2 28 THE BATH ROAD 



once a village, but now merely a suburb of Bath, 

 joined to the city by continuous streets. 



But there are pretty scenes just off these streets. 

 Bathampton Mill, for instance, just below, on the 

 Avon, with views of the grand circle of hills that 

 enclose Bath. 



The picturesquely broken and wooded elevation of 

 Combe Down rises away on the other side of the 

 valley, with Prior Park nestled amid its hanging- 

 woods, and the village of Widcombe beneath. At an 

 elevation of five hundred and fifty feet above the sea, 

 it commands views not to be bettered in all the 

 country round. Down below, in the warm steamy 

 atmosphere of the Avon valley, one sees the railway 

 entering Bath on its stone viaducts, and the trains 

 winding in aud out along the sharp curves amid the 

 clustered houses. Bathampton lies below there, where 

 the air is languorous and the hillsides hold the heat 

 of the sun. From that sheltered spot the view back- 

 wards towards Bathampton Mill and the terraced 

 houses of Batheaston is delis-litful ; the houses that 

 turn their uolv side to the road showinaj from here, 

 amid their setting of green, like fairy palaces. Lower 

 down the valley the houses cluster more thickh', 

 where the valley widens out into the likeness of 

 a great amphitheatre, and suburbs fade gradually 

 into Bath. 



Then, coming to Walcot, the road finally loses all 

 its character as a highway, and tramways, omnibuses, 

 and traffic of every description proclaim the entrance 

 to a populous city. 



