Am.  Jour.  Pharm.  / 
August,  1921.  ) 
Sal  Catharticum  Amarum. 
553 
"the  Lord  Dudley  North,  Father  to  Francis  the  late  Lord-Keeper, 
labouring  under  a  Melancholy  Disposition  for  which  he  had  for- 
merly Drank  the  Spaw- Waters  in  Germany,  was  resolved  to  try  the 
Virtue  of  these  Epsom  Waters,  nattering  himself  (I  suppose)  that 
he  had  found  Chalybeate- Waters  at  his  own  Door.  However,  tho' 
they  answered  not  his  desire  and  expectation  as  to  their  Nature,  yet 
he  did  not  repent  of  his  Experiment,  but  from  that  time  drank  these 
Purging  W'aters,  as  a  Medicine  sent  from  Heaven,  with  abundance  of 
success.  Many  others,  encouraged  by  his  example,  try'd  the  opera- 
tion of  these  Waters;  and  amongst  the  first,  Maria  de  Medicis, 
Mother  to  the  Wife  of  King  Charles  L,  the  Right  Honourable  George 
Lord  Goring,  Earl  of  Norwich,  and  many  other  Persons  of  Quality.^ 
These  and  all  others,  who  drank  the  Epsom- Waters,  came  not  for 
pleasure  but  Health,  and  therefore  always  consulted  their  own,  or 
some  Neighbouring  Physician,  for  the  Rules  they  were  to  observe. 
In  a  little  while  Physicians  came  of  their  own  accord  to  these  Waters, 
by  whose  authority  they  acquir'd  so  great  a  Reputation  that  2000 
Persons  have  been  there  in  one  Day,  to  drink  or  divert  themselves. 
"About  30  years  since,  many  of  the  Inhabitants  of  London, 
whose  Business  or  Poverty  obstructed  their  going  to  Epsom,  had 
the  Waters  sent  to  them." 
Charles  II  and  his  Court  went  to  Epsom  "to  divert"  themselves, 
and  later  Prince  George  of  Denmark,  the  Consort  of  Queen  Anne, 
drove  there  from  Windsor  to  drink  the  waters.  Pepys,  in  his  diary, 
has  several  references  to  his  visits  to  Epsom.  In  1664,  we  find  him 
recording  that  "Sir  W.  Batten  did  give  me  three  bottles  of  his  Epsom 
water,  which  I  drank  and  I  found  myself  mightily  cooled  with  them 
and  refreshed."  Three  years  later  Pepys  made  a  Sunday's  excursion 
to  the  gay  town,  getting  up  at  4  A.  M.  to  get  ready,  and  setting  out 
shortly  after  five  o'clock  with  his  wife  in  a  coach  and  four  horses, 
and  provided  "with  bottles  of  wine  and  beer,  and  some  cold  fowl." 
Reaching  Epsom  at  eight  o'clock,  he  went  to  the  well  and  drank  four 
pints  of  the  water.  Then,  off  to  the  King's  Head,  where  he  hears 
"that  my  Lord  Buckhurst  and  Nelly  are  lodged  at  the  next  house. 
.  .  .  Poor  girl!  I  pity  her!"  The  popularity  of  the  place  became 
very  great.  Toland,  who  wrote  an  account  of  it  at  the  beginning  of 
the  eighteenth  century,  says  that  on  a  Sunday  evening  he  counted 
sixty  coaches  in  a  ring.  The  New  Inn  Tavern  was  thought  to  be 
one  of  the  largest  in  England.    At  that  time  the  visitors  must  have 
