Chapter 3

The hall enclosing the bath I have already spoken of as 110ft. 4½in. long by 68ft. 5in. wide. It has been completely thrown open since this paper was read at the British and Gloucestershire Archæological Society, in 1884. These excavations are open to the sky, excepting on the east end (over which Abbey Street, at a height of 23ft. is carried on a viaduct, which I have erected).[20] The platform, or _schola_, surrounding the bath (measuring the original surface of the upper floor) is 13ft. 9in. wide on the four sides. This platform was formed by a layer of large freestone 9in. to 10in. thick, laid on the level of the top step but one, on a solid bed of concrete. Above this was another layer of concrete, and possibly on this, when the baths were first erected, a mosaic of tesseræ; but that, if it ever was there, has all disappeared, and its place has been supplied with paving, mostly of freestone also, of inferior thickness to the lower paving. Very little of this remains, and what there is is much fractured and worn; indeed not only is this paving much worn, but the lower paving also where the traffic was the greatest. I have given in the plan (_Pl. VIII._) almost every detail of these floors, and shall speak of them again further on. The general appearance of the place is symmetrical, but there are remarkable variations and inaccuracies that point to the fact that the juxta-position of this bath with other buildings, of which we have at present no knowledge, must have rendered these variations necessary, ultimately interfering with the completion, architecturally, of the building.

[Footnote 20: The house over the bath having been purchased by the Corporation, the Antiquities Committee (of which Mr. Murch was chairman) with a liberal subscription from the Society of Antiquaries, the Duke of Cleveland, and many noblemen and gentlemen of Bath and the neighbourhood, bore the expense of the removal of the soil from the bath and the general opening out of the rains, the arches beneath the Poor Law Office and the Viaduct supporting Abbey Street.]

On either side, north and south, are three recesses, or _exedrae_, two of which are circular and one (the centre) rectangular. The south rectangular one is 17ft. wide by 7ft. deep; the north one is nearly a foot wider, and one foot less in depth. Greater variations exist in the circular recesses; for, commencing in the western one, on the south side, the width is 17ft. 3in., and the depth 7ft. 6in.; the eastern one is 14ft. 3in. wide, and 6ft. 9in. deep; the _exedrae vis-a-vis_ on the north is 17ft. 3in. wide, and 8ft. 4in. deep; the remaining one, to the west, is 17ft. wide, and 7ft. deep. I give these dimensions irrespective entirely of the pilasters which are attached to the walls on either side the reveil of the recesses, and in the rectangular recesses in the enclosing angles also. Piers are now standing on the margin of the bath, dividing the north and south sides each into seven bays. These piers are built with solid block freestone, but as there are continuous vertical joints on either side of the central division of each pier, it is clear that an alteration was made in the design either previous to its entire completion or subsequently.

I will endeavour to describe the bath as originally designed. Along the margin of the bath, north and south, stood six piers, equally divided (about 14ft. apart), as far as the length of the bath, but allowing a lesser distance from the attached pilaster at either end. These piers are cut out of a block (in plan, 2ft. 10½in. from east to west by 2ft. 8in. from north to south), so as to form a pilaster of three inches projection on either face. As the original pilasters on the north and south walls do not correspond with these piers, I am led to conclude that the _schola_ and _exedrae_, north and south, were not vaulted at first, and were the only portion of the hall that was roofed, and that the roof was only of timber, supported by an arcade, the arches not exceeding 17ft. in height, and that the eaves of the roof of about 22ft. in height dipped towards the bath. This was a very usual arrangement in the _Atrium_ of a Roman house with the _impluvium_ in the centre. A _crypto porticus_ would thus be formed on the two longer sides of the bath, but the _schola_ on the east and west ends was open to the sky. Practical experience, either on the completion of this plan, or previously to its entire execution, led to its abandonment. At any rate a roof over the whole was found essential to the comforts of the bathers. The piers were accordingly strengthened. Pilasters were erected, projecting 2ft. 9m. into the bath, with smaller pilasters on the other side projecting on the _schola_, 1ft. 4in. by 1ft. 11in. wide; and _vis-a-vis_ to these pilasters corresponding ones were affixed to the side walls. Unfortunately this brought into prominence the irregularity of the size and position of the _exedrae_, and the pilasters were affixed correctly with reference to the arcade, as was absolutely necessary, but more or less trespassing on the width of the opening of these recesses, and notched into the original pilasters.

