MINERAL WATERS AND MEDICINAL SPRINGS OF ESSEX. 239
gravel appeared, and clear spring-water flowed. Mrs. Clay, who had been
asthmatic all her life and subject to cough, except when she drank Cheltenham
water, after drinking of the new well's water for some little time, found that she
lost her difficulty of breathing and her cough became less troublesome.182 At
the end of a twelvemonth, she was so much better, In both respects, that she was
inclined to attribute her recovery to air and situation only. A visit, however, to
some friends in London on one occasion, and somewhere else on another, having
taken her away from the well, her constitution became heated, the cough
returned, and asthma began to plague her again ; all which symptoms disappeared
on returning to Hockley Cottage and beginning the water once more. This
awoke surmises as to the said water possessing medicinal properties. The
notion having once gone abroad, it was immediately seized upon by many in the
neighbourhood, who used the water, which was most liberally supplied to them ;
and. in the course of three more years, such was the healing reputation of
Hockley Well, that not only was the water sent for from all parts of Essex, but
from greater distances still, and many people of the better classes of society
applied on the spot to drink it. Lastly, by the end of the fourth year from the
accidental discovery of the source, a regular Spa was constituted ; where I
noticed, in the book of arrivals, that several persons of consequence had
employed, and derived benefit from, the water.
" The proprietor, desirous of ascertaining how lar the composition of the
water might warrant the expectation of patients and explain its vaunted effects,
at once engaged the valuable services of Mr. Richard Phillips, as before stated ;
who, having proceeded to the spot and made his preliminary analysis at the well,
which he afterwards completed by a more extended series of experiments at home,
published the result of his enquiries in the form of a pamphlet."
Of this pamphlet, we have never seen a copy, but the matter
contained in it seems to have been reprinted in the following
year.133 From this reprint it appears that Phillips reported that
the water was "perfectly clear, not remarkably sparkling,
inodorous, and has a saline bitter taste." He sets forth in great
detail the chemical tests he applied to it, with the results which
are set forth hereafter.
This brings us to the time, in January 1841, when Dr.
Granville visited Hockley. Let him resume his narrative :—
" The object for which my services were required was [he says134], first, to
ascertain to what class of disorders the water might be deemed applicable and in
what quantity it ought to be drank ; and, secondly, what disposition and arrange-
ments ought to be made to render the well more available to patients and the
locality more generally suited to the purposes of a Spa.
" A pump has been sunk into the well, though the water in it rises to within
a few feet of the surface at a short distance outside, and at the back of the
cottage. After pumping for ten minutes, I ascertained the temperature to be
132 According to Mr. Philip Benton (Hist. of Rockford Hundred, p. 297 : 1871). this was
"about 1838." He adds :— "There is a stone in Hockley churchyard to Robert Clay, who
died July 29th, 1843, aged 72 years, and to Letitia Case Clay, his wife, who died February 11th,
1847, aged 68 years."
133 In the Account of Hockley Spa, pp. 23-31 (1842).
134 Spas of England, ii., pp. 610-612 (1841).