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lately visited that city, and been introduced to the Secretary of 

 the " Bath Natural History and Antiquarian Field Club," he 

 had the pleasure of attending a field excursion, and also of 

 hearing a paper read, besides frequent opportunities of inspect- 

 ing the Museum of the Society, and, in company with one of the 

 members, of visiting places of interest in the neighbourhood ; 

 thus he was induced to bring forward a subject in no way con- 

 nected with our field of observation ; for although we find 

 nothing of Roman origin in Ireland — except, perhaps, a few 

 Terra colla beads, or coins — yet it is very desirable to know 

 something of a people so closely connected with the early 

 history of Britain. 



He then proceeded to read one of the several curious traditions 

 relating to the discovery of the hot springs and subsequent build- 

 ing of the baths upon their site. A record of the city is found 

 in the history of Antonine, where it is called " Aquse Solis," a 

 name which might have passed for pure Latin, were there not 

 strong evidence to show that it was probably " Aquse Sulis," 

 Sul being the name of the British Sun Divinity. In Ptolemy's 

 Geography Bath is reckoned amongst the towns of the Belgse. 

 The city probably sprung into importance about the year 43, 

 being nearly the centre point of the district of country con- 

 quered in the third Roman expedition to Britain, under Aulus 

 Plautuis. There seems also little doubt that it rapidly increased 

 about the year 79, for it was in that year that Agricola over- 

 came the British natives by milder measures than those of his 

 predecessors, particularly encouraging them to settle in towns, 

 build halls and temples, adopt the Roman dress and manners, &c. 

 And indeed the mixture of British and Roman remains in 

 Bath has given rise to much speculation as to whether the city 

 was originally of British or Roman origin. In favour of the 

 former view, the pentangular form of the walls has been urged, 

 but on the other hand, their construction is generally declared 

 to be of Roman character. As to the more important antiqui- 

 ties discovered in and around the city, the specimens of lead in pigs 

 are some of the most interesting. Of these the first found some 

 years ago bears the impression of the Emperor Hadrian's name, 

 and weighs 195 lbs. It was, no doubt, brought from the Mendip 