None of the piers, or pilasters, at present exist to a height exceeding 6ft. to 7ft. The base is a rude form of the Attic base; and we have found several fragments of the capital, or impost, of the smaller pilasters, from, which the arches sprang, but I have not been so fortunate as to recognise any of the larger capitals, and but few fragments of the cornices, and but one piece that I can identify as the frieze 1ft. 6in. deep by 2ft. 4in. long, on which are 5 incised letters 6¼in. long S SIL. The _schola_ was then arched in north and south, and the bath spanned by an arch. The vaulting that spanned the side arcades, and the centre (where the abutment was not sufficient for arches formed in the ordinary way of tiles or stone), were built of brick boxes, open at the sides, and wedge-shaped, 1ft. long, 4¾in. thick, and 7¾in. wide at the wider end, set in the usual mortar, a greater or less number of rings of these boxes being used according to the span. These arches were made out by an extra quantity of concrete on the under side for decoration, and on the upper in the case of the great arch, so as to form a roof, the well-known roll and flat Italian tiles being embedded in the mortar. Many and large fragments of this roof were found lying on the deposit that had partially filled the ruins previous to the fall of the roof, and are still carefully preserved. A large fragment, 18ft. long by about 3ft. wide, and 1ft. 9in. thick, that has slipped down, as it were, from the western end, in the position in which it was discovered, was formed of solid tiles, with an arch of tiles 1ft. 8in. long,[21] the roof having sufficient abutment on this side for a solid construction.[22] This arch gives the form of the window that lighted the bath on the western end.

[Footnote 21: The arches in the adjoining apartment west of this were built of a sort of a tufa.]

[Footnote 22: On the falling of the roof one of the piers was thrust out of the perpendicular, the upper half toppling over, and the lower would have again returned to its original position had a stone not fallen into the vertical joint, catching the pilaster as a wedge. The pier is still fixed out of the perpendicular by the stone in the joint.]

The vaulting of the side aisles, or rather that over the _schola_, was arched from pier to pier longitudinally and transversely, the quadrangular spaces being in all probability simply groined; but a fragment of box tiles found almost leads one to think that these spaces were vaulted by a domical vault, springing either from pendentives in the angles of the vaults, more common in later work, or from a slight cornice on a level with the apex of the arches. The vault, if there was one, over the semi-circular _exedrae_ must have been hemispherical. From the number of roofing tiles of local stone, shaped into hexagons, found, I think these arcades were roofed in with them, placed overlapping each other, giving a very good effect. Similar tiles were dug up at Wroxeter, and I have found slates of the same shape in the Roman villa I have been excavating for Mr. Chas. I. Elton, F.S.A., M.P., at Whitestaunton Manor. The form of these slates deserves copying; a roof covered by them is far lighter than that of rectangular slabs and more picturesque. The walls on the sides towards the hall, and externally, so far as I have been able to ascertain, are covered with the usual red plaster, shewing that they were internal walls; but from a piece of dentilled, or rather blocked, cornice, which fits the curve of one of the _exedrae_, I believe the walls were carried up on the north and south above the roofs of the adjoining rooms and corridors of the baths, so that they formed a feature in the elevation and afforded a broken skyline to the composition. The vault over the centre rose considerably above these walls, a portion of the centre of which may have been partially open for the emission of steam and the admission of light. Some square blocks of lead, that were the yotting of bars of metal, rather favour this idea, and suggest that these metal bars were a portion of the machinery by which a brazen shield (_clipeus_) was suspended, or secured, so that by raising or lowering it the temperature of the hall might be regulated as described by Vitruvius. In the excavations we found an _ante-fixa_ that must have fallen from some portion of the roof. It appears to be intended for a lion, but it is much broken.

