  A generalized Bailey pair, which contains several special cases considered by
Bailey (\emph{Proc. London Math. Soc. (2)}, 50 (1949), 421--435), is derived
and used to find a number of new Rogers-Ramanujan type identities.
Consideration of associated $q$-difference equations points to a connection
with a mild extension of Gordon's combinatorial generalization of the
Rogers-Ramanujan identities (\emph{Amer. J. Math.}, 83 (1961), 393--399). This,
in turn, allows the formulation of natural combinatorial interpretations of
many of the identities in Slater's list (\emph{Proc. London Math. Soc. (2)} 54
(1952), 147--167), as well as the new identities presented here. A list of 26
new double sum--product Rogers-Ramanujan type identities are included as an
appendix.
