MINERAL WATERS AND MEDICINAL SPRINGS OF ESSEX. 241
Thus, the newly-discovered spa had been blessed by two
eminent authorities, Mr. Richard Phillips and Dr. Granville,
both Fellows of the Royal Society. Their opinions were
supported by those of other leading medical men in London and
elsewhere. Drs. Septimus and Reginald Read, of London,
testified to the effect of the Hockley water in Mrs, Clay's case
and to its curative value generally ; Dr. James Balbirnie, of
Leamington Spa, spoke to its beneficial effects in diseases of the
digestive organs ; and twenty-seven other eminent physicians,
living chiefly in London, wrote to "highly recommend" the
spa.136
As a result of this large body of testimony to the high
medicinal value of the water and the salubrity of the neighbour-
hood of Hockley, the proprietor, Mr. Fawcett, was persuaded to
expend a large sum of money in the development of the spa.
Accordingly, in the summer of 1842, a spacious pump-room
was built, from designs by Mr. James Lockyer, architect. A
lithographed view of it, from a drawing by Mr. G. Hawkins,
shows lofty mountains (intended, doubtless, for the Rayleigh
Hills) in the distance.136' The building was "nearly finished"
at the end of October137 and its opening (probably in the spring
of 1843) was celebrated by a public breakfast.
Dr. Henry Laver, F.S.A., who was living in the vicinity
at the time, watched with interest the building of the pump-
room, which he describes as "big enough for Bath." "I
was [he writes us] much interested in the building, and any
half-holiday I could get was spent watching the work going on.
I remember seeing the workmen casting the plaster ornaments
for the ceiling, and it was the first time I had seen Roman
Cement used to stucco a building."
Later, for the accommodation of visitors, several villas
were built, as well as an hotel. The latter was erected about
one hundred and fifty yards from the pump-room and on the
main road to Rayleigh, Rochford, and Southend. "Upon the
site of the hotel [says Benton138] was formerly a cottage
inhabited by William Hazard, who died in 1808, aged 105;
135 See A Brief Account of Hockley Spa, pp. 31-33 (1842).
136 It serves as a frontispiece to the Account of Hockley Spa (1842).
137 See Chelmsford Chron., 28th Oct. 1842.
138 Hist. of Rochford Hund., p. 297 (1871).