AFTERWORD BY THE EDITOR. 



It has not been compatible with the design of this Handbook 

 to supply the place of a Directory or to trespass on the domain 

 of the many excellent Guide-books which direct the steps of the 

 stranger to those objects of interest which are more or less com- ' 

 mon to all large cities. A list of Churches and Chapels, of 

 Hospitals and Charitable Institutions, of Clubs and Societies, 

 would have seriously contracted the space already too scanty 

 for the subjects chosen. In confining the scope of the Handbook 

 to the distinctive features and peculiar history of the city, there 

 has been an inevitable omission of many things deserving of 

 mention, for some of which an afterword seems to be demanded. 



The visitor to Bath is generally impressed with the remark- 

 able blending of town and country which is characteristic of its 

 situation and development. It is not so much the rus in urbe as 

 the urbs in i^re which gives a character of cheerfulness and a 

 sense of pervading beauty to the place. There is scarcely a 

 street from which views of the surrounding hills or glimpses of 

 charming landscape are not to be obtained, and the city itself — 

 seen from any of the heights around, or even from its own ter- 

 races and crescents — apart from its general picturesqueness, 

 arrests attention by the prevailing hue of warm grey which the 

 universal employment of the native freestone imparts to the 

 scene. To those who have an eye for repose and gradation of 

 tone, the view of Bath by morning or evening light from any 

 slight elevation is one not easily effaced from the memory. 



In the streets themselves this pleasing effect is often lost, and 

 the fresh ochre of the unblemished stone is replaced by an 

 occasional sombreness, deepening, in rainy weather, into possible 

 gloom ; but this defect is only partial, and the prevailing oolitic 



