“These walls, adorned with monument and bust,
  Show how Bath waters serve to lay the dust.”

Among objects and places of interest in the outskirts of the city that deserve a visit are Sham Castle, an artificial antique on Bathwick Hill; Widcombe Old Church (built by Prior Bird); the chapel of St Mary Magdalen in Holloway (built by Prior Cantlow in 1495); Beckford’s Tower on Lansdowne, and Combe Down (where a portion of the Wansdyke may be examined).

Bath gives its name, with sometimes more and sometimes less justification, to quite a number of articles, including Bath stone, Bath buns, Bath olivers, Bath chaps, Bath chairs, and Bath bricks (for the last, see pp. 26, 64).

Bathampton, a prettily situated village, 2 m.  N.E. of Bath.  Its church is in the main Perp., but the chancel arch is E.E., and the E. window consists of three lancets.  There are two recumbent figures of the 14th cent., a knight and a lady, at the W. end of the S. aisle; but the most remarkable feature of the building is a still earlier effigy, much defaced, within a niche in the exterior wall of the E. end.  It seems to represent a bishop, since there are traces of a crosier, though some have taken it for a prioress.  Some small remains of a priory are still to be found at the rectory near the church.

Bathealton, a parish 3 m.  S.E. of Wiveliscombe.  The church has been rebuilt, and is of no antiquarian interest.

Batheaston, a large parish on the Avon, 2-1/2 m.  N.E. of Bath (nearest stat.  Bathampton, 1/2 m. away).  The church has been restored, but it retains its well-proportioned Perp. tower.  One of the bells dates from pre-Reformation times, and has the inscription Virginis egregiae vocor campana Mariae.  To the N.E. of the village is Solsbury Hill, with a British camp on the summit.  It probably gets its name from the British goddess Sul, who seems, from the inscriptions in Bath Museum, to have been identified by the Romans with Minerva.

Bathford is a village 3-1/2 m.  E.N.E. of Bath (nearest stat.  Bathampton), standing on a hill sloping to the Avon, which was here in Roman times crossed by a ford that gave its name (formerly Ford) to the place.  The church (ded. to St Swithin) is of E.E. origin, but has been enlarged and modernised.  The font is Norm.; some Norm. work remains in the N. porch, and there is a Jacobean pulpit.

Bawdrip, a small village, 1 m. from Cossington, and 3-1/4 m.  N.E. of Bridgwater.  It possesses an interesting little cruciform church, with a central tower supported on E.E. or Early Dec. arches.  There are three piscinas, one in the sanctuary, the others in the transepts, that of the N. transept being on the sill of the squint in the chancel pier.  In this N. transept is the effigy of a knight in plate armour under a foliated canopy, said to be that of Joel de Bradney, d. 1350.