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condition just on the eve of their destruction. I take it from the 

 fifth number of the Bath. Advertiser, a newspaper which had a 

 brief existence" in the middle of the last century. The first num- 

 ber was published on 18th October, 1755, and 264 numbers in all 

 were issued. What I am going to read is headed " Letter V.," and 

 evidently forms one of a series describing the city, but all 

 endeavours to find any more of the early numbers of the paper 

 have failed, and I must therefore be content to read you what I 

 have. The letter is addressed to Julian Alberti. at Florence, and 

 is dated Bath, July 2nd, 1753, two years before the removal of 

 the North Gate, which took place in the year the letter was 

 published in the newspaper. It says : — 



LETTER V. 



To JuuAN Alberti, at Florence. 



Bath, July 2, 1753. 

 Dear Sir, 



Before I proceed to give you a farther Clironological History 

 of this Place it will be necessary to give some Idea of the Shape and 

 Size of the Town at the Time of tlie Reformation, and a Description of 

 the Buildings as they were then and what Alterations they have sutFered 

 since, as far as I can collect from a Plan of the City taken about that 

 Time, which a Friend of mine has now in bis Possession, and this will 

 take in describing several letters : The Spot of Ground that Alfred's 

 Wall surrounds is an irregular Polygon of Six sides, some of which are 

 straight, others very much curved, especially to the West, and all 

 unequal. The straightest and longest Side is that to the North, wliich 

 is exactly 940 Feet long ; at the East-endi of this Wall stood a Tower, 

 call'd Counter'' s-Tower, which is now destroy'd, (though 'twas in 

 Being in the Memory of an old Mason of this City) ; and at the West- 

 End is a Tower called Gascogn's Tower : About One Hundred and 

 Seventy Feet from the ^cwi-End is the North-gate, the principal 

 entrance into this City and there was then no other Opening in the 

 North Wall but this Gate ; but in the Begiiming of this Century there 

 was another made near the TF(^s^End, and a Bridge made over the 

 Ditch on the Out side of the W-all, to be a Communication tea new 



