i62 The Baths, Ancient and Modern. 



During the last year the number of bathers was 86,551, 

 and the receipts from all sources amounted to ;C5t1°7- 

 The Corporation of Bath, who are the owners of all the 

 springs and baths, spare no expense to make the latter an 

 attraction to the visitor and the means of restoring health 

 to the invalid who is advised to seek relief from the waters, 

 which, it should be remembered, have a record of having 

 continuously flowed during nearly nineteen centuries, and 

 in that time have been resorted to by millions seeking 

 pleasure or a cure for ailments that medical science would 

 otherwise have failed to relieve. 



The well-nigh uninterrupted continuance of the Baths on 

 one site is recorded in an inscription on the south wall of 

 the King's Bath. To this wall the Roman and the Saxon, 

 and succeeding generations to the present time, have in turn 

 contributed, so that the structure represents an unbroken his- 

 tory from Vespasian and Edgar, Henry III. and Charles I., 

 to the present day. 



The Inscription is as follows : 



ON JULY 23RD, 1886, 



UNDER THE MAYOEALTy OP ANTHONY HAMMOND, 



THE HOT MINERAL BATHS COMMITTEE, (j. J. WILKINSON, CHAIRMAN,) 



HAVE LAID ON ROMAN MASONRY SEVENTEEN HUNDRED YEARS OLD 



THE CORNER STONE OF NEW BATHS, 



THUS CONNECTING IN WORK AND OBJECT 



THE MODERN WITH THE ANCIENT WORLD. 



CHAs. u. DAVIS, F.S.A., Archtiect. 



