The public amusements of Bath are numerous and liberally conducted. Of these the most important are the subscription assemblies and concerts, at which a master of the ceremonies presides--a functionary of high authority, who holds his office in regular descent from the hands of the celebrated Beau Nash. The latter gentleman, by a peculiar union of good sense, "effrontery, wit, vivacity, and perseverance, acquired an ascendancy among the votaries of rank and fashion which rendered him a species of modish despot, to whose decrees it was deemed a part of the loyalty of high breeding to yield in silent submission." The assemblies are held in the Upper Rooms, in the vicinity of the Circus, which were erected in 1791, at an expense of twenty thousand pounds. The Ball-room is one hundred and five feet long, forty-three feet wide, and forty-two high. The Lower Assembly-rooms stood near the Parade, and were also very elegantly fitted up, though on a less extensive scale, but were destroyed by fire in 1820. The theatre is a handsome edifice, fitted up in splendid style, with three tiers of boxes, and the roof divided into compartments, containing the beautiful paintings by Cassali which formerly occupied a similar place in Fonthill Abbey. In the vicinity of Bath, especially on Lansdown and Claverton Downs, there are delightful spots for equestrian exercise. Races take place on the former of these the week after Ascot races. Bath is eminently distinguished for its numerous public charities, its literary and scientific institutions, its society for the encouragement of agriculture, the arts, manufactures, and commerce; its clubs, subscription-rooms, libraries, schools, and hospitals. The diseases in which the waters of Bath are resorted to are very numerous, and in many instances consist of such as are the most difficult and important of all that come under medical treatment. In most cases the bath is used along with the waters as an internal medicine--first adopted in the case of King Charles. The general indications of the propriety of using these medicinal waters are chiefly in cases where a gentle, gradual, and permanent stimulus is required. Bath water may certainly be considered as a chalybeate, in which the iron is very small in quantity, but in a highly active form, whilst the degree of temperature is in itself a stimulus of considerable power. [Illustration: TINTAGEL CASTLE.] TINTAGEL CASTLE.