;I775* July. w'Y'J s E C T. IV. Re/idence at the Warm, Bath. r p H E warm bath, which we now arrived at, is called 1 Hottentots Holland's Bath, from the name of the dif- trift in which it is M for the fame reafon it was likewife frequently called the Bath over or behind the mountain, and fometimes too Tzer-Baad, as this is fup- pofed to contain more iron than any other bath in the^colony It is likewife looked upon to be better furmlhed with conveniencies than any of the others. A ftone houfe has been built here by order o f government for the accommodation of the company at the bath. This confiftsof a hall, two large chambers, a kitchen, and a little chamber, all with earthen floors. The fmall chamber is inhabited by the poft-majler, as he is called, or the overfeer of the bath, fo that there are, properly fpeaking, only the two large chambers for the guefts, who fometimes arrive m a greater number than can be lodged in that narrow fpace. In this cafe they are obliged to difpofe of themfelves as weU as they can in the hall, in the loft, or elfe in tents and tilt-waggons, which they bring with them for that pur- pofe. „ The ftone building above-mentioned, is run up againft the declivity o f a hill, without any kind of fewer or dyke; hence vJ-yO it comes to pafs, that the water making its way into one of the chambers, renders it very damp and unhealthy ; and it is ftill more fo, when they are obliged to put feveral beds and iick people together. By the lift that the overfeer of the bath has kept there for feveral years paft, I found, that from one hundred and fifty to two hundred perfons, ufe the bath yearly. But at the cold and inconvenient fea-, fon when I was, there, there were only eight people bathing, and even thefe were but fcurvily entertained. The, few miferable benches, and the table that we found here, were the property of the old man at the bath, and accords ingly we were obliged to hire them of him. At the diftance o f about a hundred paces from the dwel-, ling-houfe, is . the bathing-houfe. This is a cottage, two Tides o f which are for the greater part under ground, and into which the light enters only by a few fmall peepholes. The length o f this cottage is from three and a half to four fathoms, and its breadth a fathom and a half. At one end o f it there is a ciftern or pit, a fathom and a half, fquare, and two feet deep. The warm water is brought a little way under ground from its fource, till it comes -out from above into one o f the gables of the houfe, where it afterwards runs through an open- channel one fathom in length, from which it comes pouring down into the ciftern in a ftream an inch thick. By this contrivance, indeed, the expence of ftone and brick-work is faved, but then probably an opportunity is given to the moft fubtile and efficacious particles to fly off. V o l . I. T The*
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