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pidly filling; indeed, the last fortnight has poured in upon us such crowds of company, that we are actually fearful of an inundation. The principal inns and best lodgings are already full, while many poor quiet souls, who really prefer the calm comfort of obscurity to the gay flutter of fashion, have positively retired to the neighbouring villages, where lodgings are not yet become scarce. Upwards of twelve hundred names already appear on the subscription-books; and to these nunerous additions are daily making. A few seasons ago, when one well alone furnished our delicious morning-beverage, it was constantly drank dry by eight o'clock. Now, thank Heaven, we are am. ply supplied-nay spas are become so numerous, that I think half the population of the kingdom might be supplied with this sovereign panacea.

house. Through Church Meadow, a raised path is continued to the brook: A new crescent, situated immediately to the right of this path, is in a state of con siderable forwardness,' and is intended to be embellished with a terrace in front, which will command a pleasant, though confined, prospect. A shallow stream, which has been dignified with the appellation of the "River Chelt," separates this meadow from the well-walk, the access to which is over a small draw-bridge, on whose construction no praise can be bestowed.

The scène here is highly interesting, and in no small degree beautiful. A fine avenue ef elms leads directly to the pump, above which another of limes extends to the second or "Orchard Well." Here a serpentine walk, surrounding a small lawn, shaded with firs and young elms, gives a charming finish to the whole. The pump rises in the form of an obelisk, under an arched dome, near the centre of the walks; from whence a romantic cottage at the upper extremity, terminates the view with a most happy effect; while the church spire, rising in the centre of the opposite ave

At every turn greet some old acquaintance, or see some distinguished personage; and our tea-tables teem with Jnteresting anecdotes of illustrious visitors. In London, a similarity of man-" rers usually conceals those little traits of character, that are so peculiarly interesting to an intelligent observer; but here restraint is thrown off. Confined within-nue, and exhibiting a dial, on which the a limited sphere of society, and a circumscribed round of amusements, the various pursuits of individuals are strictly scruti. nized, and publicity given to trivial occurrences, that in the great metropolis entirely escape observation. But hold; I forget that I have not yet described our grand morning-promenade. Can you believe it? We rise here soon after six o'clock, and immediately sally forth to the well. The walk thither at this early hour is truly delightful. Nature, clad in her gayest robe, gladdens every heart; and pleasure seems to sparkle in every eye.

The common foot-way to the old spa, lies through the church-yard, the different walks of which are shaded by double rows of lime-trees, whose prim-trained heads disgust the eye of taste with their tedious uniformity. At the end of the church-yard, many new-built shops exhibit the promising appearance of a new street, that will, in the course of time, probably extend to the crescent. The ground occupied by these, was lately a gravel walk, which, following a serpentine direction, opened into Church Mead, leaving at a little distance on the right the "Great House," that memorable monument of female caprice. This was built by the late Lady Stapleton, for a family residence; but it is now converted into a spacious and convenient lodging MONTHLY MAG. No, 194.

progress of time may be observed from the walks, is an object inexpressibly pleasing. On one side of the paved court, in which stands the pump, is a long room, that occasionally affords shelter from the passing shower; and this room is usually enlivened by Riviere's splendid and tempting display of jewellery. On the other is Fassana's print and toy-shop; together with an orchestra, where a band of music regularly performs during the time of drinking the water.

These walks are every morning at an early hour filled with company; and I ne ver witnessed a scene more exhilarating and more delightful than that which here uniformly presents itself. On every side interesting groups are to be seen, who, while the balny zephyrs of morning seem to spread over each countenance the glow of animation, blend the enjoyment of social converse with the pleasure of healthful exercise. The young and the old, the vigorous and the infirm, here mingle with unwonted alacrity, and appear to derive equal delight from the varied gaiety with which they are surrounded. Here we meet some of the brightest luminaries in the hemisphere of fashion, and observe many of the most distinguished frequenters of Bund-street and St. James's; for too often are they compelied to resort hither, to repair the devastations of the

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At the top of the lime-walk on the right, a new well (Orchard Well) was last year sunk, which now affords an ample supply of water." Over this a neat pumproom is erected; and as this water possesses a smaller proportion of the chalyheate, and a larger one of the saline properties, than that of the old well; on some Occasions it obtains a preference.

