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to mention the oldest city in the West of England, they would 

 name Bristol, because it possessed a number of ancient buildings. 

 Now, Bath was very much older than Bristol, but did not possess 

 many architectural remains above ground ; it was, however, very 

 rich in old records, which such papers as the present one were 

 very useful in bringing to light. 



Mr. Green in replying said he had no clue as to the number 

 of mendicants, but probably they would be very numerous ; it 

 was very doubtful if serfdom existed in the city. The returns of 

 the poll tax were no doubt very much " cooked " in those days, 

 especially as regarded the clerics and certain favoured indi- 

 viduals. The number of burgesses however in the Domesday 

 Book was only one hundred and fifty, which, multiplied by five, 

 would give seven hundred and fifty as the gross population. The 

 servants consisted of three classes, corresponding most likely 

 to domestic servants, apprentices, and hired men servants. He 

 would be glad of some information as to the locality of Bimbery 

 Street and Sowter Street mentioned in the old records. The 

 records he had worked up his paper from were not in Bath, 

 but in London, and were written in very diflicult text. 



Mr. Brown said that Bimbery Lane still existed along the 

 east side of the United Hospital, and he thought that " By ye 

 Bathe Strete " might be the street on the W. side of the 

 Hospital now called Hot Bath Street, and that ''Sowter Stret" 

 may be Beau Street. 



The Chairman having dwelt upon the usefulness of all infor- 

 mation as to population and antiquities of Bath, in view of the 

 early preparation of a handbook to Bath, for the use of the 

 British Association, went on to say, that whilst there had been 

 much investigation concerning the Roman and Saxon periods in 

 Bath there had not been so much done for the immediately 

 succeeding period. As regarded the Roman period, it Avas now 

 considered probable that Frontinus, a great engineer, and the 

 immediate predecessor of Agricola in these islands, was the 



