J. Brodriek, Rector of Bath. 
 
 * This lady became the wife of J. Wiltshire, son of Walter, and mother of the late John 
 Wiltshire,' of Shockerwiek Park. She was a woman of exquisite beauty and noble graces of 
 character.
 
 H4 Historic Houses in Bath and their Associations. 
 
 title, New Bath Guide, is now an anachronism ; indeed it seems difficult now to 
 see that at any time it could have had a special appropriateness. But be this as 
 it may, the public were not slow to appreciate its wit and satirical force. In the 
 present day, even, a reader, with the slightest sense of humour, who had never 
 heard of the book, and who should know nothing of Bath society, its vices, follies, 
 and many idiosyncracies, taking up the book by accident, would at once fasten 
 upon it with avidity. It is such an amusing picture of the times and the people ; 
 such an exposure of the utter hollowness, deceit, lying, and debauchery which 
 characterised a certain portion of society, that no one can doubt its reality. The 
 clergy, the medical profession, the man and woman of " fashion," the adventurer, 
 the gambler and fortune-hunter — all played a part. 1 The parson pandered to his 
 fashionable flock ; the empiric and the quack picked the pockets of his patient, 
 who patiently submitted to it ; the gambler swindled his victim, who thought it an 
 honour ; and the fortune-hunter and the fashionable idler ran away with some 
 heiress, or pretended heiress, whose heart, if she had one, he broke by his 
 cruelty or neglect. 
 
 Christopher Anstey was the son of the Rev. Christopher Anstey, D.D., of 
 Brinkley, in the county of Cambridge, where he was born October 31st, 1724; 
 educated at Bury St. Edmunds, whence he went to Eton, and was placed as an 
 oppidan. After a creditable career at Eton, he obtained a scholarship at King's 
 College, Cambridge, and took his B.A. degree; in 1745, he was admitted 
 Fellow of his College. In consequence of some resistance to what he deemed an 
 unfair and vexatious demand upon him to deliver the first oration, he was for a 
 time refused his M.A. degree. In 1754, on the death of his mother, succeeding 
 to the family estates, he resigned his fellowship, and in 1756 married Miss 
 Calvert, daughter of Felix Calvert, Esq., of Albiny Hall, Hertfordshire, a lady of 
 great accomplishments, who by her admirable qualities was "all in all" to 
 a man of his keen intellect and humorous temperament. For fifty years, as 
 Spenser says — 
 
 " From that day forth, in peace and joyous bliss, 
 They lived together long without debate ; 
 No private jarre, no spite of enemies, 
 Could shake the safe assurance of their state.'' 
 
 We are unable to say, exactly, when Anstey first took up his residence in Bath, 
 
 1 We have always maintained that at the period to which we refer, there were two phases of 
 society as distinct from each other as the two hemispheres (see Appendix). No one discerned with 
 clearer vision the evils of all the excitement, affectation of superior sanctity, and familiar pretences of 
 spiritual sympathy, which was common amongst the revivalists of his day, than Anstey. The late 
 Bishop of Exeter exposed it in a book entitled " Enthusiasm of Methodists and Papists compared." If 
 any reader wishes to know what Anstey thought of its consequences, he will find it in Letters 14 and 15.
 
 Historic Houses in Bath and their Associations. 115 
 
 but we believe it was about 1 764. He first occupied a house near St. James's Square, 
 and a portion of that site was his garden. In 1770 he purchased the house in the 
 Royal Crescent, and there he lived for 35 years. The Neza Bath Guide was written 
 and published at Trumpington in 1766, and in the same year James Potts, at the 
 Swift's Head, Dublin, also published an edition, but whether it was a piracy or not we 
 cannotsay. After the 2nd edition Dodsley 1 bought the copyright for^2oo ; and made 
 a very large profit by it. After publishing ten editions of the book, he restored the 
 copyright in 1777 to Anstey. He continued to be the publisher for the author, 
 we believe, until his death. The book, since that event, has had an immense sale. 
 Many editions have been issued, and it has been embellished by the pencils of 
 Rowlandson and Cruickshank, and many others of less eminence as artists. The 
 large 4to. edition, with a memoir prefixed by the poet's son, John Anstey, contains 
 all the author's works, with the exception of two, of which for obvious reasons he 
 never admitted the authorship — Dr. Bongout and The Priest Dissected. Some 
 have thought that this unwillingness to admit the authorship of Dr. Bongout was 
 in consequence of its grossness and indelicacy. This is absurd, because there are 
 passages in the New Bath Guide, as well as in some of the miscellaneous poems, 
 far worse than any that are to be found in Dr. Bongout. The truth is, Anstey 
 did not choose to allow that he was the author of a satire upon a well-known man 
 then living ; and as to the Priest Dissected, he found, after publishing it, that his 
 victim, who was thought to be the author of a virulent attack upon him, was not 
 the real Simon Pure. 
 
 Anstey was a man of simple manners, cheerful, hospitable, benevolent. In 
 person he was remarkably handsome, and although he shrank from " the parade 
 " and bustle of public business," he certainly took a warm interest in the various 
 charitable institutions of the city, although we cannot find that he ever filled any 
 official position in connection with either of them. Anstey had a family of 
 thirteen children, for an account of some of whom, and of other branches of the 
 family, see Notes and Queries, October 22nd, 1881, and June 14th, 1882 (vide 
 Appendix). One of Anstey's daughters married Mr. Bosanquet, of Hardenhuish 
 Park, near Chippenham, and there, during a visit in 1805, he died on August 3rd. 
 His body rests in Walcot Church, a tablet being placed there to his memory, and 
 a monument has also been raised to his honour in Poet's Corner, Westminster 
 Abbey. 
 
 No other life of Anstey exists, except the graceful and well-written sketch 
 
 1 The famous publisher. Ho had been a footman to the lion. Mrs. Lowther, and was the 
 author of a volume entitled "The Muse in Livery." He was an honourable man, an enterprising 
 publisher, and regarded by authors of the highest eminence as worthy of their patronage and confidence.
 
 n6 Historic Houses in Bath and their Associations. 
 
 which precedes the collected edition of his works published in 4to. in 1808, by 
 JOHN ANSTEY, 1 his son, who was the author of "The Pleader's Guide," a most 
 witty and amusing work. A writer in the Gentleman's Magazine in 1808, the year 
 in which the book was published, makes a very apt comparison between the 
 father and the son : — 
 
 " Their sentiments and souls seem congenial. The striking image of the 
 " father (I do not mean in the engravings) presents itself in every successive page 
 " of the editor, and as the eye seemingly in a portrait picture follows the person 
 "looking at it, in every direction, round the room in which it is suspended. 
 " Pindar, in his strains, speaks emphatically, and his words are : ' Who copy after 
 " ' the bright original left them by their ancestors, may take great satisfaction in 
 " ' often speaking of the best of progenitors, for they assume not the glory of other 
 " ' men's virtue for want of worth of their own, but uniting both in one, celebrate 
 " 'the authors of their descent and the models of their lines.' I am here paying a 
 " small tribute to the author ; his humour, his good humour, is constitutional, and 
 " appears undeniably as we affirm in physiognomy, in the face of his compositions, 
 " but without the 'broad grin.' And in the same piece, with 'laughter holding 
 " ' both his sides,' you must except, however, some specimens of the author's 
 " writings, in which pathos excites other deep feelings, and proves the effects and 
 "versatility of his genius. If I have not the pleasure soon of reading in your 
 "valuable Miscellany some observations on the recent re-publication of Mr- 
 " Anstey's Poetical Works, and of the editor's interesting account of his father's 
 " life, I will endeavour to supply you with some further particulars and observations." 
 
 SIR SIDNEY SMITH. — during the boyhood of the future hero, his 
 mother resided in Catherine Place, but the number of the house we cannot ascer- 
 tain. Sidney was educated at the Bath Grammar School, and the head master, 
 by whom so many distinguished men were educated, the Rev. Nathaniel Morgan, 
 boasted that he had flogged the man who had flogged the French. 2 Smith must 
 
 1 Father of John Thomas Anstey, Esq., of Lansdown Crescent, in this city. 
 3 Mr. Monkland, an old Grammar-School boy, says : — ■ 
 "As our anniversary school song used to record* : — 
 
 " 'For here, dauntless Sidney + famed heroes among, 
 " ' First dreamt of the laurels he gained at Toulon ! ' — 
 " Or, as the gifted Heber has more elegantly and poetically expressed his deeds at Acre : — 
 " 'What hero thus triumphant Gaul dismayed? 
 " ' What arm repelled the victor Renegade ? 
 " ' Britannia's champion, bathed in hostile blood, 
 " ' High on the breach the dauntless seamen stood ; 
 " ' Admiring Asia saw the unequal fight — 
 " ' E'en the pale Crescent blessed the Christian's might ! ' " 
 
 * Sir Sidney Smith. t Written by William Meylor, editor of the Bath Herald.
 
 Historic Houses in Bath and their Associations. 117 
 
 have left the school when he was young, because, as his biographer, Sir John 
 Barrow, informs us, he entered the Navy before he was 13 years of age. 
 
 At No. 2, ALFRED STREET/ formerly called "Alfred House," lived 
 CATHERINE MACAULEY, 2 where she wrote the greater part of her History of 
 England; her first volume was published in 1763, and the work continued to 
 issue from the press in successive volumes, till, in 1783, it reached the eighth, 
 all of which were printed by R. Cruttwell ; the ninth was printed in London. 
 This history takes in the period from the accession of James I. to the accession 
 of the House of Brunswick. 
 
 Mrs. Macauley was very much the rage. Being a woman of great beauty, 
 although not in her youth, she was the object of the idolatry of Rev. Dr. Wilson, 
 (son of Bishop Wilson,) who made himself very ridiculous by his conduct to this 
 lady. " Here they resided together, and so enthusiastic was the divine's admiration 
 " of the authoress, that he actually placed her statue, adorned as the Goddess of 
 " Liberty, within the altar railing of the church of St. Stephen's Walbrook, of which 
 " parish he was rector " ; 3 but Thicknesse says she abdicated her Princely Sopha 
 at Alfred House, deserted her " most excellent friend," Dr. Wilson, and married 
 young Mr. Graham, brother to her aerial physician, a man about twenty-one 
 years of age. " The statue did not remain long, as it was taken down again, by 
 " the statuary who erected it, at the doctor's instigation ; whether from motives of 
 "revenge, on account of her marriage with Graham, or from fear, because the 
 " vestry was about to cite him before the tribunals, it is hard to say. Be it as it 
 " may, the Doctor, very soon after this transaction, sold the vault that he had 
 "built with the intention of there depositing her remains."* 
 
 1 The house afterwards occupied by the Lawrence family. 
 
 ' Mrs, Macauley, or Macaulay, was the daughter of John Sawbridge, Esq., of Ollantigh. She 
 was born in 1733, and being what is commonly called a " spoiled child,'' she grew up an ill-educated, 
 wayward, headstrong young woman. With good natural intellect and acquisitive nature, she read a 
 good deal in her own way, especially Roman History, and from this cause it is supposed she became 
 strongly imbued with Republican opinions. In 1760 she married Dr. George Macaulay, a London 
 physician. After his death she came to reside in Bath, and here she wrote her History. It is written 
 in a rancorous spirit ; shallow as it is intemperate, and one-sided. At first it was a novelty, and people 
 bought it as a curiosity. The British public experienced a new sensation when they read this uncom- 
 promising Republicanism from a woman, who, at the same time, aspired to be a leader of fashion. 
 Mrs. Macaulay replied to more than one of Burke's political pamphlets. Her works have shared the 
 usual melancholy fate of such productions ; those that have escaped the butterman, occupy the back 
 parts of the upper shelves in fourth-rate book-shops. What is so amusing about Mrs. Macaulay is 
 that, while affecting unbounded admiration for the rigid simplicity of Republicanism, she exacted as 
 much homage as her coteries of slavish admirers were willing to pay her in the petty regal court which 
 she set up. When at 50 she married the brawny young Scot, she was deserted by her friends, and gave 
 unlimited scope to her enemies to blaspheme. Thicknesse was unmerciful upon her, and he knew so 
 well from his large experience how to scarify a weak and foolish woman. She died at Binlield, Berks, 
 Jan. 22, 1791. 
 
 3 Monkland. * Ibid.
 
 1 1 8 Historic Houses in Bath and their Associations. 
 
 Perhaps the most foolish thing she did was to explain to Wilson why she 
 married the Scotchman, 1 who, it appears, was the son of a leather cap-maker in 
 the land o' cakes. It exposed her to much scorn and ridicule, and she soon left 
 Bath (1778) for the residence of her youth, Leicester, and from thence to Binfield. 
 Thicknesse's attack upon her is the cleverest bit of satire he ever wrote, but the 
 most indecent. Being the advocate of quackery in his friend Tickell, he could 
 not endure a rival, so he wrote an anticipatory epitaph on " Dr. Graham." 2 
 The man who wrote about his ailments in the " Valetudinarian's Bath Guide," and 
 presented the reader with facsimile diagrams of the nasty things which he said 
 came from his inside, might have had a little mercy upon poor Catherine's nerves. 
 Perhaps she had refused to take Tickell's Ethereal Spirit. 
 
 At BELVEDERE HOUSE lived the REV. THOMAS BROADHTJRST, 
 
 a Unitarian Minister, a gifted and an accomplished man. As an author he wrote 
 on "Female Education." He also published an elegant translation of " Funeral 
 " Orations in praise of Military Men." In music he had much skill, and was 
 devoted to the science. 
 
 This house is also associated with the name of HARRIETT LEE (who 
 resided there), the author of Canterbury Tales. The house since the -death of 
 Mr. Broadhurst has been greatly altered and sub-divided into smaller " holdings." 
 
 TICKELL, the POET, it is well known, frequently visited Bath, but 
 we cannot tell where he resided. Indeed, of that period, it is difficult, and often 
 impossible, to obtain from any source — biography, local, public, or private records — 
 anything more than general facts. There is reason to suppose from Guidott and 
 Pierce that at the latter part of the 17th and the former part of the 18th centuries, 
 visitors who came toBath for a long course of the waters chiefly resided at the "lodg- 
 ings," while the pleasure-seekers, or those who sought Bath society for change, naturally 
 preferred the more cheerful quarters afforded by the Inns, of which no records, so 
 far as we can discover, exist. Tickell was the Secretary and friend of ADDISON, 
 who, much to the vexation of Steele, appointed him to the Under-Secretaryship of 
 
 1 Of the elder brother, the notorious quack, " Dr. Graham," it may be remembered that his 
 universal panacea was to plant his patients, root and branch, in mud— i.e., to place them up to their 
 chins in a hot and slab mass of earths and water ! It was he, too, who used to exhibit the beautiful 
 Emma Lyons— afterwards the celebrated Lady Hamilton— upon his curious piece of mechanism, the 
 celestial bed, where she reclined as the Goddess of Health and Beauty, while the doctor lectured upon 
 the charms of the one and the peculiar virtues of the other. 
 
 * '* Here G lies. Mourn, reader, mourn the Man, 
 
 " /Ethic, how vain ! how short th' Electric Span ! 
 
 " He who once went through Catherine's medium civil 
 
 " Is gone thro' Death's black medium to the devil."
 
 Historic Houses in Bath and their Associations. 1 1 g 
 
 State. In 1721, Tickell edited the first collected edition of Addison's Works in 
 4to. vols., 10 which he appended a masterly Preface and Poem. It is more than 
 probable that Addison visited his friend here in 1708. In a very amusing 
 paper in the Spectator of Sept. 25, 18 n, purporting to be addressed to the editor, 
 Addison describes a Whistling Match : — 
 
 "Sir, — Having lately seen your Discourse upon a Match of Grinning, I cannot forbear giving 
 "you an account of a Whistling Match, which, with many others, I was entertained with about three 
 "years since at the Bath. The prize was a guinea, to be conferred upon the ablest whistler, that is, on 
 "him who could whistle clearest, and go through his tune without laughing, which at the same time he 
 "was provoked to by the antic postures of a Merry-Andrew, who was to stand upon the stage and 
 "play his tricks in the eye of the performer. There were three competitors for the ring. The first 
 "was a plow-man of a very promising aspect ; his features were steady, and his muscles composed in 
 "so inflexible a stupidity, that upon his first appearance every one gave the guinea for lost. The pickled 
 "herring, however, found the way to shake him ; for upon his whistling a country jigg, this unlucky 
 "wag danced to it with such a variety of distortions and grimaces, that the country-man could not for- 
 " bear smiling upon him, and by that means spoiled his whistle, and lost the prize. 
 
 "The next that mounted the stage was an under-citizen of the Bath, a person remarkable 
 " among the inferior people of that place for his great wisdom and his broad band. He contracted 
 " his mouth with much gravity, and, that he might dispose his mind to be more serious than ordinary, 
 " began the tune of The Children in the Wood, and went through part of it with good success, when, 
 "on a sudden, the wit at his elbow, who had appeared wonderfully grave and attentive for some time, 
 "gave him a touch upon the left shoulder, and stared him in the face with so bewitching a grin, that 
 " the whistler relaxed his fibres into a kind of simper, and at length burst out into an open laugh. 
 "The third who entered the lists was a footman, who, in defiance of the Merry-Andrew and all his 
 " arts, whistled a Scotch tune and an Italian sonata, with so settled a countenance, that he bore away 
 " the prize, to the great admiration of some hundreds of persons, who, as well as myself, were present 
 " at this trial of skill. Now, sir, I humbly conceive, whatever you have determined of the grinners, 
 " the whistlers ought to be encouraged, not only as their art is practised without distortion, but as it 
 " improves country musick, promotes gravity, and teaches ordinary people to keep their countenances, 
 "if they see anything ridiculous in their betters ; besides that it seems an entertainment very particu- 
 larly adapted to the Bath, as it is usual for a rider to whistle to his horse when he would make his 
 " waters pass." 
 
 Tickell died in Bath, April 23, 1740. The late Mr. Markland, President 
 of the Literary Club, and the late Mr. Monkland (as the latter informed us), in 
 vain tried to ascertain where he died and the place of his burial, but as to the 
 latter there is every reason to believe it was the Abbey. 
 
 BEAULIEU HOUSE, Newbridge Hill. RICHARD TICKELL. Richard 
 Tickell has been sometimes described as the nephew and sometimes as a " des- 
 cendant" of Thomas Tickell. He was the grandson of the latter, and possessed 
 no little of his ancestors genius; he was poet, pamphleteer, essayist, and satirist, 
 and a contributor to "The Rolliad;" but he was something more than these— lie 
 was the discoverer of that wonderful elixir, s£t/icriat Anodyne Spirit, which, puffed
 
 120 Historic Houses in Bath and their Associations. 
 
 by Thicknesse with persistent effrontery in his books and daily conversation, if it 
 did the patient no good, helped much to supply the vacuum which, 
 like Nature, Thicknesse's pocket abhorred. Richard Tickell was the 
 author of "The Project" and "Wreath of Fashion," but the work by which 
 he was best known was "Anticipation,"' in which he gave cleverly simulated 
 speeches of the most prominent parliamentary men of the day, together with ad- 
 mirable characteristic touches of their manners and peculiarities. 2 He built 
 Beaulieu House. Tickell married Mary Linley, 3 sister of Mrs. Sheridan, so that he 
 was closely associated with the city of his adoption. By that lady he had three 
 daughters, one of whom was the mother of a gentleman whose connection with 
 Bath was not less conspicuous than that of his grandfather — the Right Hon. John 
 Arthur Roebuck. Mrs. Tickell died in Bristol, and her body rests by the side of 
 her sister, Mrs. Sheridan, who died in 1792, in Wells Cathedral. Tickell married 
 as his second wife a widow lady — Mrs. Ley — a lady described as of much beauty 
 and amiability. He is said to have been a toper, and, like his brother- 
 in-law, could stand up under a couple of bottles. He was for some years 
 a Commissioner of the Stamp Office. After his second marriage, he lived at 
 Hampton Court Palace, in the apartments assigned to him, and from one of the 
 parapets, on which he delighted to read, he fell, and was killed in 1793. 
 
 Nos.l and 35, ST. JAMES'S SQUARE, 3, RIVERS STREET ; WALTER 
 SAVAGE LANDOR. 
 
 "So over violent or over civil, 
 
 "That every man with him was God or Devil." 
 
 It is related that at a dinner-party, on which occasion Charles Lamb was 
 present, a gentleman sitting next to him gravely observed that he " thought 
 " Shakespere was a clever man," upon which Lamb arose and begged permission 
 
 1 Some of his effusions will be found in Locker's " Lyra Elegantium," and Walpole refers to 
 him in his Letters. 
 
 2 Moore, in his Diary, tells us that Mrs. Sheridan sang once after her marriage, on the occasion 
 of Lord North's installation at Oxford; and as there were degrees conferred honoris causd, Lord 
 North said to Sheridan that he (Sheridan) ought to have one uxoris causd. Tickell was not satisfied 
 that Sheridan had done what he might to bring him forward. He describes Tickell's anxiety on the first 
 night of Parliament's meeting after the publication of his pamphlet, "Anticipation.'' The laughable 
 effect on the house of Col. Barry's speech, he being the only one (having just arrived from the country) 
 ignorant of the pamphlet, and falling exactly into the same peculiarities which the pamphlet quizzed, 
 particularly that of quoting French words and then translating them. At every new instance of this 
 kind in his speech there was a roar of laughter from the house, which Barre" could not understand. A 
 friend went off to Tickell (who in his fidgets had gone off to bed in a coffee-house in Covent Garden) 
 to tell him of the successful effect of his pamphlet. Lord North, for this clever pamphlet, rewarded 
 Tickell with the commissionership alluded to in the text. 
 
