BATH DURING BRITISH INDEPENDENCE, 

 Rev. Professor Earle, M.A. 



For many a petty king ere Arthur came 



Ruled in this isle, and ever waging war 



Each upon other, wasted all the land ; 



And still from time to time the heathen host 



Swarm'd over seas, and harried what was left. 



And so there grew great tracts of wilderness, 



Wherein the beast was ever more and more. 



But man was less and less, till Arthur came. 



For first Aureliiis lived and fought and died. 



And after him king Uther fought and died, 



But either fail'd to make the kingdom one. 



And after these king Arthur for a space. 



And thro' the puissance of his Table round. 



Drew all their petty princedoms under him. 



Their king and head, and made a realm, and reign'd. 



The Coming of Arthur. — Tennyson. 



From the Departure of the Roman Legions to the 

 Desolation of Akeman,* a.d. 410-577. 



The departure of the Legions must have greatly lowered 

 the splendour and the commercial activity of Aquae, and have 



* The name Akeman is distinctively the property of the Roman-British* 

 or, to speak more domestically, of the Welsh period. It is the name which 

 stands midway between the Roman Aquae on the one side, and the Saxon 

 Akemanceaster on the other. I have explained it long ago as follows : — > 

 Ake is the local equivalent of the literary form Aquae ; and the second part 

 is the British word man, place. If anyone wishes to verify the fact that 

 man was British for place, I would say— (i) that it is at any rate Welsh 

 for place, as may be seen in the Welsh Bible repeatedly, e.g. , John xi. 30, 

 in the place where (yn y man He) Martha met him ; i Cor. i. 2, with all 

 that in every place (ym mhob man) call upon the Name; (2) that this 

 Welsh man is an ancient word, and not one that has been formed or 

 borrowed since the fifth century. Professor Rhys tells me that it is iden- 

 tical with the old Irish magen enclosure, arena, place. 



