ABSTRACT
Among the donations Leofric, Bishop of Exeter, made to his cathedral library about AD 1060 was a book of Anglo-Saxon poems, described as '/ mycel englisc hoc', 'the big English book'. This is the Exeter Book, most important of the four surviving books on Old English poetry: it is still in the Cathedral Library at Exeter. One of the poems written in the book is that known as The Ruin, perhaps originally composed around AD 700. The poem describes a ruined stone-built Roman settlement, almost certainly Bath, given the mention of hot springs.
