Bath under West Saxon Dominion. 35 



and make their submission to him, and in this incident we 

 see Bath filling the same representative position which it had 

 filled under Eadgar in 973. In both these signal instances 

 Bath seems to be recognized as the western capital, making 

 a third with Winchester and Westminster, and holding the 

 position which the Norman kings afterwards assigned to 

 Gloucester. 



Thus we see as we draw towards the close of the period 

 that Bath had risen to be a place of celebrity. It had grown 

 continuously from the foundation of the Abbey, and in con- 

 nection therewith. The hot springs were a singular gift of 

 nature which could not lie neglected, which must after 

 eclipse re-assemble human life around it, and in course of 

 time heal the greatest catastrophe. When to this attraction 

 was added the convenience of unlimited building stone ready 

 cut to hand, and the manifold natural amenities of the neigh- 

 bourhood, it is no marvel that while some ruined cities con- 

 tinued in decay till soil and greensward covered their outlines, 

 ours was one of those that returned to life after extinction. 

 The event is memorable, and so is also the manner in which 

 it was accomplished ; not for any singularity about it, but pre- 

 cisely because it was ordinary, and because it holds up to us 

 a typical movement of that age in its aspirations after progress. 



Bath had now arrived at maturity, the maturity of a 

 borough of that time. The Abbey of Bath was a flourishing 

 institution ; beneficent, educational, and conspicuously orna- 

 mental. It was imposing in every aspect ; — by its buildings, 

 by the members of its brotherhood, by its social figure and 

 political importance. The Abbey church, the predecessor of 

 that long Norman church of which we still see some of the pier- 

 bases, was greatly admired (niira fabricd) ; doubtless a tall 

 Romanesque structure whose image we may revive for our 



