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the ærial acid, the second or chalybeate principle, is dissolved and suspended in the water; and by the strengthening and enlivening influence of the first and second, the debilitating and rufiling effects of the third, the purgatire salt, are prevented.

The above author strongly recommends the use of the Cheltenham waters in all nervous disorders, cutaneous eruptions, palsy, obstructions in the abdomen, &c.*

The early morn is recommended as the best time for drinke ing this salutary water. It should be drank instantaneously from the pump; and at first from a quarter to half a pint.. The quantity may be increased according to the age and constitution of the patient. The same quantity should be repeated in about a quarter of an hour after the first draught.

Daily exercise, and all those amusements that contribute to divert the mind from solitude or intense application, ought to be pursued. The diet should be plain, and easy of digestion, and not such as will produce acidity or flatulency. Light suppers, or rather none at all, and early hours of going to rest, are circumstances strictly to be attended to by those who wish to be speedily recovered from the indisposition under which they labour. The warm bath once or twice a week is not only grateful and salutary to most constitutions, but essen. tially requisite in many of the disorders for which the Chelten. ham waters are particularly appropriated.

It is to this celebrated spring, the present flourishing condition of the town may be attributed; for as its fame spread, the afflicted from various parts resorted to it, and found, by a perseverance in the use of its waters, not only a temporary relief, but an entire deliverance from their long contracted disorders. Indeed every year produces new and striking proofs of its healing virtues, and that it is not confined to a few partial diseases, but peculiarly adapted to the English constitution in general.

The town, till, within these last twelve years, lay under great inconveniences, on account of its smallness and ill ac

*See Smith's Observations on the Nature, the Use, and Abuse of the Cheltenham Waters. Second edition, 8vo, price Is. 6d.

commodations for the increasing number of visitors that resorted to it. To remedy this, many of the principal inhabitants have built several large and elegant houses, the number of which are continually increasing. High-street in particular, (the principal part of the town) exhibits to the eye a pleasing specimen of modern architecture: as do also the Colonade-buildings, St. George's-place, and several other new streets, now almost finished.

The Upper and Lower Assembly. Rooms are two elegant and spacious buildings, situate in the central part of the town. They are open for balls every Monday and Friday alternately, and for cards on the other evenings of the week, Sunday excepted, when they are open for a promenade. Mr. Miller is both the builder and proprietor of the Upper Rooms, and Mr. Hughes of the Lower; both of which are rented by Mr. Rooke.

The Theatre, which is an entire new building, displays a great degree of neatness and elegance that does credit to the proprietors; some of the best performers in the kingdom are engaged every season.

The Baths for warm and cold bathing, situate at the upper end of the town, are commodiously fitted up by Mr. Free man, who has the management of Mr. Nero's baths, King-street, St. James's-square, London, which are reckoned to be as complete as any in England, and most frequented by people of the highest fashion.

There are no less than three good Libraries in, the town, where most of the daily London papers, periodical publications, &c. are taken in for the use of snbscribers.

There is only one Newspaper published here, the Cheltenham Chronicle, which is printed by Messrs. J. and S. Griffith, and published every Wednesday evening.

The Lodging and Boarding-houses are numerous and convenient; and have well cultivated pleasure-grounds to most of them.

In the centre of the town stands the church of Cheltenham, a handsome old building, in form of a cross, due N. E. and S. W. Its high and elegant octagonal spire adds greatly to

the beauty of prospect from many parts of the surrounding bills, and has a good peal of eight bells. It is in the deanery of Winchcombe, an impropriation which formerly belonged to the Nunnery of Sion, but immediately before the dissolution of monasteries, to the Abbey of Cirencester; and the 7th of James I. 1610, to Sir William Rider; and is now the property of the Earl of Essex, in lease to Mr. Mathews.

There was formerly a chantry in this church, dedicated to the Virgin Mary, which is now fallen to decay.

The church-yard is one of the most beautiful in England, extending from east to west about 300 feet, and rendered particularly agreeable by its walks, being shaded with double rows of lime trees, which surround and cross it. At the S.W. gate a neat gravel walk leads to the church-mead, and through this another to the Chelt, over which a slight drawbridge is thrown to form a passage to the public walks, said to have been planted by Norbornne Berkeley, the late Lord Bottetourt. The original design was to have continued the grand walk to the church, if the proprietor of a small piece of ground facing the araw-Driage could have been prevailed on to part with it. Many indeed think its present state more beautiful than such a length of walk, as it now cannot be seen till at the bridge; the effect it then has is not easily to be imagined by those who have not been on the spot. The church spire rising in the centre of the walk, forms a very pleasing point of view from the well.

