Bath, the chief city of Somersetshire, is beautifully situated in the wooded valley of the sinuous Avon, 11¾ miles ESE. of Bristol, and 107 W. of London. Its houses are built wholly of white freestone—'Bath oolite,' worked in the neighbouring quarries—brick being entirely discarded (see BATH-STONE). Set in a natural amphitheatre, with Lansdown Hill (813 feet) to the north, the city has a finer appearance than any other in England, the variety of level giving very commanding sites for its fine and regular streets, crescents, circuses, and public buildings. The beauty and sheltered character of its situation, the mildness of its climate, and especially the curative efficacy of its hot chalybeate springs, have long rendered Bath a favourite fashionable resort. The springs, which supply several baths, were known to the Romans, who here in the 1st century A.D. built baths, of which extensive remains were discovered in 1755 and again in 1881. A large portion of these has been uncovered, including an oblong bath 83 feet in length by 30 in breadth, and a circular bath 25 feet in diameter. The temperature of the springs varies from 97° to 120° F.; they rise near the river-bank, in the centre of the city, and discharge about 185,000 gallons of water daily. The water is most useful in bilious, nervous, and scrofulous complaints, palsy, rheumatism, gout, and cutaneous diseases. Though the gaiety of Bath has greatly waned since the days of Beau Nash (q.v.), there has been a great general improvement in the city. It has a beautiful park (1830), and many open spaces; a theatre, concert-rooms, and other places of amusement; the literary and scientific institution, museum, club-houses, good hotels, &c. Noteworthy edifices are the Assembly Rooms (1771), the Guild-hall (1766), the Pump-room (1797), the Mineral Water Hospital (1737-1861), the City Markets (reconstructed 1863), and the new baths (1887). The Abbey Church (1499-1616) is a cruciform Late Perpendicular structure, with a fine fantracery ceiling in the style of Henry VII.'s chapel, and a central tower 162 feet high. In 1864 and subsequent years the interior was thoroughly restored by Sir G. G. Scott at a cost of £30,000. Of numerous other churches the finest is the Roman Catholic Priory Church (1863), with a spire 200 feet high. On Lansdown Hill is Beckford's Tower, 130 feet high, built by the eccentric author of Vathek. South of the city is Prior Park, built in 1743 by Ralph Allen, Fielding's friend, and now a Catholic college. There are several other educational establishments—the Bath College, the Royal School for Officers' Daughters, the Wesleyan College, &c. Bath returns two members to parliament, and conjointly with Wells is the seat of a diocese. It has no manufactures of importance; but it has given name to a kind of bun, to wheeled invalid chairs, and to bricks used for cleaning metal. Coal is found in the neighbourhood. Pop. (1881) 51,814; (1891) 51,843. Traditionally founded by a British prince, Bladud (863 B.C.), Bath is really of great antiquity. It was a Roman station called Aquæ Sulis, at the intersection of the great Roman ways from London to Wales, and from Lincoln to the south coast of England. The site of the Roman forum is known; and remains have from time to time been discovered of temples, altars, and pavements. Richard I. granted Bath its earliest extant charter, which was subsequently confirmed by Henry III., and greatly extended by George III. Bath figures frequently in literature, in the works of Smollett, Fielding, Austey, Madame D'Arblay, Miss Austen, Dickens, &c.
See Warner's History of Bath (1890); Searth's Aquæ Solis (1864); Sir G. Jackson's Archives of Bath (2 vols. 1873); and Peach's Bath, Old and New (1888).