"Bath is situated in an amphitheatre of hills, and takes its name from the hot medicinal springs to which tradition says it owes its foundation. The tale of the discovery of the curative power of the waters is probably well known. Bladud, the son of the ancient British king Lud Hudibras, became a leper. The awful disease of course unfitted him in the eyes of his family and people from inheriting the throne; he was banished from the palace, and had to seek a home and food to live. His dress, which was royal, he offered to a swineherd, with the little money he possessed, in exchange for his peasant's garb, and induced the boy's master to let him herd his pigs, that fed in the great forest which covered the Somersetshire hills at that period. As a natural consequence he infected the pigs with his disease; and became very miserable at the thought that when the owner of the swine came to inspect them he would be at once discharged. He was walking behind the herd of swine in sad thought one day, when they all ran down the hill and plunged into a sheet of water in a hollow of the woods. He noticed that they constantly repeated these baths, and that in a few weeks the leprosy had left them. Taking example by their instinct he plunged himself into the water, which was quite hot, and in a very short time was healed of his leprosy.
The lad then resolved to return to his family. He found a great feast going on at the palace - every one was gay and happy - all had forgotten their young prince's fate, except one; his mother sat with a sad, faraway expression in her eyes beside the king. Bladud had drawn the hood of his cloak over his face, so as to conceal it. He had kept a ring the queen had given him: he now stole forward and, unperceived, dropped it into the goblet from which she drank. The next time she raised the cup to her lips the ring fell against them. She took it out, looked at it, and exclaimed, "Our son is here." Bladud then came forward, was recognised; was found quite free from leprosy; and in time succeeded his father on the throne. The legend adds, that he built a town round the healing waters that had saved him from a cruel death, in commemoration of what they had done for him, and also for the benefit of his people. But in spite of this tradition it is believed that Bath was a Roman city, though probably the Britons may have had a settlement there, and knew the value of the waters."
Valentine (undated)
Map - Bath
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