THERMAE REDIVIVAE The CITY of BATH DESCRIBED WITH Some Observations on those Soveraign WATERS both as to the BATHING in and DRINKING of Them Now so much in Use By Henry Chapman Gent. LONDON Printed for the Author and are to be Sold by Jonathan Edwin at the Three Roses in Ludgate-street 1673. TO The most August and Serene Prince CHARLES II. Of Great Britain France and Ireland King c. Dread and Royal Sir and Soveraign IT hath been all along I praise my God my Inclination as well as my Duty to serve my Prince and Countrey the Wars in your ever Renowned Fathers time wherein I had the Honour as well as the Misfortune as carrying with it the Sacrifice of a Competent Estate to be shall testifie for the One as this small Tract for the Other as I am a Native of this place so also for the better part of Twenty years I was not a Stranger to many Near and Remote Regions but never could I meet with or hear of any such Waters as this your City yields in reference to the perpetual constancy of their Quantity and Quality on which reason I have an Ambition and Desire to Publish this to the World what continual and inexhaustible Treasures are stored up here in the Bowels of the Earth scarce ever made known at leastwise made use of till these very late years the Publication whereof will Sans-peradventure advance your Majesties Kingdoms Interest as conducing so much to the Longaevity and health of the Nations rendring them more Numerous and Hardy our Air will make them Valiant and this being granted as being an indisputable Maxim the Consequence is Cum multis Manibus grande levatur opus May the good God keep your Majesty here long after our Age in the highest degree of Honour and Health and when you Change give you an Incorruptible for a Corruptible Crown which hath is and shall be the daily and incessant Prayers of Your Majesties Most humble Loyal and Obedient Subject and Servant Hen. Chapman Bath 16. Novemb 1673. To the ever Renowned NATIONS Of and in Great Britain and Ireland I Am not ignorant that there are many and that Learned too Treatises abroad concerning something I am now in hand with Dr. Jordan is Extant and so is an Appendix to it discoursing profoundly from what Minerals these Waters may proceed with the Nature of Bitumen Sulphur and the like yet all this while there wants a plain and cheap not Scholastique Divulgation to the World of the present use of these Waters both as to the bathing in and Drinking of them the latter of which having not been much in use till within this two or three years is not I conceive sufficiently made known to the World wherefore that these Soveraign Waters which are so much approved of by those Many that have made use of them as having wrought so many and so admirable Cures may lye no longer in Obscurity in default of an abler Pen I have in this small Treatise adventur'd it my self in which the Reader cannot considerato Authore reasonably expect any other then plain ordinary English the whole aim and scope being to report them to the World and because of their singular Virtues to encourage the use of them H. C. Sun in Bath Nov. 1673. Regi Gregi Victoria Copia THE City of BATH DESCRIBED THe City of Bath is seated in the North North-East part of Somersetshire environ'd almost all round with pleasant and fruitful Hills full of excellent Springs of Waters in so much as 't is observed that on many of their Sumits there are rare Christal Waters gushing out especially in one Village adjoyning to the Southwards of it there are near Fifty if not more Habitations where scarce one House makes use of that Water that served another each one enjoying a particular to its self The Valley in which it stands in any place extends hardly it self to half a Mile in bredth in most places less it is very pleasant and fruitful and therein hardly ever seen any Pools Loughs or Meery places for as soon as any inundation is over the Waters totally Drein away with it which doubtless contributes much to the Salubrity of the Air. From two of these Hills the City by Pipes of Lead is not only plentifully served into the Common Conduits but also not few of the private Houses are supplyed with it within their own Doors such a Convenience and at such easie Rates that few places enjoy the like and this being carried through most Streets Lanes and By-wayes is not only for within-door Occasions but in case of Fire is very ready to be made use of The Streets most of the Narrowest size especially that near the Center called Cheap-street the greatest Eye-sore of its Beauty and Cumber to its accommodation it is Walled all round with a Time-defying Stone the Buildings by strong supposition mounted much higher then in former Ages for walking round the Walls it is perceivable the City stands on a Batch as we call it in a bottom from Fifteen to Twenty foot higher then the Surface without neither is it without Suburbs the fourth part supposed to be so and all together computed by some that pretend to have calculated its Dimensions takes not up much more then Fifty Acres in such a narrow compass is this ancient famous little pretty City contained which being in such a bottom hath such a variety of Prospects and Landskips that few places parallel it whereas places scited on Levels seldom please the Eye far deprived by the interposition of the next Pale Wall or Hedge whereas this raising it