LECTURE 



ON 



TRACES of the EARLY HISTORY of BATH and its 

 NEIGHBOURHOOD, 



BY THE 



REV. J. EARLE, M.A. 



There is no town in the country that has been the subject 

 of so much writing as Bath. With the single exception of 

 London, there is no place, I imagine, that has produced, 

 through centmies, such a succession of writers on its 

 local histoiy. Some of them were mere scribblers ; but 

 others were serious and able writers. I have heard that 

 observation made by others, and, as far as my experience goes, 

 I really beHeve it to be true, and not only so, but would say, 

 having given pretty considerable study to the history of 

 Bath, that it is remarkable in this way, that there is no great 

 period in the history of the country which is not represented 

 in this locality. A person who reads through the history of 

 Bath does, in effect, read a history of England in small, 

 because there is no important epoch that is unrepresented in 

 the history of oiu: immediate localit}', and that from the veiy 

 earliest times. There is a great number of towns which 

 for the last 400 or 500 years have been more distinguished 

 than Bath, with the exception of the singular position of Bath 

 in the last century ; but I know of no town which from the 



