200 MINERAL WATERS AND MEDICINAL SPRINGS OF ESSEX,
no outflow. A sample of the water obtained on the 18th April
1907 yielded the following results :—
This is a genuine Mineral Water, somewhat similar in
character to that from Hockley Spa, noticed hereafter ; but it
contains sodium sulphate (which is not present in the Hockley
water) and less sodium chloride.
Mr. Dalton surmises that this water comes from sandy beds
in the uppermost part of the London Clay, close to the outcrop
of the Bagshot Sands.
(3).—The Upminster Well.—Almost exactly two miles due
south from the South Weald well, above noticed, is another
well which has been famed as a medicinal spring for an almost
equally long period. It is situated near the northern end of
Tyler's Common, on a southern slope, a couple of hundred yards
or so below Tyler's Hall, and not far from the northern
extremity of the parish of Upminster—a remarkably-shaped
parish, about six miles long, averaging one mile broad, and
lying due north and south.2'
The earliest reference to this well we have found is by Dr.
Benjamin Allen, who, writing in 1699, says24 that the sample of
its water, which he had examined, had been sent to him "by
the unquestioned hand of Mr. Jeffreys, of Brentwood." Else-
where, he says25 that the water
" was very clear [and] of taste bitter, with a sweetish nauseous taste. In the
quantity of nine ounces, six drams, and six grains, [it] out-weighed common water
55 grains."
Then follow the results of a number of tests, but he adds no
23 It has been stated several times that this well is identical with one upon which the
Rev. Dr. Derham, rector of Upminster, made some notable observations in the opening years
of the Eighteenth Century (see his Physico-Theology, p. 51 ii : 1713). but this is an error. The
strong spring on which Derham made his observations is that near Pot-kilns, from which the
cottagers far around still obtain their supply (see Mr. Walter Crouch, F.Z.S., in Essex Nat., iv.,
p. 196 : 1890).
24 Chalybeat and Purging Waters of England, preface, fo. b7, obv.
35 Op. cit. p. 148.