2 6o THE BATH ROAD 



are drawn in Bath chairs — one of the five articles 

 ^Yith which the name of the City is indissolubly 

 linked. AVhen Bath chairs, Bath chaps, Bath stone, 

 and Bath buns are no longer so distinguished, then 

 will come the final crash. One need not insist 

 so greatly upon Bath Olivers, because they are not 

 in every one's mouth, either literally or figura- 

 tively ; although, to be sure, they are much more 

 exclusively a local product than " Bath " buns ; 

 while " Bath " bricks are not made at Bath, but at 

 Bridgewater. 



The surroundings of Bath Abbey are strikingly 

 Continental in appearance, for that great church 

 stands in a flagged place, instead of being set in a 

 green and shady close, as usually is the case in 

 England. Its surroundings have always been thronged, 

 from the time w^hen the Flying Machines crawled, to 

 w^hen the last of the mail coaches drew up in front 

 of the "White Lion," in the Market Place hard by, 

 or at the "White Hart," which stood until 18GG, 

 where the "Grand Pump Eoom" Hotel now rises. 

 The story of the Abbey is too long for these pages ; 

 but it is remarkable at once for being one of the 

 very latest Gothic buildings in the country ; for its 

 possessing windows so large and so many that it 

 has been called the " Lantern of England ; " for its 

 central tower, w^hich is not square, being eleven feet 

 narrower on its north and south sides than those to 

 the east and w^est ; and for the prodigious number 

 of small marble and stone memorial tablets on its 

 interior w^alls — tablets so many that they gave rise 

 to the famous epigram by Quin : — 