self higher then the adjoyning Gardens and Meadows hath full and free passage nor do the Hills so strengthen the Prospect but that the Eye may even surfeit its self with variety of Objects in some places for at least three Miles at once beholding the Meander-Aven Semi-circling the City then the low Meadows in several small and great Partitions the Pasture grounds above them then the Corn fields so gradually ye come up to the Downs on which particularly Launsdown is an excellent Coarse of above two Miles at the end whereof may be seen the City of Bristol with the Counties of Somerset Wilts Glocester Worcester Hereford and Menmouth but this has made me endanger the Out-running my intended Discourse seldom farther then the little City or its Prospect but this Digression I suppose may not be much out of Order when the Gallantry and Youth of the Nation may be made acquainted what Recreation the Vicinity of the place affords especially when it is accompanied with Hunting Setting c. The Wall is in compass not a full English Mile and were the City not in such a bottom and so over topped by Neighbouring Hills by the Opinion of Col. B. once Governor thereof and some others that may understand Fortifications might be made Tenable for indeed the whole is but one entire Rampart a Coffin fill'd with Earth on which the
your Guts having a gentle and painless Operation both by Urine and Siege the Concomitant whereof is an excellent Stomach much better'd by walking and stirring your body after the drinking them and still as your body empties you may continue drinking more the Waters being so innocent that it is seldom or never heard any complaint that a great quantity injured any one and now as I said before they are never out of season for that Stately new erected Cross in the Kings Bath is a defence and shelter as well from Winters blasts as Summers Sun and there are many convenient Rooms for drinking of and bathing in them which may invite those that have occasion to make use of them at any season especially since I shall give them this assurance that although there may be to Winter-Bathers more expence in fuel yet to recompence that their Lodgings will be cheaper and the Inhabitants are observed to be as active in their attendance and as ready to take your Money in hoary December as in fragrant June This being granted I have often wonder'd so much people have neglected a suddain Repair hither but to the loss of many of their Lives Limbs or both have delayed so long and tamper'd so much by taking undue courses in other places that many times when they come hither they are so far past all hopes that nothing but a Miracle can cure them whereas seldom or never any part hence that make early Application without some comfort if not perfect cure or recovery I cannot play the Emperick to tell you all the Maladies and Diseases by Potion and Lotion they are effectually good for only this to my own knowledge they are in some constitutions good against and for avoiding the very Stone of which there are proofs sufficient among the many this one The dearest Relation of the Author of these papers was extreamly tormented with it for some years never could she find any ease or comfort by any Skill or Direction of the ablest Physitian till the great Physitian was pleased to put it into her head to make use of the Bath which in three or four times using by bathing and drinking divers Stones came from her and that only in the time of her Bathing and drinking some whereof as big as Olive-Stones are yet in my Custody and from that time to her dying day which was some years was never troubled with it afterwards For other ordinary Diseases as Palsie Dropsie Sciatica Rickets and the like the numberless number of Crutches that have from time to time been left behind is a sufficient Testimony some whereof yet hung up remain as Trophies of Gods Mercies in their several Cures And now in this place according to my promise and purpose I shall speak somewhat of the Cold Waters of Tunbridge Epsom c. so much celebrated and drank of in and about London wherein because I may be thought partial I shall speak the less in which let me desire an Observation whether or no since the drinking those Waters have been so much in use The Griping of the Guts a not only painful torturing but Mortal Malady hath not been more frequent now then in former times it is easily found to be so by examination of the Weekly Bills which plainly evidences that of late more have been cast over the Perch by this doleful Disease in one year then giving allowance also for the growth of the City too proportionably in former Ages in seven and those that will not appropriate that single Disease besides some others that may be attributed to those Waters are in their understandings I humbly conceive blind or wilfully obstinate indeed how can it be otherwise but those cold and crude Springs with their Nauseous soakings so averse to our English and all Northern Constitutions lying so long in the Stomach but must oppress chill it and destroy the Appetite especially since it is granted there is many times a mixture of Rain waters soaking through the several crannies of the Earth into them adding an increase by Urine and Ordure Humane and Belluine plentifully shed thereabouts so that the Physick makes the Excrement and Vicissim the Excrement the Physick