3-074-640 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Roman baths discovered at Bath, 1883. Engraving from a photograph by Augustus F. Perren. 'It is well known that the pleasant city and medicinal watering-place called Bath was the Aquae Solis of the Romans, when Britain was a province of their Empire; and some interesting traces of their occupation of this place have been discovered...during the past five years...The greatest discovery has been that of a large bath 81ft. in length by 38 ft. 10 in. in width, with steps complete at its four sides, floored with blocks of masonry, on which still remains the original coating of lead. The bath was supplied by the hot mineral water, and had a hatch or sluice of bronze for conveniently emptying it...Very fine fragments of architectural sculpture have been obtained;...a large number of coins, bones and pottery, and lastly a teal's egg, evidently in the position it was laid by the bird against one of the ruined pilasters of the bath in the decayed vegetation; this little token of nature proves that the city of Aquae Solis continued a deserted ruin for a lengthened period after its destruction by the Saxons, A.D. 577'. From "Illustrated London News", 1883.