MINERAL WATERS AND MEDICINAL SPRINGS OF ESSEX. 243
by means of a Limited Liability Company, a prospectus of
which was issued. A Mr. Coghlan and a Mr. Beck, both of
London, were among the directors. Once more, however, the
enterprise failed.
Nothing further was done until two or three years ago, when
Mr. John H. Burgess, builder, purchased the site of the well,
intending to build a house upon it. At first he thought of
pulling down the old Pump-Room; but, finding that, though
dilapidated in appearance, it had been well built and was still
structurally sound, he decided to repair it and build his house on to
it. The Pump-Room (fig. 6) now forms, therefore, an exceedingly
spacious and handsome billiard-room—larger than all the rest of
the house. On the south side, there is an arched recess, in which
the pump formerly stood ; while, on each side of this, is a small
chamber which formed the two bath-rooms. A pump outside,.
in the garden, now raises water from the well. The Spa Hotel,
a couple of hundred yards distant, on the road from Rayleigh to
Rochford, after many years of decadence, is at last a prosperous
hostelry, and it is likely to do well now that the exceptionally-
picturesque district around Hockley is developing rapidly as a
residential district.
In regard to the chemical constituents of the water, the
result of the analysis made in 1841 by Mr. Richard Phillips141 was
as follows:—
He found, he says, no iron.
A sample of the water, obtained from Mr. Burgess' pump in
July 1907, was analysed with results shown below. For
purposes of comparison, we have re-calculated, on a percentage
basis, the figures given by Mr. Phillips as a result of his
analysis made sixty-six years earlier. Comparison seems to show
that a change in the composition of the water has taken place
141 See ante, p. 239.
142 Essex Nat., x. p. 130 (1898).