The springs flooded the courts and corridors of the Thermæ until the
washings of the land filled them. Rushes, withies, and trees grew
beneath the shadow of its ruins. Bathancastra (Akemancastra) was
founded;[26] the memory of the baths was lost; its architectural
magnificence was the quarry of the builders, who little dreamt
that beneath the soil was buried the rich treasure which we in this
century, and those who have preceded us in the last, have had the
privilege of laying bare.

[Footnote 26: "The foundation of a monastery by an under-King of the
Hwiccas [Osric, Nov. 6, A.D. 676,] within its walls, reveals to us
the springing up of a new life in another of the cities which had been
wrecked by Ceawlin's inroad, the city of Bath."--_Green's "Making of
England_," p. 356.

Professor Earle throws some doubt on the authenticity of the record.]

The Romans left behind them in Bath a Palace of Health and Luxury
unequalled except in Italy.

* * * * *

In making some excavations (1885) beneath the Cross Bath, the walls
of the Roman well were found, and at a considerable depth two altars,
which are placed for exhibition in the Great Bath. One of these is a
plain rectangular altar; the other is carved on three sides, having on
the front face two figures (Æsculapius offering a lamb to Hegiea), on
another side a serpent coiled round the trunk of a tree, and on the
third sculptured side a dog with a curly tail (see Professor Sayce and
Rev. Preb. Scarth).