The decorations and general appear. ance of the old spa will not, perhaps, bear the strict scrutiny of correct taste. It would be invidious to compare the elmwalk to the noble avenue in Christ Church Meadow, at Oxford. The dome and pump have certainly a mean appearance. An elegant marble vase and pedestal, placed under a cupola of light architecture, would have been more appropriate, and into this the water might have been thrown without difficulty by a concealed pump. On a gentle eminence at a short dis tance from the original spring, stands a noble mansion, built for the late Lord Fauconberg, called Bay's Hill Lodge. Here their Majesties resided during their visit in the year 1778. On digging a well at that time for domestic purposes, a saline water was discovered, the medicinal qualities of which approached very near to those of the old spa. A pump room was then erected over it, a pleasant terrace laid out in front, and a gravel walk opened to connect the two wells. This, which was called the "King's Well," at first produced an abundant supply of water, which often, in the height of the season, proved a valuable auxiliary to that of the other spa. In the course of time, however, this was much diminished; and since the discovery of superior springs, it has been totally neglected.

Barrett's chalybeate is situated in a field beyond the mill, at the top of the town; and a pleasant walk has been opened to it by the side of the brook. An chreous stream had long been observed

to flow slowly through a swamp covered with brambles and succulent plants. This led to a minute examination of the, place in 1803, when a copious supply of fine chalybeate water was discovered. A handsome pump room is now placed over it, and it has since been considerably frequented. The contiguity, however, of the Cambray spas to the town, will probably always secure to them the majority of visitors.

Cambray Cottage Spa," is the property of Colonel Riddel, who has a charming residence here; and in a handsome garden in the front of this stands the pump. A suitable apartment in the house, has been appropriated for the accommodation of subsbribers, and many names appear on the book. An elegant octagon viranda encloses the other well, which is nearer to Cambray-street. This would be a beautiful object from the High-street, if it had been surrounded by a well-planned shrubbery; but at present These it looks comfortless and bare. wells all produce simple chalybeate was, ters without any admixture of saline ingredients.

Dr. Jameson, an eminent philosophical physician, resident here, has been indefatigable in his exertions to procure sufficient supplies of saline water. He is said to have bored in upwards of forty different places, before he obtained the An abundant object of his pursuit. spring was at length found (Sherborne Well) nearly at the top of the lane adjoining the old well. This, however, possessed a sulphureous flavour, which is offensive to the palate, however salutary it may be to the system, but which flavour is said to have been perceived in the original well when it was first opened. Some accommodations were provided here, and much of this water was daily drunk. It has now fallen into disrepute, either from some change that is supposed to have taken place in the quality of the water, or, what is more likely, from the superior eclat which has attended other wells, that have been subsequently sunk.

The extensive undertakings in which Mr. Thompson has been recently engaged, for the purpose of establishing a new spa, with superior accommodations and embellishments, reflect great credit both on his liberality and his taste. The charming spot selected for this improvement and decoration, is situated behind Cambray-street, where a delightful plot of ground of very considerable dimensions, is rapidly assuming a most varied and beautiful aspect. The different medici nal waters are all to be found here, and

the

the names of "Hygeia House," "Montpelier Wells," and "Montpelier Grounds," have already been imposed upon this inviting assemblage of walks and waters. The direct road hither, is through Cambray-street, beyond which a raised causeway is carried to the brook; and over this a brick bridge is thrown, nearly opposite a structure of singular appearance, known by the name of "Lady Mary Lindsay's Cottage." It here passes some plantations, and a piece of water of fantastic form, belonging to her ladyship, and then, taking a serpentine direction through some delightful clumps of shrubs and saplings, leads at once to Hygeia House.

I shall not perhaps find a more convenient opportunity than the present one, to describe the residence of Lady Mary. It is, upon the whole, an elegant edifice, although disfigured by glaring incongruities. The latticed front and projecting thatched roof, are the only characters of a cottage that it bears, and these are completely outraged by the height of the building; the neat portico filling a large recess in front, and the spacious bows at the back of the house.

Immediately above this "Cottage," Mr. Thompson's improvements commence. Plantations and walks every where surround Hygeia House, which, as the trees in crease in size, will, in the course of time, be completely embowered. This spacious and elegant structure is of white stone, and is designed to be surrounded by stone pillars and a green viranda, which cannot fail to have a most happy effect. Hither, it is said, the proprietor originally intended to have conveyed all the varieties of water in wooden trunks; but that plan, I presume, is abandoned; as other buildings have been erected in different parts of Montpelier grounds, near to the precise spots where the springs are found. The commodious pump room here, however, will afford a weak chaly. beated saline, a weak sulphuretted saline, and a simple chalybeate, but these are not the waters that are most likely to attract the attention of the public. From this spa, a path proceeds winding through shrubbery to Montpelier grounds, which are of many acres extent, and reach quite to the lane behind the old well. Round these is carried a gravel walk, skirted with plantations, that also include a charming ride. On one side a hawthorn hedge, of unusual luxuriance and beauty, between two gravel walks, affords either on the one side or the other, during the whole of the day, an inviting shade, and at the opposite extremity, near to Sher

borne well, a new pump room, and an octagon stone turret, offer an abundant supply of approved water, that has already drawn numerous visitors to the spot. The first of these contains a chalybeated and a strong andweak sulphuretted saline; the second, a chalybeated, a strong cha lybeated, and a weak simple saline. Round Montpelier grounds, scats are placed in appropriate situations to com mand lovely prospects, the town here and there peeping through the trees, distant fields prettily decorated with timber, and sprinkled with cottages; while Cleeve Hill forms a fine back-ground to the pic

ture.