 3 Gainsborough painted her portrait, as well as that of Mrs. Sheridan, both of which are in 
 the Dulwich Gallery.
 
 Historic Houses in Bath and their Associations. 121 
 
 to feel the gentleman's head ! We should expect, if we told our readers that 
 Walter Savage Landor was a " clever man •" — a man of genius, that they would 
 regard the remark in much the same light as Charles Lamb regarded the critical 
 observation on Shakespere. The life, character, and genius of Landor have been 
 described by Forster, Lord Houghton, Sidney Colvin, Mrs. Barrett Browning, 
 and incidentally by his friends, and by various correspondents x in the Atlantic 
 Monthly Magazine, 1866, and in All the Year Bound, 1869. In an article in the 
 latter, Dickens, as Mr. Ward explains in his " Memoir of Dickens " (Men of 
 Letters), supplements his sketch of Landor in Bleak House, under the character of 
 Laurence Boy thorn — " Landor with his intellectual greatness left out." But the 
 most interesting notice of Landor, so far as the period to which it refers is con- 
 cerned, is that in Braser's Magazine for July, 1870, written by his protege, Mrs. E. 
 Lynn-Linton, because it abounds with so many characteristic touches of the man, 
 distinct from his intellectual genius as a poet and a writer. She was, she is, and 
 very naturally so, an enthusiastic admirer of Landor, and a stout defender of his 
 fame and character. We have to speak of Landor as a citizen of Bath and as a 
 dweller amongst us for 2 1 years. Some time after Landor's return from Italy, 
 in 1837 he came to Bath, and after a few weeks, took apartments at No. t, and in 
 1846 he removed to No. 35, St. James's Square, and there he continued to reside 
 until 1852, whence he removed to 3, Rivers Street. We suspect that, apart 
 from the natural and, if we may judge from a passage in his Linaginary Conver- 
 sations? the architectural beauties of Bath, which he so enthusiastically praised, 
 he was happy — happy as such a man could be — in the city of his adoption, 
 because he could choose his friends where he pleased, without fear of fussy 
 intrusions from ill-bred people, actuated by a vulgar desire to see the " lion in 
 " his den." He might have led the life of a hermit if he had so determined, 
 without apprehensions of undue curiosity from the citizens of Bath. We know 
 that before Landor had chosen Bath as his residence, he had passed through 
 those vicissitudes, so well related by his friend, John Forster, and others, which 
 were not calculated to improve his temper, or to diminish his natural susceptibi- 
 lity with regard to acts of impertinence or discourtesy. Yet he bears testimony 
 
 1 Leigh Hunt's " Lord Byron and his Contemporaries " ; I-ady Blessington's " Idler in Italy" 
 and " Life and Correspondenee " ; Emerson's English Tracts, etc. etc. 
 
 2 "In London with St. Paul's and St. Stephon's before us, in Hath with Queen's Square, the 
 "Crescent, and the Circus (which last nothing in Rome or in the world is equal to), we huild cottages 
 "like castles and palaces like cottages ; and where the editice is plain and simple, the window is a 
 "hole in the wall, looking like an eve without eyebrow or lashes, or else is situated in the midst of an 
 "arch, as if a ruin had been hatched up to receive it." Note to Imaginary Conversations.- Pericles 
 and Sophocles.
 
 122 Historic Houses in Bath and their Associations. 
 
 to the fact that he never once had to resent an insult or to complain 
 of a want of due respect during his long residence in the city of his adoption. 
 This is the more remarkable, because those who knew Landor in Bath will have 
 a lively recollection of the appearance and habits of the man. It was impossible 
 for a child even to see and to watch him and listen to his " crescendo roars," 
 mixed with those of his faithful dog, Pomero, without wanting to take part in the 
 fray. We have seen him on many occasions on the High Common give the word 
 of command to Pomero to go through some favourite antics to please the admir- 
 ing juveniles looking on. But it was for juveniles only. He took no notice 
 whatever of others about him, who could not fail to be struck with the grandeur, 
 and, in his earlier days amongst "us, the exquisite beauty of his countenance. He 
 was a man, indeed, whom it was impossible to see without feeling a strong desire 
 to watch with curiosity and interest. But somehow he escaped' from that 
 scrutiny, and it seems the Bathonians had, by a sort of instinct, got to know that 
 " he did not like it," and left him and Pomero to enjoy themselves as they were 
 wont Landor, as is well known, passed many of his earlier and happier days in 
 Bath, and made many lifelong friendships here. In 1805 Landor's younger brother 
 " found him in Bath with the reputation of very great wealth, and the certainty, 
 " at his mother's death, of still greater. A fine carriage, three horses, two men- 
 " servants, books, plate, china, pictures, in everything a profuse and wasteful 
 " outlay, all confirmed the grandeur." On this occasion he lived in the South 
 Parade and Pulteney Street alternately. After his marriage he also visited Bath, 
 and with reference to these visits we give a characteristic letter from Southey to 
 Landor (in 18 12), and the reply of the latter. Southey goes back to the days 
 of his childhood, and it is curious to see how vividly the impressions of that 
 period still haunted his mind. " The Cottage" to which he refers in Bathwick, 
 we think, must be The Villa, which, at that time, was surrounded by pretty 
 grounds and public gardens. 
 
 SOUTHEY TO LANDOR. 
 
 " Will this find you in the Vale of Ewyas, or have you taken wine; for Bath, which, in spite of 
 "thirty years' labour toward spoiling it, still remains the pleasantest city in the kingdom? I 
 " remember it when it ended at the Crescent, and there was not a house on the Bathwick side of 
 " the river. The longest walk in which I was ever indulged was to a cottage — the cottage we called 
 " it, in a little orchard, a sweet sequestered spot at that time— my nc plus ultra then, beyond which 
 "all was terra incognita. No doubt it is now overgrown with streets. But the only alteration 
 " which I cannot forgive is the abominable one of converting the South Parade into one side of a 
 "square, and thus destroying the finest thing, perhaps the only thing, of its kind in the world. I 
 " have often walked upon that terrace by moonlight, after the play, my head full of the heroics 
 " which I had been imbibing —and perhaps I am at this day the better for those moonlight walks."
 
 Historic Houses in B.ath atid their Associations. 123 
 
 LANDOR TO SOUTHEY. 
 " You remind me of Bath'! if not a delightful, a most easy place. I cannot bear brick 
 "houses and wet pavements. A city without them is a city fit for men before the Fall. But, alas, 
 " they fell before they built. The South Parade was always my residence in winter. Towards 
 " spring I removed into Pulteney Street — or rather towards summer, for there were formerly as 
 " many nightingales in the garden, and along the river opposite the South Parade, as ever there were 
 " in the bowers of Schiraz. The situation is unparalleled in beauty, and is surely the warmest in 
 " England. I could get a walk into the country without crossing a street, which I hate. These 
 "advantages often kept me in Bath until the middle of June, and I always returned in the 
 "beginning of November. I wonder that your grave meditations were not disturbed there ; for 
 " as sure as ever there was moonlight, a train — not quails per juga VytUhi exercet Diana choros— 
 " was ready to invite you. I always hated plays and playhouses, and in the nine first years I was 
 " only once at the Bath Theatre ; but if I had a very large fortune I would have one of my own, 
 " and give a company a thousand pounds to act once a week in the summer, for me and four or five 
 " more. I would have only the best actors and the best audiences, and I would have no comedies, 
 "except Moliere's, for the ladies." 
 
 About 1807 he acquired the Llanthony ' estate, and went to reside 
 on it after his marriage. The estate, Landor said, " is a noble estate ; 
 " it produces everything but herbage, corn, and money." From this time until 
 1837, Bath knew only what all the world knew of him. His life, his troubles, 
 his family quarrels, and return from Italy, are only more interesting to 
 us, because the immediate result was that Bath became his chosen abode, 
 the home of his adoption. At this period (1837) his estates were yielding 
 him upwards of three thousand pounds a-year, of which mortgages and 
 insurances absorbed one thousand four hundred a-year. Out of the one 
 thousand six hundred left, he provided for his eldest son at Fiesole, Mrs. 
 Landor, and the younger children, besides setting aside a fund to accumulate for 
 their future benefit. This left him two hundred per annum to live upon, but 
 finding this wholly inadequate, he drew an additional two hundred from the 
 reserved fund, making four hundred per annum, which represented his income in 
 Bath. Nevertheless, scanty as was this allowance which he made for himself, he 
 occasionally received and entertained his Bath friends, and, as we know, his literary 
 friends from a distance, but his own habits were frugal in the extreme. When 
 
 • .The first Abbey of Llanthony stands in a wild and secluded valley among the hills of the 
 Black Mountains of Wales, and (iiraldus Cambrensis, the great scholar anil tutor to King John, 
 describes its situation " as truly calculated for religion, and more adapted to canonical discipline than 
 " all the monasteries of the British Isle." Notwithsginding this, the monks of l.lanthon\ were con- 
 tinually ill-treated and pillaged by the Welsh, so that in the year of grace 113" •' second Monastery 
 was erected at Gloucester, and now Master Dene is prior.* Llanthony is famous for its crvpt, wheie 
 many noble corpses lie buried, but is even more dismal than that of the Abbey of Gloucester, lor 
 there is a perfect labyrinth of stone pillars and dismal arches, with corners tilled with grinning skulls, 
 while a fearful echo reverberates at every sound, making night hideous. Malvern Chase. 
 
 * Dene wus mmlo I'rlor of the Gloucester and Welsh [Establishments in MHO.
 
 124 Historic Houses in Bath and their Associations. 
 
 Lady Blessington, Count d'Orsay, and other friends 1 visited Prince Louis 
 Napoleon during his stay in Bath, in 1846, Landor entertained them at his 
 lodgings, 35, St. James's Square, at one of those cosy little dinners which were so 
 charming and so elegant. The Prince frequently visited Landor, and, 
 during his few months' residence in Bath, never gave a dinner-party at which Lan- 
 dor was not present — " the guest of the evening." The Prince indeed exercised a 
 fascinating influence over Landor, as indeed he did over everybody with whom 
 he associated, but he seemed to have deceived no one so thoroughly, perhaps for 
 the reason that less bold men than Landor abstained from topics relating to 
 the Prince's political future. 2 The visits of Dickens 3 and Forster are events told 
 
 1 Carlyle visited Landor in Rath in 1850, and in a letter to Forster two years after, Landor said, 
 " you may discover Carlyle to be quite as much a hero as Cromwell.'' And Carlyle writing of Landor, 
 some years after, expresses his delight with his Rath friend : — " On which evening, till near noon of 
 " next day, I was Walter Savage Landor's guest, much taken with the giantesque, explosive, but 
 " essentially chivalrous and almost heroic old man." 
 
 2 Napoleon III. he first thought the incarnation of the Republican spirit ; then his opinions 
 changed to one of intense personal animosity. " He has the fewest virtues and the faintest resem- 
 " blance to them of any man that has risen by his own efforts to power," Landor said, and after the 
 coup d'etat of December, poured forth the full vials of his wrath upon his quondam friend. 
 He affected to approve tyrannicide, and offered a pension to anyone who would murder a despot ; and 
 with reference to Napoleon he said, " Why did we not kill him when we had him here?" Everybody 
 knew that this was Landor's rhodomontade. We should have been curious to see Landor,s counten- 
 ance and to have heard his words, if any scoundrel had presented himself as the agent ready to 
 execute so diabolical a commission ! Like his friend, Sir W. Napier, he spoke unadvisedly with his 
 lips. The latter used most violent language in Rath in connection with the Reform Rill, but we know 
 what he thought of the proposal made to him to lead a Brummagem army to force it upon the govern- 
 ment. Landor was a combination of contradictory qualities, fiery and gentle impulses. We were 
 once the medium of a communication to him respecting a Florentine Italian gentleman who, from 
 misfortune, was in Rath without means. The result was that Landor provided a large portion of the 
 expense to send him back to Florence. We had the satisfaction of knowing afterwards that there 
 was no deception. 4 
 
 3 There is scarcely a modern reference made to Rath by Journalists, that is not founded upon 
 Pickwick, when amusement and fun are the object, and upon Dickens' depreciatory description of Bath 
 when ridicule and contempt are intended. Landor praised what Dickens abused, alter the latter had 
 conceived that violent prejudice against Rath and the Rathonians, for reasons neither creditable to his 
 judgment or candour. In 1869, writing to Forster from Rath, Dickens says : — '' Landor's ghost goes 
 " along the silent streets here before me. . . The place looks to me like a Cemetery, which the dead 
 " have succeeded in rising and taking. Having built streets of their old gravestones, they wander 
 " about scantly trying to ' look alive.' A dead failure ! " Nor is this extract the only evidence of the 
 animus Dickens displayed towards a city whose worst offence against him was a generous hospitality, a 
 due appreciation of his genius, and a decided inability to applaud him and his colleagues of the 
 "Guild of Literature " in the performance of the play of Not so Bad as we Seem, under conditions 
 which absolutely precluded the audience from hearing more than a confused sound, and from seeing 
 anything more than certain gentlemen and ladies going through a dumb show. We remember well 
 the expression of blank disappointment on the countenances of those present on the occasion, not 
 because they were listless or indifferent, nor because the actors failed, but simply that from within the 
 proscenium set up by Dickens within the room,* not one distinct syllable could be heard. The 
 arrangement was due entirely to the headstrong perversity of Dickens, who never forgave the 
 Rathonians the offence of being too enlightened and too independent to offer incense at the shrine of 
 a dumb idol. Dickens never forgave the " insult." He showed it by every means in his power ; by 
 word, by deed, by slights, by sneers, and by misrepresentations. His resentment was unjust ; nay, 
 it was little, and to tin: last degree unbecoming ; but there are spots on the sun ! 
 
 ♦ Large Room at the Assembly Rooms. Charles Knight, one of the Guild present, told ns that he and 
 others remonstrated with Dickens, in vain, on the arrangement, the acoustic failure of which was inevitable.
 
 Historic Houses in Bath and their Associations. 125 
 
 by themselves, but perhaps the most memorable is the visit paid by them and 
 Maclise in 1840, as given by Forster : — 
 
 " A day or two after the date of the last letter quoted, Dickens and his wife, with 
 " Maclise and myself, visited Landor in Bath, and it was during three happy days we passed 
 ' ' together there that the fancy which was shortly to take the form of Little Nell, first occurred to 
 "its author. I have mentioned the fact in my Life of Landor ; and to the passage I here add the 
 " comment made by Dickens when he read it. It was at a celebration of his birthday in the first of 
 " his Bath lodgings, 35, St. James's Square, that the fancy which took the form of Little Nell, in 
 " the Curiosity Shop, first dawned on the genius of its creator. No character in prose fiction was a 
 " greater favourite with Landor. He thought that, upon her, Juliet might for a moment turn her 
 " eyes from Romeo, and that Desdemona might have taken her hair-breadth escapes to heart, so 
 " interesting and pathetic did she seem to him ; and when, some years later, the circumstance I 
 " have named was recalled to him, he broke into one of those whimsical hursts of comical extrava- 
 " gance out of which arose the fancy of Boythorn. With tremendous emphasis he confirmed the 
 " fact, and added that he had never in his life regretted anything so much as his having failed to 
 " carry out an intention he had formed respecting it ; for he meant to have purchased the house, 
 " 35, St. James's Square, and then and there to have burnt it to the ground, to the end that no 
 " meaner association should ever desecrate the birth-place of Nell.* Then he would pause a little, 
 " become conscious of our sense of his absurdity, and break into a thundering peal of laughter." 
 
 Nothing could be more strikingly characteristic of Landor than Mr. 
 Sidney Colvin's language : — 
 
 " Wherever Landor went he made the same impression, which was that of a king and a lion 
 ' among men. In appearance he had gained greatly with age. As sturdy and as florid as ever, he 
 ' was now in addition beautifully venerable. His bold and keen grey eyes retained all their power, 
 ' his teeth remained perfectly strong and white, but his forehead had become bald and singularly 
 ' imposing, high-vaulted, broad and full beneath its thick white fringe of backward flowing hair. 
 ' Every man's face, as has been truly said, is in great part his own making ; and the characters 
 ' which time bad imprinted on Landor's were not those of his transient bursts of fury, but those of 
 ' his habitual moods of lofty thought and tender feeling. All the lines of his countenance were 
 'large, and, except when the fit was upon him, full of benignity, his smile especially being of an 
 ' inexpressible sweetness. His movements were correspondingly massive, but at the same time 
 ' clumsy ; not, of course, with the clumsiness of ill-breeding, but rather with that of aimlessnoss 
 ' and inefficiency. The physical signs of the unpractical man were indeed all of them written upon 
 ' Landor. He had short arms, with constrained movements of the elbows, and even when his fists 
 ' were clenched in wrath, there was a noticeable relaxation about the thumbs, a thing never yet 
 ' seen to accompany tenacity of practical will or tact in practical dealings. He would put his 
 ' spectacles up over his forehead, and after oversetting everything in the wildest search for them, 
 'submit himself with desperate resignation to their loss. In travelling ho would give himself 
 ' worlds of trouble to remember the key of his portmanteau, but utterly forget the portmanteau 
 ' itself ; and when he discovered that ho had lost it, he would launch out into an appalling picture 
 'of the treachery and depravity of the railway officials concerned, and of their fathers and grand- 
 ' fathers to the remotest generation. Next, after a moment's silence, the humourous view of the 
 'case would present itself to him, and he would begin to laugh, quietly at first, and then in louder 
 'and ever louder volleys, until the room shook again, and the commotion seemed as if it would 
 
 • This is characteristic of that hccdlcs exaggeration peculiar to Landor. lie forgot that it was not enough 
 that the house should have been his own to justify him in burning it down. It would have been a punishable 
 offence, as endangering the public safety.
 
 126 Historic Houses in Bath and their Associations. 
 
 " never stop. These tempests of hilarity seemed to some of Landor's friends almost as formidable 
 "as the tempests of anger to which he continued to be subject at the suspicion of a contradiction 
 " or a slight. But both were worth undergoing for the sake of such noble and winning company as 
 " was that of Landor in his ordinary moods. Then not only was his talk incomparably rich and full, 
 " it was delivered with such a courtly charm of manner and address, such a rotundity, mellow- 
 " ness, and old-world grace of utterance as were irresistible. His voice, especially in reading aloud, 
 " was as sympathetic as it was powerful; 'fibrous in all its tones, whether gentle or fierce,' says 
 " Lord Houghton ; deep, rich, and like the noblest music, ' with a small, inartificial quiver, striking 
 " ' to the heart,' adds another witness,* who by-and-by attached herself to the grand old man with a 
 "filial devotion, and who has left us the most life-like as well as the most affectionate portrait of 
 " him during these years. His pronunciation of certain words was that traditional in many old 
 " English families : ' yaller ' and ' laylock ' for yellow and lilac, ' goold,' ' Room,' and ' woonderful, ' 
 "for gold, Rome, and wonderful." 
 
 The closing period of Landor's connection with Bath is well described by 
 Sidney Colvin. The circumstances by which he was driven from the city in 
 which he had dwelt so long are too painful to be revived, but we do not believe 
 that the lady upon whom Landor cast so much abuse deserved it, any more than 
 we believe in the transcendent virtues of others of whom he is said to have been 
 the " champion." Forster seems to have thought the group fairly summed up in 
 the expression, Par nobile fratruni. 
 
 " From about the beginning of the next year, 1857, there seemed to be coming over him a 
 " change for the worse. His letters bespoke both physical decay and mental disturbance. Worse 
 "followed ; it was found that he had allowed himself to be dragged headlong into a miserable and 
 " compromising quarrel between two ladies at Bath. One of these was the wife of a clergyman, the 
 " other a young girl, her bosom friend until the quarrel arose ; both had been very intimate with 
 " Landor during the last few years. To the younger he, with his royal and inveterate love of 
 " giving, had lately made over a small legacy in money, which had been left him as a token of 
 " friendship by Kenyon. In the course of the quarrel the elder lady, who had shortly before 
 " accepted help from the younger out of Landor's gift, took exception to the nature of her 
 " intimacy with the giver. Landor on his part utterly lost control of himself. Regarding himself 
 " as the champion of innocent youth against an abominable combination of fraud and calumny, in 
 "the frenzy of his indignant imagination he remembered or invented all kinds of previous mal- 
 " practices against the foe. He betook himself to his old insane weapons, and both in print and 
 " writing launched invectives against her in an ultra-Roman taste. He wrote odious letters to her 
 "husband. Legal steps being set on foot to restrain him, his unfailing friend Forster came down to 
 " see what could be done. By his persuasions, joined to those of Landor's own lawyers, the enraged 
 " old man was with difficulty induced to sign an apology, coupled with an undertaking not to repeat 
 "his offence. But Mr. Forster had felt, at the time when this engagement was made, that Landor 
 " could hardly be trusted to remember or observe it. Age, illness, and indignation had rendered 
 "him for the time being uncontrollable and irresponsible. For the first time in more than twenty 
 " years he proceeded to act in defiance of Mr. Forster's advice in a matter of publication. Having 
 " recovered from the hostile party in the dispute a number of scraps in verse, the least considered 
 " and least valuable that he had thrown off during recent years, he entrusted them to an Edinburgh 
 "house to be sent to press, under the plea that copies of them were abroad, and would be made 
 
 * Mrs. E. Lynn-Linton.
 
 Historic Houses in Bath and their Associations. 127 
 
 " public by others if not by himself. The volume appeared early in 1850, under the title --Z)ry 
 " Sticks, Jagoted by W. S. Landor ; ' by the late W. S. Landor,' the old man had at first insisted that 
 "the title should run. The book was made up of the recovered scraps and epigrams in question ; 
 " with a few others in Latin ; besides a reprint, after an ' occultation,' as Landor puts it, ' of sixty 
 "'years,' of the Poems from the Arabic and Persian; and a number of complimentary pieces 
 " addressed by various writers to himself . Unhappily the old man had not been able to restrain 
 " himself from adding also, in defiance of his signed engagement, one or two of his worst lampoons 
 '' against his enemy. The enemy seems to have been nothing loth to take advantage of the fault, 
 " and a suit for damages was immediately set on foot. Before it came on Landor had a stroke, 
 "which left him insensible for forty-eight hours, and for some weeks afterwards he hung between 
 " life and death. His extraordinary strength, however, carried him through, and he came to 
 " himself better both in body and mind after his illness. The trial was in the meantime coming on 
 " at the August assize. Practically there could be no defence; the attacks were on the face of 
 "them libellous, and Landor's friends advised him to go abroad, in order if possible to protect him- 
 " self against the consequences of the inevitable verdict; first selling his personal property and 
 "pictures, and making a formal transfer of all his real property to his eldest son. This was accord- 
 " ingly done, and just before the trial came on the forlorn old man set out to leave his [native land 
 " once more." 
 
