Bath during British Independence. 



Ceawlin, slew three British kings, Commail and Condidan 

 and Farinmail, and took three cities — Gloucester, Ciren- 

 cester, and Akeman. Perhaps it would be assuming too 

 much to infer that the third-named king was king of Ake- 

 man, but we may naturally conclude that this place was 

 under the rule of a king. When the Saxons captured cities 

 it was not to dwell in them, but to dismantle them as hostile 

 fortresses. Akeman was long a desolate ruin. 



These are the wars in which the legendary 



King Arthur. ,- tt- • « i . i t 



fame of Kmg Arthur is rooted. In extant 

 literature his historic and poetic celebrity dates only from 

 the twelfth century, but when it makes its appearance it 

 has already the amplitude of an oft-told tale, and we know 

 not how long it may have been a favourite theme of British 

 minstrelsy.* 



BATH UNDER WEST SAXON DOMINION, 



A.D. 577-1066, 



How THE City Revived and Grew to be the Capital 

 OF THE West. 



The slow movement of the Saxon power, which took some 

 three quarters of a century to advance from Southampton to 

 Bath, indicates that our ancestors warred, not like Alexander 

 for glory and the rage of conquest, but for homes and settle- 



* A curious incident connected with the progress of the Arthurian legend 

 was the reputed discovery at Glastonbury of the burial-place of Arthur, at 

 a time when funds were needed for rebuilding the Abbey, after the destruc- 

 tive fire of 1184. Speaking of this restoration, Canon Church says: — "And 

 the timely discovery or invention about this time of the bones of Arthur 

 and his Queen, helped to draw a large concourse of pilgrims, and brought 

 much gain of money to the Abbey." — The Episcopate of Reginald, Bishop 

 of Bath, Iiy4-zigi ; communicated to the Society of Antiquaries, iS8j. 

 An old story had before this time connected the name of Arthur with the 

 Isle of Ynysvitrin ; but that Arthur and Guinever were buried there, was 

 a claim unknown to the historian William of Malmesbury, in the middle 

 of the same century. 



