olumns found, on the contrary, are
most carefully designed and of most delicate proportions, which appear
to justify the belief that the bases of the pilasters were never
completely _worked_, or that they were coated with plaster and
decorated as in the western bath, now being excavated.]

The great pilasters, fronting the bath, stand on plain pedestals,
breaking forward into the water, on which rested the Attic base, the
shaft with Doric (?) capital rising 18ft. above. A complete cornice,
the architrave (which we have) and frieze, gave an additional height
of nearly 5ft. This cornice ran over the arcade horizontally, but
breaking forward the projection of the pilasters about 2ft. 7in. Over
this cornice, I conclude, were semi-circular openings, of the same
span as the arch beneath, with an architrave of 5 in. to 6 in. A
circular vault crossed the bath from pilaster to pilaster, groined
with the semi-circular arches just mentioned. Light may have been
admitted divisionally in the centre of this great vault, as I
previously mentioned, as well, as by the semi-circular arches in the
"_clear storey_." The extreme height from the floor of the _schola_ to
the under side of the vaulting may have been as much as 23ft., whilst
the height of the central vault above the floor of the bath could
not, I estimate, have been less than 48ft. 2in., exceeding by 5ft.
the height of the famous Ball Rooms of the Bath Assembly Rooms, and by
14ft. that of the Grand Pump Room.

Many architectural fragments have been found during the excavations
of the Great Bath, several portions of columns 2ft. 6in. diameter
at base, and several sections of Corinthian foliage with the volute
of a capital, of unusually artistic and powerful work; some smaller
columns, a fluted shaft, and a Composite capital of debased character;
but the four most remarkable fragments are pieces carved on both sides
out of blocks about 1ft. 9in. thick, by 1ft. 6in. high. They are each
from 2ft. 6in. to 2ft. 9in. long, and are curved, the chord being
about 1-9/16in., in a length of 2ft. 6in. The first fragment is a
cornice, or impost, carved on both sides, in three tiers: the upper,
a _cima_ with a leaf; the middle division, a Greek fret, not quite
similar on each side the stone, and below is a running ornament. The
cornice does not project sufficiently to be the cornice of a building,
and, as it is decorated on either side, it could not have been
intended for a string-course, a