ON THE ANCIENT CITY OF BATH. WRITTEN ON THE FINISHING THE CIRCUS. Richard Graves Alexander Huber Editor Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford
Broad Street Oxford OX1 3BG UK
Eighteenth-Century Poetry Archive
Taylor Institution Library St Giles' Oxford OX1 3NA UK info@eighteenthcenturypoetry.org https://www.eighteenthcenturypoetry.org/
Oxford This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. T116245 1136 K093079.003 Pearch, G. A collection of poems in four volumes. By several hands. Vol. III. [The second edition]. London printed for G. Pearch 1770 pp. 110-111. 4v. ; 8⁰.

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ON THE ANCIENT CITY OF BATH . WRITTEN ON THE FINISHING THE CIRCUS . BY THE SAME . 'MIDST flowery meads and Avon's winding floods , Romantic hills , wild rocks , and pendent woods , Behold fair Bath her stately front advance , In all the pomp of Latian elegance ! The hills that rise in rich profusion round , With gardens deck'd , or splendid villas crown'd ! There Health and Pleasure hand in hand appear , And smiling weave their roseate arbours there . Deep in their mossy cells beneath these hills , The bounteous Naiads form the gushing rills . There various springs their mineral virtues blend , And warm in salutary streams descend ; These streams to mortals balmy health restore , The Gout grows mild , and Cholics are no more . Here languid nymphs regain the bloom of May , Here cripples dance and hurl the crutch away . Hither , with lavish hand , fresh peasants bring The fruits of Autumn and the flowers of Spring ; Whilst lowing herds from richest pastures , pour The draught salubrious in their milky store ; Each bird of various plume that haunts the wood , Or wings the heath , or dives the liquid flood , The spreading sea fish and the scaly fry Contiguous coasts or neighbouring streams supply . Thus Art and Nature join in friendly strife , To shower on Bath the blandishments of life . Oh Bath ! thrice happy if to man 'twere given T' enjoy with temperate use the gifts of heaven ! Didst thou thy partial fate but truly prize , Didst thou increase in virtue as in size ; Were Luxury banish'd with each baneful Vice , Th' infernal arts of Scandal , Cards , and Dice ; The vagrant herds that every street infest , And Insolence , with vigorous care suppress'd ; Did no base miscreants , to themselves unjust , By mean exactions liberal minds disgust ; From distant counties Thanes in crowds should fly , Proud in thy domes to shun the wintery sky . Augusta's self should half deserted stand , And Bath possess the riches of the land .