MINERAL WATERS AND MEDICINAL SPRINGS OF ESSEX. 207
our mineral water has proved successful"; because, he says,
"the water is yet but in its infancy and examples of its good
effects will be continually multiplying." Finally, he promises
his readers that, if his Essay should meet with general approval,
he would publish later" a further account of the virtues and
efficacy of this mineral water." Meanwhile, he assures his
readers40 that,
" in hectic fevers, in constitutions debilitated by long illnesses, in lowness of
spirits from a general relaxation of the solids, in weakness of the nerves, in want
of appetite and indigestion, in habitual colick and vomiting, in obstructions of
several kinds, in agues, in the jaundice and beginning dropsy, in nephritick
disorders, in some asthmatick and several scorbutick cases, and many others, too
tedious to mention here, the Witham Spa has been already used with great
benefit and success.
" But [he continues] what makes it of less general use is that the mineral
spirit is of so exceeding volatile a nature as to make its escape upon carriage,
tho' the bottles are ever so carefully corked and cemented ; whence it becomes
necessary for those who would drink it to advantage to come to the spring and
take it upon the spot."
Fortunate physician ! Possessed of a remedy with all the wide
virtues of a modern patent medicine, yet incapable of transport,
so that all sufferers had to come to him in person for cure !
The discovery (or, rather, re-discovery) of this Medicinal
Spring raised high hopes that the town of Witham would
become very prosperous by reason of the influx of visitors
desiring to drink the waters, and great efforts were made
(probably at the expense of Sir Edward Southcott) to establish
it as a regular "Spa" or health resort. A house, now known
as "Spa Place," was built by the adjacent roadside, about
one hundred yards from and overlooking the well, being
intended probably to accommodate a resident physician and his
patients. Morant says47 that "the Great Hall at New Hall
[Boreham] was bought and translated here for an Assembly
Room." This must have been soon after 1737, when Benjamin
Hoare sold the palace of New Hall to John Olmius (afterwards
first Lord Waltham), who, as Morant says,48 pulled down part
"of that overgrown edifice, reserving enough for a handsome
and convenient seat for his own use." It is hard, however, to
see how the Great Hall of the palace (which was of brick) can
46 Op. cit., preface, [pp. vi.-vii.]
47 Hist. of Essex, ii., p. 112 (1768).
48 Op. cit., ii., p. 15.