THE BEGGARS OF BATH 3 



Every invalid, in fact, who could afford it, went to 

 Bath, and the mentally afflicted, who could not go, 

 were sent thither ; so that the saying which is now 

 become proverbial (and whose origin and subtle 

 innuendo seem in danger of being lost) arose, " Go to 

 Bath," with the rider, " and get your head shaved ; " 

 the lunatics who were sent to those healing waters 

 usuall}^ being thus tonsured. This derisive phrase 

 was used toward any one who propounded a more 

 than ordinarily crack-brained project. It is, perhaps, 

 scarcely necessary to say that it has no sort of con- 

 nection with the modern music-hall vulgarism, " Get 

 your hair cut ! " 



Another theory — but one more ingenious than 

 acceptable — has it that the phrase derives from Bath 

 having alv^^ays been a resort of beggars. " What, 

 then, more natural, we are asked, than for one 

 accosted by a mendicant to recall this topographical 

 notoriety, and bid the rogue " go to Bath " ? For, 

 according to Fuller, that worthy author of the 

 " Worthies," there were " many in that place ; some 

 natives there, others repairing thither from all j^arts 

 of the land ; the poor for alms, the pained for ease. 

 Whither should fowl flock in a hard frost but to the 

 barn-door ? Here, all the two seasons, being the 

 general confluence of gentry. Indeed, laws are daily 

 made to restrain beggars, and daily broken by the 

 connivance of those who make them ; it being im- 

 possible, when the hungry belly barks and bowels 

 sound, to keep the tongue silent. And although oil 

 of whip be the proper plaister for the cramp of laziness, 

 yet some pity is due to impotent persons. In a word. 



