Changes in the river bank afterwards made it possible to build the house on the same side as the hot spring and so near that the water retained its heat. The baths grew fashionable and the town of Bath rapidly became a society resort. People of wealth built houses and brought their amusements with them. Gaiety prevailed and music, dancing and card-playing were indulged in; but fashionables wearied, quarrelled and sought for pastures new. In 1774, Long complained of the desertion of Bath; the decline went steadily on, and it never regained its popularity. There is a stone table affixed to the portico of the court house, bearing this inscription: This public building was erected under the inspection of the Hon. Charles Price, Peter Valette and William Forbes, Esqrs., appointed commissioners for carrying on the same, the foundation of which was begun on the 10th day of March, 1747. This tablet originally belonged to the old bath house and was many years ago picked out of the river bed, and after lying in a yard in the town for some time was rescued by the authorities and placed on the front of the court house. After 1789, the old =Botanic Garden= in Bath was placed under the corporation. Dr. Thomas Dancer, best known as the author of “The Medical Assistant or Jamaica Practice of Physic” (1801), and as chief of the hospital staff on the expedition to San Juan de Nicaragua from Jamaica in 1779, when Nelson nearly lost his life from malarial fever, was for many years from 1781 to 1792 physician to the bath, and Island botanist from 1797. While acting in the former capacity, he brought out in 1784 “A Short Dissertation on the Jamaica Bath Waters, to which is prefixed an introduction concerning mineral waters in general....” Of the rainfall he says, “above forty perpendicular inches have fallen in about the space of six or eight hours, which is nearly double the quantity that on a medium, falls in Great Britain through a whole year.” The work also contained a list of the rarer plants cultivated in the garden, of which he published a full list in 1792. Some of the plants he owed to the interest of Sir Joseph Banks, with whom he corresponded. Near the Johnson River to the west of Morant Bay is =Belvedere= estate, 2200 acres in extent, the original home of Colonel Thomas Freeman, the first speaker of the House of Assembly. There are remains of a fine aqueduct, a water-wheel, still used for pumping water, parts of very extensive works, and higher up the hill the great house and the overseer’s house. Now, bananas and coco-nuts usurp the place of cane. Not far from the great house, in a logwood plantation, is a tomb on the front of which is a massive slate slab with the following inscription: