128 Bath in its relation to Education. 



Beckford on Lansdown, and the square where Dickens, 

 Forster, and Thackeray received the hospitahty of Landor. 



A goodly list might be added of Authors now living, but 

 space and other reasons forbid. Very incomplete, however, 

 would be these pages without honourable mention of one 

 who is distinguished amongst living residents in the rela- 

 tions of Bath to literature. Five decades have passed since 

 Mr. Isaac Pitman, the inventor of a new system of spelling, 

 also devised a system of shorthand, now used largely through- 

 out the world. Some idea of its popularity in English- 

 speaking countries may be formed from the fact that of 

 one publication, "The Phonographic Teacher," above 2,000 

 copies are sold weekly, and of another, the Phonetic Journal, 

 devoted to the propagation of Phonography, 22,000. Far 

 and wide was the inventor's Jubilee celebrated in 1887 ; 

 London had a great meeting to do him honour, and New 

 York sent its earnest greetings. The city in which he has 

 laboured so long also recognises gratefully what he has done. 



Nor should another important agency be forgotten. Bath 

 has been fortunate in its Newspaper Press. Few places are 

 better served in this respect. It has six able weekly journals 

 and three for daily evening circulation. The age of most 

 of them is remarkable : the Jot^T-nal dates from 1742 ; the 

 Chronicle from 1757 ; the Herald from 1792 ; and the 

 Gazette from 181 2. The Bladud and Argus are compa- 

 ratively modern. 



Education. 



The little that is known of this subject in former times 

 deserves to be remembered. Education in Bath was in the 

 hands of the authorities of the important local monastery, 

 who followed the usual rule as to their revenues. One- 



