48 PROC. COTTESWOLD CLUB vol. xiii. 



feature in the earlier Roman camps,* has survived all the 

 changes the place has undergone. The two small streets 

 between the Westgate street and Borough Walls do not 

 run straight across Westgate street on the southern side ; 

 where, as in other Roman towns, the opposite quarter 

 was divided in the same way. But while the upper, or 

 northern half of the Roman city makes a tolerable 

 approach to the right angles of the standard type, the 

 southern walls are deflected so greatly from this square 

 standard, that we are driven to one of two conclusions : — 

 Either the Roman wall was originally built square, and 

 after some destruction of the city has been rebuilt, so as 

 to leave the outline what the streets now show ; or else 

 Bath was a British town before the invasion of Claudius, 

 and the Romans partly preserved its outline on the 

 southern side, while they carried out their own plans by 

 measuring ofi" as much as they required on the side of the 

 hot baths — thus producing the same efi"ect as at Silchestcr, 

 where at the East gate the regular Roman wall runs in a 

 straight line, while the rest of the enceinte is j)olygonal. 

 It is impossible to suppose that no town existed here in 

 the pre-Roman time. The Britons were in a fairly 

 advanced state of civilization in many points, and it is not 

 likely that they would neglect these remarkable curative 

 waters. Indeed, the British name Siil implies a know- 

 ledge of the waters ; and the clever way in which the 

 Romans combined this name with that of their own Minerva 

 (Sul-Minerva) shows that they regarded such a com- 

 promise as inevitable. The existence, therefore, of baths 

 and a temple at the time of the Claudian invasion would be 

 a strong reason for the Romans making their plan of this 



* The two quarters cut off by the shorter end of the cross were those occupied by 

 the officers and used for the stores. These were each divided into three blocks of building, 

 separated by two minor streets. The other two quarters, parted from the short end of the 

 camp by the Tia priiicipia, were each composed of four blocks divided by three streets. 



