40 CONNECTION OF BATH WITH THE 



forth; but later in the same century Prior Walter 

 is celebrated for his science as well as for his piety. 



In the next century there was one Eeginald of 

 Bath, a physician, who may be presumed to have 

 been eminent, as he was sent by King Henry III. to 

 attend a Queen of Scotland at Edinburgh. [7] Con- 

 temporary with him was Henry of Bath, a lawyer, 

 who is described by Pits as legum terrce peritissimus ; 

 and to about the same period is to be referred a 

 William of Bath, a divine, some of whose homilies 

 were collected, and the volume was still in existence 

 in the time of Leland. 



That the Abbey of Bath contained no second 

 Adelard wiU easily be believed. But the spirit of 

 philosophical research was not extinct in it even to 

 the period of its dissolution. Alchemy is the parent 

 of modern chemistry — an ill-favoured parent of a 

 fair and beautiful daughter. Prior Bird, whose chapel 

 is still one of the graceful ornaments of the Abbey- 

 church, is reported to have spent much time in his 

 laboratory. It would have been strange if the inha- 

 bitants of the monastery had not fallen into this 

 delusion, one of the tenets of the sect being that the 

 temperature of our springs was nature's indication of 

 the heat under which the labours of the alchemist 

 could be prosecuted with the fairest chance of success. 

 This secret was communicated by Holway, Bird's 



