A HISTORY OF SURREY 



through to the bottom. Nothing else was found but 

 a little loose charcoal, and two or three small pieces of 

 hand-made pottery. 



Epsom Well, to the discovery of which the place 

 owed its later fame, is on Epsom Common, some 

 distance from the village. It is in the London Clay. 

 Water charged with sulphate of magnesia is not un- 

 commonly found in this soil, as at Jessop's Well, on 

 Stoke D'Abernon Common, which is probably as power- 

 ful as the Epsom spring. The situation of Epsom, 

 however, on the edge of the downs, made it a pleasant 

 resort, and so gave greater fame to its waters. The 

 current story is that the well was discovered in 1618 

 by one Henry Wicker, who observed that cattle would 

 not drink of it. Dudley North, third Lord North, 

 asserts in his Forest of Varieties, published in 164 5, that 

 he first made the Tunbridge Wells and Epsom waters 

 known to the world at large. Aubrey drank the 

 water in 1654. After the Restoration the Epsom 

 Wells became a fashionable resort, Epsom being nearer 

 to London than Tunbridge Wells. Nonsuch, so long 

 as it remained standing, was a royal house in the near 

 neighbourhood, and it was an easy ride from Hampton 

 Court. Charles II, James II, as Duke of York, and 

 Prince George of Denmark, all visited Epsom. 

 Pepys, of course, went there ; he paid his first visit 

 in 1663, when the town was so full that he had to 

 seek a lodging in Ashtead. In 1667, he writes, on 

 14 July, 'to Epsom by eight o'clock to the Well, 

 where much Company. And to the town, to the 

 King's Head ; and hear that my lord Buckhurst and 

 Nelly ' (Nell Gwrnne) ' are lodged at the next house, 

 and Sir Charles Sedley with them ; and keep a merry 

 house.' In 1663 he had remarked on the large 

 number of citizens ' that I could not have thought to 

 have seen there ; that they ever had it in their heads 

 or purses to go down thither.' The New Inn in 

 High Street dates from about this period. It is now 

 called Waterloo House, and is occupied by shops. It 

 is now mainly an 18th-century two-story building of 

 red brick with plastered quoins, and a low gable in 

 the middle of the front ; in the roof are attics lighted 

 by good dormer windows. There is a good gable end 

 over the original entrance, which led into a narrow 

 courtyard in the centre, whence there is an exit at 

 the opposite end. On the first floor, approached by 

 a fine staircase with carved balusters, was the Assembly 

 or Ball Room, now cut up by partitions. In 1690 

 Mr. Parkhurst, lord of the manor, built an Assembly 

 Room at the Wells, erected other buildings, and 

 planted avenues of elms and limes, which were mostly 

 cut down for timber in the early igth century. The 

 popularity and fashion of Epsom at this time is suffi- 

 ciently attested, not merely by the names of visitors, 

 but by the announcement in the Gazette, 19 June 

 1684, that a daily post would go to and from Epsom 

 and Tunbridge Wells respectively and London during 

 the season for drinking the waters, that is, during 

 May, June, and July. This was the earliest daily 

 post outside London. 



In 1711, Toland, the famous deistical writer, gives 

 a very flowery description of the beauties of Epsom 

 in a letter to ' Eudena.' But by this date Epsom 

 had come to rely upon its general attractions for 

 pleasure seekers, rather than upon its medicinal 

 waters. A quack doctor named Levingston sank a 

 rival well, of no particular quality, near the town in 



1706, built an Assembly Room and shops near it, 

 and in 1715 got a lease of the old well and closed it 

 till his death in 1727. Queen Anne visited Epsom 

 during this period, but the place decayed as a fashion- 

 able resort. The neighbouring gentry, however, used 

 to visit the old well when it was reopened, after 1727. 

 Clearly it continued to be a very different kind of 

 place from any other country town in Surrey. In 

 1725 Bishop Willis, in his Visitation questions, asked 

 for the names of resident gentry in every parish, and 

 for Epsom, Lord Yarmouth, Lord Guilford, Lord 

 Baltimore, Sir John Ward, eight gentlemen, and eight 

 well-to-do widows are returned, whilst nothing like 

 the same number are returned for any other parish ; 

 eight for Kew is the nearest to it. The invention of 

 sea-bathing, about 1753, was finally fatal to Epsom as 

 a watering-place. The Old Well House, however, 

 was not pulled down till 1804, when a private house 

 was built on the spot, a successor to which still 

 occupies the ground. A part of the old brickwork 

 seems to survive in one of the greenhouses in the 

 garden. 



Among the recreations of Epsom in its glory were 

 gambling, cudgel-playing, foot-races, cock-fighting, and 

 catching a pig by the tail, besides horse-racing. 

 Robert Norden's map, of the 1 7th century, marks 

 ' the Race,' extending in a straight line from Banstead 

 Downs on to Epsom Downs. In 1648 a horse-race 

 on Banstead Downs, evidently a usual occurrence, was 

 made the prelude to Lord Holland's rising against the 

 Parliament. 4 The races were one of the regular diver- 

 sions of the company at the Wells, and they used to 

 witness two or three heats in the morning, return to 

 dinner in the middle of the day, and come up to the 

 Downs for more heats in the afternoon. These were 

 run in 1730 either on the old straight course, or on 

 what Toland in 1711 calls the ' new orbicular course.' 

 In those days the runners started above Langley 

 Bottom behind the Warren, and, going outside the 

 Bushes, ran by way of Tattenham Corner to the 

 winning-chair. The original Derby course was the 

 last mile and a half of this track, the starting-post being 

 out of sight of the grand stand. The Derby and the 

 Oaks races were founded in 1780 and 1779 respec- 

 tively, and were called after the Earl of Derby and his 

 seat at Banstead. 



In 1846 Mr. Henry Dorling, the clerk of the 

 course, made, on the advice of Lord George Ben- 

 tinck, a course for the Derby, the whole of which 

 lies on the eastern side of the Warren and in full view 

 of the stands. This, which is now known as the old 

 course, was used until 1871. For the present Derby 

 course, first used in 1872, the horses start on slightly 

 higher ground at the high-level starting-post, and 

 run into the old course at the mile-post. The 

 first half-mile and the last five furlongs of this 

 track are in the manor of Epsom ; that part of it 

 above the Bushes, from the City and Suburban 

 starting-post to the old five-furlong start, lying on 

 Walton Downs within the manor of Walton, is 

 owned by the Epsom Grand Stand Association. 



The antiquities and history of the race-meetings 

 have been sufficiently treated already. 5 The popularity 

 of the races survived the popularity of the watering- 

 place. Dr. Burton 6 speaks enthusiastically of the 

 crowds of spectators, even from London, and, as he is 

 writing in Greek, is irresistibly reminded of the Olym- 



4 V.CJi. Surr. i, 41 7, &C. 



6 See y.C.H. Surr. ii, under 'Sport.' 

 272 



6 In Itir Surricnse, 1752. 