certainly it is so those Springs being observed to be far more fluent in wet and cold Summers then in the hot and dry then if compounded Rain-waters and such Soakings are of such vertues I suppose they may be had nearer home but it can never win belief with me that the drinking them is the sole Reason and Occasion of the great resort thither no doubtless there is something else in it Meetings which if so they that go thither on that Errand do not amiss let them enjoy and solace themselves there no hurt but when they are there to drink the waters in such a prodigious manner and measure through wantonness custom or example can by no man wishing well to the Nation be approved of But Si Populus vult perire quis vetet Sure this I am that not above two or three years since some sixteen miles distant from this City at a place called Alford there was such another Spring found out as I now am discoursing of never was there a greater resort to any place considering the small quantities of Waters it produced then thither so much reputation it had gained that much people had the patience to stay their turns for Gods mercies were much seen in that it was a pitifully barren Spring till they could be supplyed from the Well This was then for that year only for never before nor never after that I ever could here of it having paid the Drinkers off sufficiently was it made use of the English Bethesda but it was not the Angel of the Lord that stirred those Waters but an evil one found so by the Diseases and Mortality that seized on abundance of People in a very short time after they had drank them insomuch that ever since there is a Lord have Mercy written on the Door of him that made Merchandize of them Hinc Subitae Mortes atque intestatus Senectus And now I have done with the Cold Waters when I have given you a sight of a Valedictory Bequest which a waggishly witty Gentleman who in the time of the late Wars was with others rinsing his Hypochondriacks bestowed on Epsom May all Carouses on this Green Be health and more to th' King and Queen But the Squirt and scent in Field and City An Oblation to the Close Committee To conclude what I have said of the King and Queens Baths I would be understood as to their Vertues Conjunctim aut divisim to be said of all Only this The Springs of the Cross Bath are not so hot as the Kings nor so fluent neither those in the Hot Bath the distinction being given it in reference only that it is hotter the adjoyning Cross Bath all which Baths are so surrounded with such Noble Buildings for Reception that they appear in respect of other
Buildings are then the Springs so near the Superficies that no Approaches can be made but with great difficulty there are large discourses already extant of several Statues Figures as Gorgons Serpents c. in it in which I shall not meddle but leave every man to his view and belief but certainly this it is a Noble Ancient Wall therein appearing many antiquities as also four Gates having their several denominations from the four Cardinal winds which every night are order'd to be lock'd up and a Watch Itinerant Sworn not to enter any House till four in the Morn which how duely observed some of them who have been caught tardy and put into Wooden Bastile for their pains can satisfie you The Government is by a Mayor Aldermen and Twenty Councellors or Citizens The Mayor and Aldermen on solemn dayes are in Scarlet the number by Charter may not exceed eleven nor under five to these is added a Recorder who there with the Mayor is Justice of the Peace and Quorum having the precedence of the two other Justices also a Town Clark who every Leet-day twice in the year calls the Court and it is kept in his Name although Mayor Aldermen c. present And here I conceive it will not be improper no Sally from the purpose to observe the care here taken for the Poor of which quality I suppose there are fewer then in any place for its bigness in the Kingdom the yearly rate for the three Parishes being under 30 l. per ann which to some Strangers hath not being acquainted with the Custom and Method here taken seem'd wonderful most People conjecturing the City to be poor as indeed it cannot vaunt of many notoriously rich yet Providence with the beneficent munificence of some of our English Monarques hath sufficiently provided for it thereby they owing as little to their backs and bellies as any place I know of yet no stupid Gormandizers neither for such care is taken that the wealthier sort eat their own Morsels free from such importunate Clamours and Outcries as are too frequently seen in other places that have a higher Celebration for Riches this principally arising without doubt from Magistratical care at every Quarter-Sale day wherein the poorer sort are not only kindly used beyond comparison but are also so tyed up that they cannot squander away their good bargains but are reserved in case of necessity to their needy Families It is supplied and adorned for the Service of God with three Churches dedicated to St. James St. Michael and St. Peter and Paul the later justly challenging to its self the preheminence for lightsomness stateliness and elegance of Structure of all the Parochial Churches in the Kingdom the Tower whereof is 162 foot high in the upper loft whereof is a noble Taunting and Musical ring of Bells whose loud Peals have been distinctly