graces of manner and speech. But they are not slow of wit. Thus the record stands of a boorish bicyclist who, not sure of his bearings in the quickly gathering dusk, accosted an aged farmer leaning on a gate: "I say Johnnie, where am I? I want a bed." 66 You'm fourteen miles from Wonford Asylum," was the quiet response, "and fourteen miles from Newton Work'us, and fourteen miles from Princetown Prison, and I reckon you could find quarters in any o' they and suitable." A BATH AND ITS BATHS T the risk of offending the somewhat sensitive guardians of the honour of Bath, the reflection shall be hazarded that the future of that city cannot hope to rival the glory of its past. In view of the vicissitudes of that past this may seem a daring prophecy. A chronicler of the early eighteenth century might have felt he was on sure ground in indulging in a similar forecast, only to have his gift of prevision made ridiculous by events which were still to happen. Bath, indeed, has passed through three clearlydefined epochs of prosperity. The first of these dates far back to the period of the Roman occupation of Britain. Ignoring as little better than idle legends such stories as are told of British precursers, it seems established beyond dispute that the earliest to lay the foundations of a considerable city in this "warm vale" of the West were the triumphant masters of the old world. In dealing with such a remote period of history it cannot be expected that any hard and fast date shall be available, and yet it seems likely that the advent of the Romans may be placed somewhere about the year 45 of our era. It was in the early years of the reign of Claudius, that mild and amiable occupant of the Cæsars' throne, that a Roman legion is recorded to have made a complete conquest of this part of Somersetshire. To this period, then, it is usual to "attribute the first foundation of Bath, when the Romans, attracted by the appearance of those hot springs, whose uses they so well knew and so highly valued, fixed upon the low and narrow vale in which they rose for the establishment of a station and the erection of a town." For nearly four centuries the power of Rome was supreme in this sequestered dale of the West. Upon the rude foundations of the city reared about the year 45 subsequent rulers from the city by the Tiber upraised luxurious villas and stately temples. Due attention having been given by early comers to the military defences of the place, its subsequent and more leisurely adornment followed as the natural expression of the Roman temperament. "The elegant Agricola," surmises a local historian, "reposing a winter here from his successful campaign in |