925 



BATAVIA. 



BATH. 



Society of Arts and Sciences, to which belongs a museum of natural 

 history ; and the primary school, which is under the superintendence of 

 the government. The houses are well built, clean, aud spacious, and 

 their construction is suited to the country. The doors and windows are 

 lofty, and the ground-floors are covered with flags of marble, which 

 are kept constantly wet, and impart a coolness to the dwelling. The 

 inhabitants are accustomed to burn aromatic woods and resins, and 

 to scatter about a profusion of odoriferous flowers, of which there are 

 great abundance and variety. During the prosperity of the Dutch 

 East India Company, Batavia obtained the title of Queen of the East, 

 as the resources of all other districts were sacrificed to its exclusive 

 commerce ; but its splendour has decreased owing chiefly to the 

 increase of the British empire in India. There are numerous good 

 roads in the interior of the country. 



The swamps and morasses through which Batavia is approached are 

 in a certain degree a protection against hostile attack, for the destruc- 

 tion of the roads which cross them to the town would make the 

 advance of heavy artillery impracticable. Towards the bay the water 

 is too shallow to admit even of a boat coming within gunshot-range 

 of the c.-tle, except by the narrow entrance to the river, which may 

 be clog. 1 by booms. 



The population of Batavia, by the Census of 1832, was 118,300, of 

 whom 80,000 were Javanese or Malays, 9500 slaves, 2800 Europeans, 

 1000 Arabians, and 25,000 Chinese. The Chinese farm the revenues, are 

 the principal artisans, and exclusively manufacture the sugar and 

 arrack. They have a separate quarter outside the town, the suburbs 

 of which occupy a larger space than the city itself : they suffer greatly 

 from disease, and the mortality among them is very great, owing to 

 the closeness of their apartments and their gross manner of living. 

 Many junks arrive annually from China, bringing about 1000 settlers. 

 In 1742, in consequence of a supposed organised plan of insurrection 

 on the part of the Chinese, the Dutch government perpetrated a most 

 cold-blooded massacre, in which more than one-half of the Chinese 

 were murdered. 



The country around Batavia is very beautiful and fertile, though 

 flat in the vicinity of the town. Markets are regularly held, one within 

 and the other outside the city ; they are remarkably well supplied 

 with fruit, which is the most abundant article of vegetable luxury ; 

 the principal sorts are pine-apples, oranges, shaddocks, lemons, limes, 

 mangoes, bananas, grapes, melons, pomegranates, custard -apples, 

 papaws, mangosteens, and rombusteens, with many others mostly 

 unknown in Europe. Fowls, ducks, and geese are plentiful and cheap ; 

 turkeys, pigeons, and wild-fowl are in general very scarce, and butcher's 

 meat is inferior in quality and high in price ; of fish there is an 

 abundant supply, and turtle are sometimes found. In 1841 there 

 entered the port 1905 ships, of which 1454 were Dutch. In the same 

 year the customs revenue exceeded half a million sterling. The 

 imports are opium, wine, provisions, linen and cotton goods, woollen 

 manufactures, cutlery, and general European manufactured goods, 

 Asiatic and West Indian products ; the exports include sugar, cofiee, 

 spices, indigo, hides, tin, rattans, and arrack : salt also forms an 

 important article of colonial commerce. Near Batavia there are some 

 very extensive works for making salt from sea-water. 



The anchorage of Batavia is a bay about 1 1 miles long and 6 miles 

 wide, capable of containing any number of vessels of the largest size ; 

 it U studded with coral knolls and protected by several small islands, 

 averaging half a mile in diameter, all of which are now unoccupied 

 except Onrust, a well fortified island, in which is the naval arsenal. 



These islands protect the bay from any heavy swell ; and as the 

 bottom in very tenacious it becomes a perfectly safe anchorage. But 

 when the sea-breeze blows strongit causes a 'cockling sea," which renders 

 the communication with the town unpleasant and sometimes danger- 

 ous, as the only landing-place is up the river ; the channel of which 

 is formed by wooden piers projecting half a mile into the sea, and 

 across it i a shallow bar. The river Jaccatra abounds in large alli- 

 gators. During the easterly monsoon, which blows from April to 

 October, the weather is uniformly fine and warm, but the north-west 

 monsoon is always accompanied by heavy rains and strong winds. 

 The summer range of the thermometer is from 70 to 74 in the morn- 

 ings and evenings. The mean temperature of the year is 78'3 Fahr. 

 The rise of the tide is about 6 feet. 



Races are occasionally held in Batavia. 



(Raffles' s Hittory of Java ; Staunton's Emltasey to China ; Cook's 

 Voyaga ; Crawfurd's Hittory of the Indian Archipelago ; Horsburgh's 

 Eatt India Directory ; Hogendorp's Coup (T(EU, <tc. ; Captain Keppel's 

 Indian Archipelago, London, 1853.) 



BATAVIA, REPUBLIC OF. [NETHERLANDS.] 



BATH, the chief city of Somersetshire, a municipal and parliamen- 

 tary borough, and the seat of a Poor-Law Union, in the hundred of 

 Bath-Forum. It lies in a valley, divided by the river A von, 108 miles 

 from London by road, and 106 miles by the Great Western railway ; 

 in 51 23' N. lat., 2 22' W. long. In 1851 the population of the city 

 and borough of Bath was 54,240. Bath is governed by fourteen alder- 

 men and 42 councillors, of whom one is mayor ; and it returns two 

 members to the Imperial Parliament. The living is a rectory in the 

 archdeaconry of Bath and diocese of Bath and Wells. Bath Poor- Law 

 Union contains twenty-four parishes and townships, with an area of 

 30,321 acres, and a population in 1851 of 69,847. Bath gives name 



to the parishes of Bathwick, Bathampton, Batheaston, and Bathford, 

 in its immediate vicinity. 



