General History of Bath. 73 



There were literally no conveniences for dressing — bathers- 

 had to undress on the narrow margin of the bath itself, or 

 be carried in bathing clothes from their lodgings and so 

 home. Those who drank the waters imbibed the foul- 

 smelling liquid in which others bathed, and this though skin 

 diseases formed a large proportion of the ailments of visitors. 

 Boys and lads loitered naked about the baths, turning sum-- 

 mersaults and diving for pence thrown in by the idlers- 

 congregated to watch the bathers. 



Dr. Jones in 1572, Dr. Jordan in 1630, Dr. Venner in 

 1637, and Dr. Guidott in 1668 did, each in turn, something 

 to spur the Corporation to a reasonable activity. Pumpers, 

 who administered a form of douche, bath guides, male and 

 female, and cloth layers were elected, who paid the Corpo- 

 ration for their offices, and made what they could out of the 

 vails and perquisites from bathers, and as the century pro- 

 gressed an amelioration in degree, though not in kind, was 

 effected. Visitors who could afford the luxury of decency 

 and privacy, lodged with the medical men, who kept board- 

 ing-houses around the baths, with doors opening into them, 

 and in some cases with private slips, enclosing and secluding, 

 a part of the bathing area. 



We have mentioned the baths before the town because 

 but for the baths the latter must have lapsed into the con- 

 dition of a mere village. Leland, visiting Bath in 1530, 

 tells us of the decline of the clothing trade which had been 

 the staple industry, and the Earl of Leicester 

 ^'thrclr °*^ and Sir John Harington mention its almost 

 total decay before the commencement of the 

 seventeenth century. 



But although some good houses had been built by a few 

 of the prominent citizens during the reign of Elizabeth, the 



