General History of Bath. 5 r 



tine parishes of Lyncombe and Widcombe, and of several 

 of the fairs which formed an important element in com- 

 mercial life. 



There were two sources from which water for the public 

 conduits was obtained, — one on Beechen Cliff to the south, 

 the other on Beacon Hill to the north. Both were the 

 property of the priory, and the citizens utilized the water 

 by arrangement with the monks. 



The free citizens of Bath exercised a somewhat curious 

 "right of common" (apparently a survival of the public rights 

 over the public land of the township) over the Barton 

 estate, part of the Forinsecum. The rights were so compli- 

 cated as to have naturally tended towards dispute, but down 

 to the Reformation, we find only an agreement in 1260 

 defining the custom as then understood, and a deed in 1347, 

 by which the Prior agreed that the ploughing up of some 

 enclosed ground should not prejudice the citizens. There 

 seems, indeed, to have been a very good feeling between 

 the priory and the city. 



The one dispute of which we have record, seems to nega- 

 tive the supposition that there were any serious dissensions. 

 In 142 1 there was a memorable contest for precedence 

 between the Abbey church and the city churches as to the 

 ringing of bells. An inquisitio ad quod damnum was held 

 at Frome, and the jurors presented that the right was with 

 the monks, namely, that no one should ring a bell in the 

 ■city before the Abbey bell had sounded in the morning, nor 

 after the Abbey bell had rung the curfew (ignittgium) in the 

 evening, except on Christmas Day, the Epiphany, Easter, 

 the feasts of the dedication of the respective city churches, 

 also the feasts of St. Catherine (a saint to whom a special 

 iulius was paid in Bath), St. Nicholas, and All Saints. 



5* 



