X PREFACE. 



without satisfaction, to tlie interest of the subject 

 and to some degree of success in the manner in 

 which it is treated, I yielded to the proposal a 

 ready assent. 



At the same time I obtained leave to annex a 

 small amount of Annotation, to supply names 

 which could not well be spoken on such an 

 occasion, to introduce other names which perhaps 

 ought not to have been overlooked in the first 

 instance, and to present a few facts in the Literary 

 History of Bath derived from founts of historical 

 knowledge not yet made vulgar. Let it not, 

 however, be supposed that any attempt is made 

 in a small book like this to collect, even with 

 the slightest possible notice, every name which 

 is found in the records of human progress in 

 science, or which is found impressed on books 

 in the vast field of our nation's literature, which 

 Bath may claim as belonging to her, either from 

 birth, or education, or long residence (for I say 

 nothing of the mere casual visitant); and still 

 less that any attempt is made at any detailed 

 account of their lives, at any complete catalogue 

 of their writings, or at any specification of the 

 particular advances made by any one in that 

 peculiar species of investigation which it is cus- 



