"THE BATH POO BAH' 5 



the show in State with his Corporation in 

 order to perform the ceremony of inauguration. 

 Having approached the Mayor upon the subject, 

 I had then, as Mayor, to inform the City Council 

 of the secretary's communication, and the Cor- 

 poration, being in full accord with it, requested 

 myself as Mayor to assure the secretary that the 

 Mayor and Corporation accepted the invitation 

 with much pleasure. This the Mayor communi- 

 cated in a gracious letter to the Secretary, who, 

 in his turn, laid his Worship's letter before the 

 Bath and West Council, and was directed to indite 

 a suitable epistle to the Mayor thanking him for 

 his courtesy in acceding to the desire expressed. 

 From a long schooling in connection with public 

 bodies, where it is not always wise to wear one's 

 heart upon one's sleeve, I was able, when delivering 

 myself of the varied pronouncements from myself 

 to myself, to preserve a gravity of demeanour 

 suitable to the occasion, because, after all, beyond 

 the dual combination there was nothing happening 

 sufficiently out of the normal to bring it within 

 bhe region of farce though it was on the border- 

 land of genteel comedy. It must be admitted, 

 however, that others saw in it many opportunities 

 of " innocent merriment " and a gentle play of 

 wits. Both the metropolitan and provincial Press 

 took full advantage of the situation, though in 

 a somewhat irreverent spirit. The Globe even 

 went so far as to describe me as the Pooh Bah 

 of Bath, but made amends by winding up its 

 leaderette upon the subject with the following 

 excellent advertisement of the city : " And now, 

 as in the days of Sheridan, for sparkling and 



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