his nap was over, he proved to be an agreeable and intelligent companion, intimately acquainted with the country through which we were passing, and ready to impart to us all the information which we desired. Discovering that we were strangers in England, his politeness led him to offer us unexpected attentions, and when we parted at Devizes, he gave us his name, and promised to procure us admission to see the woollen manufactures of Trowbridge, where he resides, and which we were therefore induced to determine on visiting.

After passing through Melksham, Bathford, and Bath Easton, we arrived at Bath, at 10 o'clock at night, when it was completely dark.

No. XLV. BATH.

The great pump-room-The great bath-Heat of the water-Promiscuous bathing—Sketch of Bath and its environs—Its geological features different from those around London-InvalidsExcursion to Trowbridge-Manufacture of cloth-A popular commotion-Thomas Henniken-Barracks--Composition of

the bath waters-Anecdote.

August 28.-The first excursion which we made in Bath was, as you may well suppose, to its celebrated wa

ters.

We went into the great pump-room. This is a large and handsome apartment, in a magnificent stone building, erected over one of the springs, and here the valetudinarians and others come to drink the water which is drawn

from a marble urn, by a man who attends for that pur

pose. As we had just breakfasted, we did not at that time taste the water. There are several smaller pump

rooms, and a number of private baths, but there is one principal bath that forms a great object of curiosity, and which we went next to see. It is called the king's bath; it may be twenty-five or thirty feet in diameter, and four or five feet deep; it is accessible to all decent people, and from its uncommon magnitude, is, as you may well imagine, a fine place for bathing and swimming, since there is full room for the free use of the limbs, as on the sea shore. The water, when it first boils up from the spring, is of the temperature of 1160; there is a very ample supply, and such a large mass of warm fluid, of course, sends up a copious vapour, which hangs, in a cloud, over the surface of the bath. Some part of the heat is dissipated in this manner, so that the bathers rarely have the water hotter than from 100 to 106°, but as the temperature of the human body is several degrees lower, the water always appears quite warm. The heat is somewhat different in the different baths, but the coolest of them differs very little from blood heat. In the king's bath, the water rises so rapidly in several places, from the spring, as to throw the whole mass into a degree of agitation, like that of a great boiling caldron. It is a remarkable fact, that most of the warm springs in the different countries of the world are very copious, and it is certainly astonishing that any natural cause can operate to impart heat to them, so uniformly and so long. It is not astonishing that the celebrated Geyser springs in Iceland should be hot, and very hot, since they are in a volcanic country, where all the phenomena of volcanoes are frequent, extensive and grand. It is not surprising even that they should throw

such vast columns of boiling water to so great a height, because the great heat of that region would give steam and other elastic agents, any required degree of power.But, in Britain there neither is, nor does it appear that there ever was, any active volcano; there is no trace of one remaining, and yet the Romans bathed their athletic limbs in the hot fountains of Bath, and they have flowed hot for two thousand years as we certainly know. This proves a cause of subterranean heat, deep, because it varies not with the changes of the air, and powerful and seemingly unchangeable. Some geologists refer such phenomena to a vast central fire always existing in the interior of the earth. All we can say, is-" causa latet vis est notissima."

At night, when the bathing is over, the water is permitted to run off into the river Avon, and the baths are cleansed; the regular flow fills them again, in season, for the next day's bathing. Those who are disposed to pay for a separate bath may have one, but without the advantage of uniting exercise and bathing at once, which is enjoyed in so high a degree in the king's bath. When going into this, the persons undress, in an adjoining apartment, and throw on a loose robe, flowing to the feet, and drawn close around the neck, like a night gown; thus equipped, they plunge into the warm sea, and, (such is the etiquette of the place) without distinction of rank or sex. Those who, from any personal cause, are disagreeable, have a separate provision made for them, and are not admitted here. In this agitated and steaming bath (the large one) with an impending cloud of condensed vapour, the people who are bathing impress a spectator with the idea of a vast kettle of boiling hot water, in which human victims are immersed.

We spent the day in walking around Bath and its environs. I was so unfortunate as not to find Dr. Currie ; I called at his house, but he had gone into the country.Although I had taken no other letter of introduction to Bath, because I knew that my stay there must be short, I regretted this disappointment the less for that reason, than because of my curiosity to converse with a man so generally and so justly celebrated.*

Bath, the most beautiful city in England, is built in the midst of an amphitheatre, formed by high hills, which are numerous in this part of England, and include narrow valleys, generally very fertile and productive. In such a valley the greater part of the old town of Bath appears to have been originally built, but the new town, which is by far the more beautiful portion, slopes gradually from the top of the hills, on the northern and western side of the valley, and descends quite to the plain ground. The hills are verdant to their very summits, and there is a striking similarity between this natural amphitheatre, and that of Castleton in Derbyshire; only, this is on a smaller scale, and, while there is at Castleton more of grandeur, arising from magnitude and extent, there is here more of beauty, derived from fertility and cultivation.

So

The geological features of the west of England are very different from those which are found around London well is it now understood, that the scenery of a country depends on its geology, that, either being stated to a skillful person, the general features of the other may, with a good degree of confidence, be inferred. London rests on vast beds of clay and gravel, and the surrounding country is either level or varied with gentle undulations.

* Since deceased.

As we proceed west through the chalk counties of Berks and Wilts, the hills become more considerable, but bounded by gentle curves, and their tops are round or flat. But at Bath we come upon the confines of the Alpine, district of England; the hills assume a bolder outline and are much more abrupt and a different series of rocks begin to prevail.

The river Avon, flowing on towards Bristol, runs through the valley of Bath, and adds much to its beauty, while it passes out at the only opening which there is, on that side, among the hills.

Bath is not only the most beautiful city in England, if we include the idea of its situation, and of the picturesque scenery of the country; it is also the most magnificent in the structure of its buildings. Oxford is superior in the grandeur which arises from antiquity, and from the peculiar effect produced by numerous Gothic buildings; but Bath unites modern elegance, decorated by the finest embellishments of architecture, with the massy and expensive style of former ages. There are no brick-houses; they are all constructed of fine light-coloured free-stone, which is found in abundance in the vicinity. It is so soft, when first taken out of the quarry, that it can be wrought with great ease into any form, and yet it soon becomes hard and firm, by exposure to the weather. We observed the workmen cutting it with a saw, and the instrument moved in it with apparently as much ease as in hard wood. The stone is hewn and smoothed, in order to prepare it for building, and it forms very beautiful materials for houses. Stone must ever be superior in dignity as well as durability to every other building material. Hence