Gray Days and Gold in England and ScotlandWinter, William
General
Gray Days and Gold in England and Scotland
Winter, William
Great Britain -- Description and travel; Literary landmarks -- Great Britain
"That tongue which set the table on a roar
And charmed the public ear is heard no more;
Closed are those eyes, the harbingers of wit,
Which spoke, before the tongue, what Shakespeare writ;
Cold is that hand which, living, was stretched forth,
At friendship's call, to succour modest worth.
Here lies JAMES QUIN. Deign, reader, to be taught
Whate'er thy strength of body, force of thought,
In nature's happiest mould however cast,
To this complexion thou must come at last."
[Illustration: _High Street--Bath._]
A printed reminder of mortality is superfluous in Bath, for you
almost continually behold afflicted and deformed persons who have
come here to "take the waters." For rheumatic sufferers this place
is a paradise,--as, indeed, it is for all wealthy persons who love
luxury. Walter Savage Landor said that the only two cities of Europe
in which he could live were Bath and Florence; but that was long ago.
When you have walked in Milsom street and Lansdowne Crescent, sailed
upon the Avon, observed the Abbey, without and within,--for its dusky,
weather-stained walls are extremely picturesque,--attended the theatre,
climbed the hills for the view of the city and the Avon valley, and
taken the baths, you will have had a satisfying experience of Bath.
The greatest luxury in the place is a swimming-tank of mineral water,
about forty feet long, by twenty broad, and five feet deep,--a tepid
pool of most refreshing potency. And the chief curiosity is the ruin of
a Roman bath which was discovered and laid bare in 1885. This is built
in the form of a rectangular basin of stone, with steps around it,
and originally it was environed with stone chambers that were used as
dressing-rooms. The basin is nearly perfect. The work of restoration of
this ancient bath is in progress, but the relic will be preserved only
as an emblem of the past.
[Illustration: _A Fragment from an Old Roman Bath._]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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