154 The Baths, Ancient and Modern. 



their fall choked the conduits and blocked up the baths, 

 preserving by so doing the valuable coating of lead that 

 would otherwise have disappeared. The actual springs of 

 both the eastern and western establishments were themselves 

 the baths, if baths were then in request. The first spring 

 appears to have been distinctly outside the boundary of the 

 ecclesiastical buildings, the Cathedral and the monastic 

 grounds being to the east of it, whilst the other springs were 

 enclosed within the Saxon Hospital for the sick and poor, 

 which was replaced by the hospitals of Bishops Reginald and 

 Robert. The boundaries of these springs within the Roman 

 walls have not been correctly ascertained, but the dimen- 

 sions of the enclosure of the King's Bath (the mediaeval 

 name of the eastern spring) between the ancient walls are 

 approximately 63 feet by 33. This was doubtless the public 

 bath of the city, and was de facto Crown property as late as 

 the seventeenth century ; and was held by the municipality, 

 the monastery, or the Bishop, on the payment of a small 

 rent and with the obligation of keeping the surrounding walls 

 and steps in repair. The main buildings of the ancient 

 Baths became the quarry, out of which the mediaeval walls 

 of the city as well as the monastic buildings were constructed, 

 as a few (though up to the present time undoubtedly only a 

 few) Roman stones have been observed in their foundations. 



It may be pointed out that almost the whole of the domestic 

 buildings of the monastery of King Osric were built within 

 the ruins of the eastern wing of the Baths, and eastward of 

 the spring. 



At a future time it may be possible to fill up 



Mediaeval ^ considerable void in the history of the Baths 



Baths. ^ ' 



from the Norman invasion to the reign of 

 Queen Elizabeth, but having now rather to deal with the 



