THE CHIGWELL ROW MEDICINAL SPRINGS. 61
form of a pamphlet intended to advertise the Chigwell-Row
mineral well, just as the pamphlets by Drs. James Taverner,
John Andree, and William Martin Trinder,3 were intended to
advertise the waters of other Essex mineral wells. In one place,
indeed, the writer speaks4 of a branch of his subject which would
require (he says) a folio volume to treat fully, so that he could
not discuss it within "the bounds of a pamphlet"—implying
that what he was writing was intended as a pamphlet. Why
the work was never published, it is now quite futile to enquire.
A curious feature about the manuscript is the fact that it
contains no information as to the year in which it was written
or the name of the writer.
As to its date: we get some slight clue in a reference to
"the late Dr. Frewin, Physician at Oxford."5 Now, as Dr.
Frewin died in 1761,6 the manuscript must clearly be later than
that year. We may guess its probable date as about 1775 or
1785. Its general appearance, its diction, the hand-writing,
and everything else about it, all point approximately to the
period indicated.
As to its unnamed author: clearly he was a man of good
education, undoubtedly a physician or apothecary, and an
expert (or what passed as such in those days) upon medicinal
waters and their chemical composition. It is clear, too, that
he lived, or had lived, at or in the vicinity of Chigwell Row;
for he asserts in several places that he was accustomed from
time to time to take the water himself and to prescribe it regu-
larly for his patients—apparently all local people.7 If, there-
fore, we had a list of those physicians who were practicing in
the vicinity at about the date when this manuscript was written
(when they would have been few), it would probably not be diffi-
cult to identify the author. But no such list exists, so far as
I know; and we are, therefore, thrown back upon surmise.
At a first glance, one might conclude, not unnaturally, that
the writer was the "John Webster" who made and signed the
drawing at the beginning of the manuscript,8 especially as the
writing upon the drawing is the same as that of the manuscript
3 See Christy & Thresh, Mineral Waters of Essex, pp 8-9 (1910).
4 See post, p. 66
5 See post, p. 64.
6 See Christy & Thresh, Mineral Wafers of Essex, p 43. n He was born at Chigwell
Row and had great faith in the efficacy of the water of the well there.
7 See post, pp 67 68 and 70.
8 See post, p. 69.