by way of distinction, the
wearing of breeches and petticoats; this indecency was
suppressed, after considerable difficulty, at the end of the
sixteenth century, (quere, what indecency does our author of
the "Walks through Bath" mean? the incumbrance of the
breeches and petticoats, we must imagine). It also seems,
that about 1700 it was the fashion for both sexes to bathe
together indiscriminately, and the ladies used to decorate
their heads with all the advantages of dress, as a mode of
attracting attention and heightening their charms. The
husband of a lady in one of the baths, in company with Beau
Nash, was so much enraptured with the appearance of his
wife, that he very im-prudently observed, "she looked like
an angel, and he wished to be with her." Nash immediately
seized him by the collar, and threw him into the bath; this
circumstance produced a duel, and Nash was wounded in his
right arm: it however had the good effect of establishing
the reputation of Nash, who shortly after became master of
the ceremonies.

~322~~

"You cannot conceive what a number of ladies
Were wash'd in the water the same as our maid is:
How the ladies did giggle and set up their clacks
All the while an old woman was rubbing their backs;
Oh! 'twas pretty to see them all put on their flannels,
And then take the water, like so many spaniels;
And though all the while it grew hotter and hotter,
They swam just as if they were hunting an otter.
'Twas a glorious sight to behold the fair sex
All wading with gentlemen up to their necks,
And view them so prettily tumble and sprawl
In a great smoking kettle as big as our hall;
And to-day many persons of rank and condition
Were boil'd, by command of an able physician."

From the baths we migrated to the grand promenade of fashion, Milsom
Street, not forgetting to take a survey of the old Abbey Church, which,
as a monument of architectural grandeur without, and of dread monition
within, is a building worthy the attention of the antiquarian and the
philosopher; while perpetuating the remembrance of many a cherished name
to worth, to science, and to virtue dear, the artist and the amateur may
derive much gratification from examining the many excellent ~323~~pieces
of scul