Footnote 12:[(return)]
[Pl. VII.] gives a correct plan of former discoveries as far as I have been able to ascertain, and these I have made up to April 19th, 1884.
Footnote 13:[(return)]
The water, on ceasing pumping, rose to a height above the lead of 7ft. 6in.
Footnote 14:[(return)]
The dimensions must not be taken to be quite correct in all cases, as there are discrepancies and inaccuracies in the building that prevent measurements being always reliable.
Footnote 15:[(return)]
This bath is drawn to a large scale in [Pl. VIII.]
Footnote 16:[(return)]
The construction of the steps to the baths deserves remark (some of the stones being 10ft. long). The depth of the riser to the steps that were beneath the water is unusually deep, and the treads narrow. This is compensated by the increased buoyancy of a human body when immersed, or partially immersed, in water. The steps have, on the contrary, a shallower rise and a wider tread when they approach the top. The next notable point is the formation of the tread of the upper flooded step. This is grooved by a somewhat circular sinking, from 4 to 5in. wide, immediately against the riser of the topmost step. Everyone frequenting a public bath must have noticed the dashing of the water against the wall or upper step, and the nuisance created from the breaking of the water against it. The grooving would remedy, I believe, this annoyance, as the little waves of water would be made to take a curved form before reaching the step; consequently the water would fall back into the bath instead of dashing over the surrounding platform. And in the ends of every upper step but one, and on the steps lower down, have been square sockets, cut in the stone and filled up again with pieces of stone. These mark the position of balusters to a hand-rail for the use of bathers that were removed some time previous to the abandonment of the baths, and the stones were inserted. These hand-rails were doubtless of bronze, and therefore of value.
Footnote 17:[(return)]
A statue of some size doubtless stood on this pedestal.
Footnote 18:[(return)]
This deposit must, from the thickness, have taken several years to form, and the fact of its being of precisely the same character as the present deposit from the mineral spring is an evidence of the unchanging nature of the water.
Footnote 19:[(return)]
With reference to the sculpture, one piece, of debased character, has been found—a Minerva with a breast-plate, helmet, and shield in alto relievo within a niche.
Footnote 20:[(return)]
The house over the bath having been purchased by the Corporation, the Antiquities Committee (of which Mr. Murch was chairman) with a liberal subscription from the Society of Antiquaries, the Duke of Cleveland, and many noblemen and gentlemen of Bath and the neighbourhood, bore the expense of the removal of the soil from the bath and the general opening out of the rains, the arches beneath the Poor Law Office and the Viaduct supporting Abbey Street.
Footnote 21:[(return)]
The arches in the adjoining apartment west of this were built of a sort of a tufa.