 Besides the libels published which formed the subject of the action, 
 we have seen others consisting of letters and verses, which, in grossness and 
 indelicacy, are almost sickening. It would be impossible to believe that Landor 
 could have conceived anything so coarse and so prurient, except on the hypothesis 
 that senility and violent passion had so depreciated his moral and mental sense, 
 as to render him scarcely responsible for his actions. We shrink from giving any 
 opinion upon the merits of the quarrel itself, but we know that amongst 
 other charges he levelled against the lady with whom his quarrel chiefly lay, one 
 was that she had assumed the distinction of " Honourable," to which she was not 
 entitled, as a prefix to her name, and yet a month before the quarrel he entered a 
 bookseller's shop and requested " a copy of the Poet Landor's works to be sent to 
 " the Honourable Mrs. ." It is certain that rage, infatuation, disappoint- 
 ment, and some real cause for resentment, had upset the balance of his mind, 
 and made shipwreck of his judgment — never too calm in his best days. 
 
 A Group of Poets. 
 COWPER, SHENSTONE, BOWLES, MOORE, CRABBE, HAYNES 
 BAYLY. — Covvper appears to have been in Bath only once, and on that occasion he 
 composed "Verses Written at Bath on finding the Heel of a Shoe." If he were 
 in Bath at any other earlier or later period, the fact would not have escaped the 
 writer of the "Life and Times of Selina, Countess of Huntingdon," more especially 
 as the I'oet's Life and Poetry were so influenced by the founders of Methodism and 
 their teaching. "Cowper, the greatest Lnglish Poet of the dosing years of the x 8th
 
 128 Historic Houses in Bath and their Associations. 
 
 " century, devoted his graceful and tender genius mainly to its service," ' and would 
 have had a prominent place in those Memoirs in connection with Bath, if he had 
 joined the band of enthusiasts in this city. Shenstone repeatedly visited his friend 
 Graves, at Claverton, between the year 1744 and his death in 1763, and on those 
 occasions he usually spent a few weeks at the Boarding- House of Mrs. Hodgkinson 
 in the Orange Grove. The house, which was a handsome structure, extends into 
 Orange Grove Court, but has fallen into a shabby condition, and is partly 
 obscured by the house built up in front of it. Of William Lisle Bowles, 
 Rector of Bremhill, near Devizes, Canon of Salisbury and St. Paul's, Mr. 
 Monkland writes as follows : — " Like his brother poet, Shenstone, he 
 " must have considered that he found ' the warmest welcome at an 
 " ' Inn ; ' since, in his frequent visits to Bath, from youth to age, he 
 " always made the house in which we are now assembled 2 his head-quarters ; 
 " or he might have said — 
 
 " Freedom I love and form I hate — 
 " So choose my lodgings at an Inn." 
 
 " At all events, so it was ; and although a Tavern does not carry with it the idea 
 " of being a temple of Apollo or the seat of the Muses, I doubt not that in some 
 " of its chambers — perchance, this very one — he penned many a pensive sonnet, 
 " and in some, I dare say, composed a merry song. 3 He was passionately addicted 
 " to music, 4 as well as poetry ; and often did the voices of the gleemen at the 
 "Harmonic Society call, and the Orphean strains from Rauzzini's 5 Concert- 
 " room draw him from his retired parsonage at Bremhill, where more recondite 
 " studies occupied him, as his Hermes Brittanicus, and other learned and 
 " antiquarian works prove. His first publication, entitled — " Fourteen Sonnets," 
 
 1 Lecky's Eighteenth Century, vol. 3, p. 615. 
 
 2 The York House. This is not correct. He frequently visited his relations, Mrs. and Miss 
 Bowles, at No. 13, Seymour Street, and on many occasions he stayed at The Castle. Mrs. Temple, 
 to whose memory we offer a tribute of loving respect, was a great favourite of the poet, who alwavs 
 treated her with chivalrous courtesy, as indeed did every true gentleman. The poet was, in his later 
 years, very " absent,"' and it was no uncommon thing for him to forget to eat the dinner prepared for 
 him in the coffee-room. On returning to converse with the old lady, who was informed of the fact, 
 she would say in her inimitable way, "When you have dined, Mr. Bowles." Mr. S. C. Hall, in 
 his " Retrospect of a Long Life," tells a story of him : on passing through a turnpike-gate, Bowles 
 put down twopence to pay the toll for the horse which lie imagined he was riding. 
 
 3 In the " Life of Moore," by Lord John Russell, the translator of " Anacreon," states, that 
 on one occasion he found the rev. poet " in the bar of the White Hart, dictating to a waiter (who 
 "acted as amanuensis for him) his ideas of the true sublime in poetry." 
 
 * Even his sheep-bells were tuned in thirds and fifths. 
 
 5 A very famous musician in Bath, a friend and colleague of Herschell, and the early instructor 
 of Braham. He is buried in the Abbey. A notice of him will appear in the Second Series.
 
 Historic Houses in Bath and' their Associations. 129 
 
 " issued from our local press, and was printed by the father of the late Richard 
 " Cruttwell. Byron, who, in his satirical moods, lashed right and left, has, in 
 " ' English Bards and Scotch Reviewers/ fallen foul of poor Bowles, for his 
 " edition of Pope's Works, and accompanying critique — 
 
 " If Pope, whose fame and genius from the first, 
 " Have foiled the best of critics, needs the worst, 
 " Do thou essay,'' etc. 
 
 " He nevertheless gives him most substantia/ credit for his Sonnets, the founda- 
 " tion probably on which his fame will rest, for he writes, ' Stick to your Sonnets, 
 " ' man, at least they sell /' " 
 
 During an illness he resided at 5, South Parade, and on a restless night he 
 could hear the fall of the waters of the Avon which runs near, on which he 
 wrote the well-known verses, beginning 
 
 " When I lie musing on my bed alone, 
 
 "And listen to the wintry waterfall ; 
 " And many moments that are past and gone, 
 
 "Moments of sunshine and of joy recall." 
 
 Bowles died at Salisbury, April 7th, 1850. 
 
 MOORE'S residence, Sloperton Cottage, and the Rectory of Bremhill, were 
 not far distant from each other, and the two poets often met at Bowood, the seat of 
 the Marquis of Lansdowne. Moore's visits to Bath, from 1820 until his mind 
 became overshadowed, were very frequent, and on all occasions, except when on 
 a private visit, he made the White Hart his home ; we say his home, for the 
 reason that the little man was so happy and vivacious in the old-fashioned Inn. 
 His account of the opening of the Royal Literary Institution we give in his own 
 charmingly egotistical but lively language : — 
 
 "The Lansdownes off to Bath after breakfast, and I (after .singing a little for the girls) fol- 
 " lowed them with Col. Houlton. The grand opening to-day of the Literary institution at Bath. 
 " Attended the inaugural lecture by Sir G. Gibbs at two. Walked about a little afterwards, and to 
 "the dinner at six; Lord Lansdowne in the chair. Two Bishops present ; and aliout 108 persons 
 "altogether. Bowles and Crabbe of the number. Lord L. alluded to us in his first speech, as 
 "among the literary ornaments, if not of Bath itself, of its precincts ; and in describing our respective 
 "characteristics, said, beginning with mo, 'the one, a specimen of the most glowing, animated, and 
 " impassioned style,' &c; this word 'impassioned' spoken out. very strongly in the very ear of the 
 " Bishop of Bath and Wells, who sat next him. On the healths of the three poets being given, though 
 "much called for, I did not rise, but motioned to Crabbe, who got up and said a few words. When 
 "it came to my turn to rise, such a bur.st of enthusiasm received me as I could not but feel proud 
 " of. Spoke for some time, and with much success. Concluded by some tributes to Crabbe and 
 " Bowles, and said of the latter, that ' his poetry was the first fountain at which 1 had drunk the pure 
 "freshness of the English language, and learned (however little I might have profited by my learning) 
 "of what variety of sweetness the music; of English vci-^ is capable. From admiral ion of the poet, 
 "1 had been ut length promoted into friendship with the man, and I felt it particularly incumbent
 
 130 Historic Houses in Bath and their Associations. 
 
 " upon me, from some late allusions, to say, that T had found the life and the poetry of my friend to 
 " be but echoes to each other ; the same sweetness and good feeling pervades and modulates both. 
 " Those who call my friend a wasp, would not, if they knew him better, make such a mistake in 
 '' natural history. They would find that he is a bee, of the species called the apes neatina, and that, 
 ' ' however he may have a sting ready on the defensive, when attacked, his native element is that 
 "garden of social life which he adorns, and the proper business and delight of his life are sunshine 
 "and flowers.' In talking of the 'springs of health with which nature had gifted the fair city of 
 " Bath,' and of her physicians, I said, 'it was not necessary to go back to the relationship between 
 "Apollo and Esculapius to show the close consanguinity that exists between literature and the 
 "healing art; between that art which purifies and strengthens the body, and those pursuits that 
 "refine and invigorate the intellect. Long,' I added, 'may they both continue to bless you with 
 " their beneficent effects ! Long may health and the Muses walk your beautiful hills together, and 
 ' ' mutually mingle their respective influences, till your springs themselves shall grow springs of 
 "inspiration, and it may be said, 
 
 " ' Flavus Apollo 
 " ' Pocul*Castalia plena ministrat aqua.' 
 "Quite overwhelmed with praises, I left the room, Elwin 1 and I, accompanied by Bayly, and a 
 " sensible Irishman, E., introduced me to Ellis ; 2 went to the play together. Home to Elwin's house, 
 "where I slept. 
 
 " 22nd. Bowles highly gratified with what I said of him. Asked by every one to give a 
 "correct copy of it for the newspapers, but shall not, for it would break the charm which all lies in 
 "manner, the occasion, &c. &c. Duncan of Oxford said to me, 'I have had the sweet oratory 
 "ringing in my ears all night. Bowles gave me a copy of his 'Roscoe pamphlet,' with an inscription 
 "in it, infer Poetas suave* suavissimo, &c. &c. Left Bath with Bowles, having bought some grapes 
 "for Bessy's patient, Miss Starkey. Bowles dropt me at Buckhill, from which I walked home, 
 " carrying the basket of grapes. Found all pretty well. 
 
 "23rd to 25th. Received a Bath paper, giving an account of the dinner, and luckily rather 
 " describing than attempting to give my speech. Had a letter from Cruttwell asking me to send 
 "him a correct report of it, but too late to do so. 
 
 "26th. Took my dear Anastasia to school. 3 Dined at Bayly's, in order to go to the Dramatic 
 " Ball in the evening : nothing could be more brilliantly got up than the latter. An amateur play 
 "first, and the fancy ball afterwards ; an allusion to me in the epilogue spoken by Bayly — ' Erin's 
 "' matchless son,' etc., which brought plaudits and stares on me. Came away with Elwin before 
 "two, and supped and slept at his house. 
 
 " 9th. Took Bessy to Bath to see Liston. Had received an invitation from the Houltons to 
 " come over, Bessy and I, to them the following Saturday (12th), to stay till Monday, and go to the 
 " Subscription Ball at Bath ; but the two frisks rather too much. The Phippses already at Bath. 
 " Dined at Elwin's ; company, Mr. and Miss Bayly, Miss Pinney and Tom Bayly. Went to theplay 
 "afterwards, and laughed a good deal at Liston in ' Solomon Grundy ' and ' Peter Finn.' Slept at 
 " Elwin's." 
 
 The late W. Everitt, an old and highly-esteemed Bath citizen, told us a 
 story of himself and Moore, which is amusing. In former days, Everitt sang a 
 good song, and was always ready to gratify his friends. On one occasion, just 
 
 1 Hastings Elwin. 
 
 2 Joint author oi the " Life of Lord Bacon." 
 
 3 Miss Fournier's, Lansdown Crescent. Misprinted in Diary Furness.
 
 Historic Houses in Bath and their Associations. 131 
 
 after Moore's Melodies were published, he and other Bath friends were going to 
 London by the Salisbury coach. The day was lovely, and on crossing Salisbury 
 Plain a friend said, " Everitt, give us a song," to which he responded by singing 
 one of Moore's melodies ; then another, and when about to begin the third, a 
 head was observed to protrude from the window of the coach, and the owner of 
 the head cried out, " I say, sir, who the d — 1 are you, singing all my best songs?" 
 A great laugh followed, and as Everitt used to say, with high glee, " I knew he 
 " was inside, and that I should have him ! " Of course, it was Moore himself. 
 
 Rev. G. Crabbe, Vicar of Trowbridge from 1814 to 1830. It will be seen 
 that it was not unusual for Crabbe, Bowles, Moore, and Bayly to be in Bath together 
 and guests at the same table. Crabbe always " put up " at The Castle, or, as it 
 was then called, The Castle and Ball. He frequently slept there, and although 
 reserved, he was gentle and courteous, and, like Bowles, invariably sought an 
 interview with the venerable old queen, Mrs. Temple, with whom to exchange 
 compliments. 
 
 Haynes Bayly was born Oct. 13th, 1797, at Mount Beacon House, the 
 residence of his father, Nathaniel Bayly, a solicitor, and a gentleman of good 
 family. He married, July 11, 1826, Miss Hayes, a lady of great accomplish- 
 ments, who, after the death of her husband, edited an edition of his works, 
 to which she prefaced a sketch of his life. Originally intended for the law, to 
 which he took an invincible dislike, he cultivated a taste for literature. Being a 
 man of good presence and excellent manners, he was sought by " society," 
 which he amused by his ballads and charmed by his art and his genial conversa- 
 tion. He resided, after his marriage, in Catherine Place, but delicate health 
 compelled him to seek a more genial clime abroad, where he died, in 1839. 
 
 BATITWICK may be said to have become an integral part of the city of 
 Bath about a century ago. The area comprehends about 675 acres, and was for- 
 merly accessible from the city only by the Eerries from Boatstall Lane, the East 
 Oate (which was really nothing more than a postern), and that opposite the site of 
 South Parade. We are not historians, and do not, therefore, propose to tell our 
 readers to whom the Manor belonged immediately after the Creation, as some 
 will expect. Of course, at one time, it belonged to one of those fighting Bishops 
 who came over in swarms with William. The holy man to whom William granted 
 " Wiche" was Geoffrey, Bishop of Coutance, and as a reward, not for saving souls, 
 but for skill in training soldiers to destroy life. William gave the saintly Geoffrey 
 280 Manors. It is probable that this disinterested Christian gentleman, with ;i
 
 132 Historic Houses in Bath and their Associations. 
 
 view to save his own soul, bequeathed the Manor to the Benedictine Nunnery of 
 Wherwell, in Hampshire ; at any rate, after his death, it formed a part of the 
 Wherwell possessions. Wherwell, it may be remembered, was founded in 986 by 
 Queen Elfrida, the heroine who murdered her first husband, Ethelwolfe, and her 
 son-in-law, King Edward. Historians say that this pious act was to expiate the 
 guilt of these murders. Bath wick and Wolley, in 1293, then called Wick Abbas 
 and Wolley Abbas, being united conventual estates, were valued at ^i'2 5s. 
 Between this period and the reign of Edward II., some victorious ecclesiastic, 
 having most likely to be rewarded for some heroic services to himself or some 
 long-suffering sovereign, it was found expedient to plunder Elfrida's Nunnery of 
 Wherwell, for at this period a re-grant of one messuage and 40 acres of land in 
 Bathwick was made to the said Nunnery, and subsequently a further re-grant of 
 20 acres was made. At the dissolution of Conventual and other Religious 
 Houses, Bathwick reverted to the Crown, and we know that the Prince, Henry 
 VIII. — whose virtues, continence, and saintly moderation and wisdom, are duly 
 set forth by Mr. Froude in his history — did not leave the church which he reformed 
 one penny of that income from Bathwick,' which had formerly belonged to the see 
 of Bath and Wells for the use of the former in its reformed character. This and 
 every other source of income was alienated with a remorseless disregard for either 
 the spiritual or temporal interests of the see of Bath ; the church was left to decay ; 
 the city to desolation ; and the people to heathenism ; until the church was sold in 
 the market as old materials, 2 like an old barn or a disused prison, and only saved 
 eventually by the public spirit and the pious resolve of a private individual. In the 
 reign of Mary I. (we refrain from using epithets), the Manor, with its liberties and 
 advowson, was granted to Sir Edmund Neville, by whose family it was held, until 
 it came into the possession of Capel, Earl of Essex, whose descendant in 1726 
 sold it to Pulteney, afterwards SIE WILLIAM PULTENEY, and then EARL OF 
 BATH. At this period there was a small irregular street, consisting of a few cot- 
 tages and the church, dedicated to S. Mary. There is one house still standing — 
 the Crown Inn, — and the street ran northward in a line from the inn ; the church 
 
 1 A portion of the Manor had at some time been granted to the See of Bath. See Warner's 
 Appendix, page 75. 
 
 2 By Letters Patent from King Henry, dated 1543, the Abbey, with all its privileges and pro- 
 perty, was sold to Humphry Colics, who soon after sold it to Colthurst, whose son, Edmund, gave 
 the Abbey- -then become ruinous, and stript of its lead, glass, and bells, and everything else that 
 could be sold for money, together with the ground upon the east, west, and north sides of it, to 
 the Mayor and citizens of Bath. The Abbey House,* with the part called the Priors' Park, was sold 
 to Kulke Morley, from whom it descended to the Duke of Kingston, who sold it to Ralph Allen.
 
 Historic Houses in Bath and their Associations. 133 
 
 and churchyard, at the end of the street, occupied the site of the present road 
 opposite to that leading to Henrietta Park. Towards the close of the century there 
 were about 250 inhabitants, and 50 houses which were not depicted on the maps, 
 in many of which nothing but the old mill and the old church are to be seen. 
 The latter was 64 feet in length, and 17 wide. As Pulteney found Bathwick, 
 so he left it. This eminent man lived at The Bear Inn daring his 
 occasional residence in Bath ; he became president of the General Hospital, 
 took an active part in its erection and endowment, and chose his title 
 from Bath. His name is associated in many public matters with that of Lord 
 Chesterfield and less distinguished men, but yet he seems less known in our annals 
 than they. He was a friend of Lady Huntingdon, and although he was not in 
 the habit of denying himself any indulgence, was a man of inveterate dislikes ; 
 and, though by no means of exalted public principles or inflexible virtue, he was 
 ticketed as one of the elect ! Pulteney was turbulent, irascible, eloquent, and a 
 persistent writer of pamphlets. He aimed at epigram, which Pope ridiculed — 
 
 " How sweet an Ovid, Murray was our boast ! 
 How many Martials were in Pulteney lost ! " 
 
 Pulteney married Miss Gumley, on whom Pope wrote the poem of The 
 Looking Glass: — 
 
 " With scornful mien and various toss of air, 
 Fantastic, vain, and insolently fair, 
 Grandeur intoxicates her giddy brain ; 
 She looks ambition, and she moves disdain. 
 Far other carriage graced her virgin life, 
 But charming Gumley 's lost in Pulteney's wife. 
 Not greater arrogance in him we find, 
 And this conjunction swells at least her mind : 
 O could the sire, renowned in glass, produce 
 One faithful mirror for his daughter's use ! 
 Wherein she might her haughty errors trace, 
 And by reflection learn to mend her face : 
 The wonted sweetness to her form restore, 
 Be what she was, and charm mankind onco more ! " 
 
 The history of this lady is still the subject of controversy. We think it is 
 of little importance, per se, what Lady Bath's father was. E. Linley was a lady of 
 humble birth, but she was the grandmother of three ladies of title — a Duchess, a 
 Countess, and a Baronet's wife. Miss Gumley's history, however, is a mystery, 
 or at any rate mysterious, and we give it as Notes and Queries give it to their 
 readers : — 
 
 " I had hoped in the fourth volume of Pope's works, just published, to have seen in rcferenco
 
 134 Historic Houses in Bath and their Associations. 
 
 " to his verses on Mrs. Pulteney, entitled The Looking Glass, a note on the line,— 
 
 " ' But charming Gumley's lost in PuUeneys wife,' 
 "and not merely the old tale that Miss Gumley was the daughter of 'John Gumley, the proprietor 
 "of* a china manufactory at Isleworth, who had a shop in Norfolk street.' When I lived at Isle- 
 " worth, some years since, I always understood that Gumley House was built by John Gumley, Esq., 
 " who made a large fortune by army contracts aud South Sea speculation ; but I never heard any- 
 " thing about a china factory. Nor is there any mention of one in Aungier's History of Isleicorlh. 
 
 " It is said that John Gumley had two sons and a daughter, the latter, Miss Anna Maria 
 " Gumley, the ' charming Gumley ' of Pope's line, first printed, 1 believe, in the Court Poems in 1717. 
 "She is described by Cooke (Life of Bolingbroke, 1836, vol. i. p. 11) as ' the most beautiful courtesan 
 "of her day,' who presided at St. John's revels ; but he does not render it at all clear at what period 
 "this was the case. The next statement is that of ber marriage with W. Pulteney, jun. This is 
 "given in the Historical Register, Appendix. December, 1714, p. 30, under date December 18:— 
 
 "' About this time William Pulteney, Esq. Secretary at War, was marry'd to Mrs Gumley. 
 
