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=" In the little Cabin under White Hall Stairs is continued 
to be exhibited the grand Collection of Perspective Views which 
for several Years has given universal Satisfaction to Ladies and 
Gentlemen that have honoured the said Views with their 
Inspection.” 
““A Letter from an Invalid at Bath,” in the Chronicle of 
May 28th, 1772, lauds Spring-Gardens and its frequenters :— 
“When Phoebus thinks proper to send forth his beam, 
I sometimes pass o’er fam’d Avon’s fair stream, 
And quickly approach a spot many surmise, 
To be somewhat like a place call’d Paradise. 
For there forms angelic they constantly meet, 
Whose eyes shine like stars, and who fly—with their feet. 
Here bountiful nature, assisted by art, 
Is pleas’d in diversify’d charms to impart 
Those beauties she lavishly gives to the Spring, 
And here ‘ the sweet choristers warble and sing.’ 
” 
On September 17th, 1772, notice was given that ‘‘ Chairs and 
Foot Passengers may pass over the New Bridge during the 
Races (on Claverton Down) but no Horses or Carriages as the 
Way is not Pitched.” The building of ‘‘ Pulteney’s Bridge” 
must have conduced to the popularity of the Gardens by 
making them freely accessible, but long after its opening, 
the steep descent from the bridge level to the Bathwick 
meadows made vehicular access difficult. To the Sedan 
chairmen the bridge was a boon. ‘“‘ The distance from the 
Pump Room to the Gardens is 472 yards being within a 
Sixpenny Chair-fare,” but few of their patrons could have 
had the temerity to tender only the legal fare of sixpence to 
a pair of sturdy and notoriously pugnacious chair-men. 
The Chronicle, October 12th, 1772, records that a few days 
previously “a Boat with two women was carried down the 
river, then in flood, through an arch of the new bridge, passing 
over the weir safely, the boat was carried back by the reflux 
of the water under the weir and swamped.—one woman was 
rescued by a boat from the Mill, the other by Mr. Purdie, who 
put off in his boat to her assistance,’’ Those who know the Avon 
in flood at this point will marvel at the escape of the women 
and the courage of their rescuers. 
The new bridge quickly supplanted Purdie’s ferry, an 
advertisement in June, 1773, noting, “the Passage-Boat 
on the river leading to Spring-Gardens to be Sold.” 
A unique innovation was announced in 1774, ‘‘ The public 
