2 THE BATH ROAD 



Exeter Road the runnino:-o;roiind of some of tlie 

 fleetest aud best-appointed coaches of the Coaching 

 Age ; while the Bath Road was at one time the most 

 literary and fjishionable of them all. 



The best period of the Bath Road was peculiarly 

 the era of powder and patches ; of tie-wigs, long- 

 skirted coats, and gorgeous waistcoats ; of silk stock- 

 ings and buckled shoes ; when the test of a well-bred 

 gentleman was the making a leg and the nice carriage 

 of a clouded cane; when a grand lady would "pro- 

 test" that a thino- which challeuo'ed her admiration 

 Avas "monstrous fine," and a gallant beau would 

 " stap his vitals " by way of emphasis. It was a 

 period of rigid etiquette and hollow artificiality ; but 

 a period also of a grand literary upheaval, and an 

 era in which people were not, as now, merely clothed, 

 but dressed. 



Bath at this time was the most fashionable place 

 in all England. Did my lady suffer from that 

 mysterious eighteenth - century complaint " the 

 vapours," she journeyed to "the Bath." Did my 

 lord experience in the gout a foretaste of the torments 

 of that place popularly supposed to be paved with 

 good intentions, he also went to Bath, in his private 

 carrias^e, cursino- as he went ; while the halt, the 

 lame, the afflicted of many diseases, came this way ; 

 some posting, others by stage-coach, and yet more 

 riding horseback. Every invalid, hypochondriac, aud 

 malade imaginaire who could afibrd it went to Bath, 

 for continental spas had not then become possible 

 for English people, and the nauseating waters of Aix, 

 Baden, and other places simply trickled unheeded away. 



