226 MINERAL WATERS AND MEDICINAL SPRINGS OF ESSEX.
must be very dangerous to persons who do not know of its
existence, to say nothing of cattle, game, and straying dogs.
The top of the well is about fifteen feet above the level of the
marsh ; the distance to the surface of the water is about 19
feet 6 inches; and there is about three feet of water at the
bottom. The well is about four feet in diameter ; but smaller at
the top, and it is bricked round with small bricks to a depth
of about 10 feet, below which the sides are apparently of firm
sand. There was no carbonic acid gas in the well when Mr.
Christy visited it on the 14th September 1907, but the water
was in a very filthy and polluted condition, containing a large
quantity of decaying vegetable (and apparently also animal)
matter, which had formed a thick scum on the surface. It
was very turbid and green, and had a very foul putrid smell.
All the inhabitants of the parish seem to believe that this is
the once-famous Tilbury medicinal well, and at once direct the
enquirer to it. They also tell him tales, told to them by their
parents and grandparents, of the many grand people who used,
at one time, to come in their carriages to fetch water from
the well. They assert, too, that a small and picturesque reed-
thatched cottage, standing close adjacent, in a copse known as
"Cooper's Shaw," was built for the occupation of the custodian
of the well. The fact remains, however, that this is not the
once-famous well, but "the Rector's Well," of lesser fame, which
has somehow managed to usurp the reputation of its more-famous
neighbour.
A sample of the water obtained from this well, on the date
above named, yielded, when analysed, the following results : —
This is a water of considerable interest, notwithstanding
its present grossly-polluted condition, as it is probably the only
water found in Essex containing sodium carbonate, except those
derived from deep wells in the Chalk or Thanet Sands. It is