110 E. A. PETOR — MEDICINAL WATERS IN HEETS. 



is hope, in process of time, the water riaing here will repay the 

 hhod ahecl hard by, and save as many lives as were lost in the fatal 

 battel at Ikvrnet betwixt the two houses of Yorhe and Lancaster,^''* 

 an anticipation that was hardly, I fear, destined to be fully 

 realised. 



Four years afterwards it was again noticed by Merret in his 

 'Pinax,' where, however, he wrongly places the " fontes purgantes 

 ad Barnet " "in Middlesexia." f 



In such repute was it now held, that in 1677 Mr. Alderman 

 Owen left the sum of £ 1 per annum to keep the well in repair 

 "as long as it should be of service to the parish." :J: The same 

 benefactor added £8 per annum to the endowment of Queen 

 Elizabeth's Free School at Barnet, to be paid by the Fishmongers' 

 Company. § It is possible that the Company were trustees of tho 

 other bequest also, and that their records may be able to furnish 

 additional particulars. I have been able to glean nothing as to the 

 subsequent history of the trust. 



At no great distance, but of secondary importance, were the 

 wells " in the common at Northal,''^ now Northaw. These are 

 alluded to by Doody, the botanist and correspondent of Eay, in his 

 notes in the appendix to the second edition of the 'Synopsis,' where 

 he speaks of " Belbar" as '■'■ haud procul ah aquis medicatis Northal- 

 lensibus." || 



Another spring in the same parish is, I believe, mentioned 

 only by Chauncy ; it was at the place called Cuffely, now Coffleys.^ 



In each case, according to the last-named writer, " The Mineral 

 that they are impregnated with is supposed to be Allom, but most 

 certainly a mixt fixt Salt, of which 'tis hard to determine,"** an 

 explanation that does not throw very much light on the matter. 

 He goes on, however, to describe their medicinal virtues at con- 

 siderable length, and there can be no doubt that the Barnet waters 

 at all events were at one time extensively in use. 



To much the same effect is the account given a few years later 

 by Salmon in his ' History of Hertfordshire' (in 1728). "There 

 are," he tells us, " Mineral Waters of the Epsom kind at Northall 

 and Barnet, of the Tunhridge Sort at Wehvyn and Watton.\\ Tlicy 

 arc known by their Effects, but 'tis hard to say with what impreg- 

 nated." XX 



The Welwyn chalybeate is noticed also by Gough in his addi- 

 tions to Camden's 'Britannia' (vol. i. p. 34o) in 1789, where he 



* Fuller, Worthies, p. 18. t Mcrrct, Pinax Rcr. Nat. Brit. p. 220.-1666. 



X Lysoiis, Envir. Loud. vol. iv. p. 8. § Salmon, Hist. Herts, p. 66. 



II Riiy, SjTi. ed. 2, p. 334.— 1696. 



II In the neighbourhood of North Mims and Hatfield, there are many springes 

 " of a sulphureous or ferruginous nature." — Encyd. Brit. ed. 7, vol. xi. p. 284. 



** Chauney, 1 c. 



tt " In a Miller's Garden of this ("Watton) Parish, just by the Beano, is a 

 "Well of tho Tuiibridge Kiud, which hath a higher Chalybeate Taste than that of 

 "Welwyn." — Salmon, I.e. p. 211). 



JJ Salmon, I.e. p. 1. 



