eople in them. They are not so large as I expected, but
yet pleasant; and the town most of stone, and clean, though the streets
generally narrow. I home, and being weary, went to bed without supper;
the rest supping.
13th (Saturday). Up at four o'clock, being by appointment called up to
the Cross Bath, where we were carried one after one another, myself, and
wife, and Betty Turner, Willet, and W. Hewer. And by and by, though we
designed to have done before company come, much company come; very fine
ladies; and the manner pretty enough, only methinks it cannot be clean
to go so many bodies together in the same water. Good conversation among
them that are acquainted here, and stay together. Strange to see how
hot the water is; and in some places, though this is the most temperate
bath, the springs so hot as the feet not able to endure. But strange
to see, when women and men herein, that live all the season in these
waters, that cannot but be parboiled, and look like the creatures of the
bath! Carried away, wrapped in a sheet, and in a chair, home; and there
one after another thus carried, I staying above two hours in the water,
home to bed, sweating for an hour; and by and by, comes musick to play
to me, extraordinary good as ever I heard at London almost, or anywhere:
5s. Up, to go to Bristol, about eleven o'clock, and paying my landlord
that was our guide from Chiltern, 10s., and the serjeant of the bath,
10s., and the man that carried us in chairs, 3s. 6d. Set out towards
Bristoll, and come thither (in a coach hired to spare our own horses);
the way bad, but country good, about two o'clock, where set down at the
Horse'shoe, and there, being trimmed by a very handsome fellow, 2s.,
walked with my wife and people through the city, which is in every
respect another London, that one can hardly know it, to stand in the
country, no more than that. No carts, it standing generally on vaults,
only dog-carts.
["They draw all their heavy goods here on sleds, or sledges, which
they call 'gee hoes,' without wheels, which kills a multitude of
horses." Another writer says, "They suffer no carts to be used in
the city, lest, as some say, the shake occasioned by them on the
pavement should affect the Bristol milk (the sherry) in the vaults,
which is certainly had here in the greatest perfection." An order
of Common Council occurs in 1651 to prohibit the use of carts and
waggons-only suffering
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