45|=Basingstoke=, Hants, 75, 99, 131. A market town of some |antiquity, pleasantly situated in a fine open country. The church |is ancient; near it stands a free school, and it has also three |charity schools, one of which is supported by the Skinners’ |Company of London. The remains of the chapel of the Holy Ghost |stands on a considerable eminence near the town; it was formerly a |fine edifice, richly ornamented with scriptural pictures. The town |has a manufactory of druggets and shalloons, and has a good market |house, and a town hall over it, where the sessions are held twice |a year, and the magistrates meet weekly. It contains 501 houses, |and 2589 inhabitants, and the market on Wednesday is very |considerable for provisions, corn, and cattle. | 106|BATH, Somerset, 187, 201, 204. The city of Bath is justly esteemed |the most elegant town in England. The hot baths, from which it |derives its name, were known in the Roman times; nor was their |celebrity lost even in the dark period of Anglo Saxon history. But |the town has been greatly enlarged and decorated in the last |century. The waters are used both internally and externally, |chiefly in gout, bilious, and paralytic cases, being frequented |twice in the year, what is called the spring and autumnal seasons. |Two-thirds of the company are attracted merely by amusement, |society, and dissipation; in all of which it is only second to |London. But so great are the attractions of this celebrated spot, |and the reputation of these waters has so much increased, that |Bath has become the constant residence, not only of many opulent |invalids, but also of numerous votaries of pleasure. | |The baths consist of the King’s, the Queen’s, the Cross, the Hot, |the Corporation, and the Duke of Kingston’s Baths. The taste of |the water is pleasant, impregnated with a vitriolic principle, |which yields, upon evaporation, a small portion of neutral salt, |with a calcareous earth and iron. At the King’s Bath is a handsome |pump room, where the company drink the waters in the morning, and |where an excellent band of music enlivens the scene. | |The amusements of this gay city are various, rational, and well |conducted. They consist chiefly of assemblies, balls, concerts, |card parties, and public breakfasts; besides the theatre. There |are two sets of assembly rooms, termed the Upper and Lower, where |the amusements are alternately held: the former of these stands on |the walks leading from the Grove to the Parade; and the latter, on |the east side of the Circus. | |The city, except a little opening to the east and west, through |which the Avon passes, is surrounded on all sides by hills. It has |an elegant bridge, and the river has been made navigable to |Bristol.