35 



know ; because Mr. Lansdown could never have seen the 

 original. It bore the date 1180, and if that is correct it 

 must have been the oldest Norman building which stood 

 in Bath. 



Now when we pass from the Norman period to the next 

 great architectural revival in Bath, we find a very long inter- 

 val indeed. There really was not any work done in Bath of 

 which we have either any trace or any record earlier than the 

 beginning of the sixteenth century.* This, at first sight, 

 appears very unaccountable ; but it can be explained on 

 looking into history. In the twelfth century the Bishop of 

 Bath changed his residence from Bath to Wells. The first 

 who removed was Joscelyn Trotman, a name of particular 

 significance ; wherein the fortunes of the two cities may well 

 be bracketed together, the loss of Bath being the gain of 

 Wells. When we are asked for the glories of Bath between 

 the Norman times and the days of the Reformation, the 

 answer is that they are transferred to Wells, where the gi-eat 

 architectural development of the building centuries M'as dis- 

 played so conspicuously. It was not merely that the Bishop — 

 I am speaking of the result of years, and use the word Bishop 

 as an abstraction — changed his residence from one episcopal 

 seat to the othei-, which he had a perfect right to do, and which, 

 although it might have been a loss, could hardly have been 

 called an injury ; but there was a positive injury attached to 

 it. When the Bishop moved away fi'om Bath to Wells he 

 divested it of the glory of its abbacy. He incorporated the 

 dignity of the abbot in his ovm person of bishop, and he left 

 nothing but a poor subordinate prior in his place. He also 

 took away a pretty good share of the estates of the Abbey, 



* This is a little too sweeping, though true ia the main. Mr. Irvine tells us 

 that some early English pilasters have been found in the masonry of a well on 

 the site of the White Hart ; and then there is the East Gate, which ought not 

 to have been forgotten. 



