172 SPRINGS, RIVERS/CANALS, LAKES, 



relieved by them, on bathing, or receiving them on the part afflicted 

 from a pump ; they are chiefly used in the spring and autumn. 

 Their waters are likewise drunk medicinally. 



The city being on all sides sheltered b) high hills, the air remark- 

 ably mild and salubrious, the adjacent country delightfully diversified 

 and romantic, provisions of all kinds very abundant and cheap, with 

 fishes in a copious variety, many persons of rank and fortune, by 

 choosing it, or its vicinity, for their stated residence, have contributed 

 to form it into one of the most gay and agreeable spots in the 

 kingdom, and, in this respect, it has become a rival even to the 

 metropolis; hke which it is also continually visited, except at a very 

 short interval in the height of summer, by the nobility and gentry 

 of the kingdom with their attendants, gamesters, adventurers, and 

 fortune-hunters. This fashionable resort has caused new buildings 

 to be carried on, of late years, over a vast extent of ground, and 

 the rage for building has at least kept pace with the demand for 

 houses ; but a great inducement to such undertakings, is the abun- 

 dance of fine white stone which the quarries in the neighbourhood 

 of the city supply. The buildings are magnificent, and many of 

 them in a grand taste : the streets are large, well-paved, and clean ; 

 the market-place spacious, open, and supplied with the best meat, 

 fishes, vegetables, fruits, &c. The grove, the squares, and parades, 

 attract notice ; the circus and crescent are magnificent ranges of 

 building, and grandeur is advancing indefinitely. 



Here is a neat theatre, which was erected, under the authority 

 of an act of parliament, in the year 1/68, and has ushered into 

 notice some of the most celebrated actors of the age, particularly 

 Henderson, and Mrs. Siddons. Here too the musical band was for 

 some time led by Dr. Herschel, until that wonderful man renounced 

 his profession of music, to become one of the greatest astronomers 

 in the world. 



In some places the hot and cold springs rise very near each other, 

 and in one place within two yards. The hot springs exhale a thin 

 kind of mist, and something of an ill smell, proceeding from the 

 sulphureous particles combined with the water. These hot springs 

 are always the same ; for the longest and heaviest rains do not cause 

 them to discharge more water, nor the driest seasons occasion them 

 to discharge less. 



Of these springs, that called the Cross-Bath, from a cross frr- 