 "daughter of John Gumley, of Isleworth, in the county of Middlesex, Esq.' At this time Mr. 
 '' Pulteney sat for Heydon, in Yorkshire, and probably suggested to his wealthy father-in-law to 
 "enter Parliament, for John Gumley was returned for Steyning, in Sussex, in 1722. Two years 
 " later he was appointed, on the death of Mr. Huxley, Commissiary and Muster Master-General of 
 " the Army. This caused a new election, and though opposed by Mr. Harrison, he was re-elected 
 " for Steyning. At the general election, in 1727, his name does not appear as a candidate ; but 
 "John Gumley, jun. — I presume his eldest son — was returned for Bramber, in Sussex. He seems 
 " to have been shortly after unseated on petition, the House, March 4, 1728, ordering his name to 
 " be replaced by that of James Hoste. In 1746 Col. Samuel Gumley was elected for his brother-in- 
 " law's old borough of Heydon, but was unseated on petition, and his name replaced by that of Luke 
 " Robinson, to the great disgust of Lord Bath and to the great delight of Horace Walpole. Of these 
 " two younger Gumleys the records seem to be very scant}'. Probably the father died about 1730, 
 " and they, or at all events the colonel, came into large estates. The colonel tried to get into Par- 
 " liament and failed ; Walpole also mentions that he fought a duel with General Braddock. 
 
 " John Gumley subscribed to Pope's Odyssey in 1725 ; he died, I presume, about 1730, and I 
 " believe his sons died s.p. Eventually his daughter became his sole heir, and it is around her that 
 " the chief interest centres in relation to Bolingbroke, Pulteney, and Pope. There is the scandalous 
 " story about her, generally known as the writing-desk legend, and the oft quoted statement that 
 "she was a notorious courtesan ; but if all that is said against her is true, Pope's line, — 
 
 " ' Far other carriage grac'd her virgin life,' 
 " seems hardly applicable to her ; the words are not appropriate to one who at that very time had 
 "forfeited all claim to be considered virtuous. Pope's lines do not seem fair if applied to a young 
 " woman of no character, who, having married a respectable man, tried to recover her social rank. 
 " I therefore venture to think that the 'far other carriage ' refers to an earlier period in Miss Gum- 
 " ley's life than the time when she 'aided St. John,' and when she still really was a beautiful virgin. 
 " One would prefer to think that Pope was contrasting the imperious pride of the married woman 
 " with the guileless innocence of a merry young virgin. Be this as it may, it does not appear that 
 " Pope acknowledged these lines as his own during his life-time, or even that they were published 
 " as his by Warburton. 
 
 "It would be of interest to know a little more about the Gumley family. What was the 
 '' early history of John Gumley ; what was his business ; if he had a factory, where was it situated ; 
 "and where did he die? Swift mentions him, I think, only once, as investing in South Sea stock 
 " with Alderman Barber, but whilst he states that the alderman gained largely, he says nothing 
 " about Mr. Gumley. The widow, Mrs. Gumley, died Jan. 25, 1751, aged seventy-seven, and left
 
 Historic Houses in Bath and their Associations. 
 
 '35 
 
 " considerable property to her only son, Col. Gumley. The daughter, 'charming Gumley,' died 
 "Countess of Bath, Sept. 14, 1758." 
 
 '■'John Gumley — I have met with more than one contemporary allusion to John Gumley's 
 " trade as a glass and china seller, but cannot, unfortunately, lay my hand at the moment on any 
 "reference save one to Steele's paper in the Spectator for Oct. 14, 1712: — ■ 
 
 "'So though we are at this day beholden to the late witty and inventive Duke of Buckingham for the 
 "' whole Trade and Manufacture of Glass, yet I suppose there is no one will aver that were his Grace yet living, 
 "' they would not rather deal with my diligent Friend and Neighbour Mr. Gumley for any Goods to be prepared 
 " 'and delivered on such a Day than he would with that illustrious Mechanic above mentioned.' 
 " I know not on what authority Malcolm says, ' John Gumley rented all the upper part of this 
 " ' building, in 1714, as a warehouse for pier and other glasses, framed and unframed.' " 
 
 By this lady Pulteney had one son and one daughter, and the story con- 
 nected with his will is curious, but no doubt authentic. Accompanied by Lord 
 Barnard, the youthful heir to the then Earl of Darlington, the Earl of Bath went 
 to his solicitor to make his will. After Lady Bath, and his son and daughter, to 
 whom he bequeathed everything, his more distant relatives came on in due suc- 
 cession according to their degrees of relationship. The solicitor suggested putting 
 in some other person in "remainder" for the Somersetshire property. The Earl 
 thought it needless, but being pressed by the legal adviser, said, " Well, put in 
 " Harry" — the young Lord Barnard. The son and daughter and the Countess died ; 
 the brother, General Harry Pulteney, succeeded and died. He was succeeded 
 by his and the late Earl's cousin, Miss Pulteney, who married Mr. Johnstone, 
 afterwards Sir W, Johnstone Pulteney. 1 One daughter was the issue of this 
 marriage ; she married Sir James Murray, who assumed the name of Pulteney. 
 This lady was created Baroness and then Countess of Bath,' 2 and dying childless, in 
 1808, and all other relations named in the Will having died also, the son of that 
 " Harry," the Earl of Darlington (afterwards Duke of Cleveland), father of the 
 present Duke, became the heir to the Somersetshire property. The Earl of Bath 
 left a fortune of upwards of a million sterling, which, with a trifling exception, he 
 bequeathed to his brother, General Pulteney, who had served at Fonienoy and 
 Dettingen. It was a great surprise to the gossips of the day, because for some 
 reason (no doubt a good one with such a saint as the Earl) he " hated " his 
 brother with true fraternal hatred. 
 
 1 His younger brother, George, was the famous Governor Johnstone, one of the 
 Commissioners who were sent to adjust the differences between the British Government and the 
 revolted American colonies. 
 
 * It was reported about 1778, and the report was generally believed, that Charles James Fox 
 was going to marry this lady who, after the death of her mother, inherited tho entailed as well as 
 the unentailed estates of the Karl of bath as well as tho bulk of his large fortune. In a letter at this 
 time to George Selwyn from JamcR Hnro ho observed, alluding to t ho black hair and swarthy 
 complexion of Fox, and the pale face and red locks of tho lady, " Well, if the marriage takes place, 
 " their children will inevitably be duns, with black tails and manes " !
 
 136 Historic Houses in Bath and their Associations. 
 
 Pulteney, in 1 73 1, quarrelled with the famous Lord Hervey, 1 son of the 
 Earl of Bristol, in consequence of an attack upon him in " The Craftsman." 
 
 " Lord Hervey sent a message to Mr. Pulteney, desiring to know whether he wrote the late 
 
 " pamphlet called ' The Reply ' to that of ' Sedition and Defamation displayed ; ' in answer to which 
 
 " Pulteney said he would not satisfy Lord Hervey till he knew whether his Lordship was the author 
 
 '' of the ' Dedication ' to the latter. Accordingly, Lord Hervey sent him word that he was not ; and 
 
 " Mr. Fox, who carried this message, asked Mr. Pulteney what answer he would give about ' The 
 
 " Reply ; ' to which Mr. Pulteney said, that since Lord Hervey did not write the ' Dedication ' he 
 
 " was satisfied. But Fox insisting upon some other answer with relation to ' The Reply,' Pulteney 
 
 '' then said that he might tell Lord Hervey that whether he (Pulteney) was the author of ' The Reply 
 
 " or not, he was ready to justify and stand by the truth of any part of it at what time and wherever 
 
 " Lord Hervey pleased. This last message your Lordship will easily imagine was the occasion of the 
 
 "duel ; and, accordingly, on Monday last the 23th, at between three and four o'clock, they met in 
 
 " the Upper St. James's Park,* behind Arlington Street, with their two seconds, who were Mr. Fox 
 
 " and Sir J. Rushout. The two combatants were each of them slightly wounded, but Mr. Pulteney 
 
 "had once so much the advantage of Lord Hervey, that he would have infallibly run my Lord 
 
 "through the body if his foot had not slipped, and then the seconds took an occasion to part them. 
 
 " Upon which Mr. Pulteney embraced Lord Hervey, and expressed a great deal of concern at the 
 
 " accident of their quarrel, promising at the same time that he would never personally attack him 
 
 " again, either with his mouth or his pen. Lord Hervey made him a bow, without giving him any 
 
 " sort of answer, and (to use the common expression) thus they parted." — Letter from Mr. Pelham to 
 
 Lord Waldegrave. 
 
 * Now the Green Park. 
 
 It was not until the Estate had fallen into the possession of Mr. Johnstone, 
 afterwards Sir William Johnstone Pulteney, that it was used for building purposes. 
 By an Act of Parliament the Bridge across the Avon was begun about 1776, and 
 in 1789 Argyle Street appears on the map; then in rapid succession Laura Place, 
 Johnstone Street, and Pulteney Street, and finally, Sydney Place. Before the 
 close of the century Bathwick was a favorite resort of many of the best families 
 who visited Bath ; and the historic associations, if not so time-honoured as many 
 others recorded, are interesting and not without their special value. The parish, 
 from a quiet rural retreat, soon became one f the fi rst importance, and although 
 it was not within the liberties of the City Charter, it was efficiently and well 
 governed by local commissioners, until, in 1835, it was incorporated with the city 
 and enfranchised by the Municipal Corporations Act. The architect's plan, though 
 never fully carried out, is, almost of necessity more complete, and realizes a more 
 perfect design than any other city or town in the kingdom, from the fact that the 
 configuration of the site, and the absence of old buildings and conflicting interests, 
 
 1 Lord Hervey was a man so delicate that he subsisted chiefly on ass's milk. He had the 
 misfortune to incur Pope's displeasure, who thus satirises him under the name of Sporas in his Epistle 
 to Arbuthnot — "What ! that thing of silk? 
 
 Sporus ! That mere white curd of ass's milk." 
 The Herveys were a race possessed of singular and, in the case of the nobleman here mentioned, of 
 rare characteristics. We think it was Horace VValpole who said, " God made men, women, and 
 " Herveys." Dr. Johnson had a strong love for the Hervey family ; he said, " call a dog ' Hervey,' 
 " and I should love him."
 
 Historic Houses in Bath and their Associations. 137 
 
 left the architect (Baldwin) free to exercise his taste and judgment as his genius 
 
 directed. The sudden expansion of this suburb was met by corresponding 
 
 efforts to meet the ecclesiastical and religious needs of such a large accession 
 
 of population. The old church was doomed, but was not pulled down till the 
 
 present church was built in 1820. 
 
 The Independents built Argyle Chapel, which was opened in 1792; and 
 
 at a much later period — viz., in 1862 — St. John's Church was built, and later still 
 
 a new ecclesiastical district was " carved out " of the original ecclesiastical parish. 
 
 St. John's is now a distinct vicarage, with full ecclesiastical privileges. 
 
 Laura Chapel was built in 1796, and takes its name from Laura, Countess of 
 Bath. 
 
 [We have been permitted to use the private Journal of the late Lady 
 Jervis, who was a niece of Earl St. Vincent, and assumed the name of Jervis 
 in compliance with his will. She first married Mr. Osborne Markham, son 
 of Archbishop Markham, and secondly Sir William Cockburn, Bart. Another 
 portion of the Journal will be given in the SECOND SERIES OF HISTORIC 
 HOUSES.] 
 
 "8, ARGYLE STREET.-Lady St. Vincent came to Bath to drink the 
 " Waters, the Earl being then at the Admiralty. There was a ball on the occa- 
 " sion of the victory at Copenhagen, which my aunt and grandmother attended. 
 " They had white muslin gowns, and wreaths of laurel in green foil across their 
 " breasts. They went together to offer their congratulations to Lady Nelson, 
 " whom they found stretched on her bed in an agony of distress, all but herself 
 " having heard from the hero. She was very handsome when I recollect her 
 " many years afterwards. She was much attached to the wife of Captain Nesbit, 
 " who, from a kind of companion to herself, ended in becoming her daughter-in- 
 " law. He was a strange, uncouth-looking mortal. 
 
 " The DUCHESS OF YORK came to drink the Waters in Bath. She had 
 " in her suite a young lady who used to be called her protege 1 , Madlle. Pauline. 
 " When she walked out, Lady A. Culling Smith and Col. (afterwards Sir Herbert) 
 " was in attendance, and she was surrounded by a multitude of dogs of various 
 "species. Her hair, which was a light brown, fell over the hack of her neck. 
 " Once the DUKE OF YORK came while she was in Bath. I believe that their 
 "Royal Highnesses much noticed the Rev. Dr. Randolph ' He had suffered 
 
 1 Incumbent of Laura Chapel. lie was a fine, courtly, handsome man, whose person the 
 clerical dress of the period set off to much advantage. There was a slight, unconscious pomposity 
 about him in tin; pulpit. In reading the I'salm in which David protests his humility, the doctor
 
 138 Historic Houses in Bath and their Associations. 
 
 " much undeserved odium about some letters which had been entrusted to him 
 " by the Princess of Wales to her mother, as he was going to the court of 
 " Brunswick. Just, however, as he was on the point of starting, he was stopped 
 " by intelligence of Mrs. Randolph being seized with dangerous illness. He 
 " forthwith repaired to Carlton House for information as to the mode of returning 
 "the letters to the Princess of Wales. He was told to enclose them to the 
 " lady in waiting — Lady Jersey ; she delivered them to the Prince, who, not 
 " understanding German, carried them to the Queen ! The sequel may be 
 " imagined, as the letters were indited in the fullest confidence of a child to her 
 " parent, and epithets were not spared. The charge of treachery was not merited 
 " by Dr. Randolph, who believed (perchance in ignorance of courts) that a letter 
 " was sacred. To return to the Duchess of York; she sojourned at 21, Pulteney 
 " Street, 1 and my sister and I used to watch the dogs as they jumped out of a 
 " caravan, in which I suppose that they took air and exercise. We were sent, 
 " after the whooping-cough and measles, to recruit at a house on Claverton 
 " Down, kept by some people of the name of Marchant ; they had a white 
 " Pomeranian dog, called Bingo, to whom the Duchess of York took a fancy, 
 " and purchased. 
 
 " The servant of our aunt, Lady Cavan, came to see us, and was full of 
 " the glories of my uncle, 2 who had lately returned from the Egyptian campaign, 
 " and she told us that our cousins, Honora and Alicia, had been taught to play 
 " on the cymbals. At this time my sister had a tiny China rose-tree, in a pot, 
 " given to her. I believe that they were then quite a novelty. 
 
 "The Misses Gubbins and Bedingfield were then the reigning beauties 
 "in Bath. 
 
 " Mr. Levi, a wealthy Israelite, who lodged in the parlours of No. 8, 
 " Argyle Street, possessed a collection of valuable engravings, which he sent up 
 " for the amusement of my sister and self when we had the measles. 
 
 " One afternoon my grandmother met Dr. Randolph in Laura Place, and 
 " he told her of the rupture of the peace, and that he had received a letter from 
 " a friend concluding with — 
 
 " ' Sir George Rumbold is just come on shore ; 
 " ' I have not time to say any more.' 
 
 " protested too much." Looking round the chapel, he used to declare, with the proudest gestures 
 and in impenitential tones, "Lord, I am not high-minded, 1 have no proud looks." 
 
 1 The house in which the eminent physician, Sir William Watson, afterwards lived. 
 
 2 Earl of Cavan.
 
 Historic Houses in Bath and their Associations. 
 
 139 
 
 " We went in the summer to Middle Hill, near Bath, and we used to be 
 " much amused with watching the drill of some clowns, who had enrolled them- 
 " selves as Volunteers. Their uncouth appearance was irresistible, and in the 
 " mornings following we used to pick up abundance of knives, which they had 
 " dropped. Soon after our return to Bath a corps of Yeomanry Cavalry attended 
 " Divine service at Laura Chapel, when Dr. Randolph preached an impressive 
 " sermon on I. Samuel xvii. A body of them were shown into the recess, in 
 " which we used to sit. Apropos of the recesses, some of those who had sittings 
 " in them were the famous Mrs. Piozzi and the Archbishop of Tuam, with his 
 " extremely beautiful daughter, afterwards Lady Beresford. Mrs. Piozzi was 
 " short and active, and wore a plaister of rouge on each cheek. She used to call 
 " my sister and me ' pattern girls,' because we were so attentive at church. The 
 " Archbishop was tall and very handsome, and the attention paid to him by his 
 " daughter was charming. One Sunday Mr. Thomas Hope was in the same 
 " recess at Laura Chapel. After the service some one said to him, 'I am afraid that 
 " ' Miss Beresford has spoiled your devotions.' Soon after they were married. 
 
 " In my notices of 1802, I have omitted to state that in recovering from 
 " the whooping-cough, my sister and I were out to take the air in a sedan, 
 " on the South Parade, which was peculiarly warm and sheltered. I overheard a 
 " discussion as to the formation of a Canal to traverse the gardens on each side 
 " of the Avon, which occupied the space to the foot of Widcombe Hill. 
 " I have lived to see the Kennet and Avon Canal, and the Great Western 
 " Railway, successively make their appearance on the disputed territory. Gardens 
 " stretched to the spot where St. Mary's Church now stands, and the road up 
 " Bathwick Hill was rough and lonely, a rivulet trickling down the side. 1 ' Round 
 " Sydney Gardens was a ride frequented by gentlemen of a certain age, who used 
 " to discuss the news of the day, while a knot of politicians would meet at 
 " Bull's Library. 
 
 " At Kirkby, where my grandmother went on a visit to Lord and Lady 
 " Wentworth, my sister and I fell in with a young companion, Mr. Fitzernest, an 
 " illegitimate son of the Duke of Cumberland. He was much deformed, in 
 "consequence, he told us, of having been overturned in an open carriage, which 
 " was driven by H.R.H., and the wheel going over his back. He was at that 
 "time staying at Winkley, in order to be under the care of Mr. Cheshyre. the 
 " celebrated orthropedite ; 1 believe that his system, if not exploded, is now 
 
 1 Which found its way into an open ditch running through the site of Bathwick Street.
 
 140 Historic Houses in Bath and their Associations. 
 
 " seldom adopted. A leather strap passed under the chin, and was attached to 
 " an iron, which, arching over the head, was screwed at the summit to 
 " another down the back, to relieve the spine from the weight of the head, but 
 " this was to the injury of the face, the cheeks being forced upwards, by the 
 " pressure of the strap. Mr. Fitzernest afterwards was entered at Exeter College, 
 " Oxford, but did not distinguish himself in the pursuit of academical honours. 
 " After my marriage with Mr. Osborne Markham, he called on me in London, 
 " and I believe died soon afterwards. From a boy his manners were excellent ; 
 " in countenance he much resembled Queen Charlotte. 
 
 " I think that it was in the spring of this year (1805) that the PRINCE OF 
 "WALES passed a few hours with Lord Thurlow, who was then staying at 53, 
 " Pulteney Street. On the opposite side, No. 27, resided Mrs. Smythe, the 
 " mother of MRS. FITZHERBERT, but I fancy no notice was taken of this fact, 
 " of which, perchance, the Prince was not cognizant. She was a beautiful old lady, 
 " and w r as very gracious to my sister and myself when we were taken to see her 
 " by our friend Madame Cinq Mars, to whom Mrs. Smythe was especially kind. 
 " We were permitted to go upstairs, where we were enchanted by some magnifi- 
 " cent mirrors in the drawing-room, which had been presented by the Prince to 
 " Mrs. Smythe. They were sold after death, and were purchased by Mrs. Hare. 
 
 " Viscount St. Vincent was an intimate friend of Mr. Walter Smythe, who 
 " introduced him to Mrs. Fitzherbert. He greatly disapproved of her marriage 
 " to the Heir- Apparent, which he said lowered an old Catholic family. Mrs. 
 " Smythe told Madame Cinq Mars that every precaution had been adopted to 
 " substantiate the marriage in a religious point of view. At the time of Lord St. 
 " Vincent's introduction, she was living in Sydney Place, and he was often at her 
 " parties when the Prince of Wales was present, and a circle was formed for 
 "H.R.H. and Mrs. Fitzherbert. After their first separation, Queen Charlotte 
 " earnestly besought the latter to live with her son, as she feared that he might 
 " commit some act of desperation. In the latter years of her life Mrs. Fitz- 
 " herbert resided at a large house in the Steyne, at Brighton. She was highly 
 "respected by the Royal Family." 
 
 58, PULTENEY STREET was long the residence of FLETCHER 
 PARTIS, a distinguished philanthropist, founder of the College bearing his 
 name. The provisions of his will were to have been carried out after the death 
 of his widow ; but she, with true appreciation of her husband's beneficent 
 intentions, anticipated his design by carrying it out, in its integrity, during her 
 lifetime, in 1826. The College occupies a lovely site on the edge of Newbridge 
 Hill.
 
 Historic Houses in Bath and their Associations. 141 
 
 It has been a debatable point as to the house in which WILLIAM PITT 1 
 lived when he came to Bath in 1802. On the one hand, it has been contended 
 that 15, Johnstone Street is the house, from the fact that there are stone cup- 
 boards which in all probability were especially constructed for the safer custody 
 of Pitt's despatches. As Pitt was not in office he would have required no such 
 accommodation. On the one hand the late Mr. George Phelan, a gentleman 
 possessed of a good memory, used to say, some fifteen years ago, that as a boy, he 
 was in the habit of watching at the corner of the street to see the great man come 
 out of the house for his daily exercise or on his way to the Pump room. On the 
 other hand, we have a distinct statement made by Lord Stanhope that Pitt " took 
 "a house in Pulteney Street." In the life of Wilberforce there is a passage in one 
 of his letters in which he speaks in feeling terms of the solicitude he experienced 
 on passing that house, 26, Pulteney Street, in which, the night before, he had 
 met Pitt. It is difficult to decide. It is not improbable that, Johnstone Street 
 being closely contiguous to Pulteney Street', some confusion of terms may have 
 occurred, and it may be that Wilberforce met Pitt at the house of a common 
 friend at 26, Pulteney Street. We incline to the belief that the house 15, 
 Johnstone Street was the house, more especially as we feel so much confidence in 
 the evidence of the person referred to, though we confess that as a rule we do not 
 like evidence of mere memory. The late Mr. Goodridge, we have it on the 
 
 1 On Mr. Pitt's Arrival at Bath. 
 
 Bath Chronicle, November 4th, 1802. 
 
 "Safe in her port, with flying- streamers gay, 
 
 " As late the Royal ship Britannia lay. 
 
 " Her crew on shore, their leisure hours employ'd, 
 
 " And what they gain'd in wars in peace enjoy'd. 
 
