'
Wherever Nash may have passed the intervening years, may be an
interesting speculation for a German professor, but is of little moment
to us. We find him again, at the age of thirty, taking first steps
towards the complete subjugation of the kingdom he afterwards ruled.
There is, among the hills of Somersetshire, a huge basin formed by the
river Avon, and conveniently supplied with a natural gush of hot water,
which can be turned on at any time for the cleansing of diseased bodies.
This hollow presents many curious anomalies; though sought for centuries
for the sake of health, it is one of the most unhealthily-situated
places in the kingdom; here the body and the pocket are alike cleaned
out, but the spot itself has been noted for its dirtiness since the days
of King Bladud's wise pigs; here, again, the diseased flesh used to be
healed, but the healthy soul within it speedily besickened: you came to
cure gout and rheumatism, and caught in exchange dice-fever.
The mention of those pigs reminds me that it would be a shameful
omission to speak of this city without giving the story of that
apocryphal British monarch, King Bladud. But let me be the one
exception; let me respect the good sense of the reader, and not insult
him by supposing him capable of believing a mythic jumble of kings and
pigs and dirty marshes, which he will, if he cares to, find at full
length in any 'Bath Guide'--price sixpence.
Pages:
247
248
249
250
251
252
253
254
255
256
257
258
259
260
261
262
263
264
265
266
267
268
269
270
271