Mr. Thompson's magnificent plans of improvement, include hot and cold baths; and a suitable building has been erected for this purpose, upon ส very extensive scale, near Hygeia House. Here baths of common or of mineral water, shower baths, sudatories, &c. can be procured with the greatest facility.

It has lately become a very general practice, to ridicule the prevailing taste for frequenting watering-places and drinking saline waters. To these gay resorts of fashion and of show, numerous individuals are certainly attracted by the various amusement which they offer to the idle and the dissipated. Salutary relax. ation from the laborious cares of the professional man, and the man of business, must however be allowed to be a sufficient inducement for exchanging oc casionally the hurry, the smoke, and the intemperate habits, of the metropolis and its vicinity, for rustic seclusion and rational enjoyment. Where a periodical influx of visitors is expected, every requisite either for comfort or gratification will of course be prepared; and thither also many will very naturally repair, who altogether disregard the waters that ori ginally gave celebrity to the place. But the avidity with which saline waters are drunk, wherever the bounteous hand of nature has bestowed them, seems to indicate an intuitive conviction of their beneficial effects; and if we refer to the unsophisticated instincts of animals, we shall find that they also take advantage of these indigenous medicinal aids, when ever they are placed within their reach. It is a singular circumstance that in America, at certain seasons of the year, various tribes of animals assemble at the "salines," or "salt licks," which abound in many parts of that vast continent, and after drinking copiously of the nauseous draught, disperse again quietly in the woods. The settlers observing this, were

induced

It

In liver complaints, that arise from a long residence in torrid climes, the superior efficacy of these waters is firmly established; and many whose health has been thus injured, anaually resort to this place, and bear away in their altered looks ample testimony of the benefit they have received.

The baths which I have before noticed, are likely to be of incalculable advantage, to those who are tormented with extraneous affections, for the cure of which, the internal use of these waters has long been efficiently employed. The bathing plan, however, would be greatly improved, if it supplied artificial sea-water and sulphurated baths. The addition of a preper proportion of salt to the mineral water might casily be made; and surely some chemical process might be devised, to approximate the strong sulphurated saline nearer to the nature of Harrogate water.

induced to mix salt with the provender the mind, promote exercise, which is naof their cattle, which produced in those ture's best restorative. thus fed, a manifest superiority. will bardly be necessary, after relating this strong fact, to insist on the inference to be drawn from the concurrence of all nations in the use of salt as a culinary ingredient; from the predilection shown for it by some of the feathered race, or from the salutary properties of the salt marshes, cither in preventing or remedying the diseases of sheep. Can we wonder then that Cheltenham, liberally supplied as it is with saline springs, should be so much frequented? Here the active agency of common salt is heightened by the addition of other saline materials (Epsom and Glauber salts) whose aperient qualities are more decisive, while their debilitating effects are counteracted by carbonic and chalybeate principles, whose renovating influence upon the stomach is universally recognized. Here, according to the nature of his complaint, the invalid may have recourse to the saline chalybeate of the old spa; a sulphuretted saline, approaching to the nature of Harrogate water; a simple saline, &c. &c. at Montpelier Wells; and a simple chalybeate, like that of Tunbridge, at Barrett's, and at Riddel's. These waters will doubtless always retain some degree of credit, although the manner of taking them may perhaps hereafter be somewhat varied. Reason, in many cases, would seem to prescribe an alteration of the evacuating and bracing systems; but as in all these points the sagest doctors disagree, every individual must be left to the direction of his own medical oracle, unless, having attained the age of forty, he has acquired temerity enough to become his own physician.

The waters of Cheltenham are from their nature eminently calculated to relieve those distressing trains of bilious and nervous symptoms that are now become so prevalent. The fashionable modes of "killing time,' ,"ia which so many are engaged, and the sedentary lives that others are compelled by necessity, or induced by choice, to lead, produce debilitating effects that assume a thousand hideous shapes. Relaxation of stomach, and consequent indigestion, is often the origin of those evils; and Cheltenham water, while it removes the crude accumulations that oppress the digestive powers,imparts to them a degree of strength and tone, that is speedily diffused through the whole body; while pleasant walks, charming rides, and innumerable objects, that interest

It would be worthy of the enlarged views of Mr. Thompson, to procure, if possible, the completion of the colonnade, and to open from thence a grand avenue to Montpelier wells.