 "Sudden ! a dreadful hurricane arose ; 
 
 " From every point the wind with fury blows, 
 
 " The cable's strained, the anchor soon gave way, 
 
 " By force the peaceful vessel's driv'n to sea : 
 
 " On billows mountain high she now is tost ; 
 
 "Now in the dreadful gulph to fight is lost. 
 
 " Then, all aghast ! they pump, they pray, they swear ; 
 
 " Each ' heart of oak' now sickening in despair, 
 
 " All but their pilot Pitt — he undismay'd, 
 
 " Fixed at the helm, with coolness gives his aid ; 
 
 " His royal charge with skill consummate guides, 
 
 " Which o'er the dreadful storm triumphant ride, 
 
 " Pursues her course ; till now the joyful crew 
 
 "Of distant land the welcome prospect view. 
 
 " But Pitt fatigu'd, all difficulties o'er, 
 
 " Lets others steer the vessel to the shore. 
 
 "His health impair d, from public life withdraws, 
 
 " Blest with his country's wishes and applause. 
 
 "At Bath recruits his strength, and finds repose, 
 
 " While every British heart with pleasure glows."
 
 142 Historic Houses in Bath and their Associations. 
 
 assurance of his son, Mr. J. F. Goodridge, frequently alluded to the fact that he 
 also was one of many others who assembled at the opposite corner of the street to 
 see Pitt emerge, with his faithful attendant' and body servant, from 15, Johnstone 
 Street. 
 
 He confined his society to his political friends, some of whom were 
 already in Bath — Lord Camden, Lord Carington, etc. And others came shortly 
 afterwards — Lord Malmesbury, Lord Mulgrave, Wilberforce, Canning, and Rose. 
 Other politicians came also to confer with him. 
 
 MR. PITT TO MR. ROSE. 
 
 " Bath, Nov. 7, 1802. 
 "Dear Rose,— 
 
 " I had been meaning to write to you to tell what I know you will be glad to hear, that I am 
 " much the better for my visit hither . . , and you would make me very happy if you can let 
 " me have the satisfaction of seeing you while I am here. There are many points too long for a 
 " letter which I shall be very glad, if we meet, to talk over with you. I mean to go on Thursday 
 " to my mother's, but shall return here in time for my afternoon's draught of the waters on Satur- 
 "day, and from thence shall continue here till the business of the Session calls me to town . . . 
 " Perhaps even the circumstances may be such as to make me doubt about going at all before 
 " Christmas. . . " Ever sincerely yours, 
 
 " W. Pitt." 
 
 On the 13th Mr. Rose did accordingly arrive at Bath, and had some 
 political conversation that same evening when quite alone with Mr. Pitt. 
 
 MR. CANNING TO MR. ROSE. 
 
 "Conduit Street, Monday, Dec. 6, 1802. 
 " My Dear Sir,— 
 
 " I have this moment received your letter of yesterday, and as you talk of leaving Bath on 
 " Wednesday, lose not a moment in answering it. . . I entreat you to let me have your last 
 " words from Bath. I cannot but be concerned that you are leaving him. 
 
 " Ever, my dear Sir, 
 
 " Most sincerely yours, G. C." 
 
 Pitt left Bath 2 on the 9th December for Cufmells. 3 In 1805, he came to 
 visit his friend, the EARL OF HARROWBY, who was then residing at 11, Laura 
 Place, the house built for Hugh, DUKE OF NORTHUMBERLAND, and for a 
 time occupied by his son, Hugh, second Duke, of present creation. 
 
 1 After Pitt's death the old man received a Government Pension, and retiring to Bath, died on 
 Beacon Hill about 1847. 
 
 2 Charles James Fox was twice in Bath, for the use of the Waters ; the last time in 1780. On 
 both occasions he was one of a gay party at The Bear. 
 
 3 Mr. Rose's seat.
 
 Historic Houses in Bath atid their Associations. 143 
 
 At No. 55, Pulteney Street lived a lively, garrulous, amiable, kindly natured 
 gentleman, DR. WILKINSON, commonly known as Dr. Caraboo. He was the 
 author of a treatise on the Bath Waters, published in 1 831, at which time the 
 author resided at Kingston House {i.e., the recent Free Public Library). The 
 doctor " went into " everything ; nothing was above or beneath his grasp ; it was 
 amazing to hear him theorize upon every new invention, and dogmatize upon 
 every conceivable topic. In 1817 the doctor was in high glee, having met with a 
 distinguished specimen of humanity, who, like " Mesty " in Midshipman Easy, 
 with the difference of sex, was " princess in own country." The story is sub- 
 stantially as follows : — 
 
 "A very interesting looking female knocked at the door of a well-known charitable lady in 
 " the vicinity of Clifton ; her language was unintelligible, but, by action and expressive gesture, 
 " she made known that she came from a far distant land, had been shipwrecked, and wandered 
 " about in a state of destitution, till she became the pitiable object she then appeared. Mrs. W. 
 "most humanely took her in, revived, and cherished her ; but although she made her wishes under- 
 " stood by signs, and implied by her manner and stately carnage, that, in her own country, she was 
 "a PBINCES8, yet none of the family or neighbours could understand a word of the language she 
 " spoke with much volubility. Several savants, from the neighbouring city, were applied to, who 
 " went and saw this mysterious female, but not a syllable could they trace to any tongue they had 
 " ever heard before. She was requested to write some sentences, which she did, and signed them, 
 "as they understood her to say, 'Caraboo;" these were transmitted to London and to the 
 " Universities, when sundry conjectures were ventured on, and learned opinions issued from 
 " professors' chairs, but the character was such as could not he discovered even in Fry's Panto- 
 " graphia, and no conclusion could be arrived at. It docs not appear that any one, at this time 
 "harboured an idea of imposture. At this juncture, our Bath philosopher and linguist went to pay 
 "his homage to the Princess Caraboo ; he had sundry interviews ; he noted down all she said, and 
 " attempted forming a key, by which he was enabled to proceed, much to his own satisfaction, 
 " feeling convinced that he should yet master her language ; so confident, indeed, was he, that he 
 " wrote a pamphlet on the subject, but just as he was flattering himself that his labors would be 
 "rewarded, the bubble burst ! The cheat was detected, and it proved that this interesting and 
 " mysterious Princess Caraboo, was neither more nor less than an Abigail out of place, who, with a 
 " superior wit and genius, and a cunning, surpassing even that of the class to which she belonged, 
 " had succeeded for weeks in passing off this hoax upon the humane, the learned, and the wise ! ! 
 
 " ' A narrative of a singular imposition,' has appeared, by which it appears that the overseer 
 "of the parish of Almondsbury called at Knoll Park, to inform the worthy possessors that a young 
 "female had entered a cottage in the village, and had made signs that she wished for a night's 
 " lodging, but not speaking a language which its inhabitants or the overseer understood, the ollicer 
 " thought it right to refer to Mr. W., a magistrate, for his advice. Thus it was that she was first 
 " introduced under this hospitable roof—with apparent reluctance on her part and whore she 
 " remained for ten weeks. When asked to write her name, she declined, but, pointing to herself, 
 " cried Caraboo t Caraboo I and, according to the notes made by a gentleman conversant with the 
 " East, and well acquainted with the customs of China, it appeared by the sijjns she made, and 
 "certain Eastern words he extracted from her, that she < r us a Princes* of Javasa ; that she had been 
 "seized by pirates, and in the course of time, and after many adventures, had arrived on the coast 
 "of England, and, in consequence of the ill-treatment sho had received, jumped overboard, and
 
 144 Historic Houses in Bath and their Associations. 
 
 " swam to shore ! The description of her person is as follows : — Her head small, her eyes and hair 
 " black ; forehead low ; nose short ; complexion that of a brunette ; her cheeks faintly tinged with 
 " red ; mouth rather wide ; teeth white ; lips large and full, the under lip a little projecting, and 
 " her chin small and round ; her height five feet two inches ; her age appeared about twenty-five. 
 " There are two portraits of her in this pamphlet, the one from a drawing by E. Bird, R. A.., and 
 " the other by Mr. Brandwhite. They are neither of them very prepossessing in appearance. The 
 " cheat was detected in consequence of some of Dr. Wilkinson's letters appearing in the Bristol 
 " papers, when Mrs. Neale, of Lewen's Mead, with whom Mary Wilcox, alias Caraboo, had lodged, 
 " recognised her by the description therein given of her person, etc., and solved the mystery. The 
 "artful manner in which the imposition was carried on was worthy of Salmanazor, Johanna 
 " Southcote, or the fasting woman of Tetbury ! ! " 
 
 WILLIAM JAY, Minister of ARGYLE CHAPEL.'-Ordained to the 
 ministry on January 30, 1791, he continued his ministrations for 62 years. He 
 resigned January 30, 1853, and died at his house, 4, Percy Place, the same 
 year. It is a proof of Mr. Jay's rare qualities that for so long a period he 
 maintained his influence over a large congregation, unimpaired almost to the last. 
 He was a man of fine courage, great ability, and possessed preaching power of a 
 high order. These were attributes which enabled him to win and hold that 
 ascendency over his people, which he used with a moderation and wisdom that 
 marked the character of the man. Mr. Jay devoted himself exclusively to his 
 ministerial duties, 2 turning neither to the right nor to the left after other pursuits. 
 In relation to the Church, to politics, and the exciting questions of the day, 
 during his long and honoured life, his conduct was characterized by great caution, 
 candour, and sound judgment ; and he always acted towards those with whom he 
 differed in opinion, on the principle that there are generally two, if not more, 
 
 1 Congregational Church now meeting in Argyle Chapel. 
 Rev. William Henry Dyer succeeded him in 1853, and remained pastor until his resignation in 
 1874. He died September, 1878. The present minister, Rev. Henry Tarrant, was elected in 1875. 
 
 Baptist Chapel, Manvers Street. 
 First minister, Mr. Parsons, elected in 1752 as minister, although he had preached in connection 
 with the meeting for 6 years previously ; he died Feb. 28, 1790. Rev. John Paul Porter was ordained 
 in August, 1791 ; he died Oct. 10, 1832. 1837. — Rev. William Peachey became minister ; he resigned 
 in 1838. 1839. — Rev. David Wassell was appointed minister. Rev. John Davis became assistant- 
 minister, and on Mr. Wassell's death sole pastor. On his resignation he was succeeded by the 
 present minister, Rev. James Raillee. 
 
 York Street Baptist Church, commenced Jan. 7, 1828. 
 Rev. Philip Cater became the minister Sept. 28, 1831 ; resigned March 21, 1841. Rev. John 
 Mortimer Stephens was minister from Sept. 8, 1841, till his resignation, March, 1847. Rev. William 
 A. Gillson was pastor from June, 1848, till his removal to Saffron Maiden, June 24, 1853. Rev. Robert 
 White, from Appledon, was minister from Sept. 29, 1854, to January 20, 1857. Rev. Philip Cater 
 returned to Bath and was the last pastor of the church, from July 5, 1857, till his retirement, Dec. 25, 
 1858. On March 3, 1859, the last meeting was held and the church dispersed. 
 
 2 Mr. Jay was a voluminous writer, his works being generally of a devotional character.
 
 Historic Houses in Bath and their Associations. 145 
 
 sides to every question. Mr. Wilberforce no doubt was attracted towards Mr. 
 Jay by this breadth of character and eclectic taste. It may be thought that 
 Mr. Jay clung with too much tenacity to the position he had so long filled. It 
 was natural that a man of so much energy and intellectual vitality should be 
 unwilling to admit the decaying powers and enfeebled physical ability which had 
 become painfully apparent to others, and that he should resist the proposed 
 assistance proffered by his congregation. He did not object to an assistant, but 
 a co-pastor was to him highly distasteful. " If," he said, " two ride on horseback, 
 " one must ride behind." The reply to which was very simple, namely, that as to 
 a co-pastor or assistant there could never arise a dispute as to which place Mr. 
 Jay was to occupy. The end was that during the closing years of his ministry, 
 he had the aid of a coadjutor of singular eminence, in the person of ROBERT 
 ALFRED VATJGHAN, a man of great accomplishments. Mr. Vaughan came 
 to Bath in 1848, and removed to Birmingham in October, 1850, where he 
 remained until 1855. He died in 1857, too soon for the church of which he was 
 one of the brightest and most gifted ministers ; and for literature, on which he 
 left the impress of his power and learning in various Essays, and in that remark- 
 able work, " Hours with the Mystics." His sermons were full of exquisite 
 thoughts, showing deep reading and immense diligence. We believe that 
 Mr. Jay, before he died, was brought by reflection and by what he discerned 
 around him, to believe that something more than praying and preaching were 
 indispensible in a pastor ; that a knowledge of his people, of their thoughts, and 
 habits, and personal lives was needful, and that it was desirable to meet and see 
 them in their homes as well as in his chapel. This he did not do, and the fault 
 was not all his own. He had grown up with a system which did not insist so 
 much upon pastoral care and general regard for the flock, as upon pulpit 
 exhortations and long prayers. 
 
 REV. THOMAS TUPPEN had been a preacher in Lady Huntingdon's 
 Connection, through Whitefield, at Portsea. Tuppen, with several others, 
 seceded from that Connection, and he came to Bath in 1785, and established the 
 Independent Congregation. At first the number attending his ministrations was 
 about twenty-five persons. This number rapidly increased, until the congregation, 
 in 1789, was powerful and wealthy enough to build Argyle Chapel, which was 
 opened October 4, 1790. Tuppen never preached in it, so that practically Jay 
 was the first minister of the Chapel, though not of the congregation. Tuppen 
 was a man of whom not much is known, but he appears to have been a man 
 of great earnestness, though not possessing any great intellectual distinction.
 
 146 Historic Houses in Bath and their Associations. 
 
 Tolerant of others who differed with him, he was characterized by great indepen- 
 dence of character, and there was nothing of the charlatan about him — a quality 
 which many men of his day assumed as indicating originality ; or as " evidences 
 of " spiritual grace ; " or as a cover for slender ability and knavish designs. 
 Tuppen, from the time he came to the city, was in a declining state of health, 
 and this may account for the fact that less is known of him than .his character 
 and good qualities otherwise well deserve. 
 
 REV. EDWARD MAN GIN was born in Dublin, July 14, 1772, or on 
 St. Swithin's Day (15th). He was the eldest son of Lieut. -Col. Samuel Henry 
 Mangin, of the 12th Royal Irish Dragoons. His mother's maiden name was 
 Susanna Corneille. The Corneilles were from Normandy, and the Mangins from 
 Metz, in Lorraine — both refugee families, who fled to England at the time of 
 the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes. Mangin was educated at Balliol 
 College, Oxford, where he was the contemporary and friend of Southey. 1 
 He was for a short time a Chaplain in the Royal Navy, Prebendary of Rath, and 
 Rector of Rath and Dysart, in the Diocese of Killaloe. Perhaps few men were 
 so long before the Bath public as the gentleman whose name heads this notice. 
 He came to Bath in the year of the Union, and we believe that he then took 
 the house, No. 10, Johnstone Street, which he continued to occupy until the year 
 of his death, which occurred on October 17th, 1852. His retentive memory, 
 vast knowledge, extensive reading, and copious flow of sonorous English, 
 rendered him one of the most interesting as well as the best of talkers. He was 
 a frequent contributor to the Bath Herald, in the early part of the century, many 
 of his collected essays having been published in 1805, under the title of 
 " Parlour Window ; " another little work lie published, entitled "A Voice from 
 " the Holy Land ; " and a very remarkable little volume called " Letters of a 
 " Centurion," now very scarce, besides many Letters and Dramatic Essays. 2 
 He also published a little work on Mrs. Piozzi, Piozziana. Hunter says of 
 him : — " Mr. Mangin was no common man, nor is he to be estimated 
 "solely by his printed writings. He was one of those quick to discern the 
 " earlier manifestations of genius, and assiduous in his endeavours to bring it 
 "out of obscurity. Few that have written so much have written with so little 
 
 1 In " ForsJer's Life of Goldsmith," reference is made in the Preface to Mangin's acute 
 criticism on the poet, of whom he was a great admirer. 
 
 2 Mangin strongly condemned the conduct of the Corporation in selling the Church Patronage 
 of the City to the Simeon Trustees. About the time this was accomplished he met a friend, who 
 enquired the result of the negotiations. "Sir," said Mangin, "Virtue has arrived at the highest 
 possible pitch to which Vice can attain ! "
 
 Historic Houses in Bath and their Associations. 
 
 147 
 
 " acrimony." He had a noble countenance, and it is said that the colossal head 
 in the Park, by Osborn, 1 is modelled after Mr. Mangin's fine head. If this be 
 not so, then the similarity is a remarkable coincidence. With many peculiari- 
 ties, Mangin was a man of great kindness of heart, of winning manners, and 
 high-bred courtesy. The fascination of his conversation was irresistible, and 
 only those who have listened to it, as we have, could appreciate it. Mr. Mangin 
 was in fact a singularly gifted man. We have been oftentimes enchanted by his 
 anecdotes and stories, and by his reminiscences of the past during his own 
 times. He was not a " society " man, but in the public resorts all men of 
 intellectual eminence were pleased to exchange a word with one so well known 
 as Mr. Mangin. As a draftsman he was skilful, and the facile mode in which he 
 depicted objects on wood by a heated poker, or other instrument, was very 
 remarkable. These objects reminded one very much of some of the rude pre- 
 Raphaelite drawings. He edited an edition of Richardson's Works, published 
 in 18 to. The text of this edition is adapted for an edition de luxe of the novel- 
 ist's works, now in course of publication, by Mr. Sotheran, of Piccadilly, London. 
 
 THE SYDNEY GARDENS were laid out in 1795 by the late Masters 
 Harcourt. These gardens, in situation, arrangement, and disposition, are very 
 superior to their two predecessors. The house, which forms a handsome and 
 appropriate termination to Pulteney Street, was built to afford the necessary 
 accommodation to the gardens during fetes and galas, which at one time were 
 fashionable and popular. The house has experienced many vicissitudes. It has 
 been an hotel, then an hydropathic establishment, then an hotel again, then the 
 Bath Proprietary College — the predecessor of the present Bath College. At the 
 time these gardens were laid out, summer was the Bath season, and snug little 
 
 1 Osborn was a working- mason, but a man of great native genius, as the colossal figure in the 
 Park attests. Many years before the death of Mr. Mangin, lie described to us the manner ol Osborn's 
 death, and a few days later he brought us a written account of it, which we qn ite verbatim el 
 literatim. At the top of the paper a drawing is given showing the precise form and final development 
 of the swelling. " Case of Mr. John Osborn, Sculptor, Hath, |une io, 1839. About the month of 
 "January. 1838, he complained to me of having a slight swelling on the leu side of his neck, iinae- 
 "companied by pain. The enlargement increased almost daily, and topical bleeding, embrocations, 
 "etc., were tried ineffectually. At the date of this memorandum the patient had kept his bed about 
 "three weeks, and was, when I saw him, slowly dying of hunger and suffocation, the swelling being 
 " inward as well as external, and consisting apparently of hard solid flesh. Many eminent surgeons 
 "had seen the man, and agreed in thinking that any attempt to operate with the knife would he latal, 
 " by dividing the involved arteries. The right side of the throal was considerably swelled, and the 
 " patient suffered acute pain in the left temple; he was 43 or 44 years old, and was ol a scrofulous 
 "habit, but had been always temperate, lie died June 26, 1839." We quote this in full because 
 it is not a little remarkable that the circumstances related seemed to have so deeply impressed 
 Mangin s mind. Whether it was so or not, and whether he felt any presentiment as to his own 
 death, we cannot say; but certain it is he died from similar swellings, lie once or twice referred 
 to Osborn's case, observing, " It is now a question with mo ol a few weeks."
 
 148 Historic Houses in Bath and their Associations. 
 
 breakfast parties were given in the alcoves which extended from each side of the 
 house. These parties in fact superseded the coteries, which until then used to 
 meet in the Pump Room and talk away the reputations of their neighbours and 
 their friends. The gardens were Vauxhall on a large scale, admission, except to the 
 Galas, being a privilege similar to that of gaining the entree to the " Zoo," in 
 Regent's Park, on a Sunday. As an hotel in recent times the house has been 
 visited by many distinguished personages. In 1846, PRINCE NAPOLEON, 
 after his escape from Ham, resided in it for many months, and during that 
 period he acquired a certain kind of popularity. His habits were digni- 
 fied, but he affected none of that reserve and mysteriousness which have 
 commonly been imputed to him. Several of his friends, including Lady 
 Blessington, Count D'Orsay, and Prince Jerome Napoleon, and others, visited 
 him at this time. We remember on one occasion, we were strolling in the 
 gardens, near a large double swing, set up between two parallel quick set hedges ; 
 one of the daughters of the lessee (Mr. Barnard Watson) was in the swing, 
 which " wobbling " violently threw her out. The Prince, being on the upper side, 
 at once sprang through the hedge, caught her up, and finding her not hurt, gently 
 chided her for her temerity, and then led her into the house to her father. 
 Twenty years after, when as Emperor he was again an exile, he brought his son 
 to Bath and took him down to show him where he (the Emperor) had lived in 
 times when he dreamed of future greatness — 
 
 " Which was not all a dream." 
 
 We cannot foretell the fate of the house, but we trust to see it applied to some 
 purpose in accordance with the changing habits and dispositions of the age ; but 
 the gardens, so lovely, and yet so capable of improvement, we hope they may 
 continue to be 
 
 " A joy for ever." 
 
 BATHWICK VILLA.'— This house, at the entrance of Villa Fields, 
 which take their name from it, lay a little to the north-east of Sydney Gardens. It 
 was formerly — i.e., from the middle of the last century to about 1790 — surrounded 
 by subscription pleasure-gardens. In the front there were balconies, in which 
 were several " private boxes ; " ladies in full dress, and gentlemen with bob-wigs, 
 swords, and the full dress of the period, occupied them. The amusements were 
 of the usual kind — fireworks, gymnastics, conjuring, and the like. In "Chambers' 
 Journal" for August 20, 1853, there is a very amusing story founded upon some 
 
 1 Southey in a letter to Landor, about 1807, refers to his visit to this Villa, but he makes the 
 mistake of calling it The Cottage. In the time of Southey's childhood the Villa could be seen from 
 his aunt's house in VV'alcot -Street.
 