I have prepared a sketch section of the bath (which I hope to communicate on a future occasion), transversely and a part longitudinally, in order that a description may the more readily be understood, adopting, in my restoration, the established rules of proportion of Classical architecture, which may, more or less, have been strictly adhered to when the baths were built; indeed, in the best specimens of Roman work a licence was given to the architect as to detail and proportion, that was refused him on the Classical revival. The pilasters of these baths spring, as I have said before, from an Attic base, of somewhat coarse proportions, 14in. high.[23] The attached pilasters that supported the arcade that was carried longitudinally along the bath are without a base; they must have been, within a few inches, more or less, not lower than 10ft. in height, including the impost moulding, of which there are fragments. The arches springing from them would be about 14ft. wide. I have not been able to find any fragments of the archivolt. The pilasters that supported the arches which crossed the _schola_ have bases similar to the larger pilasters. I can hardly speak positively of their elevation or that of the arches, but I am inclined to think the height of the impost moulding was raised, so that the arch, although a smaller span, was the same in height as the longitudinal arches.

[Footnote 23: The bases of the columns found, on the contrary, are most carefully designed and of most delicate proportions, which appear to justify the belief that the bases of the pilasters were never completely _worked_, or that they were coated with plaster and decorated as in the western bath, now being excavated.]

The great pilasters, fronting the bath, stand on plain pedestals, breaking forward into the water, on which rested the Attic base, the shaft with Doric (?) capital rising 18ft. above. A complete cornice, the architrave (which we have) and frieze, gave an additional height of nearly 5ft. This cornice ran over the arcade horizontally, but breaking forward the projection of the pilasters about 2ft. 7in. Over this cornice, I conclude, were semi-circular openings, of the same span as the arch beneath, with an architrave of 5 in. to 6 in. A circular vault crossed the bath from pilaster to pilaster, groined with the semi-circular arches just mentioned. Light may have been admitted divisionally in the centre of this great vault, as I previously mentioned, as well, as by the semi-circular arches in the "_clear storey_." The extreme height from the floor of the _schola_ to the under side of the vaulting may have been as much as 23ft., whilst the height of the central vault above the floor of the bath could not, I estimate, have been less than 48ft. 2in., exceeding by 5ft. the height of the famous Ball Rooms of the Bath Assembly Rooms, and by 14ft. that of the Grand Pump Room.

Many architectural fragments have been found during the excavations of the Great Bath, several portions of columns 2ft. 6in. diameter at base, and several sections of Corinthian foliage with the volute of a capital, of unusually artistic and powerful work; some smaller columns, a fluted shaft, and a Composite capital of debased character; but the four most remarkable fragments are pieces carved on both sides out of blocks about 1ft. 9in. thick, by 1ft. 6in. high. They are each from 2ft. 6in. to 2ft. 9in. long, and are curved, the chord being about 1-9/16in., in a length of 2ft. 6in. The first fragment is a cornice, or impost, carved on both sides, in three tiers: the upper, a _cima_ with a leaf; the middle division, a Greek fret, not quite similar on each side the stone, and below is a running ornament. The cornice does not project sufficiently to be the cornice of a building, and, as it is decorated on either side, it could not have been intended for a string-course, as none of the walls are so thin as these stones, although I at first thought it might belong to one of the semi-circular _exedrae_. The curve is struck with a shorter radius than even the smallest recess. I think it is the capping of the back of one of the semi-circular stone seats, called by the later Romans a _stibadium_. If this formed the seat in the north-western recess, there would be ample room behind it (3ft. 9in.) to pass by. The next fragment must have been fixed beneath this or a similar capping, and is also carved on each side; the convex side having an adaptation of the well-known honeysuckle fairly drawn, whilst the convex side of it, with the exception of a floriated panelled pilaster in the centre, is the work of an accomplished sculptor. On the right of this pilaster, slightly recessed to admit of relief, is the naked right thigh and leg of a figure that must have stood 1ft. 6in. high. Although only a fragment, this is a most charming piece of work, the action and anatomy of the limb being perfect. On the left side is a similar panel, a headless draped figure, with feet bare, holding a circular shield which rests on the thigh, whilst the limb is bent as if ascending a rock that is slightly indicated. On the third fragment the honeysuckle pattern is on the concave side, whilst the sculpture is on the convex, the arc of which corresponds with the last described. On this there are two niches only, and the figures are much more mutilated. The left figure has a flowing mantle, the only leg remaining being bare from the thigh downwards; the foot and the head are gone. The figure on the right is fully draped, the head is lost, and the right hand much mutilated; a musical instrument, like a guitar,[24] or rather a mandolin, rests against the left breast, held in position by the left hand. The fourth fragment has the honeysuckle on both sides, with the flower well carved on one of them. It is a great pity that so little of this superb work is left, and that what there is should be so mutilated.[25]

