the influence of Vespasian, Diocletian, Æthelred, and Canute strangely mingle in the history of the city which was called the Waters of the Sun."

The Avon flows through Bath; and Michael Drayton thus sings the city's and the river's bra

veries:

"Her [the Avon] Somerset receives, with all the bounties blest
That nature can produce in that Bathonian spring;
Which from the sulphry mines her med'cinal force doth bring;
As physic hath found out by colour, taste, and smell,
Which taught the world at first the virtues of that well;
What quickliest it could cure; which men of knowledge drew
From that first mineral cause: yet some that little knew,
(Yet felt the great effects continually it wrought,)
Ascribed it to that skill, which Bladud hither brought,
As by that learned king the baths should be begun;
Not from the quickened mine by the begetting Sun,
Giving that natural pow'r which, by the vig'rous sweat,
Doth lend the lively springs their perdurable heat.
In passing through the veins, where matter doth not need,
Which in that minerous earth insep'rably doth breed ;
So nature hath purvey'd, that during all her reign
The baths their native power for ever shall retain :
Where time that city built, which, to her greater fame,
Preserving of that spring participates her name;
The tutelage whereof (as those past worlds did please,)
Some to Minerva gave, and some to Hercules."

It was this spring that made Bath what it once was the most, in fact almost the only, fashionable resort in England. To its once famous Pump-room thronged all the sickly, lazy, ennui-afflicted sons and daughters of the aristocracy of birth and the aristocracy of wealth. As a necessary result, to it also flocked all the follies, sins, and crimes which are

their constant attendants. Baden of England.

It was then the BadenThere gathered all that was corrupt and worthless among the children of wealth and fashion. Gamesters, roués, loose creatures of both sexes, found there their natural element and their fitting companions. Of course, the wise, the good, and the virtuous were there also; but the mass of its celebrities are famous only for the less noble and creditable labours of humanity. The imp of fashion, Beau Nash, was the "god of their idolatry;" and when George II. was king, the municipal Solons of Bath reared a statue to this prince of fops, this predecessor of the Fourth George's Brummell. There it is to this day; and the wise erectors of it, in order to show their catholic appreciation of genius, set it up between the busts of Newton and Pope. Lord Chesterfield's lines on this memorable event are worth quoting :

"Nash represents man in the mass,

Made up of wrong and right:
Sometimes a knave, sometimes an ass;
Now blunt, and now polite.

"The statue placed the busts between,
Adds to the thought much strength;
Wisdom and wit are little seen,

But folly 's at full length."

Beau Nash no longer struts about the place, the admired of all observers; Beau Brummell no more gladdens the eyes of ruffle-loving fops of both sexes; the Pump-room is shorn of its ancient glories, but is

still worth a visit; and even now remains the fashionable promenade of the beaux and belles of Bath.

We left the Pump-room where our fops were kings, and laid down the laws which fools obeyed,willing and subservient subjects of folly always, and often of sin,—and rambled on to the Abbey Church. As in all our old ecclesiastical cities, the Abbey is the one grand and noble erection of the place. Such is the Abbey Church in Bath. It has, besides its architectural beauties, the fame of being the last cathedral built in England. The ancient abbey of the Benedictines, which occupied its site, had fallen into decay, "when Oliver King, bishop 1495-1503, undertook its restoration. He had a dream (they always had in those days) like Jacob's ladder; and imagined he heard a voice, saying, 'Let an Oliver stablish the crown, and a king build the church."" And he set to work as one ordered by the Lord. "The church," says Mr. Walcott, in his admirable little Guide to the Cathedrals of England, "The church is cruciform; consisting of a nave of five bays, a choir of three bays, and a transept without aisles. On the east side of the south transept is a vestry, containing some ancient manuscripts. The central tower is of two stories; the north and south faces are narrower than the east and west sides. There is no triforium, but a lofty trevestry. From the number of the windows (fifty-two) the church is so light as to be called the Lantern of England.' The west front, which is flanked with two turrets, represents the dream of Bishop King: on either side of the ladder, with

angels ascending and descending, are figures of the apostles; and above it the Holy Trinity. The paraphrase of Judges ix. 8 is also engraved in Latin and English :

'Trees going to choose their king,

Said, Be to us the Oliver King.'

The loveliest part of the interior is, to our mind, the chantry of Prior Bird, which is on the south side of the choir; was built in 1515, and is now used as the episcopal throne. "It is," says another writer competent to give a judgment on the subject, "remarkable alike for its purity and richness of decoration." The monuments are numerous; and some of them perpetuate the names of famous men, and others are fine specimens of the sculptor's art. We may mention here those of James Quin, the actor, the dandy Beau Nash, and Bingham, by Flaxman; Dr. Sibthorp, the well-known botanist, also by Flaxman; H. Kettencamp and Lady Miller, by Bacon; Colonel Champion, by Nollekens; Sir R. H. Bickerton, and Hoare, the artist, by Chantrey. There are also monuments to Malthus, the political economist; and to Lady Waller, wife of the poet; and Mary Frampton, who has been made famous by an epitaph by Dryden. We can only give the last five lines :

"A soul so calm, it knew nor ebbs nor flows,
Which passion could not curl,-not discompose;
A female softness, with a manly mind;

A daughter virtuous and a sister kind;
In sickness patient, and in death resigned!

Let us kindly hope that all this was true.

still worth a visit; and eve
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THE "TIGRES