Bath is placed upon the great western oolitic range, which attains 

 its greatest elevation on Lansdown, where its summit is 813 feet above 

 the level of the sea. This range is intersected in the neighbourhood 

 of the city by deep transverse valleys, but re-appears on the south 

 of the Avon, where its elevation is so broken that its continuity is 

 destroyed. Its section near Lansdown is a bed of upper or great 

 oolite, varying from 40 to 150 feet in thickness, forming the brow of 

 the hill ; then a gradual slope of fullers-earth-clay ; next a terrace of 

 inferior oolite with its underlying sand and sandstone, which falls 

 with a precipitous slope and rests on lias clay or blue marl, and then 

 on lias rock. The freestone or oolite, worked from quarries situated 

 to the east and south of Bath, has furnished almost entirely the chief 

 building materials for the city. The country about is wooded ; and 

 from the inequality of the ground presents a great variety of agree- 

 able landscape. From the sheltered position of the city its temperature 

 is mild. 



This city was a Roman station, mentioned by Ptolemaeus under the 

 name of Aqua; Calidje, and by him placed with Venta and Ischalis in 

 the country of the Belgae. It is also placed in the 14th Iter of Anto- 

 ninus, in connection with other stations. In the ' Notitia ' Bath is not 

 mentioned. It was intersected by the ancient Roman road leading 

 from London into Wales, and by the road called the Fosse, which ran 

 from Lincolnshire to the south coast of England. These two roads 

 joined near the bridge crossing a small stream in the parish of Bath- 

 easton, about two miles from Bath. They then continued in one course 

 through a great portion of the parish of Walcot, separating again near 

 Walcot church. The Fosse entered the north gate of the city from 

 Walcot Street, passed through the town, up Holloway, and on to 

 Ilchester. The other road ran up Guinea Lane, and on to the station of 

 Abone. Close to the spot where these roads separated, and towards 

 the river, numerous coins, vases, and sepulchral remains have from 

 time to time been found. The Roman remains discovered in Bath 

 and in its neighbourhood have been considerable, including a large 

 and several smaller tesselated pavements, the remains of a Corinthian 

 temple and of Roman baths, altars with inscriptions, ornamented 

 bricks, urns, vases, lachrymatories, fibulae, coins, &c. No other city 

 in England can produce such a collection of local Roman remains as 

 is now deposited in the Bath Literary and Scientific Institution. The 

 new town is many feet above its ancient level ; in some places more 

 than 20 feet. The walls, as they existed until a late period, are pre- 

 sumed to have been built to a great extent upon the base of the Roman 

 walls. There are accounts and engravings of Roman inscriptions and 

 sculptures incorporated in the walls, none of which are now existing. 

 An ecclesiastical community existed here from the earliest ages of 

 Christianity in Britain, who had their house near to the springs and 

 baths. The constitution of the society underwent several changes, 

 and at last the house and all its possessions, which were extensive 

 and valuable, were surrendered to the crown by William Holloway, 

 the last prior, June 29th, 1539. What is now called the Abbey-church 

 was the church of this community, and was connected on the south 

 side with the conventual dwellings. 



The modern city of Bath possesses considerable beauty. The 

 alternations of level give many commanding sites for streets, crescents, 

 and public buildings. The streets are in general regular, clean, and 

 well-lighted with gas. The best buildings, such as the Upper Rooms, 

 the north side of Queen Square, the Crescent, and the Circus were 

 built about the middle of the last century, from designs of the 

 two Woods, the well-known architects of Bath. 



The arrangements of Bath in respect to drainage and water-supply 

 have until recently been defective. The Health of Towns' Com- 

 missioners reported in 1844 that there was a total absence of 

 combined system in these matters ; the water was supplied by the 

 corporation, and also by no fewer than seven companies or associations 

 of limited means. The sewerage too was rendered inefficient by the 

 clashing of interests among the governing bodies of the city. In 

 1846 the corporation obtained an Act of Parliament for new water- 

 works, and for deriving an additional supply of water from Bath- 

 ampton, Batheaston, and the piece of ground called Bath Common. 

 Various other important improvements are now (1853) being carried 

 out in the city. 



The Abbey-church is the principal building in Bath. This edifice 

 is of the shape of a cross, with a very handsome tower rising from 

 the centre. Its length from east to west is 21 feet, and from north 

 to south 126 feet.- The west front is decorated with numerous figures, 

 now much impaired by time, intended to represent Jacob's dream ; 

 or, as is asserted by some, the vision of Bishop King the founder, who 

 "saw angels ascending and descending a ladder, and calling on him to 

 rebuild the church." (Tunstall.) The east window is remarkable for 

 being square, and was until very lately appropriately supported by 

 two square towers, which have been converted into ill-designed 

 octagonal pinnacles. The building itself is an example of the 

 perpendicular style at the latest period in which it prevailed, and 

 was completed with simplicity and taste. It was commenced by 

 Bishop King, who died in 1503 ; the works were continued after his 

 death, and the edifice was nearly completed at the period of the 

 dissolution of the abbey in 1539. After having been in a dilapidated 



