22 AUBREY'S NATURAL HISTORY OF WILTSHIRE. 



In June 1667, 1 sent for three bottles of this well water to London, and experimented it before the 

 Royall Society at Gresham Colledge, at which time there was a frequent assembly, and many of 

 the Physitians of the Colledge of London. Now, whereas the water of Tunbridge, and others of that 

 kind, being carried but few miles loose their spirits, and doe not alter their colour at all with powder 

 of galles, these bottles, being brought by the carrier eighty odd miles, and in so hot weather, did 

 turn, upon the infusion of the powder, as deep as the deepest claret ; to the admiration of the phy- 

 sitians then present, who unanimously declared that this water might doe much good : and Dr. Piers 

 sayd that in some cases such waters were good to begin with, and to end with the Bath ; and in some 

 contra. This place is but 9 or 10 miles from Bath. 



The D ra . then spake to me, to write to some physitians at Bath, and to recommend it to them, 

 whom I knew ; which I did. But my endeavours were without effect till August 1684. But they 

 doe so much good that they now speake aloud their own prayses. They were satisfied (I understood 

 at last) of y c goodnesse and usefulnesse of these waters, but they did not desire to have patients to be 

 drawn from y* Bath. Now, whereas one person is grieved with aches, or bruises, or dead palseys, 

 for which diseases the Bath is chiefly proper, ten or more are ill of chronicall diseases and obstruc- 

 tions, for the curing whereof these chalybiate waters are the most soveraigne remedie. 



This advertisement I desired Dr. Rich. Blackburne to word. He is one of the College of Phy- 

 sitians, and practiseth yearly at Tunbridge-wells. It was printed in an Almanack of Hen. Coley 

 about 1681, but it tooke no effect. 



" Advertisement. At Seen (neer y e Devizes in Wiltshire) are springs discovered to be of the 

 nature and vertue of those at Tunbridge, and altogether as good. They are approved of by severall 

 of y e physitians of the Colledge in London, and have donne great cures, viz. particularly in the 

 spleen, the reines, and bladder, affected with heat, stone, or gravell ; or restoring hectick persons to 

 health and strength, and wonderfully conducing in all cases of obstructions." 



I proceeded and tryed other wells, but my ingeniose faithfull servant Robert Wiseman 

 (Prudhome) tryed all the wells in the village, and found that all the wells of the south side doe 

 turne with galles more or lesse, but the wells of the north side turne not with them at all. This lull 

 lies eastward and westward ; quod N.B. 



The water of Jo. Stunner's well was so bad for household use that they could not brew nor boyle 

 with it, and used it only to wash the house, &c. ; so that they were necessitated to sinke a well in 

 the common, which is walled, about a bow shott or more from his dwelling house, where is fresh and 

 wholsome water. Memorandum. Dr. Grew in his [Catalogue] of the Royall Society has mistaken 

 this well in the common for the medicinal! well of J. Stunner. But, mem., there is another well 

 that turnes, I thinke, as deep as J. Sumner's. [On die subject of this discovery by Aubrey, to 

 which he attached great importance, the reader is referred to Britton's " Memoir of Aubrey," published 

 by the Wiltshire Topographical Society, p. 17. As there stated, most of the property about Seend 

 now belongs to W. H. Ludlow Bruges, Esq. M.P., who preserves the well ; but its waters are not 

 resorted to for sanatory purposes. J. B.] 



Memorandum. That Dudley, Lord North, grandfather to Sir Francis North, Lord Keeper, and 

 Baron of Guildford, returning from his travells from the Spaw, &c. making a visit to the Earle of 

 Leicester at Penshurst, his relation, as he was riding thereabout made observation of the earth where 

 the water run, the colour whereof gave him an indication of its vertue. He sent for galles, and 

 tryed it by evaporation, &c. and found out the vertue, which hath ever since continued and donne 



