Page:A short history of social life in England.djvu/259

Rh watering-place, such as Bath or Tunbridge Wells, there to take the medicinal waters, which had long been known to be beneficial. Bath, or The Bath, as it was called at this time, occupied a prominent position in the social life of these times. Thither, during the summer months, flocked the rank and fashion of England, not always, it is true, for the sake of the waters, but "to divert themselves with good company." There was room for some fifty in the bath, together with their attendants, and here every morning perfumed ladies and "vigorous sparks" amused themselves in the water, while spectators looked down on them from a gallery. After some two hours in the water, which apparently was rarely changed, each was wrapped in a sheet and carried home in a chair lined with blankets. The rest of the day was spent in amusements of every description. Bath grew more popular year by year, and played a large part in the lives of "persons of quality" in the two succeeding centuries. These resorts were for the wealthy only; but in the seventeenth century our ancestors were growing very wealthy, for the great middle class were making England the chief commercial