246 THE BATH ROAD 



of their immediate successors, Bath renewed her youth 

 in a revived Classicism. Among the monuments of 

 that time, Prior Park is conspicuous. It was built 

 by John Wood in 1743 for Allen, whose great object 

 in erecting this veritable palace was to demonstrate 

 the qualities of the building-stone on his Combe 

 Down property. Here he entertained some of the 

 foremost literary men of his time : Pope, Fielding, 

 Warburton ; and is enshrined by Fielding as " Squire 

 Allworthy" in "Tom Jones," and by Pope in the 

 lines — 



'* Let low-boru Alleu, with ingenuous shame. 

 Do good by stealth, and blush to find it fame." 



The situation, and the front elevation of Prior Park, 

 form together, perhaps, the noblest grouping of 

 classic architecture and romantic scenery to be found 

 in Enoland. It was a time tinned with romanticism 

 of an artificial kind which generally showed itself in 

 afi'ected and objectionable ways. But this artificiality 

 was a matter of deportment merely. Litei'aturc was 

 practised then, and Architecture fiourished in the 

 land. 



There is another work (jf Allen's crowning the hill 

 at Bathwick, which serves to show at once the 

 romantic and the artificial signs of the times. Allen 

 looked out from the windows of his Town House 

 upon the bare hilltop, and thought how the view 

 would have been improved had there been a ruined 

 castle showing against the sky-line. Accordingly he 

 built such an one, and there it is to-day ; and if 

 you don't know it to be a ruin built to order, it is 



