102 Bath in its relation to Art. 



Dr. Sibthorp, an accomplished botanist of Bath, who left an 

 estate to defray the cost of publishing his " Flora Grseca." 

 Chantry's also twice : a monument of white marble to Wil- 

 liam Hoare, an early member of the Royal Academy, and a 

 fine medallion of Admiral Bickerton, with a graceful figure 

 bending over an urn. Here too the Bacons, father and son, 

 -with Nollekens, Westmacott, and other sculptors, metropolitan 

 and provincial, noted in their day, found scope for their 

 genius, and thus this branch of Art profited by the increasing 

 celebrity of Bath. But it must not be supposed that a large 

 proportion of the people interred in the Abbey consisted 

 of those who came for the waters. The city was a residence 

 for many distinguished by rank, fortune, ability, social worth 

 and public usefulness, who were commemorated in this way ; 

 so that while we admire the wit, we demur to the truth, of 

 Dr. Harington's epigram : 



" These walls adorned with monument and bust, 

 Shov/ how Bath waters serve to lay the dust." 



About the middle of the eighteenth century 

 General Modem Bath became more alive to the claims 



Kcvival. 



of Art. From time to time the Royal charters 

 and visits caused memorials worthy of being treasured in 

 after-times. During Queen Anne's reign the Corporation 

 acquired two magnificent maces, silver gilt, embossed with 

 appropriate heraldic designs. In 1734 the Prince of Wales, 

 father of George III., visited the city and gave a beautiful 

 silver gilt salver and loving cup of the time of Benvenuto 

 Cellini. But once more the general taste took the direction 

 of Architecture. Fashion had set up her throne, and crowds 

 of all classes came to worship her, amongst them " the 

 noblest, wittiest, and wealthiest of the land.'' More and 



