Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 2.djvu/538

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [12 8. 11. DEC. so,

" doctor" was more freely used in address- ing the clergy than it is at the present day. It would be interesting, at the same time, to learn what statistics can tell us about the proportion of University graduates in the eighteenth century who proceeded to degrees in Divinity.

That the undeserved appellation of

doctor was sometimes deliberately courted is

shown by a letter in The Spectator, No. 609,

in the course of which the correspondent

! :

" As I was the other Day walking with an honest Country-Gentleman, he very often was expressing his Astonishment to see the Town so mightily crouded with Doctors of Divinity : Upon which I told him he was very much mis- taken if he took all those Gentlemen he saw in Scarfs to be Persons of that Dignity ; for that a young Divine, after his first Degree in the Uni- versity, usually comes hither only to shew him- self ; and, on that Occasion, is apt to think he is but half equipp'd with a Gown and Cassock for his publick Appearance, if he hath not the addi- tional Ornament of a Scarf of the first Magnitude to intitle him to the Appellation of Doctor from his Landlady, and the Boy at Child's.

EDWABD BENSLY.

BATH FORUM:

CONTINUITY BETWEEN ROMAN AND

ANGLO-SAXON BATH.

(12 S. ii. 429, 495.)

THE earliest documentary evidence of the use ot Bath Forum that I have met with is in a Bath chartulary, as follows :

" Quitclaim or remit by Thomas, Prior, of an estate at Ludicumbe, in the Hundred court of Bath Forum. Dec. 1, 1246." Ludicumbe, now known as Lyncombe, is one mile S.E. of Bath.

As regards any continuity between Roman Aquae Sulis and Saxon Bath, there was an absolute hiatus between the departure of the Romans, early in the fifth century, and the arrival of the Saxons subsequent to their victory at Deorham (Dyrham), A.D. 577.

This is borne out by the evidence of ex- cavations of diverse dates, which show that the storm-swept debris brought down the slopes of the northern hills covered the streets of Aquae-sulis, and invaded its struc- tures and baths.

There was, however, a certain continuity as regards the Roman buildings, inasmuch a- the huge Basilica was adopted as the Saxon church, the " St. Peter's Minster," as it is termed in various deeds of gift by Saxon monarch s and others.

Later still, in Norman times, John de Villula, after removing a length of sixty

feet from the western end of the Basilica- devoted the remainder to serve as the nave* of his cathedral, he being the first Bishop> of Bath. Portions of the Roman baths he also arranged for use in the monastery ,, others for public service.

Again, the site of the Roman shops on the north side of the Forum has been recognized as followed by the Saxon " chepe " or market, the successor to which is the Cheap* St., of to-day.

With regard to the egg, it has a slight association with the desolation period, in this way. The hillside debris previously alluded to made its way into the huge reser- voir of the " hot springs," an octagon 45 feet in diameter, with a depth of 9 feet, which in time being filled, the debris, still pouring in, was carried with the stream of hot water, through the lead channels, into the north- west corner of the large bath recently opened out. Accumulating there, it gradu- ally rose to the surface, a warm swamp in which vegetation quickly throve, the hazel predominating. Amongst the undergrowth was found a fowl's nest, the group of eggs- having been smashed by the superincumbent earth tipped in at some subsequent time, probably in connexion with the work of John de Villula, when he destroyed the- Roman structures hard by. Through the- debris of the mortar a stream of water must have coursed, carrying with it the finer particles, which it deposited upon the pave- ment in the corner of the ambulatory ad- jacent to the nest. From the nest the egg had been apparently borne away by the swirl of the stream, and was found intact embedded in the sandy ooze. Adjacent on this same pavement there still rest two" large portions of a Roman arch of red brick that once spanned from pier to pier, some 30 ft. The bath itself, 82 ft. 6 in. by 40 ft. 3 in., being hypsethral open to the sky the ambulatory at all four of its sides, arched with hollow bricks, formed a cloistered court. This the Saxon poet strikingly pictured as,, gazing upon it, he wrote :

Therefore these courts are dreary,

and its purple arch

with its tiles shades

the roost, proud of its diadem.

RICHARD MANN. 32 Paragon, Bath.

" FRENCH'S CONTEMPTIBLE LITTLE ARMY ' r (12 S. ii. 349). Surely part of this affront to the British Expeditionary Force consisted in the description of its commander as " General " French. K. S.