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taking great interest in the excavations, has established the 

 fact, I beUeve, that the old Roman temple crossed the street, 

 and was situate largely on the area of the White Hart. At 

 all events he has found there the basement of a large 

 building of ancient date, and also a continuation of the frieze 

 of the temple, a portion of which is in the vestibule of the 

 Institution ; and that is an additional argument in favour of 

 this supposition. It is a question whether, previous to the 

 Roman period, there was any city of Bath at all, or any town 

 or place of any name. Some of the earlier writers on Bath 

 produce some British names in connection with it, such as 

 Gaer Palladur and the like ; but I have never been able to 

 find any authority for those names, nor have I ever seen a 

 single scrap of evidence to lead me to the conclusion that 

 there was a city at all about the Waters before the Romans 

 came. I do not say it is unlikely, but that I desire 

 evidence to prove it. In the excavations lately made on 

 the site of the White Hart, and which are carried dowTi to 

 the geological bottom — to the lias — they passed through 

 about 18 inches of a fine red greasy clay, which Mr. Irvine 

 thought was the old sediment of the Bath waters ; in which 

 case one must suppose that there was once a considerable 

 pool existing there, or a morass of the water, which was very 

 probable, for Mr. Irvine's view is based not simply on what 

 he saw at the White Hart, but at the west end of the Abbey, 

 where a considerable sinking was was made, when he found 

 the same kind of mud. It appeared full of iron, and was of 

 a rusty red colour. That suggests, as I have remarked, an 

 extensive morass or pool, formed by these waters, and almost 

 immediately above that fine clay we begin to have tokens 

 of the Roman period. One of the things observed on 

 the site of the White Hart, was about six inches of a sort 

 of gravelling with concrete, as if there had been a large area, 

 esplanade, or parade ground there, which is exceedingly likely. 