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The rectory, though valued at 2001. is supposed to be worth 6001. per annum; yet the stipend to the officiating minister is not more than 401. besides suplice-fees, and is held under the following peculiar tenure: he must be a Fellow of Jesus Col. lege, Oxford, and with two others recommended to the heir of Sir Baptist Hicks, ancestor of the present Earl of Gainsbo rough, who chooses one, and presents him to the bishop.

CHAP XVII.

Of the City of WELLS, Gentlemen's Seats, and Curiosities in the Vicinity of Bath, Piercefield, &c.

ELLS is about twenty miles from Bath; a neat, plea

WEL

sant, rural, and healthy city, which has one of the fin. est cathedrals in England (St. Andrew's), built by Robert de Lewes and Joceline de Welles; and hallowed or dedicated, the 23d of October, 1239. Its outside has a most venerable appearance; and the western front is very magnificent, being an entire pile of statues, much admired for ancient gothic imagery. It has one tower over the cross, and two at the western end; in one of which is a fine peal of eight bells, the tenor of which weighs three tons. This church is in length 380 feet; broad at the cross, 127; breadth of the nave and aisles, 67; height of the nave, 67; height of the great tower, 179; of the western towers, 126 each. The parish church of St. Cuthbert is a handsome, spacious, gothic structure. The Bishop's Palace, walled in and moated round, some ancient arches and gateways, and a new Shire-hall, built of stone, are worthy of attention. The streets are well paved, with flagged footways. Near to this city are Wookey-Hole and Ebbar-Cliffs.

Two miles from Wells, in one of the Mendip-hills, is the famous cavern called Wookey.Hole, one of the greatest natural curiosities in England. In this subterraneous cavern are a number of incrustations, representing different figures, par. ticularly the tomb, as they call it, of the old witch of Wookey, who is said to have resided here.

GLASTONBURY ABBEY, six miles from Wells, formerly the richest and most magnificent in the world. It was liberally endowed by K. Ina, who built the great church, which was laid in ruins at the Reformation. The abbot's kitchen is more entire than any other part. On a lofty conical hill near the town, was a church dedicated to St. Michael; on the tower of which, Richard Whyting, the last abbot, was

hanged by Henry VIII. for contumacious expressions, and reluctance to deliver up his rich benefice to the King's commis. sioners. The church is in ruins; but the tower, still standing, is called Glastonbury Torr, and is one of the principal land. marks of the west.

About eight miles from Wells, on the road to Axbridge, are Cheddar-Cliffs, which for sublime romantic scenery surpass every thing of the kind in England; some of the rocks are upwards of 400 feet perpendicular height.

STANTON-DREW, eight miles from Bath. Here is an antiquity, supposed to be the remains of a druidical temple; much in the same form as that at Stonehenge; forming three circles of large stones, six feet high. The remains of this mo. nument, among the common people, bears the name of a wed. ding, from a tradition, that as a bride was going to be married, she and the rest of the company were changed into pillars of

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HOLT, nine miles from Bath, has been celebrated for more than a century, for an excellent spring of mineral water; possessing admirable virtues in healing scrophulous, scorbutic, inflammatory, and bilious complaints; as well as tumours, and the leprosy, by bathing, and drinking. This is a very pleasant village, and is situated in the neighbourhood of Trowbridge, Bradford, and Melksham.

MIDDLE-HILL SPA WATER, which rises in the village of Box, near Bath, a little out of the London road, was discovered in the year, 1783, at the depth of 80 feet. This water has been found to possess virtues, serviceable in cures wherein purging sulphureous waters are recommended; such as fout eruptions of the skin, worms, acidity of the stomach, with a costive habit; scrophulous inflammations of the eyes, bilious complaints, &c.

FARLEY CASTLE, Somersetshire, six miles from Bath. At what time this castle was erected, or who was its builder, is not certainly known. If one may judge from the extent of its ruins, it seems surprising so little should be said of it in history. The first account of it is no further back than the 16th of Edward the third, at which time Farley appears to have been the property of Lord Berghersh; it was sold by his

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