[Footnote 24: Professor Middleton considers this a cornucopia.]

[Footnote 25: A small drawing of these pieces I shall also on a future occasion communicate.]

This account of the Great Bath will, I hope, be sufficiently complete if I describe the entrances and conclude with a few particulars of the pavement (although many discoveries of considerable interest might be made, I have no doubt, in the latter), omitting a detailed examination as being tedious.

I believe there were five entrances to this bath, two of which remain. In the western wall, on the south, is one leading from other apartments (a hypocaust, hall and bath), which I shall on a future occasion describe. It is 4ft. 3in. wide. Double doors and hinges have been inserted in this doorway, and the base and a portion of a pilaster cut away most barbarously to receive them. On the north, on the same wall, and fronting the northern _schola_, is a doorway similar to the last, which has been walled up in Roman times, the wall which closed it being covered with the red plaster that covers all the work not being faced freestone. A third doorway, similar in every respect, was at the eastern end of the northern _schola_, as I infer from the lower paving being much worn in that direction. A fourth doorway was in the eastern wall to the south, but not south enough to face the southern _schola_, and a fifth was between these two. Of these three doorways, the first of them is still hidden by soil, and the second and third are obliterated with modern walling; a portion of the architrave of one was found near, but their position is well marked by the footmarks in the stone.

[Plate VIII: Plan of Great Roman Bath, Bath. Discovered 1880-81 and measured 1884, by Charles E. Davis, F.S.A.]

I should not omit mentioning the mark of a wooden seat in the northern rectangular recess, and the place of a wooden rail for clothes, that was let into the pilaster at one end with the _slot_ in a pilaster at the other.

In my plan (_Pl. VIII._) I have endeavoured to show the massive lower paving and the fragmentary upper pavement. Both are much worn; and, where the upper pavement has disappeared against the upper step of the bath, especially the step on the western _schola_, it has been worn down on the inside to the depth of several inches. The lower pavement through the south-western door is worn in holes, and across by the angular fountain are similar wearings, marking "a short cut" into the northern _schola_; and this is continued in a less degree to the other doors,--save the north-western one, where the upper paving in part exists, showing that this doorway was closed before the baths were allowed to get so shamefully out of repair. This sadly dilapidated pavement must have caused considerable inconvenience to the bathers, and could only have been put up with by those too poor to incur the expenses of repair; the baths therefore were continued to be used by less prosperous citizens than those who provided them. Is not this a strong argument that the Romans left behind them, when they abandoned Britain (A.D. 420), a people almost as great lovers of the baths as themselves, with, however, less ability to maintain them; and that the residents of Aquæ Sulis daily frequented them during the 150 years that succeeded until the city was overthrown by our more immediate ancestors, who destroyed before abandoning it to desolation?

The springs flooded the courts and corridors of the Thermæ until the washings of the land filled them. Rushes, withies, and trees grew beneath the shadow of its ruins. Bathancastra (Akemancastra) was founded;[26] the memory of the baths was lost; its architectural magnificence was the quarry of the builders, who little dreamt that beneath the soil was buried the rich treasure which we in this century, and those who have preceded us in the last, have had the privilege of laying bare.

[Footnote 26: "The foundation of a monastery by an under-King of the Hwiccas [Osric, Nov. 6, A.D. 676,] within its walls, reveals to us the springing up of a new life in another of the cities which had been wrecked by Ceawlin's inroad, the city of Bath."--_Green's "Making of England_," p. 356.