I fear my prolixify has been tiresome, and therefore hasten to conclude. We have made a party for a rural excursion to-morrow, that will, perhaps, afford mat ter for my next letter. Adieu.

Your's, &c.

To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine,

SIR,

SHOULD be glad if some of your

corespondents would inform me, why Dr. Johnson, in his Lives of the Poets, says, that John Hughes was the son of a citizen of London, and Ann Burgess; William Shenstone, the son of Thomas Shenstone and Anne Pen; and that “Mark Akenside's father, Mark, was a butcher, of the presbyterian sect; his mother's name was Mary Lumsden."

Are we to understand by this, that they were not the offspring of marriage?

It hath often occurred to me, that the poetical merit of Shenstone and Aken, side has been much under-rated by the criticism of Johnson. In your Magazine for May last, appeared some strictures on Shenstone's Pastoral Ballad, with sucering quotation from Polwhele, who must surely have been hard driven to find a rhyme for namby pamby, by instituting the infantile word, lumby.

a

He cannot pretend that it was done in imitation of Shenstone, since such ponsenge

monsense is no where to be found in the
writings of that celebrated bard; it might
be retorted,

O gentle Polwhele! sadly push'd for rhyme;
For thee, the bells must never ring, but chime.
J. Bannantine objects to the word
Jurnished, in

"My banks they are furnished with bees ;",
but, I think, improperly; that word is
used in the same sense by some of our
best poets; for instance;

She hath directed

How I shall take her from her father's
house;

What gold and jewels she is furnished with.
SHAKESPEARE.

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SIR,

S your valuable Magazine has been frequently the vehicle of biogra phical notices of valuable and remarkable persons, I judge that the liberty I taka in sending you some memoirs of the life "Have urnish'd out three diff'rent sects," and opinions of the late Dr. Pikę will not be unacceptable.

Again,

"Ideas, forms, and intellects,

PRIOR.

I once saw an humorous parody on this part of Shenstone's Ballad, and which produced in my mind what such trivial imitations are intended to produce; my admiration of the charming original

remained undiminished: a man is not less a man, because mimicked by a sickly

dwarf.

More charms than my cattle unfold:" this, (with J. B.) I used to think faulty; but am now of a different opinion; for, on the twentieth of last month, (whilst enjoying that delightful view which an octagonal seat at the Leasowes in scribed,

"To all friends round the Wrekin," affords,) I observed on the lawn before me, handsome cows, beautiful calves; and, in the words of Dr. Watts,

"the sweet little lambs, Were shipping about by the sides of their

dams."

These cattle truly "unfolded their charms." Cattle is not confined to cows and oxen, (as this gentleman seems to think,) but extends to all tame animals not strictly domesticated.

In his criticism on the words

"Not a brook that is limpid and clear," (he says,) they imply that some of his brooks were muddy; the fact is, that some of them are so closely shaded with trees, as to be neither limpid nor clear," and yet not muddy.

I can assure him, that at the Leasowes I saw, in great profusion,

"Thickets of roses that blow," and from which

Nightingales may warble their loves."

him, and have often been greatly gratified In early life I was very intimate with in observing his strong inquisitive turn, which was indefatigable in obtaining knowledge, and searching for truth. His complete liberality, and soft urbanity ties, was a conspicuous trait in his cha of manners towards all persons, or parracter, and gained him much attention. He was a sedate, modest, virtuous youth; and in his filial character there are but few like him. In after-life, his extreme fondness for obscure retirement removed him very much from the observation, and kind notice, of many who would have found great pleasure in his friendship.

In those early days, he gave me the me that his ancestors lived first at Marparticulars of his family history; he told borough, and then at Lavington, in Wiltshire; that they were country carpenters for several generations; that they had a small inheritance at Lavington, and lived comfortably. That his great grandfather went up to London in 1667, and was engaged for several years in rebuilding the city after the great fire: that some years afterwards, this great grandfather, when repairing some houses which he had at Portsmouth, died suddenly, being found by some of his workmen dead and stiff, in an attitude of prayer, dow seat. on his knees, and leaning against a win

His son remained at Lavingron, and had a numerous family, one of whom was the late Doctor's father. Dr. Pike's father came to London at about

the age of twenty. He was already married, and he soon engaged in business in the parish of St. Ann, Westminster. His wife died in a short time; and in 1743 The married again to a Miss Baxter, by whom he had several children. The Doctor

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