15 A T 



23 



BAT 



elined during the last twenty years. The Assembly Rooms 

 are a handsome suite, the ball-room being nearly 106 by 

 nearly 43 feet, and 42 feet G inches high, and the tea-room 

 70 by 27 feet : they were erected by Wood. The theatre is 

 probably one of the best of its size in England ; for it Mr. 

 Palmer obtained the first act of parliament passed in this 

 country for the security of theatrical property. It is justly 

 remarked by Seneca, ' Ubicunque scatebunt aquarum ca- 

 lentium vente, ibi nova diver-soria luxurieo excitabuntur:' 

 ' wherever warm springs abound, new places of amusement 

 are sure to arise up.' 



There is no manufacture of importance in this city. It 

 was formerly celebrated for its cloth, and at the Restoration 

 no less 'than sixty broad looms were employed in the parish 

 of St. Michael's. The paper-mills in the neighbourhood 

 are of some note, and paid, in 1832, to the excise 10.575A 

 The city is well-supplied with coal from extensive beds 

 lying a few miles distant. The river Avon was made navi- 

 gable to Bristol under an act of the 10th Anne, and there 

 is a water-communication with London by the Kennet and 

 Avon Canal, which joins the Thames at Reading. 



The remarkable peculiarity of Bath is its natural hot 

 springs. They are four in number, and rise near the centre 

 of the city ; and, with the exception of a spring belonging to 

 Lord Manvers, are vested in the corporation. The tempera- 

 ture of three of the springs is as follows : Hot Bath 1 1 7, 

 King's Bath 114, and Cross Bath 109 of Fahrenheit, 

 yielding respectively 128, 20, and 12 gallons a minute. 

 The specific gravity of the water is T002. As it flows 

 from the earth it is transparent, but in a short time yields 

 a Alight precipitate and loses its transparency. When fresh 

 drawn it has a slight chalybeate taste. The King's Bath 

 is 60 feet 11 inches in length, and 40 feet in breadth, and 

 the Queen's Bath, a square of 25 feet, is supplied from it. 

 The daily quantity of water discharged into mese basins is 

 184,320 gallons. There are private baths attached to the 

 Hot and the King's Bath, admirably arranged and con- 

 structed, and capable of having their temperature regu- 

 lated. Bathing is far from being a practice among the 

 inhabitants. The public baths are not much frequented, 

 and the private baths, though they occasion few charges for 

 their support, but that of linen and attendance, are expen- 

 sive. The encouragement of their general use, and the 

 effect of low prices, as connected with the advancement of 

 local interests, are not yet understood. The baths yielded 

 to the corporation, in 1831, a rent of 1442/., and the pump- 

 room a rent of 416/. a- year. The waters have been very 

 accurately analyzed by Drs. Falconer and Gibbes, and by 

 Mr. R. Phillips. According to the last of these writers, 

 whose experiments were very carefully made, a quart of 

 water taken from the hot springs contains 



Carbonic acid . . . 2'4 in. 



.Sulphate of lime . . 18 



Muriate of soda 



Sulphate of soda 



Carbonate of lime 



Silica .... 



Oxide of iron . . 



29-60394 

 39606 



30 



mating (he muriate and sulphite of soda in a crys- 

 tallized state, a pint of water contains 



Cailxmic acid . . . . li in. 

 Sulphate of lime ... 9 grains. 



Muriate of soda . . 3 



Sulphate of soda . . . 34 



bonate of lime . . . T"O 



Silica ..... J 

 Oxide of iron . . . sV > 

 A considerable quantity of carbonic acid gas escapes through 

 th" water. 



Taken internally the water acts as a stimulant. Its use 

 is most siicct.-s';il in ca-es of palsy, rheumatism, gout, le- 

 prosy, cutaneous disease, and especially in cases of scrofula 

 affecting the joints, such as the knee, elbow, hip. It cannot 

 bo used without danger in cases accompanied with fever, 

 rovijli, or pain in the chest, open sores or ulcers, or in cases 

 where there is reason to suspect internal suppuration, he- 

 morrhage, rupture, mania, or plethora. From its improper 

 internal use mischievous results are frequently produced. 