Professor Earle throws some doubt on the authenticity of the record.]

The Romans left behind them in Bath a Palace of Health and Luxury unequalled except in Italy.

* * * * *

In making some excavations (1885) beneath the Cross Bath, the walls of the Roman well were found, and at a considerable depth two altars, which are placed for exhibition in the Great Bath. One of these is a plain rectangular altar; the other is carved on three sides, having on the front face two figures (Æsculapius offering a lamb to Hegiea), on another side a serpent coiled round the trunk of a tree, and on the third sculptured side a dog with a curly tail (see Professor Sayce and Rev. Preb. Scarth).

* * * * *

HOT MINERAL SPRINGS

OF BATH,

VESTED IN THE CORPORATION OF THE CITY.

* * * * *

FOUNDED by the Romans in the First Century.

BATHERS DURING 1889, 104,597.

Daily yield 507,600 gallons at 120° Fah.

* * * * *

These Waters are beneficial in all forms of Gout, Sub-acute, Chronic and Muscular Rheumatism--Neuralgias, Sciatica, Lumbago, certain forms of Paralysis, Nervous Debility, Diseases of Women, Disorders of the Digestive System, Tropical Anoemia, Metallic Poisoning, Eczema, Lepra, Psoriasis, and all the Scaly Diseases of the Skin. Some Surgical Diseases of the Joints, general Weakness of Limbs after injury, and Diseases of the Throat and Air Passages.

Upwards of £40,000 have been lately expended by the Corporation of the City to enlarge and perfect the various appliances, rendering them, in the words of one of the greatest Hygienic Physicians of the day, THE MOST PERFECT IN EUROPE. Thermal Vapour, Douche with Massage by doucheurs and doucheuses from Continental Spas, Pulverised and Vapour Douche, Spray, Dry and Moist Heat, and Shower, with luxurious Cooling Rooms.

BAND DAILY IN THE PUMP ROOM.

LAST RETURN OF THE MEDICAL OFFICER OF HEALTH FOR BATH 17'9 PER 1000.

* * * * *

CHARGES FOR BATHS.

NEW ROYAL BATHS, ADJOINING THE GRAND HOTEL.

Prices. First Class Deep Bath.. 2 6 Ditto with Douche or Shower.. 3 0 First Class Reclining Bath.. 2 0 Ditto with Douche or Shower.. 2 6 Dry Douche.. 2 0 Attendant's Fee.. 0 3

First Class Reclining Bath with Massage (1 Doucher) 3s. 6d., Attendant's Fee, 6d.

Attached to these Baths is a

* * * * *

SWIMMING BATH, TEMP. 82 TO 84 FAHRT.,

Daily supplied with Fresh Mineral Water.

For Ladies' use on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays.

With use of Private Room for 1 Person, 1s.; 2 Persons, 1s. 6d.; 3 Persons, 2s.

Public Room, 6d. Bathing Dresses, 2d. Attendant's Fee, 1d.

This Bath is available for Gentlemen on Tuesdays, till 1 p.m., Thursdays, Saturdays, and on Sunday Mornings up to 9.30 a.m., at 1s. each Person.

* * * * *

THE ROYAL BATHS, BATH STREET.

First Class Deep Bath. 2 0 ditto ditto with Douche. 2 6 Second Class Deep Bath. 1 6 ditto ditto with Douche. 2 0 Reclining Bath. 1 6 ditto with Douche. 2 0 Shower Bath 1 6

Attendant's Fees. 2d. & 3d.

* * * * *

TEPID SWIMMING BATH, FOR GENTLEMEN ONLY.

With use of Private Room .. 0 9 With use of Public Room .. 0 6

No Attendant's Fees. This Bath is closed on Thursdays at 1 p.m.

* * * * *

CROSS BATH, OPEN DAILY (FRIDAYS EXCEPTED), SUNDAY TILL 9 A.M.

Open Public Bath 0 1 Open Public Bath, with Towel 0 2

This Bath is available for Females on Thursdays, under the charge of a female attendant. Fee, including bathing dress, 2d.

* * * * *

KING'S AND QUEEN'S BATHS, STALL STREET.