THE CHIGWELL ROW MEDICINAL SPRINGS. 65
mill, in the wood or Forrest. This is supposed to be the old
well and, in all probability, was so, as the vestiges of some kind
of building appear at this day.15 Another opening is dis-
cover'd to ye west of this hill16; and a third well has been
lately dug on the north side of the same hill, in a field behind
the house call'd Whitehall; which [well] proves to be more
strongly impregnated with mineral qualities than either of the
other two, and which is intended to be kept clean and pure for
anyone that may want it. The waters from all these wells
are so very strongly impregnated with saline and mineral
qualities as to be highly deserving of publick notice and
attention.
In digging the last-mention'd well (which is about 15 feet
deep), after removing the common soil, there appeared a stiff
yellow clay for about 21/2 feet. After this was remov'd, we came
to a kind of clay [which was] more loamy and white, mix'd
with flints, white and chalky on their surfaces; which [clay]
continued pretty near to six feet in thickness, when it began to
appear more blue [and to be] int[er]mix'd with an infinity of
shining particles of the mundick aspect; which [appearance]
increased for six or seven feet lower, when it began to
grow more yellowish and okery, till at last it wore the
appearance of the rust of iron, which it continued to the bottom,
when the water began to bubble up in a number of places.17 We
15 Probably the writer here refers to the brick curbing and steps which Mr. College, of
Chigwell Row, recently told Mr. Christy he could recollect (see Mineral Waters and Medicinal
Springs, p. 44 (1910). This well is that described by Christy and Thresh (op. cit., p. 44). On
the 25-inch map of the Ordnance Survey (sheet lxvi., 5), a cross marks the spot, which is
described as "Site of Ging Well (Cathartic)." The windmill referred to is shown clearly on
Chapman and Andre's great Map of Essex (1777), though apparently not then surrounded by
trees. On the one-inch Ordnance Map of 1844, the trees are shown, but not the mill, which
was burned down about (probably just before) the date named.
16 Of this second opening, I know nothing. It would be hard to identify it now, even
if it still exists.
17 It is clear from what the writer of the manuscript says that he was present in person
and superintended the digging of the well in question. Though it was dug in what was
then a field at the back of White Hall, it is now in the grounds belonging to that house. The
occupant, Mr. Arthur Savill, says the water is still drunk by his gardener, who declares, how-
ever, that "it has a nasty taste"—a fact I am able to corroborate. So far as one can
ascertain, the well in question is one at the back of the old building (now a couple of
cottages) which was formerly the "Maypole" Inn, before the present building so called was
built by the roadside. Immediately to one side of the well is a small brick building,
apparently of about the date of the well, which may have been erected either as a sort of
well-house or as a brew-house. Within three or four yards, too, there is a small round pond,
some fifteen feet across, which is said to be twelve or fifteen feet deep. From the detailed
figures given, one would conclude that the total depth of the well must have been somewhat
more than the fifteen feet assigned to it. At the present time (having, perhaps, been
deepened), it is about twenty-five feet deep to the bottom, the water standing within about
four feet of the top. Mr. Dalton writes:—'This White Hall well is situated on the edge of
"the patch of chalky Boulder-Clay that caps the hill eastward. It reaches the underlying
"London Clay at about eight feet from the surface. The 'shining particles of the mundick
"aspect' are not likely to be really mundic (iron pyrites), although that mineral abounds
"in the London Clay, commonly amorphous and imperceptibly distributed throughout the