 Historic Houses in Bath and their Associations. 149 
 
 traditions connected with the house. After the Gardens were closed, the "Villa" 
 was occupied by the eccentric Dr. John Trusler. Spring Gardens ' were estab- 
 lished a little later, on the bank of the river, opposite the Monks' Mill. It was 
 in a grotto in these gardens that Sheridan wrote the verses to the lovely Miss 
 Linley, beginning : — 
 
 ' ' Then tell me, thou grotto of moss-covered stone. " 
 
 JANE AUSTEN, when she first arrived in Bath, was 26 years of age, and 
 resided with her family at 4, Sydney Place, from the spring of 1801 until 1805, 
 when she removed to 1, Gay Street, and then, after a brief residence in Green Park 
 Buildings, she removed to Castle Square, Southampton, from whence, in 1809, 
 she, with her mother and sister, removed to what her biographer called the second 
 and last home, Chawton, which must be considered the place most closely con- 
 nected with her career as an authoress. It is the place, where " in the maturity of 
 " her mind, she either wrote or re-arranged, and prepared for publication, the books 
 " by which she has become known to the world." 2 Whilst this is so beyond all 
 doubt, it was in Bath where her studies were pursued, and where she formed 
 those ideas of character to which she gave form and life in her books. Miss 
 Austin's life in Bath was simple, and as she was " unknown to fame " at that 
 period, " Society " knew and sought her not. She seems to have been chiefly 
 
 'The "Public Breakfast," as described by Anstey in "The New Bath Guide," is the raciest 
 scene in the book. The breakfast was given by Lord Ragamuffin. 
 
 ' ' He said it would greatly our pleasure promote, 
 
 "If we all for Spring Gardens set out in a boat. 
 
 " I never as yet could his reason explain, 
 
 " Why we all sallied forth in the wind and the rain, etc. 
 
 * * * * 
 
 " You've read all their names in the news, I suppose, 
 " But, for fear you have not, take the list as it goes : 
 • " There was Lady Greaswusler, 
 
 " And Madam Van-Twister, 
 
 " Her Ladyship's sister ; 
 
 " Lord Cram and Lord Vulter, 
 
 "Sir Brandish O'Culter, 
 
 "With Marshal Carouzer, 
 
 " And old Lady Mouser ; 
 "And the great Hanoverian, Baron Pansmowzer 
 " The Peer, comes to grief on the return of the party, 
 " In handing old Lady Bumfiget and daughter, 
 " This obsequious Lord tumbled into the water ; 
 " But a nymph of the flood brought him safe to the boat, 
 " And I left all the ladies cleaning his coat." 
 
 2 Mr. Bentley has just issued an edition de luxe of her works in 6 vols., large 8vo., and also an 
 edition in 6 vols., small 8vo. These are the only complete modern editions of her works. The publi- 
 cation of these editions at the present time is a proof of the enduring reputation of the authoress, 
 as well as of the enterprise of the publisher.
 
 150 Historic Houses in Bath and their Associations. 
 
 occupied in correspondence, and in those studies which made her the first female 
 novelist of her age. Northanger Abbey sets forth more distinctively the (i scenes 
 and characters " of Bath Society — i.e., the best side of it, which she saw and so well 
 describes ; though she refers again and again in her other works to those phases 
 of life and action which she had seen in Bath, and on which she dilates with such 
 charming interest. 
 
 "Her literary activity falls into two distinct sections. She began 'Pride and Prejudice 'in 
 October, 1796, at the age of 20, and finished it in August, 1797.* ' Sense and Sensibility ' was begun 
 November, 1797. ' Northanger Abbey ' was composed in 1798. Then came a pause. During the nine 
 years passed at Bath and Southampton, extending from her 26th to her 35th year, we do not know 
 that she wrote anything except the short but striking history of ' Lady Susan,' a novel in letters, though 
 it is probable that the fragment which Mr. Austen-Leigh entitles ' The Watsons,' was begun in these 
 nine years, She published nothing till 1811 ; but from that date onwards, novel followed novel with 
 great rapidity. ' Sense and Sensibility,' after undergoing revision, was published in 18 ri ; ' Pride and 
 Prejudice ' in 1813 ; ' Mansfield Park ' followed in 1814 ; ' Emma' at the end of 1815 ; and ' Persua- 
 sion ' came out with Northanger Abbey,' after her death in 1818. 
 
 " This silence may be explained by the discouragement which Miss Austen's first attempts to 
 put her work in print. A proposal made by her father to Mr. Cailell for the publication of a novel 
 "comprising three volumes— about the length of Miss Burney's ' Evelina '"—(' Pnda and Prejudice') 
 was declined by return of post. The fate of ' Northanger Abbey' was still more humiliating. It was 
 sold in 1803 to a publisher in Bath + for ten pounds, but ' it found so little favour in his eyes that he 
 chose to abide by his first loss rather than risk further expense by publishing such a work.' The 
 'Thorps,' ' Tilneys,' and 'Catherine Morland ' for ten pounds, and dear at the price ! Afterwards, 
 when four novels had been published, Jane wished to recover the copyright. 
 
 "One of her brothers undertook the negotiation. He found the purchaser very willing to re- 
 ceive back his money, and to resign all claim to the copyright. When the bargain was concluded, 
 and the money paid, but not till then, the negotiator had the satisfaction of informing him that the 
 work thus lightly esteemed was by the author of ' Pride and Prejudice.' " — Article in Temple Bar. 
 
 * It is clear from this statement that the authoress must have been a freqaent visitor to Bath, these books 
 having been written previous to her residence in tne city. 
 
 f- The publisher, we believe, was Bull.
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 [ The author in the following Note corrects the errors into which, by an 
 oversight, he had fallen on page 27.] 
 
 At No. 11, NORTH PARADE— In this house, in 1771, VISCOUNT 
 CLARE, afterwards EARL NUGENT, 1 sojourned, some years previous to that 
 last visit of Burke's, which we have described (page 28). The Earl was a genial, 
 kind-hearted nobleman. He was the friend of Johnson and of Johnson's 
 beloved friend, OLIVER GOLDSMITH. Lord Clare, on this as on former 
 occasions, invited Goldsmith to visit him in Bath. In the same year, and 
 at the same time, THE DUKE AND DUCHESS OF NORTHUMBER- 
 LAND 2 were at No. 10, NORTH PARADE. This was the first Duke of 
 
 1 Robert Nugent, of Carlanstown, only surviving son of Michael Nugent, 5th in descent from 
 Sir Thomas Nugent, who was a younger brother of Richard Nugent, 8th Lord Delvin (the 10th Lord 
 was created Larl of Westmeath 1627), was created Viscount Clare and Baron Nugent 1766 and Earl 
 Nugent 1776. He married, 1730, Lady Emilia Plunkett, 2nd daughter of the Earl of Fingall, by 
 whom he had one son, Col. Nugent, who died in 1771. Mis second wife was Anne, daughter of 
 Secretary Craggs, and widow of Robert Knight, of Gosfield (Gosfield became the Earl's property for his 
 life), which lady died without issue. The Earl married as his third wife, Elizabeth, relict of Augustus, 
 4th Earl of Berkeley, by whom he had issue one daughter, Mary Elizabeth, born 1758, married April 
 12, George, Marquis of Buckingham. She was created Baroness Nugent, with remainder to her 
 second son, Lord George Grenville-Nugent Temple. The Earl died without male issue Aug. 13, 1788, 
 and the title of Larl Nugent devolved, according to the limitation of the patent, to his son-in-law, George, 
 1st Marquis of Buckingham. The Marchioness died in March, T813, and was succeeded, agreeably to 
 the limitation of the patent, by the said Lord George in the Irish Barony of Nugent. He was an 
 author of some repute, best known by his " Memorials of John Hampden," on which Lord Macaulny's 
 exquisite essay was written. Lord Nugent, who was well known in Bath, died in 1850. 
 
 It was during the Earl's residence in Bath that Gainsborough painted that fine, full-length por- 
 trait of him which was formerly at Stowe, and purchased at the Stowe sale by Field-Marshal Sir G. 
 Nugent, Bart. The Earl was a man of wit, good humour, and ability. He loved ease and luxury, 
 was a patron of learning, but will be best remembered as t lie friend of Goldsmith. It was to the 
 Earl as Viscount Clare that Goldsmith's poem was addressed. About the year 171 1, Lord Clare sent 
 Goldsmith to his lodgings in the Temple from his seat, Gosfield Park, a haunch of venison. Those who 
 are familiar with Goldsmith's poems will be equally familiar with the famous lines in which he 
 acknowledged the compliment : — » 
 
 " Thanks, my lord, for your venison, for finer or fatter 
 " Never rang'd in a forest, or smok'd in a platter," etc. 
 Those who do not know them should turn to Forster's Life of Goldsmith, book 4, c. ix., in which 
 will be found the best literary account of tin; lines and almost a complete .key to the characters and 
 allusions, without which the poem loses much of its interest. 
 
 2 In a little book, entitled "Memorable Houses," it is mentioned th.it tin; Dukes of 
 Northumberland occupied a house in Westgate Street from 1683 to 1720. During that period there 
 was no Percy, Duke or Earl of Northumberland. The error was pardonable, because Mr. II. V. 
 Lansdown, in his paper delivered before the Archaeological Institute in Bath, in 1858, fell into a similar 
 error, and the author of " Memorable Mouses " seems to have adopted it and enlarged upon it. We 
 can find no evidence to connect the Percy family with the house in question (see Article, ''Grapes 
 " I avern.") 
 
 z
 
 152 Appendix. 
 
 the present creation. He was Sir Hugh Smithson, who (after his marriage 
 with Lady Elizabeth Seymour, daughter of the Duchess of Somerset, who was 
 the sole heir of the Percys) assumed the name of Percy, and was created Duke 
 of Northumberland in 1766. In Forster's " Life of Goldsmith," the following 
 incident is related : — 
 
 " Goldsmith continued with Lord Clare during the opening months of 
 "177 1. They were together at Gosfield and at Bath; and it was in the latter 
 "city the amusing incident occurred, ALL 43, 1771, which Bishop Percy has 
 " related, as told to him by the Duchess of Northumberland. The Duke and 
 " Duchess occupied a house on one of the Parades, next door to Lord Clare's, 
 "and were surprised one day, when about to sit down to breakfast, to see 
 " Goldsmith enter the breakfast-room as from the street, and, without notice of 
 " them, or the conversation they continued, fling himself unconcernedly ' in a 
 " ' manner the most free and easy,' on a sofa. After a few minutes, ' as he was 
 " ' then perfectly known to them both, they enquired of him the Bath news of 
 " ' the day ; and imagining there was some mistake, endeavoured by easy and 
 " ' cheerful conversation to prevent his being too much embarrassed, till, 
 " ' breakfast being served up, they invited him to stay and partake of it ' ; but 
 " upon this, the invitation calling him back from the dreamland he had been 
 " visiting, he declared, with profuse apologies, that he had thought he was in his 
 " friend Lord Clare's house, and in irrevocable confusion hastily withdrew. 
 " ' But not,' adds the Bishop, ' till they had kindly made him promise to dine 
 " 'with them.'" The Duke purchased 11, Laura Place, when it was in course 
 of erection, and it was the occasional residence of the second Duke until 
 his death. 
 
 THE DUKE AND DUCHESS OF KINGSTON-KINGSTON HOUSE, 
 
 occupying the site s.w. of the Abbey in Kingston Buildings, was built by Evelyn, 
 Duke of Kingston, about the middle of the last century. The Kingston Arms 
 are sculptured on the Pediment. It was intended as an occasional residence for 
 the Duke when lie visited his Bath estate, but it does not appear that he occupied 
 it more than once, and then for a day or two only, after he married Miss Chudleigh. 
 The Duke was an amiable, unassuming man, liberal, open-handed, beneficent, 
 weak. It is probable that if he had never contracted the marriage with this 
 woman his name would by this time have been forgotten. The history of 
 Elizabeth Chudleigh, daughter of Colonel Chudleigh, is romantic and remarkable. 
 There is nothing to show that she was naturally ill disposed. Her greatest
 
 Appendix. 153 
 
 misfortune was her beauty and her exposure to unusual temptations in an age of 
 lax morality. Her father was poor, at his death leaving his daughter about 
 ^200 per annum. Through the friendship of Sir W. Pulteney (afterwards Earl 
 of Bath), Colonel Chudleigh obtained for his daughter the post of Maid of Honour 
 to the Princess of Wales, mother of George III. Her natural talents and 
 attractions, and the charms of her manner and conversation, soon surrounded her 
 with a host of distinguished and enthusiastic admirers. One of the most con- 
 spicuous of these was the Duke of Hamilton, 1 who made her an offer of his hand, 
 and was accepted. Circumstances, however, prevented their immediate union • 
 the parties agreed to hold themselves as engaged, and the Duke went upon 
 a Continental tour, during which he corresponded with Miss Chudleigh. In the 
 meantime, Capt. Augustus John Hervey, R.N., second son of Lord Hervey, 2 
 became enamoured of her, and it is said his suit was favoured by Miss 
 Chudleigh's aunt, Mrs. Hanmer. The result was that the Duke was sup- 
 planted by Capt. Hervey, and the parties were privately married at Lainston, 
 near Winchester. This ill-advised step proved the foundation of all her 
 subsequent perplexities, and developed most of the terrible faults of her 
 character. Captain Hervey, fearing his father's anger, concealed the marriage, 
 and his wife had to endure all the inconveniences of her dubious position. One 
 son was the result of the marriage, who soon quitted the world as he had entered 
 it — in secrecy and obscurity. It seems clear that she married in haste and 
 repented at leisure, and the result was that a feeling of aversion on her part 
 towards her husband followed. Captain Hervey, whose jealousy was violently 
 excited by the attentions paid to his wife, as Miss Chudleigh, threatened to 
 proclaim their marriage to the public, whilst she became only more determined to 
 find some pretext for its legal dissolution. With this view, she is said to have 
 gained access to the register in which her marriage was recorded, and destroyed 
 the evidence of it by tearing out the leaf. The officiating clergyman was dead. 
 Not long afterwards her husband succeeded, by the death of his brother, to the 
 Earldom of Bristol, upon which she contrived, by bribing the officiating clerk, to 
 get the leaf re-inserted in the register from which she had previously torn it. At 
 
 • This is the Duke of Hamilton who married the widowed Duchess of Argyll, who was one of 
 the beautiful sisters Gunning. She was the wife of two and the mother of four dukes. The Duke 
 of Hamilton was killed by Lord Mohun in a duel. 
 
 2 Lord Hervey was called to tho Upper House during his father's lifetime, June, 1733, and 
 died August 15, 1743, never having attained to tho Earldom. Ho married in 1720 the beautiful 
 Miss Lepell, by whom lie had a numerous family, of whom Augustus .John was the second son, and 
 succeeded his brother George William, as third Earl of Bristol, March 20, 177f>.
 
 154 Appendix. 
 
 this time she was informed that Captain Hervey was about to marry a Miss 
 Moysey of Bath, and she received from him a message expressing his willingness 
 to consent to a divorce, which she for a time refused, saying " I can either be 
 " Countess of Bristol or Duchess of Kingston." There is no doubt that an illicit 
 connection had long subsisted between the Duke and the lady, and by this time 
 Lord Bristol himself strongly desired a divorce to enable him to marry the lady 
 referred to, and he therefore readily concurred in a process of jactitation of 
 marriage in the Ecclesiastical Courts, which by an adroit suppression of evidence 
 terminated in a decree of nullification. The path being thus, in their opinion, 
 cleared, the Duke and the Countess were married at his house in Arlington 
 Street, on the 8th of March, 1769. From this time the worst features of her 
 character rapidly developed. She was gluttonous, too fond of wine, and in 
 temper a virago ; her outbursts of passion were frequent and violent, and though 
 she maintained her ascendancy over the Duke, there is no doubt his calm temper 
 and gentle disposition were oftentimes very much disturbed by her overbearing 
 manner and the coarseness of her language. A few days after the ceremony of 
 marriage was performed, the Duke and the Duchess visited Bath and occupied the 
 house 1 built near the site of the Roman Baths, after the excavations of 1755, but 
 they remained nine days only. During this brief residence the Duchess engaged 
 two chairmen for a fortnight, and as she resolved to leave before the time expired, 
 she objected to pay for the whole period. The Mayor (Chapman), who at that 
 time had full jurisdiction, ordered payment of the full amount. The Duke, on 
 two occasions when he came alone, engaged apartments at the THREE TUNS. 
 In 1773 the Duke and Duchess visited Bath for the last time. First the Duchess 
 took lodgings at what then was a famous resort of fashionable people, viz., 
 Mrs. Hodgkinson 's in the Orange Grove? This house is in the corner next to the 
 Athenaeum, and extends into Orange Grove Court. It is almost hidden by the 
 house in front of it, but it has traces of former grandeur. After a dispute with 
 Mrs. Hodgkinson the Duchess removed, with the Duke, into the Baths House, 
 and in a few days to No. 5, SOUTH PARADE, where the Duke died. The 
 Duke bequeathed to her a very large income, which for three years she "enjoyed" 
 in her own peculiar fashion. The Duke's nephew, Sir Charles Meadows, Bart., 
 who for some reason had been excluded from the succession, resolved to dispute 
 
 1 The house which was used as the provisional Free Public Library. It was then called 
 The Baths House. It has in recent times been called "Kingston House." 
 
 2 After refusing to pay Mrs. Hodgkinson for a month's lodgings, the Duchess gave her a piece 
 of plate worth ten times the amount. She seems to have acted upon her own motto, " Aut vincit, 
 " aut peril."
 
 Appendix. 155 
 
 the validity of his uncle's will. Through information received from a Mrs. 
 Cradock, who had been one of the witnesses to the marriage of Miss Chudleigh 
 with Captain Hervey,' Meadows indicted the Duchess for bigamy. 2 At this time 
 she was abroad, but returned to prevent an outlawry. The trial began on April 
 15, 1776, before the House of Lords in Westminster Hall, and it resulted in her 
 
 1 In 1773 Captain Hervey petitioned the King, through the Queen, on account apparently of 
 some displeasure manifested by the former towards him - because of this marriage. He says, (the 
 papers) "contain a melancholy account of such a series of outrageous wrongs, as no human creature 
 "ever suffered before, since man was made, and to quicken my sense of them, and their horrid 
 " consequence, I owe them to an ungrateful, vile, and vitious woman," etc. 
 
 2 Of the trial itself, Hannah More gives the following graphic description : — 
 
 " Garrick would have me take his ticket to go to the trial of the Duchess of Kingston ; a 
 "sight of which, for beauty and magnificence, exceeded anything which those who were never 
 " present at a coronation, or a trial by peers, can have the least notion. Mrs. Garrick and I were in 
 " full dress by seven. You will imagine the bustle of five thousand people getting into one hall ! 
 " yet, in all this hurry, we walked in tranquilly. When they were all seated, and the king-at-arms 
 "had commanded silence on pain of imprisonment (which, however, was very ill observed), the 
 "gentleman of the black rod was commanded to bring in his prisoner. Elizabeth, calling her- 
 " self Dowasrer-Duchess of Kingston, walked in, led by Black Rod and Mr. La Roche, curtseying 
 " profoundly to her judges. The peel's made her a slight bow. The prisoner was dressed in deep 
 " mourning ; a black hood on her head ; her hair modestly dressed and powdered ; a black silk 
 "sacque, with crape trimmings ; black gauze, deep ruffles, and black gloves. The counsel spoke 
 "about an hour and a quarter each. Dunning's manner is insufferably bad, coughing and spitting 
 " at every three words, but his sense and his expression pointed to the last degree : he made her 
 " Grace shed bitter tears. The fair victim had four virgins, in white, behind the bar. She imitated 
 " her great predecessor, Mrs. Rudd, and affected to write very often, though I plainly perceived she 
 "only wrote, as they do their love-epistles on the stage, without forming a letter. The Duchess 
 " has but small remains of that beauty of which kings and princes were once so enamoured. She 
 " looked much like Mrs. Pritchard. She is large and ill-shaped; there is nothing white but her 
 • " face, and had it not been for that, she would have looked like a bail of bombazeen. There was a 
 " great deal of ceremony, a great deal of splendour, and a great deal of nonsense ; they adjourned 
 "upon the most foolish pretences imaginable and did nothing with such an air of business as was 
 "truly ridiculous. I forgot to tell you the Duchess was taken ill, but performed it badly." 
 The writer adds in a subsequent Letter : — " I have the great satisfaction of telling you, that 
 " Elizabeth, calling herself Duchess-dowager of Kingston, was, this very afternoon, undignified and 
 ' unduchessed, and very narrowly escaped being burned in the hand. If you have been half so much 
 "interested .against this unprincipled, artful, licentious woman as I have you will be rejoiced at it 
 " as I am. Lord Camden breakfasted with us. He is very angry that she was not burned in the 
 " hand. He says, as he was once a professed lover of hers, he thought it would have looked ill— 
 " natured and ungallant for him to propose it ; but that he should have acceded to it most heartily. 
 "Though he believes he should have recommended a cold iron." The Duchess claimed the benefit 
 of the peerage, under the statute of the first of Edward VI., and was accordingly discharged 
 without punishment. 
 
 [Letter by Mr. J. II. Round, of Brighton, to " Notes and Queries," respecting the Brad- 
 ford property , belonging to the Kingston family.] 
 Kingston House, Hradford-on-Avon, was the property of the Pierrepont family, derived from 
 the Hall family. " Rachel, Lady Kingston. While recently consulting Peter le Neve's Memoranda 
 " in Heraldry, as edited by Mr. J. (!. Nichols, 1 noted the following passage under the year 1711-: — 
 
 ' 'Evelyn, Lord Marquis of Dorchester, his son Will' Piorpoint, esq., commonly called Lord 
 " ' Kingston, to marry [ ] dr. and heir of John Hall, esq., a private act of Parliament past 
 
 " 'this Sessions to settle the Marquis' estate and .John Hall's on William.' 
 
