SEVERE MEASURES 241 



" several loose, idle, and disorderly persons daily 

 resort to the City of Bath, and remain wandering and 

 begging about the streets and other places of the said 

 City, and the suburbs thereof, under pretence of their 

 being resident at The Bath for the benefit of the 

 Mineral and Medical Waters, to the great disturbances 

 of his Maj.'s subjects resorting to the said City. Be 

 it enacted that the Constables, petty Constables, 

 Tything-men, and other Peace Officers of the said 

 City . . . are hereby empowered and required to 

 seize and apprehend all such persons who shall be so 

 found wandering, begging, or misbehaving themselves, 

 and them to carry before the Mayor, or some Justice, 

 or Justices, of the Peace for the said City ; who shall 

 upon the oath of one sufficient witness, or upon his 

 own view, commit the said person or persons so 

 wandering or begging, to the House of Correction for 

 any time not exceeding the space of 12 Kalendar 

 months, and to be kept at hard labour, and receive 

 correction as loose, idle, and disorderlie persons." 



So there was a reverse to the medal, and a very 

 stringent government prevailed behind the careless, 

 butterfly existence of the age, when literary squibs 

 and lampoons and the gay personalities of Anstey's 

 Ne,w Bath Guide formed the excitements of the Bath. 



A curious relic of this artificial life is to be seen in 

 the Victoria Park in the " Batheaston Vase." This 

 is the name given to a handsome antique placed in a 

 kind of classic temple. The vase was discovered at 

 Tusculum, Cicero's villa, near Frascati, and brought 

 to England during the last century by Sir John and 

 Lady Miller, who then owned a beautiful villa at 



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