242 MINERAL WATERS AND MEDICINAL SPRINGS OF ESSEX.
whose life was probably prolonged to this advanced period by
the beneficial influences before enumerated." Benton adds that,
"at one time, vans ran to London with fresh supplies of the
water." He tells, too, an amusing story in connection with the
spa :—
" A gentleman of considerable standing in Dengie Hundred, having for some-
time been in declining health and entertaining a high opinion of the healing
properties of this spring, with a view of getting the water fresh, used to send his
servant at regular intervals for this beverage, and after several months' supposed
trial considered himself essentially better and recruited in all respects ; when the
discovery was made that John, not having the same faith as to its properties as
his master or disliking an irksome journey, used to fill his bottle at a neater
pump, in the meantime regaling himself with XX at the Hawk, at Battles
Bridge, until the time his master anticipated his return with the life-giving
elixir."
" To attend upon the visitors and sell the waters [says Mr.
H. W. Bristow, F.G.S.,1'1'] a woman was employed to dispense
them, whose strong healthy appearance visitors were led to
believe was the result of the medicinal effects of the water."
The result of all this enterprise was most discouraging ; for
the public withheld its patronage and refused to be cured.
Dr. Laver, in sending us his recollection of the matter, writes:—
"A great stir was raised, and every effort was made to
get drinkers there, but without much effect. There certainly
were a few visitors, but there was nothing for them to see or do,
and they used to wander about looking most miserable."
The undertaking proved, therefore, wholly unremunerative
and quickly collapsed. Benton, writing about 1871, stated140 that
the whole place had then "a most dilapidated appearance; the
hotel has been let at £10 per annum as a beer-shop ; and the
unfortunate Spa-Room is used as a Baptist Chapel."
Some ten years later (say, about 1880), as I am informed by
Mr. George Clements, of Hockley, a Mr. Leveaux, a French
gentlemen living in London, contemplated re-establishing the
spa and spent some £20 in cleaning out the old well and
obtaining an analysis of the water ; but his efforts came to
nothing.
Again, about a dozen years later (say, about 1893), another
effort was made (so Mr. Clements tells me) to develop the spa
139 In Geol. of London and Part of the Thames Valley, by W. Whitaker, F.R.S., i., p. 261.
(Geol. Survey Memoir, 1889).
140 Op. cit., p. 297.