( 788 ) 
and incourag’d them to build Temples, Places for com- 
mon AlTemblies, and private Houfes after the Roman 
Mode : He took care to have the principal Youth in- 
ftruc^^ed in the Liberal Arcs; He ailur’d them to aflecfl 
the Habit of the Romans : And lafl of all, to engage 
them the more firmly, help’d them to a Taft of the 
Roman Luxury and Goodfdlovvftiip, by introducing the 
Ufe of lhady Piazzas and Barhs \ an J their way of 8an- 
queting. But here, Tacitus may be underftood to {peak 
of what was done in order to civilize the Northern 
Parts of this Nation, where A^r kolas Prefence was re- 
quired : The Southern was, we may fuppofe, fofcned 
and quieted by the fame Methods near Forty Years 
.before, when reduced by T'efpafian. *- 
From hence it may be infcrr’d ; that fliould never 
any other Tokens of the Antiquity of thefe Works be 
found; yet would the Bath denote the Age of the 
Pavement, and fet it near as high as the moft early 
Time, that the Romans had any real Authority in this 
Ifland. 
As by the Lofs of Lome of the Annals of Tacitus ^ 
■\ve may have been depriv’d of the moft early Hiftory 
of this County ; fo likewife, for want of ancient Re- 
ligious Houfes; there has been little or.no Accounts 
left of its Circumftances, in the Times next after the 
Roman Authority expired here. Malmshury ^ fays, that 
in his Time, there were here only the Abbies of Bat- 
tcll and Le^xes, and thofe not long erecfted. The ear- 
lieft Mention made of it, is by ^ Bede, who informs 
us, that Bifiiop Wilfrid, in the Year 6; 8. being thruft 
cut of his Province of Northumbria by King Ecgfrid, 
reeled at Selfey in 68o. and ftaid Five Years, labouring 
in 
’ Tacit. Agricol. cap.xxi. * Gul. Malmsb. dc geftis Pontific. 
An£^l. Lib. Jl. » Bed* Hift. Ecclef. Lib. IV. cap. xiii. 