heard five six nay sometimes seven Miles distant The Tenor is called Hopton mostly the gift of that Honorable Family what wanted in their bounty was supplyed by the City to this Tower are four several Stair-Cases at each distinct corner one This Stately Pile was begun in Henry the Sevenths time by one Oliver King the then Bishop of the Diocess but never by the iniquity of the times partly arising by the several changes could it arise to any perfection till about the year 1606. God raised up Bishop Montague Mr. Thomas Bellot and other pious and generous Benefactors by whose great bounty and good Example it now enjoys its present Splendor and Glory In the Body whereof one thing is most remarkable that although it be of a vast Dimension taking its height bredth and length and lying uncovered for above 100 years the Windows so large the Walls so thin that I presume many Mansion-houses equal it yet this Noble Pile notwithstanding it hath no sloaping Buttresses on the outside to support and strengthen it which the great Churches usually have shews no Flaw Crack not settling but stands firm and entire evidencing thereby not only the profound Skill of the Architect but the goodness of the Stone whose quality is when taken up green out of the Quarry of such a softness that a Pen-knife comparatively may work it without turning its edge but when exposed to any building in the open Air nothing more lasting nothing more permanent for neither Age nor time can deface it witness the whole Pile which notwithstanding it hath stood near two Centuries yet to this day remains as firm and beautiful as at first near the midst whereof under an Arch to the Northward lyes interred the Noble and Charitable Benefactor Bishop Montague on whom his Executors his Brothers men of great Honor and Places rear'd a stately Monument answerable to the Dignity of that Honourable and Religious Prelate over against this Noble Monument the City in Testimony of the respects they owed to the then Rector Mr. John Pelling erected another to him this Reverend Divine notwithstanding he had a numerous Issue yet was so indefatigably zealous in forwarding the reparation of this Fabrick that when at any time and that was not seldom in that generous and benefactory Age any Persons of Honour offer'd to him as to his private refused it with his Non mihi sed Ecclesiae which occasion'd that Motto over his Tomb which self-denyal its possible the good God hath secondarily paid into his own bosom by a blessing on his Posterity who some of them especially notwithstanding the few mites they had to begin the World have now the value of Talents in their Possession but this I take notice of only for the Readers satisfaction not for other Ministers Imitation In the South-east Isle is a pretty somewhat stately and doubt less conceited Monument all of Free-stone having Originally no Inscription as to time person or quality therefore vulgarly called the Speechless Monument but now not so for although the Tenant was possibly not willing to have any yet the will of the Dead as to that particular is sufficiently broken for on the ground are many Stones curiously and artificially Joyned together these make the resemblance of a copped Chest and is in length bredth and height sufficient to receive an Ordinary Corps but it seems it was not the receptacle if you believe the Scribled Inscription Fancy may think one hid within this Tomb But reason sayes his grave was Mothers Womb. Another Nameless not Fameless here one lyes Believe not me believe thine Eyes That was answered thus Nameless then Fameless for how can Fame Attend that man that wants a known-by Name Anonymus here might very well share Fame With Alexander bating but his Name Harry Spicer like to Caesar and 't had nt spread But Caesar's living and Harry Spicer's dead Then Name makes fame and nothing else for Fame 'S no more in sense then a Recorded Name But to prevent all future defacings by such scribling and scratching one it seems had been so far acquainted with the name and quality
of the there interred that for these many years he hath silenc'd such Enormities by this Divulgation to the World If any man my Name and Life enquire Lichfield my Name my Life was Musicks hire Near over against this Monument is a neat little Chappel under an Arch between the Isle and the Chancel where formerly sate persons of the greater quality some of which I suppose though much of it is not so for curiosity in Stonework is hardly to be match'd in England 〈…〉 the last Prior here and left his Fancy here in this Chappel in the Abby-House and in many other places in the City being a Bird in a W. If any man my Name and Life enquire Lichfield my Name my Life was Musicks hire But since I am on Fancies I must not leave this Church without a Recital of some others in the Windows numbred in all to 52. most given by Strangers Benefactors of which and all other charitable Donations there is a Vellum-Record on purpose kept in the Library The great Window in the Chancel where there is a greater in all dimensions I am yet to seek was totally the Gift of that worthy forenamed Gentleman Mr. Thomas Bellot fancying his name being party-colour'd quarrels of Glass laid Bellot-wise one over and cross the other There are three others though of smaller value one given by Mr. Malet of Enmore with his Coat of Arms and