The earliest work on the hot springs is by W. Turner, 

 dated 1562. The writer, a divine and doctor of medicine 

 and the first English writer on natural history, was born at 

 Morpeth, and was imprisoned for preaching the doctrines 

 of the Reformation. Obtaining his liberty, he went abroad, 

 where he continued during the greater part of the reign 

 of Henry VIII. On his return he was preferred, and re- 

 ceived from Edward VI. the deanery of Wells. Other 

 treatises have been written by Venner, 1617; Guidott, 

 1691, 1708: Pierce, 1697; Oliver, 1716; Cheyne, 1725; 

 Wynter, 1728; Quinton, 1734; Kinnier, 1737; Randolph, 

 1 752 ; Charleton, 1754 ; Lucas, 1756 ; Steven, 1758 ; Suther- 

 land, 1763; Falconer, 1770, 1789; Gibbes, 1800; Wilkin- 

 son; Phillips, W06 ; Daubeny, 1834. 



(See Collinson's History of Somersetshire, vol. i. ; War- 

 ner's History of Bath; Lysons's Reliquiw Romance; 

 Wood's Essay towards a Description of Bath, 1742, 1749, 

 1760; Charity Commissioners Reports ; ' On the Climate 

 of Bath,' Bath Magazine, vol. iii. p. 289 ; On the Oolitic 

 District of Bath, by Lonsdale ; Transaction.'! of the Geolo- 

 gical Society, vol. iii. p. 241 ; Municipal Corporation In- 

 quiry, 1833; Turner's History of England, 8vo. vol. iv. 

 p. 438 ; MS. Communication from Bath.) 



BATH, a town in Lincoln county, state of Maine, in the 

 United States of North America, situated in 43 54' N. lat., 

 and 69 47' W. long. This town is built on the west side 

 of the river Kennebec, at the head of the ship-navigation on 

 that river, and sixteen miles from the sea. It is distant thirty- 

 five miles north-east from Portland, which town was, until 

 1832, the seat of government in the stale. With the ex- 

 ception of Portland, Bath has more shipping belonging to 

 its port than any other town in Maine; the amount of re- 

 gistered and licensed tonnage in 1831 was 26,237 tons: 

 the population, according to the census of 1830, was 3773. 



BATH, KNIGHTS OF THE, so called from the an- 

 tient custom of bathing previous to their installation. The 

 origin of this order of knighthood has been described as of 

 very remote antiquity ; but as Camden and Selden agree 

 that the first mention of an order of knights, distinctly called 

 Knights of the Bath, is at the coronation of Henry IV. in 

 1399, there can be little doubt that this order was then 

 instituted. That bathing had been a part of the discipline 

 submitted to by esquires in order to obtain the honour 

 of knighthood from very early times, is admitted ; but it 

 does not appear that any knights were called Knights of the 

 Bath till these were created by King Henry IV. 



Froissart (see Lord Berners's Translat. edit. 1812, vol. ii. 

 p. 752), speaking of that king, says, ' The Saturday before 

 his coronation he departed from Westminster, and rode to 

 the Tower of London with a great number ; and that night 

 all such esquires as should be made knights the next day, 

 watched, who were to the number of forty-six. Every esquire 

 had his own bayne (bath) by himself; and the next day the 

 Duke of Lancaster made them all knights at the mass-time. 

 Then had they long coats with strait sleeves, furred with 

 mynevcr like prelates, with white laces hanging on their 

 shoulders.' 



It became subsequently the practice of the English kings 

 to create Knights of the Bath previous to their coronation, at 

 the inauguration of a Prince of Wales, at the celebration of 

 their own nuptials or those of any of ths royal family, 

 and occasionally upon other great occasions or solemnities. 

 Fabyan (Chrnn. edit. 1811, p. 582) says that Henry V., in 

 1416, upon the taking of the town of Caen, dubbed sixteen 

 Knights of the Bath. 



Sixty-eight Knights of the Bath were made at the coro- 

 nation of King Charles II. (see the list in Guillim's He- 

 ra /dry, fol. Lend. 1679, p. 107); but from that time the 

 order was discontinued, till it was revived by King George I. 

 under writ of Privy Seal, dated May 18, 1725, during the 

 administration of Sir Robert Walpole. The statutes and 

 ordinances of the order bear date May 23, 1725. By these 

 it was directed that the order should consist of a grand- 

 master and thirty-six companions, a succession of whom 

 was to be regularly continued. The oflicers appropriated to 

 the order, besides the grand-master, were a dean, register, 

 king of arms, genealogist, secretary, usher, and messenger. 

 The dean of the collegiate church of St. Peter, Westminster, 

 for the time being, was appointed ex offlcio dean of the 

 Order of the Bath, and it was directed that the other officers 

 should be from time to time appointed by tho grand-master. 



The badge of tho order was directed to l>e a rose, thistle, 

 and shamrock, issuing from a sceptre between three im- 

 perial crowns, surrounded by the motto Tnajuncta in vno 



