208 MINERAL WATERS AND MEDICINAL SPRINGS OF ESSEX.
have been "translated" six or seven miles and re-erected at
Witham. Probably Morant means that the bricks (and,
perhaps, the timbers of the roof) were removed and that some
new building, intended as an Assembly Room, was constructed
out of them ; but, even so, there is nothing to show either where
this building stood or what has become of it —for it does not now
exist. However this may be explained, Morant adds that "the
whole project soon came to nothing."
The prospects of the Spa seem, however, to have revived
again later ; for, in 1783, Trinder wrote of it as though its water
was then valued. As a result of fourteen experimental tests, he
describes49 the water as—
" a brisk chalybeate and impregnated with a little sulphur and magnesia glauber's
salt ; but [he adds] the purgative water is so small in proportion to its other
ingredients that it will only tend to keep the body in due order, without
enfeebling it by excessive evacuations. . . . This water has, with reason, been
long famous [he continues] for its power in strengthening constitutions that have
been weakened by long illness."
He cites also the cases of Mrs. Sly and Mrs. Bull, both of
Witham, who were cured of illnesses which would have proved
fatal but for the use of this water. Of the water itself, Trinder
says50 that
" It is perfectly clear and limpid; it has a ferruginous taste; and it
possesses, at the spring head, a certain freshness which renders it agreeable to
the palate and stomach."
Further, in 1803, a local topographer was able to write51 that
" the chief trade of Witham arises from the passage of travellers and carriers
and, in the summer season, from the company who attend to drink the
chalybeate waters at Witham Spa."
Since this time, however, the Spa has entirely lost its repute
and is now all but forgotten locally.
In regard to the position of the well, Taverner says52:—
" The Spa ... is three quarters of a mile distant from the town. It arises
on the side of a gentle ascent and close to a fine avenue of lime-trees, which
extends from Witham Place, the seat of Sir Edward Southcott, to the road lead-
ing to Falkbourne, being near half-a-mile in length."
With this and local tradition to guide us, and with the
assistance of the Rev. Canon Ingles, Vicar of Witham, we are
able to identify with confidence the site of the well, though the
well itself no longer exists.
49 Medicinal Waters in Essex, pp. 44-45 (1783).
50 Op. cit., p. 41.
51 Beauties of Engl. and Wales, v., p. 282 (1803).
52 Essay, pp. 2-3 (1737).