Motto Malet Meliora Another by Mr. Biss of Spargrove with his Coat and Motto Bis fee lt sis foelix Bis the third a Citizen of London who although peradventure he was not so accoutred from his Ancestors yet his generous liberality was equal in the Charge to the others unless the Coat made a difference for a Window he gave of the same magnitude with his fancy of William Plumby Here I was This I did I must not omit speaking somewhat of the Revenue of this Church which indeed is but small and that which is and hath been the Gifts of Protestant Benefactors among whom Dame Elizabeth Booth the Ancestors of that Noble and fully accomplish'd Gentleman the Lord de la Mere exceeded all the Sons and Daughters of our Israel by whose pious bounty with some additions the City made there is purchased in Land to the yearly value of near 20 l. per annum this seems but a small maintenance for so great a Building yet with this and with what else doth arise by breaking ground for Burial places and for Monuments it is as well kept in Repair as any Church I know of But before I leave this Church I shall leave with you these few observations First that not any one that I know of not of the Religion professed and establish'd gave one peny towards its Reparation Next for the honour of our Fathers they were the Repairers and that in the last place We their Survivours may not be branded of having so much Faith that we have lost all Good Works continue the Reparation and that not Niggardly neither of which those famous Battlements and Pinacles almost round gives sufficient and pregnant Evidence And now having done your Devotions it is time I lead you to the Kings Bath where as soon as you come down the great Stairs you may behold the Stone-pavement and Battlements quite round it the bounty of Sir Francis Stonor of Stonor and for that I have had some Reflections on Protestant Benefactors on the Church to give each Perswasion its due this Gentleman was a Romanist may not this therefore argue for them that although they may be no Friends to the Church yet they may be to the State And now behold one of the greatest Miracles in Nature The Universe by Travellers general report not affording the like whose Waters granted by all hands to be as old as the Creation keeping constantly one quantity and quality in the greatest Drought not one drop less in appearance nor in the greatest Flouds or Innundation any the More experimentally made true by this unquestionable Evidence the Waters filling it up to the usual height which when the Sluces are carefully and exactly stopped whether Summer or Winter Drought or Floud makes not one Minutes difference so that Dame Luna that Puling Piss-Kitchin Planet with her Ebbings and Flowings her Nepes and Spring-tides hath no influence at all here and no more then Reason for these Waters all along have been and are Aquae Solis so Sol is solely predominant here and Lord Paramount whereby we are assured they partake of no other accidental Increase by any Spring or soaking to contaminate defile or dis-vertue it which the cold Waters of Tunbridge Epsom Barnet c. cannot appropriate to themselves if general report be true they increasing and decreasing according to Accident and Season but of this no more till I come to hint and but to hint of them in another place Now the quantity of these Waters arising in the Kings Bath there are none in the Queens although they are contiguous may as is supposed very well drive an Over-shot Mill and the quality is as constant as the quantity the Springs at their Ebullitions as hot in December as in June and therefore may with some more care for prevention of taking Cold be with much efficacy used in all Seasons of the year which is very fit should be taken notice of to remove a Vulgar Error That these Waters are never useful nor seasonable but in the Summer Among the many Springs in the Kings Bath there is a principal one called the Hot-Spring which is received by its self without Communication into a lead Cistern and that so close that it is impossible any Drop of the other Waters can intermingle over this Spring and Cistern is by the Order and Direction of an Honorable and Famous Physitian a pump erecting so that the Waters from its single Effluence shall by three several Conveyances be distributed abroad in wonderful quantities insomuch that although the three pumps should be in perpetual agitation yet this noble and exuberant Spring will remain inexhaustible the Vertues whereof Fame warranted by Experience hath justly Trumpetted forth to the world insomuch that they are not only made use of in the Bath the several places of the City and Neighborhood but also in Bottles and Runlets at Bristol Glocester Worcester nay London it self Among many its vertues I shall give you an accompt of but a few Take your proportion in the Morn whether two three or more quarts as may be prescribed you for four five or six hours after you have drank them you have no Thirst whereas formerly when they were not taken inwardly the Bathers were so greatly afflicted with it that many times weak heads have been near an intoxication in only endeavouring by taking in other potable Liquor moderately to quench it and all the times these Soveraign Waters are in your body although they may give you several Stools yet it is without any rumbling in your body or Laceration of