246 MINERAL WATERS AND MEDICINAL SPRINGS OF ESSEX.
who have judgment to distinguish waters and used in drinks."
Dale says,146 however, that it is but "a small inconsiderable
thing."
It has often been stated that this spring is that which was
utilised in the establishment of Dovercourt Spa, but this seems
not to have been the case. All the old writers who refer to the
spring in question speak of it as yielding excellent drinking
water ; which would not have been the case had it had medicinal
properties.
The establishment of Dovercourt Spa was part of the scheme
of the late Mr. John Bagshawe, M.P., of Cliff House, Dover-
court, for the development of Dovercourt as a seaside resort,
FIG. 7 —THE SPA HOUSE, DOVERCOURT.
about the year 1852 ; and the spring utilised appears to have been
one discovered at that time. In 1874, the spa was spoken
of147 as
" a chalybeate spring, in great repute, possessing medicinal properties similar to
the waters of Tunbridge Wells. The Spa-House, first opened to visitors on the
28th August 1854, is a neat brick building in the Tudor Style, and consists of a
pump-room, saloon, library, and conservatory. In the pump-room and library,
large bay windows look immediately over the sea. The library, in addition to a
good supply of books and papers, contains many cases of fossils peculiar to the
neighbourhood : also a large collection of Roman Antiquities."
The spa has continued to exist ever since the date in question,
and still does so. The fossils and the Roman antiquities are
no longer preserved in the Spa House (fig. 7), but the library
and news-rooms are maintained and water is still sold regularly,
146 Op. cit., p. 100 n. (1730).
147 P.O. Directory, 1870, p. 120.