THE CHIGWELL ROW MEDICINAL SPRINGS. 
6l 
form of a pamphlet intended to advertise the Chigwell-Row 
mineral well, just as the pamphlets by Drs. James Taverner,. 
John Andree, and William Martin Trinder, 3 were intended to 
advertise the waters of other Essex mineral wells. In one place, 
indeed, the writer speaks 4 of a branch of his subject which would 
require (he says) a folio volume to treat fully, so that he could 
not discuss it within “ the bounds of a pamphlet ”—implying 
that what he was writing was intended as a pamphlet. Why 
the work was never published, it is now quite futile to enquire. 
A curious feature about the manuscript is the fact that it 
contains no information as to the year in which it was written 
or the name of the writer. 
As to its date : we get some slight clue in a reference to 
“ the late Dr. Frewin, Physician at Oxford.” 5 Now, as Dr. 
F re win died in 1761/’ the manuscript must clearly be later than 
that year. We may guess its probable date as about 1775 or 
1785. Its general appearance, its diction, the hand-waiting, 
and everything else about it, all point approximately to the 
period indicated. 
As to its unnamed author : clearly he was a man of good 
education, undoubtedly a physician or apothecary, and an 
expert (or what passed as such in those days) upon medicinal 
waters and their chemical composition. It is clear, too, that 
he lived, or had lived, at or in the vicinity of Chigwell Row; 
for he asserts in several places that he was accustomed from 
time to time to take the water himself and to prescribe it regu- 
larlv for his patients—apparently all local people. 7 If, there¬ 
fore, we had a list of those physicians who were practicing in 
the vicinity at about the date when this manuscript was written 
(when they would have been few), it would probably not be diffi¬ 
cult to identify the author. But no such list exists, so far as 
I know ; and w r e are, therefore, thrown back upon surmise. 
At a first glance, one might conclude, not unnaturally, that 
the writer was the “ John Webster ” who made and signed the 
drawing at the beginning of the manuscript, 8 especially as the 
writing upon the drawing is the same as that of the manuscript 
3 See Christy & Thresh, Mineral Waters of Essex, pp 8-9 (1910). 
4 See post, p. 66. 
5 See t>ost, p. 64. 
6 See Christy & Thresh, Mineral Waters of Essex, p 43. n He was bora at Chigwell 
Row and had great faith in the efficacy of the water of the well there. 
7 See post, pp 67 68 and 70. 
8 See post, p. 69. 
