158 The Baths, Ancient and Modern. 



and in these slips bathers might deposit their clothes. 

 Sedan chairs were in great request, enabling bathers to 

 undress and dress at their own lodgings in any part of the 

 town, which was then confined within its mediaeval walls 

 Partially surrounding the baths, and open to the public, 

 were terraces, from which a view could be obtained of the 

 bathers ; ladies and gentlemen, wearing bathing dresses, 

 bathed together. In the centre of the Bath an octagonal 

 building, known as the Cross, in height about 40 ft. (afford- 

 ing a slight protection to the bathers) was erected in 1664, 

 and removed in 1789. Inserted in the walls of the bath 

 were, and are still, a number of brass rings, given as thank- 

 offerings for benefits reteived by bathers, with the names 

 of the donors and dates ranging from 1639 to 1754. A 

 rough sort of douche was practised by " bucketing " a 

 bather, and by what is now called a dry douche (an opera- 

 tion then in vogue on the Continent). Adjoining the Bath 

 was a small building, in which was a pump used for drink- 

 ing as well as for douching. There was at that time no 

 other Pump Room, although on the north side of the Bath 

 there was a small Assembly Room, which was displaced in 

 1705 for the erection of the first Pump Room (in which a 

 band played). This room was enlarged on two occasions 

 prior to its removal for the erection of the present Grand 

 Pump Room* 



In 1755 the removal of the Abbey House 

 The at s disclosed a portion of the Roman Baths and 



17S0 to 1880. ^ -t^ 



the existence of what was supposed to be a 

 distinct hot spring, since proved to be a leakage from the 

 King's Bath. This discovery led to the building by the 

 Duke of Kingston of a small establishment of Private Baths, 



* "The Bathes of Bathes Ayde," by Charles E. Davis. 1883. 



