THE BATH INSTITUTION. V 



casualty happened in Bath which tended greatly to 

 facilitate the execution of the design. Besides the 

 Assembly Rooms in the upper part of the town, there 

 were other rooms of the same kind called the Lower 

 Rooms. These rooms were destroyed by fire at 

 Christmas time, 1820. They were not popular as a 

 place of public amusement, so that there was little 

 hope of their being rebuilt for the purpose to which 

 they had formerly been devoted. Yet it was of im- 

 portance to Earl Manvers, the proprietor of them 

 and of the ground on which they stood, to have some 

 kind of public building on that site, which was 

 surrounded by houses most of which were his 

 property. The site was, in some respects, not an 

 eligible one for the Institution. It was too low in 

 the town, and therefore too remote from the better 

 parts, from whence the supporters of the Institution 

 would, for the most part, be drawn. On the other 

 hand it was perceived by the Board that there was 

 more difficulty in raising a capital sum than there 

 would be in raising annual subscriptions, and that 

 as tenants to Earl Manvers at an annual rent a 

 building might be obtained adapted to our purposes, 

 and Lord Manvers's object be effected of raising upon 

 the burnt ruins of the rooms an edifice which would 

 be an ornament to that part of the town in the pros- 

 perity of which he was more especially interested. 