 " To this the editor appends a note, quoting, as against this statement, the marriage of Lord 
 " Kingston with Rachel Baynton, as given in Collins's I'eeraye, and gravely adds : — 
 
 " 'This marriage must consequently have taken place very soon after the arrangement men- 
 " ' tioned in the text had been set aside.' 
 
 "The 'arrangement,' however, never was 'set aside,' and tho true explanation of the seeming
 
 156 Appetidix. 
 
 conviction. Before a writ Ne exeat regno could be issued she escaped to Calais, 
 and never returned to England. Her conviction was followed by an attempt on 
 the part of the Duke's heirs to set aside his will, which proved unsuccessful. She 
 lived a reckless, dissipated life in France, bought property, got into litigation, lost 
 an important suit, which threw her into a fury, resulting in the rupture of a 
 blood-vessel, which caused her death. FOOTE, the dramatist, wrote a farce upon 
 the Duchess, — A Trip to Calais, in which she figures as " Lady Kitty Crocodile." 
 It was an infamous proceeding, the object of which was to extort money, but the 
 play was interdicted by the Lord Chamberlain. 
 
 [From Doran's "Court Fools."] 
 
 " Lord Ligonier, the husband of one of Alfieri's worthless idols, was English Ambassador at 
 " the court of Madrid during a portion of the reign of Charles III., which lasted from 1759 to 17S8. 
 " After Lord Ligonier's introduction to the King, he was conducted to the apartments of the Heir 
 " to the Crown, the Prince of the Asturias. The latter was, subsequently, that Charles IV. who 
 *' was his own Queen's especial fool throughout the term of their married lives. As Lord Ligonier 
 " approached the Prince's chamber, he saw issuing therefrom a number of grandees, each wearing, 
 " with proud gravity, a fantastic fool's cap. On inquiring the meaning of such a pageant, he was 
 " informed that his Royal Highness possessed the fancy of distinguishing his most cherished friends 
 " as his ' fools.' The Prince, too, was often pleased to confer this mark of his favour on celebrated 
 "foreigners. Lord Ligonier was alarmed. 
 
 " 'I represent,' he said, 'a great sovereign; and am myself a foreigner not altogether 
 " 'unknown. I must add, that my gracious master would be seriously offended, if the Prince of 
 " ' the Asturias were to think proper to cover the representative of the King of England with this 
 " 'decoration. You had better go in, sir,' he said to his introducer, 'and say as much to his 
 " ' Royal Highness.' 
 
 "The reluctant official undertook the mission ; but he presently returned, with the intima- 
 " tion that the Prince could not give up an old-established custom. Upon which, Lord Ligonier 
 " turned on his heel, declaring that he would not visit a Prince who thus exposed an Ambassador to 
 "insult. The court officials were thrown into a state of amusing terror by this declaration ; they 
 "maintained, that if the Ambassador retired, it would bo a flagrant insult on the Prince. Ulti- 
 " mately, and after many messages and countermessages had passed between the Prince in his room 
 "and the English Envoy in the antechamber, announcement was made that the Prince of the 
 "Asturias would not attempt to clap the fool's-cap on the head of Lord Ligonier. His lordship 
 " consequently entered the apartment, but not without being more than usually vigilant against 
 "surprise. He found the sage Prince with his back to the hearth and with his hands behind him. 
 
 " discrepancy will be found in my note on this subject where it is shown that this ' heiress ' of John 
 " Hall, through whom the Pierreponts and their descendants inherited his extensive estates, was in 
 " truth his daughter, but by the wife of Thomas Baynton his nephew by marriage. The two 
 " statements are thus reconcilable, the one referring to Lady Kingston's true, and the other to her 
 " putative, father. The curious history of the Private Act alluded to by Lo Neve will also be found 
 " in the above note."
 
 Appendix. 157 
 
 "The Prince remained in that position and invited the Ambassador to approach. The English lord 
 " obeyed ; but as he advanced, he perceived that the Prince held a paper object, and the Ambas- 
 " sador stopped short to converse with his Royal Highness at a very respectful distance. At the 
 "conclusion of the interview, he had to bow low ; but, as a sailor might say, his weather eye was 
 " open, and he watched the Prince narrowly. The latter was resolved upon effecting his object and 
 " as narrowly watched the Ambassador. The bow was almost at its lowest, when the Prince, seizing 
 " the most favourable opportunity, suddenly brought the fool's-cap from behiud him, and endea- 
 " voured to fix it on the head of Lord Ligonier ; but the old soldier who, by one glorious action at 
 " Laffeldt, had disconcerted all the projects of Marshal Saxe, was not to be foiled by a foolish 
 " prince. As soon as his eye caught sight of the cap his hand was upon it, and almost as soon it 
 " lay crumpled up beneath his feet. His sudden action nearly threw the Prince out of his equili- 
 " brium ; and leaving that illustrious fool's-cap maker to recover himself as he best might, the old 
 •• warrior quitted the apartment with a smile of scorn upon his lip." 
 
 [Amtey's "Bath Guide."] 
 
 " The Monthly Review for June, 1776, has the following remarks, not much in the style or 
 " phraseology of modern criticism, on the ' New Bath Guide ' :— ' There is a species of humour in 
 " ' these droll Epistles, which has the greater force, as it seems to proceed from a simple and 
 " ' unembellished character, the hopeful offspring of a considerable family in the north. There are 
 •'■ ' a thousand strains of humour in these high-wrought Epistles, some of which do not occur to 
 " ' you at the first reading. The author frequently heightens and enriches his humour by parodies 
 " ' and imitations.' 
 
 " The Rev. Dr. Roberts, provost of Eton, in an Epistle on the English Poets, thus speaks of 
 "the ' New Bath Guide' :— 
 
 " ' While old Bladud's sceptre guards 
 
 " ' His medicinal stream, shall Simkin raise 
 " ' Loud peals of merriment.' 
 
 " Warner, the historian of Bath, in his Literary Recollections, has, like Mr. Campbell, 
 " erred in placing too much reliance on memory. A reference to dates and common biographies 
 "shews us that Smollett's ' Humphrey Clinker ' was subsequent to the ' New Bath Guide ' ; and a 
 "slight perusal of both works is sufficient to prove the superior dramatic powers of the latter author 
 " for poignant satire and delineation of character. When we recollect, also, that Anstey's ' Election 
 " ' Ball,' ' Epistle to Sir Charles Bampfylde,' and other poems, were formerly popular at Bath, and 
 " are re-printed in the collected edition of his works, every reader will be surprised at Mr. Warner's 
 "statement in his ' Literary Recollections,' which, like his other writings, abound with eloquent 
 "and interesting passages. They contain, likewise, many pleasing biographical sketches of eminent 
 " persons who resided at Bath between the years 1794 and 1820. Speaking of Mr. Anstey, he says: 
 " ' It is somewhat singular that the author of a work so witty, so satirical, and novel, as the ' New 
 " ' Bath Guide,' should have left behind him merely this solitary monument of his lively fancy and 
 " ' peculiar genius ; but no other publication, save this, as I am aware, has been attributed to him. 
 "The 'New Bath Guide' might have been considered as a perfectly oriyimd work, had not its 
 "subject been obviously suggested by the ' Humphrey Clinker' of the inimitable Smollett who was 
 "for some time resident at Bath, and probably an intimate acquaintance, as well as a favourite 
 "author, of Mr. Anstey." Wo have referred to this unaccountable error of Warner's in another 
 part of this work.
 
 158 • Appendix. 
 
 [Well of Saint Winifred.] 
 
 "Winifred House, Bath ; Nov. 17, 1882. 
 " Dear Mr. Peach, — 
 
 " A friend of mine sitting with me not half-an-hour ago pointed out to me, in the work you 
 " are now writing, ' The Historic Houses of Bath,' mention made there of S. Winifred's Well (page 
 " 5). A footnote speaks of it as situate in Winifred's Dale. Curiously enough, since she left, I 
 " have been perusing an abstract of the title-deeds of this place, and read the following : — 
 
 " * All that said Close of Ground, called the Barn-piece, by the now abstracted Indenture, 
 " 'described as. All that Close of Pasture-Ground, called the Barn-piece, wherein was a well called 
 " ' Winifred's Well, with the Barn thereon standing, containing 5 acres more or less.' 
 
 " The heading of the Abstract of Title is as follows : — 
 
 " 'Abstract of Title to a Freehold Close called the Barn-piece in the Parish of Walcot, 
 " 'Somarset, and to a Mansion- House and Premises thereon erected, called Winifred House.' 
 
 " I think this shows pretty plainly that the well exists within the boundaries of this place. 
 " In fact, in the middle of the paddock on the east side of my house, may be seen the man-hole 
 " which leads to the well. And, further on the back of one of the folios of the Abstract, is the 
 " extract from the Proceedings of the Quarter Sessions, held at Bridgwater on 17th July, 1805, 
 "showing that by order of the Justices a public footway across the Barn-piece was stopped, accom- 
 " panied by a plan figuring the footway and the position of the well. 
 
 ' I know you value accuracy, and to contribute towards the accuracy of the work you are 
 " engage! on (which I think is the duty of anyone possessed of certain knowledge), I venture to 
 " communicate these (perhaps unimportant) facts. 
 
 " Believe me, faithfully yours, 
 
 " P. E. George." 
 
 Mr. George's letter substantially confirms the description given. The identification of 
 the spot adds an interesting fact ; as it has always been supposed that no trace of the Well 
 existed. We thankfully accept Mr. George's letter. 
 
 [See page 1J+, Introduction, Footnote.] 
 
 POPULATION OF BATH. 
 
 Year. Population. Year. Population. 
 
 1801 34,160 1851 54,248 
 
 1811 38,434 1861 52,525 
 
 1821 46,588 1871 52,579 
 
 1831 50,800 ; 1881 54,000 
 
 1841 53,209 
 
 The stagnation is more apparent than real, large numbers of the labouring population during the 
 past twenty years having emigrated, whilst a new Bath has grown up in the suburbs, the residents 
 of which do not count in the city returns.
 
 INDEX. 
 
 ERRATA. 
 Pages 27 and 28, although allowed to remain in situ, as originally minted contain 
 
 Page 34, the name of "Lawrence" should be spelt " Laurance." 
 36, line 9, for "russe" read " rus." 
 39, in Footnote 2, for "Bouchier" read "Bourchier." 
 44, line 12, for "deny" read "as sert." 
 50, for 1602 read 1693, birth of Ralph Allen. 
 61, for "Lawrence" read "JLaurance." 
 
 1116 ^n-lT 11 ^"J"! andDuchess <" Kingston will be found in the Appendix 
 which must be taken as a substitute for that on page 64 *M*™™> 
 
 Pftge i^:jz & ^^ t was not the ArcMtect ° f camde ° *— « i *• 
 
 Page XVII., Introduction, line 11, for " persued " read "pursued/' 
 
 lienor, luumun ... 
 
 Ituiierlictino Mission, tliu ... ... 'J."> Davis, .). I'., M.I). 
 
 liibliography of ISuth ... ... ... xiv, Davis, ('. K., I'.S.A.
 
 i 5 8 
 
 Appendix. 
 [Well of Saint Winifred.] 
 
 uu nut cuuiit, in me cny returns.
 
 INDEX. 
 
 GENERAL SUBJECTS. 
 
 PAGE. 
 
 Adair, Dr. Mackittrick ... ... 85, 86 
 
 Addison, Joseph ... ... ... 118 
 
 Adequate Peace, the ... ... 75, 80 
 
 Albemarle, Lord ... ... ... 104 
 
 Allen, Major R. S. ... ... ... ix. 
 
 Allen, Philip ... .. ... ... ix. 
 
 Allen, Ralph ... iv., ix., xii., 23, 38, 50, 67, 69 
 
 Amusements of Bath Gentry ... ... xv. 
 
 Andre", Major ... ... ... ... 87 
 
 Anecdotes — Booth, Mrs., of Cheshire ... 6 
 
 „ Cobbe, Lady Betty ... ... 103 
 
 „ Everitt, W., and the Poet Moore 130 
 
 ,, Gainsborough ... ... 151 
 
 „ Goldsmith ... ... ... 27 
 
 ,, Hartley, David ... ... Ill 
 
 ,, Ligonier, Lord ... ... 156 
 
 ,, Macaulay, Catherine ... ... 117 
 
 ,, Queen Elizabeth ... ... 4 
 
 ,, Queen of James II. ... 5 
 
 ,, Quin, the Actor ... ... 32 
 
 Randolph, Rev. Dr. ... ... 137 
 
 ,, Sheppard, Rev. Dr. ... ... 103 
 
 ,, Temple, Mrs., of the Castle Hotel 128 
 
 ,, Wesley and Nash ... ... 99 
 
 ,, Wolfe, General ... ... 54 
 
 Anne, Queen of Denmark ... ... 4 
 
 Anstey, Christopher ...xvi., 19, 113, 149, 157 
 
 Appendix ... ... ... ... 151 
 
 Archives of Paris ... ... ... iii. 
 
 Atherston ... ... ... xvii. 
 
 Austen, Jane ... ... ... xvi., 149 
 
 Baldwin, Thos., City Architect 
 
 Barker, Benjamin 
 Barker, Thomas 
 Bath, its Modern Growth 
 Patli, Earl of ... 
 Ditto, Will of... 
 Bath, Earls of ... 
 Bath, Marquis of 
 Bat hurst, Lord ... 
 Pave, the Physician 
 Bayly, Haynes ... 
 Beckford, William 
 
 ,, Alderman of London 
 Bedford, Duchess of 
 
 ,, Duke of 
 Bcllinus's Tree ... 
 Jiellot, Thomas ... 
 Benedictine Mission, the 
 Bibliography of Lath 
 
 x., xii., 
 [14, 23 
 xvii. 
 xvii. 
 ... xi. 
 x., 132 
 ... 135 
 ... 39 
 14, 17 
 ... 34 
 vi., 31 
 
 •ii., 127 
 
 ... 101 
 
 ... KM 
 
 7 
 
 i., 7, 93 
 
 TACK. 
 
 Bimburie, the Seven Sisters ... ... ii. 
 
 Borlase, Rev. J. W. ... ... ... 9 
 
 Boswell ... ... ... ... 62 
 
 Bowles, William Lisle ... 127 
 
 Brewer, John ... .. ... 26 
 
 Britton, John ... ... ... ... 19 
 
 Broadhurst, Rev. Thos. ... ... ... 118 
 
 Brodrick, Hon. and Rev. W. J. ... ... 36 
 
 Brookman, of the White Hart ... ... 20 
 
 Bull, the Bath Publisher ... xv., 150 
 
 Burke, the Statesman ... ... ... xiii. 
 
 Burney, Miss ... ... ... ...xvii. 
 
 Burrington, the Village of ... ... ix. 
 
 Butler, Bishop ... ... ... ... 40 
 
 Cambridge, Duke of ... ... ... 11 
 
 Camden, Earl ... ... ... 63, 65 
 
 ,, Marquis ... ... ... It 
 
 Canning, George ... ... ... 14 
 
 Caraboo, Princess ... ... ... 143 
 
 Caricature of the Corporation of Bath ... 79 
 
 Carr. Bishop .. ... ... ... 36 
 
 Castlereagh, Lord ... ... ... xiv. 
 
 Carte, the Jacobite Rector ... iv., 22, 36 
 
 Chandos, Duke of ... ... xiv., 53 
 
 Chapman, the Family of ... vi., 22 
 
 Charles the Xth., King of France... ... x. 
 
 Charter of Queen Elizabeth ... ... 5S 
 
 Chatham, Earl of ... ... ... 6" 
 
 Chatterly, Mrs. ... ... ... 42 
 
 Chesterfield, Earl of 29, 133 
 
 Clare Lord, (see Nugent) 
 
 Clarence, Duchess of ... ... ... 16 
 
 Duke of ... ... x., 13, 14 
 
 Classic Ground of Bath ... ... ... xiii. 
 
 Cleveland, Duchess of ... ... ... xv. 
 
 Cleveland, Duke of ... ... ... x. 
 
 Clive, Lord ... ... ... ... 93 
 
 Connaught, Duke and Duchess of .. 17 
 
 Cooper, Sir Hutton ... ... ... 16 
 
 Cork and Burlington, Earl of ... ... 34 
 
 Cork and Orrery, Earl of .. ... ... 34 
 
 Cowper, the Loot ... ... ... L27 
 
 Crabbe, Lev. G. ... ... ... 127 
 
 ('ranch, W., the Artist .. ... .. xvii. 
 
 Crook, Lev. ('. ... ... ... iv., 15 
 
 Cunard, Sir Samuel, Bart. ... ... ix. 
 
 Darlington, Earl ..f ... ... ... \. 
 
 Davis. .1. !•'., M.D. ... ... ... Hi 
 
 Davis, ('. !•:., L.S.A. ... ... xviii.
 
 it. 
 
 Inde x. 
 
 
 
 PAGE. 
 
 
 PAGE. 
 
 Delany, Mrs. 
 
 ... 46 
 
 Hoare, Prince ... 
 
 ... Ill 
 
 Dickens', Chas., Description of Bath 
 
 .. 124 
 
 Hoblyn, the Misses 
 
 ... 57 
 
 Disbrowe, Colonel, M.P. 
 
 14, 15 
 
 Howth, Earl of 
 
 ... 34 
 
 Disraeli, The Right Hon. B. 
 
 ... xvi. 
 
 . Hungerford, Sir E. 
 
 ... 4 
 
 Dover, John, of the Lamb Hotel ... 
 
 xvii., 20 
 
 Hunter, Rev. Joseph 
 
 xv., 81 
 
 Duel in the Orange Grove 
 
 ... 44 
 
 Huntingdon, Selina, Countess of .. 
 
 ... 94 
 
 Duel between W. Pulteney and Lord Hervey 136 
 
 
 
 Duffielrl, the Artist 
 
 ...xvii. 
 
 Introductory Chapter 
 
 i. — xviii. 
 
 Dyer, Rev. William Henry 
 
 ... 144 
 
 
 
 
 
 Jacobite Conspiracy 
 
 ... 38 
 
 Earle, Rev. Professor 
 
 ... ix. 
 
 Jay, Rev. William 
 
 ... 144 
 
 Ed^eworth, R. L., and his Daughter 
 
 ... 32 
 
 Jervis, Lady, Private Journal of .. 
 
 ... 137 
 
 Edridge, John ... 
 
 ... 17 
 
 Jervis, Mrs. Henley ... ii., 
 
 iii., xviii., 26 
 
 Ki,,' .ent Residents of Bath 
 
 ... xvi. 
 
 Johnson, Dr. 
 
 ... iv. 
 
 P>rata ... 
 
 ... 158 
 
 Johnstone, Sir William, M.P. 
 
 X. 
 
 Essex, Earl of ... 
 
 X. 
 
 Jones, Inigo 
 
 ... xii. 
 
 Execution of Major Andre" 
 
 ... 89 
 
 
 
 Execution of John Butler, at Bath 
 
 ... 26 
 
 Kemble, Rev. C. 
 
 ... 36 
 
 
 
 Ken, Bishop 
 
 ... XV. 
 
 Falconer, Dr. William 
 
 ... 85 
 
 Kent, Duchess of 
 
 ... 16 
 
 Fielding, the Novelist 
 
 xii., xvi. 
 
 King of Bath ... 
 
 viii., 7, 8 
 
 Fitzherbert, Mrs. 
 
 ... 140 
 
 King James I. ... 
 
 ... 4 
 
 Fleming and his Daughter 
 
 ... 57 
 
 King Charles I., his Queen, and 
 
 'rince of 
 
 Foote, the Dramatist 
 
 ... 156 
 
 Wales 
 
 ... 5 
 
 Fraser, Sir Alexander 
 
 ... 24 
 
 King Charles II. 
 
 ... 5 
 
 Frederick, the Publisher... 
 
 ... xv. 
 
 King James II. ... 
 
 ... 5 
 
 
 
 Kingston, Duchess of, Trial of 
 
 ... 152 
 
 Gainsborough, Thomas ... 
 
 xvii., 89 
 
 Kingston, Duke of 
 
 54, 152 
 
 Gay, the founder of Gay Street ... 
 
 ... 61 
 
 Kitson, John, Mayor 
 
 ... 13 
 
 Genes t, Rev. John, M.A. 
 
 ... 53 
 
 
 
 Glanville, Rev. Joseph ... 
 
 ... 36 
 
 Landor, Walter Savage ... 
 
 xvfi., 11, 120 
 
 Gloucester, Duke of 
 
 ... 11 
 
 Lansdown, Lord... 
 
 ... 39 
 
 Godwin, John ... 
 
 ... 35 
 
 Lansdown, H. V. 
 
 ... 39 
 
 Godwin, J. C. 
 
 xviii. 
 
 Laurance, the Family of... 
 
 34, n 
 
 Goldsmith, Oliver vfl., viii., 27, 44, 
 
 151, 152 
 
 Lawrence, Sir Thomas 
 
 xvii., 112 
 
 Goldsmith's Life of Nash 
 
 ... vii. 
 
 Lee, Harriett 
 
 ... 118 
 
 Gordon Riots 
 
 ... 26 
 
 Leake, the Publisher 
 
 ... XV. 
 
 Greaves, Dr. 
 
 ... vi. 
 
 Legge, Right Hon. H. B. 
 
 ... 70 
 
 Green, Emanuel... 
 
 ... 3 
 
 Legacies to William Pitt ... 
 
 68, 69 
 
 Grenville, Sir Bevil 
 
 39, 47 
 
 Leigh, Colonel ... 
 
 ... 11 
 
 Guidott, Dr. ... ... ... vi. 
 
 , xiv., 35 
 
 Leighton, Sir F. 
 
 . . . xvii. 
 
 Gumley, the Family of ... 
 
 ... 133 
 
 Letters -.—Ralph Allen ... 
 
 76, 77 
 
 
 
 Rev. P. E. George... 
 
