became famous after the cure of George the
Third by the water of the Royal Old Wells.
Cheltenham waters have been pronounced by
medical authority to be pre-eminent in the
treatment of diseases induced by hot climates.
For which reason I wish they could send .
Cheltenham to Jericho, where it would be
handy to those who want it, and out of the
way of one person who doesn't want it. But
I forget my duty. I am here to puff.—
If Cheltenham has lost any of its reputation
as a spa, the loss is, it seems, to be
attibuted—as in the case of Bath—to its
extension as a city, and to the aggregation
of splendid dwellings, which invite gay
visitors rather than the invalid. Seated in the
rich valleys of Evesham and Gloucester,
natural scenery and historical monuments
combine to surround with attractive objects
these health-giving wells.

Other saline springs are at Woodhall,
Tenbury, Ashby, Stratford, and Kilburn, which
latter place, though now so nearly in the
stony embrace of London, was quite a rural
resort even late in the last century. The
medicinal virtues of the water were probably
known to the monastic recluses, but they do
not seem to have been publicly announced
until the year seventeen hundred and forty-two.
Kilburn wells, however, became
famous early in the reign of George the
Third, when it was fashionable to resort to
them; and an enthusiastic singer (which must
surely have been their own water when
boiled fortuitously in a tea-kettle) thus
addressed the spa:—

    O, were thy virtues but as fairly known
    As universal as their good foretells,
    How should we hail thee, Pyrmont of our own,
    And bid adieu to all the foreign wells!

But, alas! their glory has departed, and
of the three wells which were formerly
celebrated, only one is now known, and that last
well of Kilburn left gushing alone is in a
stable to the north of the railway. Kilburn
spa seems to have been only one in the
cluster of suburban wells which were
formerly resorted to by Londoners. Epsom
spa had acquired earlier celebrity, namely,
at the beginning of the eighteenth century,
when Prince George of Denmark drank the
water: and we are told that, under the
stimulating influence of the South Sea Scheme,
this spa became frequented like a fair, and
was crowded by alchemists, Dutchmen,
Germans and Jews.

In those days Hampstead was celebrated
for its chalybeate spring, which seems to
have been known in the reign of Charles the
Second, when indeed spas were much in
vogue. It was then that Scarborough,
Harrogate, Tunbridge, and Epsom, started into
fame; it was then that the reputation
of Bath extended, and that the new
Islington spa was discovered. In sixteen
hundred and eighty-three, Sadler had just
opened a music-house on the site of the
chalybeate spring, and the gardens
continued to be much frequented through the
eighteenth century. The fame of the
Hampstead water has departed, but the Wells'
Tavern and the pump-room—now a chapel—
remain to tell of its whereabouts. The holy
spring of Saint John, at Clerkenwell, and
that on the site of Holywell Street, seem to
have owed their fame to an early reputation
for sanctity and brightness, rather than to
any mineral virtues. I always was
considered bright, but nothing came of it, of
course. What's brightness in me to brightness
in a puddle? But I write to praise.

The chalybeate wells of Tunbridge are
still famous; those of Brighton, Sandrock
and Hastings are of more modern though
not less deserved celebrity. Brighton,
however, owes its splendour and extension more
to its convenience as a marine bathing-place,
than to the qualities of its chalybeate water.
Situation and associations seem to be the
chief causes of the pre-eminence of Tunbridge
amongst English chalybeates; the place,
moreover, presents more of the attractive,
villa-like English houses than other spas.
Some iron springs are even more tonic than
sea-water when used as baths, and such is
the water of Sandrock—the most powerful
iron spring in English territory. The climate
of that part of the Isle of Wight has been
thought superior for equability even to the
climate of Madeira. Madeira! what is all
this lukewarm, brashy stuff—yea, what is
jalap itself to a glass of true Madeira!

lo PÅ“an! off we go again! The
thermal springs of England are at Bath,
Clifton, and Buxton. The Romans early
availed themselves of the thermal waters of
Bath. Extensive remains of their baths were
found twenty feet below the level of the
street; and these buildings showed the
importance of the establishment that was
maintained here by men among whom the hot
springs of Bath—aquæ Sulis—appear to have
been held sacred to the god Sul or Sol, who
was probably worshipped in the adjacent
temple. The friars and monks, whose church
rose on the site of the Roman fane, were
bound to keep the baths in repair, to be in
readiness for the king's use. The brethren
seem to have been caught napping in this
respect in the year twelve hundred and
thirty-five, for a sum of thirteen pounds
eleven shillings was then levied upon them
to repair the king's houses and the king's
bath. The Bath waters, however, were
unknown to a Doctor William Turner who, in
fifteen hundred and sixty-two published " A
Booke of the Nature and Properties as well
of the Bathes in England as of other Bathes
in Germanye and Italie." Queen Elizabeth
vested the baths in the corporation. When
Anne of Denmark, Queen of James the First,
was bathing here, her Majesty was frightened
by a sudden evolution from the water of