THE BATH ROAD 53 



Bath himself two years later, curiously enough, as we 

 are going now. 



In the days of the great Roads Marlborough possessed 

 in the Castle (where we will in a minute or two rest a 

 while) one of the finest inns in the three kingdoms. As 

 to the town itself, Evelyn, who dined there on the 9th 

 of June, 1652, found it fresh built from a fire (it has had 

 about four in its history), but he found nothing else in 

 it, except " My Lord Seymour's house," which was after- 

 wards this very same famous Castle Inn, and the Mount, 

 which he climbed dejectedly for want of something 

 better to do; " ascending by windings for neere halfe 

 a mile," and remarking that it seemed to have been 

 cast up by hand — which indeed it was by some one or 

 other — weird and legendary, the betting at the present 

 moment being in favour of Merlin, for lack of anybody 

 better known ; while Pepys, on the 15th of June, 1668, 

 after lying at the Hart, which he describes as a good 

 house, walked out and found Marlborough " a pretty 

 fair town only for a street or two." After which, having 

 sagely observed that what was most singular was, that 

 the houses on one side had their pent-houses supported 

 by pillars, which made a good walk, and also, what is 

 more to our purpose, that all the five coaches that came 

 that day from Bath were out of the town before six, 

 went to bed, and the following morning, according to 

 the immortal prescription, "after paying the reckoning, 

 etc., etc., set out." 



But the Castle Inn at Marlborough is the question 

 after all, or rather was, for the celebrated caravansary is 

 now part of the College, and ingenuous youths acquire 

 the Greek accidence where their ancestors drank port 

 and recalled their casualities ; a striking example of 

 what strange uses an inn may return to as well as a 

 human being. The Castle however has had a threefold 

 destiny, for not only has it changed from a caravansary 

 into a college, but it was a nobleman's palace before it 

 was a caravansary. Here lived, amongst others, a noble 