 ... 158 
 
 Harcourt, Masters 
 
 ... 147 
 
 Mrs. Henley Jervis 
 
 . . . iii. 
 
 llardwick, the Artist 
 
 .. xvii. 
 
 Lord Ligonier 
 
 ... 71 
 
 Hardwicke, Lord Chancellor 
 
 8, 55 
 
 G. Matcham 
 
 ... 31 
 
 Hardy, the Three Brothers 
 
 ...xvii. 
 
 Earl of Nottingham 
 
 ... 6 
 
 Harington rJohn, of Kelston 
 
 ... 6 
 
 Hutton Perkins 
 
 ... 8 
 
 Harington, Sir John 
 
 iv., 4 
 
 William Pitt 
 
 71—77, 142 
 
 Harington, Dr. ... 
 
 ... 90 
 
 Between Southey and Landor 122, 123 
 
 Harris, Mrs. J. D. 
 
 ...xvii. 
 
 Life at Prior Park 
 
 .. xii. 
 
 Harrowby, Earl of 
 
 .. 142 
 
 Ligonier, Sir John 
 
 65, 67 
 
 Hartley, David ... 
 
 ... 110 
 
 Linley, Thomas, and his daughter 
 
 30, 55 
 
 Hazard, the Publisher 
 
 ... XV. 
 
 ,, Eliza Anne (Mrs. Sheridan' 
 
 30,55 
 
 Henley, Robert, Karl of Northington 
 
 ... 63 
 
 Llanover, Lady ... 
 
 ... 47 
 
 Herschel, Caroline 
 
 ... 48 
 
 Long, Mr., R.A. 
 
 ...xvii. 
 
 Herschel, Sir William 
 
 xvi., 47 
 
 Louis XVIII. of France ... 
 
 X. 
 
 Hervey, Lord, Memoirs of 
 
 ... 9 
 
 Lukin, Mr. 
 
 ... 29 
 
 Hewlett, the Artist 
 
 ...xvii. 
 
 Lunn, Sally 
 
 ... 23 
 
 Hippisley, the .Manager of the Public I 
 
 looms xi. 
 
 Lytton the Novelist 
 
 ... xvi. 
 
 Hoare, William, R.A. 
 
 ... Ill 
 

 
 Index. 
 
 in. 
 
 TAGK. 
 
 Macaulay, Lord... ... ... v., vi. 
 
 Macaulay, Catherine ... ... ... 117 
 
 MacKittrick, Dr. ... ... ... 85 
 
 Madox, Willes ... ... ... ...xvii. 
 
 Mail-Coach, The First ... ... .. xvii. 
 
 Malmesbury, Lord ... ... ... xiv. 
 
 Mangin, Kev. Edward ... ... ... 146 
 
 Manvers, Earl ... ... ... ... 54 
 
 Maplet, Dr. ... ... ... ... vi. 
 
 Marlborough, Duchess, of ... ... 94 
 
 Marlborough, Lord and Lady ... ... 6 
 
 Mary Beatrice of Modena ... ... 5, 6 
 
 Matcham, G. ... ... ... ... 31 
 
 Melfort, Lord .. ... ... ... 6 
 
 Memoir of Major Andre" ... ... 87 
 
 ,, Gainsborough ... ... 89 
 
 ,, Countess of Huntingdon ... 94 
 
 J. H. Markland 108 
 
 ,, Thicknesse Family ... ... 82 
 
 Mitford, The Misses ... " ... ... 109 
 
 Monkland's Book ... ... ... 82 
 
 Moore, Thomas .. ... ... 127, 129 
 
 Morgan, Rev. Nathaniel ... ... ...116 
 
 Morris, J. W., Esq. ... ... xviii. 
 
 Moysey, Dr. Abel ... ... "... 41 
 
 „ Miss ... ... ... ... 154 
 
 Murray, Sir James, Bart. ... ... x. 
 
 Murch, Jerom, esq. ... ... xii., xviii. 
 
 Napoleon III. ... ... ... ... x. 
 
 Prince Louis ... ... 124, 128 
 
 Nash, Beau ... v., vi., vii., viii. , ix., xvi., 43 
 
 Naylor, Father Placid ... ... ... iii. 
 
 Nelson, Admiral Lord ... ... ... 30 
 
 Nelson, Lady ... ... ... ... 137 
 
 Nelson, Rev. Edmund ... ... ... 31 
 
 New Bath Guide . . ... xvi., 114 
 
 Northington, Earl of ... ... ... 63 
 
 Northumberland, Duke of ... 142, 151 
 
 Nottingham, Earl of ... ... .. 6 
 
 Nugent, Dr. Christopher ... ... 29 
 
 Earl ... ... ... ... 151 
 
 Lord ... ... ... ... 27 
 
 O'liryen, Lord James ... .. ... 16 
 
 Old Coaching Days ... ... ...xvii. 
 
 ,, Lodging-houses ... ... ... v. 
 
 ,, Physicians and Doctors ... ... vi. 
 
 Palmer, John 
 
 Parry, Dr. 
 
 Partis Fletcher ... 
 
 Peirco, Dr. ... ... vi 
 
 Phelan, George ... 
 
 Phillott, The Three Brothers 
 
 Pickwick, Klcazur 
 
 Piozzi, Mrs. 
 
 Pitt, William ... ... x., 
 
 Poem of the "Looking-Glass " 
 
 Poets, A Group of 
 
 Popo, a ... ... ... xii., 9 
 
 ix 
 
 , 12, 20 
 
 
 ... 34 
 
 
 ... IK) 
 
 '., 4, 
 
 5, 6, 24 
 
 
 ... Ml 
 
 
 ... 20 
 
 xvn. 
 
 01,139 
 
 Xlll., 
 
 07, Ml 
 
 
 ... 127 
 
 Population of Bath 
 Portsmouth, Duchess of ... 
 Pratt, Hon. John Jeffreys 
 Prince Consort, The 
 
 ,, George of Denmark 
 
 ,, Leopold ... 
 
 , , of* Orange 
 
 PAGE, 
 xiv., 158 
 ... xv. 
 ... 66 
 ... 17 
 6 
 ... 15 
 ... 8 
 
 of Wales (afterwards Charles II.) ... 5 
 (afterwards George IV.) 11, 140 
 
 ,, and Princess of Wales (1738) 
 Princess Amelia ... 
 
 ,, Anne ... 
 
 ,, Charlotte 
 
 ,, Elizabeth 
 Princesses Mary and Caroline (1740) 
 Princess Victoria 
 Provence, Count de 
 Prynne, William 
 Pulteney, Frances 
 
 ,, Henrietta Laura 
 
 ,, General Harry 
 
 John 
 
 ,, Sir William ... 
 
 Queen Anne 
 
 ,, Anne Hyde 
 
 ,, Charlotte... 
 
 ,, Catherine of Braganza 
 
 ,, Elizabeth... 
 
 ,, Mary of Modena ... 
 
 ,, James 
 
 Ramsden, Mrs. C. 
 
 Randolph, Rev. Dr. 
 
 Rauzzini 
 
 Reade ... 
 
 Richardson's Marriage ... 
 
 Roebuck, John Arthur ... 
 
 Ronchi... 
 
 Rose, the Statesman 
 
 Rosenberg, Miss 
 
 Mr. G. 
 Royal Visits to Bath 
 Russell, Mr. C. P. 
 
 6 
 
 13, 14 
 
 ,.. 10 
 .. 16 
 ... 11 
 
 x., 132 
 
 x., 13, 14 
 
 iv., 3 
 ... 5, 6 
 ... 31 
 
 ... 100 
 ... 137 
 xvi., 50 
 .. xvii. 
 ... xv. 
 ... 120 
 .i 
 ... xiv. 
 ...xvii. 
 ...x\ii. 
 
 St. Vincent, Lady 
 Sandwich, Earl of 
 Satires and Satirists 
 Scott, Sir Walter 
 Sebright, Sir John, Barl 
 Shenstono, the I'oet 
 Sheppard, Kev. Dr. 
 Sheridan, Richard Brinsl 
 Sheridan, Tom ... 
 Sherlock 
 
 Sherston, William 
 Smith, Sir Sidney 
 
 ,, Rev. Sidney 
 Smollett, Tobias 
 Southey, Robert 
 Squire Western ... 
 
 ... v., xviii., 21 
 
 137 
 
 ... xvi. 
 
 ... 05 
 127 
 
 ... KM 
 ... xiii., xv., ^7> 
 
 ... xii. 
 
 ... iv., 3, -1, 58 
 ... 116 
 
 ... 10,) 
 
 ... N W.
 
 IV. 
 
 Index. 
 
 Steele ... 
 
 98 
 
 Stockmar, Baron de 
 
 15 
 
 Strahan, John ... 
 
 40 
 
 Strickland, Miss... 
 
 ... tv. 
 
 Sussex, Duke of... 
 
 11 
 
 Syer, Mr. 
 
 ...xvii. 
 
 Temple, Mrs., of the Castle Hotel 128, 131 
 
 Thicknesse, Philip 
 
 ... 79, 80, 118 
 
 Thurlow, Lord ... 
 
 140 
 
 Thynne, Lord John 
 
 47 
 
 Tickell, Thomas, the Poet 
 
 ... 118 
 
 ,, Richard 
 
 119 
 
 Titley, W. 
 
 xviii. 
 
 Townsend, Rev. Joseph ... 
 
 ... 103 
 
 Tugwell, G. H., esq. 
 
 13 
 
 Tuppeu, Rev. Thos. 
 
 145 
 
 Tyler, Miss 
 
 33 
 
 Y^aughan, Rev. R. A. 
 
 ... 145 
 
 Wade, Marshal ... 
 
 22, 23, 38, 50, 63 
 
 Walpole, Horace 
 
 43, 102 
 
 ,, Sir Robert 
 
 ... X. 
 
 Warburton, Bishop 
 
 xii., 78 
 
 Warner tho*Historian 
 
 4, 6, 9, 23, 37 
 
 Wassell, Rev. D. 
 
 ... 144 
 
 PAGE. 
 
 49, 138 
 xviii. 
 
 Watson, Sir William 
 
 Watts, Mr. 
 
 Webb, the Town Clerk 
 
 Webster (Nash's predecessor) ... vii., xv. 
 
 Wedgwood, Josiah ... ... ... 42 
 
 Wesley, John and Charles 95, 96, 97, 98, 99, 100, 
 
 [101, 102 
 Weymouth, Viscount ,., ... ... 47 
 
 Whistling Match, A ... ... ... 119 
 
 Whitefield 95, 96, 97, 98, 99, 100, 101, 102, 103 
 Wilberforce ... ... xi., xiii., 23, 145 
 
 Wilkinson, Dr. ... ... ... ... 143 
 
 Willan, Mr. J. N., M.A. ... xviii. 
 
 Willcox, Mr. ... ... ... xviii. 
 
 Williams, Rev. F. Anseltn ... ... 5 
 
 Wiltshire, Lessee of Rooms ... vii., viii., 45 
 
 Wiltshire, Walter, Friend of Gainsborough 92 
 Wolfe, General ... ... ... ... 54 
 
 Wood, John, the elder and younger ii., v., vi., 
 
 [ix., xiii., xiv., xv., 60 
 
 Woodbury type, by Perren ... xviii. 
 
 Wordsworth, the Poet ... ... xiii., 34 
 
 Windham, Rt. Hon. W. ... ... 28, 29 
 
 York, Duke and Duchess of 
 
 ,, ,, (Edward Augustus) 
 York, Charles ... 
 
 10, 57 
 
 10, 137 
 
 55, 56 
 
 HISTORIC HOUSES, PUBLIC BUILDINGS, STREETS, Etc. 
 
 Abbey, the Path 
 
 ,, Cemetery 
 
 ,, Churchyard, No. 14 
 
 ,, House ... 
 Ainslie's Belvedere, No. 8 
 Alfred Street, No. 2 
 Allen's, Lalph, Town llousc 
 Ambury Mead .. 
 Argyle ' 'Impel 
 Argyle Street, No. 8 
 Assembly Rooms 
 Axford Butfdings 
 
 Barton Farm 
 Barton House ... 
 Burton Lane 
 Bathwiek Old Church 
 
 ,, The Estate of ... 
 Villa ... 
 
 Bear Inn 19,62, 
 
 Beau'-Street 
 
 Beuuliou House, Newbridge Hill... 
 Beekford House, Lansdown Crescent 
 Bcckford's Tower 
 
 35, 36 
 
 BelLTree 1 louse 
 
 
 ii., iii., 
 
 25, 26, 27 
 
 ... 36 
 
 Pell Tree Lane... 
 
 
 
 ii. 
 
 38,39 
 
 Beliefs Hospital 
 
 
 
 ii. 
 
 ... 4 
 
 Belvedere House 
 
 
 
 ... 118 
 
 ... 89 
 
 Bowling Green, The 
 
 
 
 xv., xvi. 
 
 112,117 
 
 Burnhamthorpe Rec 
 
 tory... 
 
 
 ... 31 
 
 '.'.'. 27 
 
 Camden Place, or Crescent 
 
 
 23, 60, 65 
 
 ...'144 
 
 Castle Hotel , .. 
 
 
 
 128, 131 
 
 ... 137 
 
 Chandos Buildings 
 
 
 
 ... xiv. 
 
 15, 24 
 
 ,, House... 
 
 
 
 xiv., 53 
 
 ... 79 
 
 Chapel Court ... 
 Chapel, Laura ... 
 
 
 
 ... 43 
 
 ... 137 
 
 ... 59 
 
 < 'hapman's I louse 
 
 
 
 ... 40 
 
 iv., 58 
 
 ( 'heap Street 
 
 
 
 ... -".8 
 
 ... 46 
 
 Church Lane 
 
 
 
 ... xii. 
 
 X. 
 
 Circus ... 
 
 
 xiii 
 
 , xvii., 'in 
 
 ix., 13] 
 
 ,, No. 7 ... 
 
 
 
 xiii., 67 
 
 ... 148 
 
 ,, No. 14 ... 
 
 
 
 ... 93 
 
 ,65,133 
 
 „ No. 15 ... 
 
 
 
 xiii., 93 
 
 ii. 
 
 „ No. 23 ... 
 
 
 
 ... 87 
 
 ... 119 
 
 „ No. 24 ... 
 
 
 
 ... 89 
 
 ... 104 
 
 ,, House ... 
 
 
 
 ... 29 
 
 16, 106 
 
 City Clates, The 
 
 
 
 i.
 
 Index. 
 
 City Walls, The... 
 
 Cloth Factories of Walcot 
 
 Clubs ... 
 
 Cross Bath 
 
 Cross Keys Inn ... 
 
 Crown Inn, liathwick 
 
 Edgar Buildings, No. 4 ... 
 
 „ .. No. 6 
 
 Fonthill Abbey ... 
 Freemasons' Hall 
 
 Galloway's Buildings 
 Garrick's Head Inn 
 Gay Street 
 
 No. 1 
 
 „ No. 8 
 
 No. 41 
 
 General Hospital 
 
 Grand Pump-room Hotel 
 
 Grapes Tavern, (Westgate Street) 
 
 Green Park Buildings 
 
 Grenville Monument 
 
 Greyhound Inu... 
 
 Guildhall 
 
 Hampton Down 
 Harrison's Walks 
 Hartley House (Belvedere) 
 Henrietta Street, No. 20 
 Henry Street, No. 
 Hermitage, The 
 Hetlnig House ... 
 
 Inns of other Days 
 
 John Street, No. 7 
 Johnstone Street, No. 10 
 „ No. 15 
 
 Kingsmead 
 Kingsmead Square 
 Kingsmead Street, No. 13 
 Kingston House 
 
 Lamb Inn, The ... 
 
 Lansdnwn Crescent, No. 1 
 
 Ijuira Place, No. 11 
 
 Leake's Lll laiy 
 
 Lilliput Alley ... 
 
 Lock's Lane 
 
 l.o.|_c. The ( Bathampfon) 
 
 Londonderry, or Rosewell'a House 
 
 Lower Looms, The 
 
 Matiror* Street Baptist Chapel ... 
 Masonic Hall .. 
 Mount Beacon House 
 
 ' House ... 
 
 PAGE. 
 
 ' 
 
 PAGE. 
 
 ... xiv. 
 
 New King Street, Nos. 7 & 19 ... 
 
 ... 49 
 
 • .. 62 
 
 North Parade ... 
 
 ii., 10 
 
 ... XV. 
 
 No. 9 
 
 ... 34 
 
 ... 6 
 
 No. 10 
 
 ... 151 
 
 ... 34 
 
 No. 11 
 
 27, 28, 151 
 
 ... 132 
 
 
 
 
 Obelisk, The (Orange Grove) 
 
 ... 9 
 
 ... 94 
 
 Orange Grove ... ... 8, 
 
 9, 34, 35, 44 
 
 ... 111 
 
 No. 7 
 
 ... 57 
 
 
 Nos. 14 & 15 
 
 ... 35 
 
 ... 105 
 
 Orchard Street Theatre ... 
 
 12,32 
 
 ... 11 
 
 
 
 
 Parades, The ... 
 
 ... xiii. 
 
 23, 47 
 
 Pear Tree Lane... 
 
 ... 26 
 
 45, 46, 47 
 
 Pelican Inn (Walcot Street) 
 
 ... 62 
 
 xiii., 60 
 
 Percy Place, No. 4 
 
 ... 144 
 
 ... 149 
 
 Pierrcpont Street 
 
 29,32 
 
 ... 61 
 
 „ No. 2 
 
 ... 30 
 
 ... 60 
 
 No. 5 
 
 ... 30 
 
 ... iv. 
 
 Prior Park ... ... ix., xii., 16, 51, 79 
 
 20, 37 
 
 Pulteney Bridge 
 
 X. 
 
 ... 38 
 
 Pulteney Street, No. 21 ... 
 
 49,138 
 
 ... 149 
 
 ,, 26 
 
 ... 141 
 
 ... 39 
 
 „ 34 
 
 ... 11 
 
 ... 21 
 
 „ 53 
 
 ... 140 
 
 ix., 21 
 
 ,, „ 55 ... 
 
 ... 143 
 
 
 „ 58 
 
 ... 140 
 
 ii. 
 
 8 
 ... 109 
 
 Pump Room 
 
 . . . ix. 
 
 Queen Square ... 
 
 xiii., 34, 60 
 
 ... 30 
 
 
 
 ... 53 
 
 Baby Place. No. 13 
 
 ... 30 
 
 80, 85 
 
 Rectory House (Abbey) ... 
 
 ... iii. 
 
 v., 4, 10 
 
 Rectory House (St. James') 
 
 ... ii. 
 
 
 Livers Street .. 
 
 ... 49 
 
 ... 19 
 
 No. 3 
 
 ... 120 
 
 
 Rock House 
 
 ... 113 
 
 ... 57 
 
 Roman Catholic Mission House ... 
 
 ii. 
 
 ... 116 
 
 Lose Inn (Avon Street) ... 
 
 ... (12 
 
 ... 141 
 
 Rosewell's House 
 
 xiv., 39, 40 
 
 
 Royal Crescent ... 
 
 10. 60 
 
 .. xiv. 
 
 No 5 ... 
 
 ... 113 
 
 ... 39 
 
 No. 9 .... 
 
 so 
 
 ... 41 
 
 Royal Lansdown School ... 
 
 ... 17 
 
 143, 152 
 
 ,, Literary Institution 
 
 85 
 
 
 ,, United' Hospital .. 
 
 ii.. iii. 
 
 xvii., 20 
 
 Royal Victoria Park 
 
 ... 17 
 
 ... H'8 
 
 
 
 28, 142, 152 
 
 S. Catharine's ... 
 
 ... iv. 
 
 55 
 
 S. James's Rampier 
 
 ... 34 
 
 2 1, 38, 51 
 
 S, James's Square, Nos. 1 & '■)[> 
 
 120, 125 
 
 ... 19 
 
 S. John's ( lourt 
 
 45, hi, 47 
 
 ... so 
 
 ,, Gate . 
 
 ... 57 
 
 39,40 
 
 Hospital 
 
 ... 10 
 
 3.) 
 
 S. (-Catherine's 1 lospital ... 
 
 ii. 
 
 
 S. Michael's Church 
 
 ... 00 
 
 ... Ill 
 
 S. Winifred's Well 
 
 5. 158 
 
 ... 12 
 
 Sham Castle 
 
 ii. 
 
 ... 131 
 
 Slopertou Cottage (near Bremhill) 
 
 .. 120 
 
 
 South Parade, No. 5 
 
 12'.', 151 
 
 8, 34 
 
 No. 6 
 
 32
 
 VI. 
 
 Index. 
 
 Spring Gardens... 
 
 Stall's Church and Churchyard 
 
 Stall's Vicarage House 
 
 Summerhill 
 
 Swainswick 
 
 Sydney Gardens 
 
 Sydney Place, No. 4 
 
 Nos. 93 & 103 
 
 Three Cups Inn (Northgate Street) 
 
 ,, (Walcot Street) 
 
 Three Tuns Inn... 
 Trim Street, No. 5 
 Turley House ... 
 Twerton 
 
 PAGE. 
 
 xvi. 
 37 
 37 
 34 
 58 
 
 xvi., 16, 147 
 149 
 13 
 
 20 
 
 62 
 
 62 
 
 154 
 
 54 
 
 28 
 
 Wade's Alley ... 
 Walcot Terrace, No. 6 ... 
 West Gate 
 Westgate Buildings 
 Weymouth House 
 White Hart Inn 
 White Lion Inn 
 Widcomb of Camalodunum 
 Widcombe House 
 Wmifred's Dale (Sion Hill) 
 Wood Street, No. 1 
 
 PAGE. 
 
 37 
 
 80 
 
 xiv., 3, 4, 7, 39 
 xiv., 42 
 
 47 
 
 xvii., 20, 62, 129 
 
 xvii., 26 
 
 .:. xiii. 
 
 ... xii. 
 
 5 
 
 55 
 
 York House ... ... xvii., 11, 12, 15, 16 
 
 York Street Baptist Church ... ... 144
 
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