6o 
THE CHIGWELL ROW MEDICINAL SPRINGS : 
A LATE-EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY ACCOUNT OF THEM. 
By (?) the Rev. Dr. WILLIAM MARTIN TRINDER. 
Edited by MILLER CHRISTY, F.L S. 
With Plate /. 
W HEN Miss Thresh and myself published, in 1910, The 
Mineral Waters and Medicinal Springs of Essex / we 
knew nothing of the existence of a manuscript, written nearly a 
century and a half ago, describing fully the lost Chigwell-Row 
well as it then existed. Consequently, we were unable to do 
more than give briefly' 2 such meagre information as we had 
been able to gather relative to the history and exact locality 
of the well in question, which was filled up and completely 
obliterated nearly half-a-century ago. 
Recently, however, such a manuscript has come to light. 
It has just been presented to the Library of the Essex Field 
Club by our member, Mr. T. Fisher Unwin, who acquired it 
many years ago, though he cannot now recollect from whom. 
It proves, on examination, to be of considerable interest in its 
way ; and our Editor, Mr. Cole, deeming it (or most of it) worthy 
of publication in the pages of the Essex Naturalist, asked me 
to edit for press such portions as seemed worth printing—a task 
I undertook readily. 
The manuscript consists of 64 pages of foolscap-quarto, 
trimmed down to 8 by 6Jins., gathered in sections of eight, the 
whole being stitched together roughly with coarse string near 
the back, and glued into an uninscribed cover of stout marbled 
paper. The text paper is rough Dutch hand-made, water¬ 
marked with the arms of the States of Holland, but undated. 
All pages, except the first and last, bear writing. All left-hand 
pages, except the first (which bears a drawing), are devoted to 
marginal key-notes to the subject-matter of the treatise, which 
is written entirely on the right-hand pages. These are folioed 
from 1 to 30, the numbering commencing (for some unex¬ 
plained reason) on page 4, which is folioed 1. 
There can be no doubt as to the object with which the manu¬ 
script was written, though nothing relating to this point is 
stated therein. Clearly it was designed for publication in the 
1 Essex Field Club Special Memoirs, vol. iv. (Reprinted, with additions, from the Essex 
Naturalist, xv, pp. 185-253: igoj). 
2 Op. cit pp. 43-44- 
