to see the nice dear creatures go down the steps out of their private undressing-rooms, and enter the bath with their bathing-wrappers, made of rich stuff and fashionably cut, down to the feet and hands, and fastened to the waist, their hair gathered up under a very elegant coiffe,walk up through the water to shake hands and exchange morning salutations with the gentlemen of their acquaintance already in the bath, attired in the very pink of fashion? One might as well object to their walking together, or meeting and greeting each other in the GROVE, in dresses not very far different. There they are immersed in air—and here they are immersed in water. Of the two, the latter is the most decent element, as it is not quite so transparent.

"Oh! 'twas a glorious sight to behold the fair sex

All wading with gentlemen up to their necks."*

The old dame must have been put up to this species of wire-spun reasoning in favour of a practice now entirely abolished, for it is too fine for a person of her class. True it is, as she assured me, that since its discontinuance she had not seen the twentieth part of the number of ladies bathe whom she was wont to help in that operation at the commencement of her career. But for such defalcation there are more legitimate and substantial reasons-reasons, too, infinitely less onerous to the feelings of delicacy and propriety which have ever characterized our fair countrywomen.

In the print facing this page are represented several buildings, above which the Abbey Church tower is seen. left is the great pumproom, and next to it is the entrance to the KING's and QUEEN's public baths, as well as to the private baths connected with them. The whole group of buildings just mentioned forms a pleasing elevation, which, when "Stawles-street" was the gayest and most fashionable promenade, and not, as "Stall-street" is at present, the busiest and most plebeian thoroughfare of Bath, must have forcibly struck the attention of all visiters.

See Anstey's Bath Poetical Guide-King's Bath.

Of the interior of these buildings I formed but an indifferent opinion from what I saw around me-beginning at the vestibule, in which I was received by honest Master Ridley, exercising for upwards of twenty-two years the functions of bathman, and passing down and through dark corridors and stairs to the baths, which are several feet below the level of the surrounding streets.

But a new day has dawned on all the principal establishments of the place since my visit. The corporate body of the city, who are guardians of the springs, had been for many years using their best endeavours to maintain their importance, and the usefulness of these two baths in particular. Finding, however, that, in their own hands, the baths thrived not, but that, on the contrary, the receipts for many past years scarcely covered the expenditure, they determined on placing them and the rest of the springs, baths, and appliances, under a different system of management, by letting them all for a term of years to the most eligible bidder.

Some such measure, indeed, had become absolutely necessary to save the King's and Queen's Baths from thorough neglect, and the private baths adjoining from their threatened declension. Such, indeed, had been the diminution in the number of bathers that, at my visit, Master Ridley considered it a subject of exultation that the baths he had daily administered during the season just elapsed had risen to the wonderful cipher of 25 per week!

The lapse of little more than half a year has worked a wonderful change since; and the two individuals selected by-the corporation as lessees by a large majority of votes, including all the more influential members of that body, have by their prompt and unremitting exertions shown what can be effected in such a place and with such immense resources, when, instead of a committee of many persons not individually interested in the result, a smaller number of individuals, having a pecuniary stake in the whole concern, is invested with the power and authority to wield those resources to the

best advantage. In fact, the individuals at the head of an establishment of this kind should, in order to secure success in it, not only have a pecuniary interest, but be well qualified also for the purpose; and such, there is every reason to believe, is the case in the present instance.

Two persons, Messrs. Green and Simms, bear the ostensible responsibility of all the present arrangements; and in justice to them, as well as in accordance to that system which I have followed throughout this publication, I am bound, as I am happy, to say, that I have hardly met in this country, in the course of my long peregrinations, with any proprietor or other individual connected with a Spa, who has evinced greater zeal, or better abilities-a readier disposition (to receive and act upon proper suggestions, or a more spirited determination to do their duty-than the individuals alluded to have already displayed. It seems as if they were resolved to raise Bath once more to that station as a Spa, which it ought never to have relinquished, and to which alone it is entitled in England-that of "King of the Spas."

Their qualifications, fortunately, are coincident with the object for which they have been selected, and would seem, indeed, to have pointed them out for the purpose. The association of a practical and experimental chemist by profession, well known in Bath, with a person who for some years past has taken an active part, from choice as well as profession, in the concerts and other amusements of the city, offers the best security that the salutary, not less than the diverting departments of the revived Spa will be conducted in the most effective manner. The mature age of the first partner, and the more youthful bearing of the second, by imparting to the personal manners of each their peculiar characteristic, will tend to make the two associates popular, and by a natural consequence give popularity to their enterprise. This, I am assured, has already been fully demonstrated by the experience of the last season, the first of their administration; and it shall not be for want of fairness and justice on the part of the author