GO TO BATH! phr. (old).—A contemptuous injunction to be off; Go to blazes; Hull, Halifax—anywhere: the injunction was intensified by ‘and get your head shaved,’ a suggestion of craziness. TO GO TO BATH = to go begging: Bath in the latter days of the 17th century was infested with the cadging fraternity.
1588. LAMBARD, The Office of the Justices of the Peace, 334. Such two Justices may…. License diseased persons (living of almes) to trauell to Bathe, or to Buckstone [Buxton], for remedie of their griefe.
[1662. FULLER, History of the Worthies of England, Beggars of Bath.—Many in that place; some natives there, others repairing thither from all parts of the land; the poor for alms, the pained for ease.]
1840. R. H. BARHAM, The Ingoldsby Legends (Grey Dolphin). ‘GO TO BATH!’ said the baron. A defiance so contemptuous roused the ire of the adverse commanders.
1885. Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper, 16 Oct., 362. You tell a disagreeable neighbour to GO TO BATH in the sense in which a Roman would have said abi in malam rem.
