THE OPENING OF THE SPA
The wonderful letter from Sam Semple was received in April. No one
from the outset questioned his assertions. This seems wonderful--but
they could only be tried by a letter to London or a journey thither.
Now our merchants had correspondents in the city of London, but not in
the fashionable quarters, and nothing is more certain than that the
merchants of this city concerned themselves not at all with the
pursuits of fashion or even with the gatherings of the wits in the
coffee house. As for the journey to London no one will willingly
undertake it unless he is compelled----You may go by way of Ely and
Cambridge--but the road nearly all the way to Cambridge lies through
the soft and treacherous fen when if a traveller escape being bogged,
a hundred to one he will probably acquire an ague which will trouble
him for many days afterwards. Or you may go by way of Swaffham and
East Dereham through Norwich. By this way there are no fens, but the
road to Norwich is practicable only by broad wheeled waggons or on
horseback, and I doubt if the forty miles could be covered in less
than two days. At Norwich, it is true, there is a better road and a
stage coach carries passengers to London in twelve hours.
It is therefore a long and tedious journey from Lynn to London and one
not to be undertaken without strong reasons. Then--even if the society
had entertained suspicions and deputed one or more to make that
journey and to inquire as to the truth of the letter, how and where,
in so vast a city, would one begin the enquiry.
In truth, however, the letter was received without the least
suspicion. Yet it was from beginning to end an artfully concocted
lie--part of a conspiracy; an invention devised by the desire for
revenge; an ingenious device--let us give the devil his due--by one
whose only weapon was his cunning.
Every man of the "Society" went home brimful of the discovery. The
next day the doctor's garden was crowded with people all pressing
together, trampling over his currant and gooseberry bushes, drawing up
the bucket without cessation in order to taste the water which was to
cure all diseases--even like the Pool of Bethesda. Many among them had
used the water all their lives without discovering any peculiarity in
taste--in fact as if it had been ordinary water conferred upon man by
Providence for the brewing of his beer and the making of his punch and
the washing of his linen. Now, however, so great is the power of
faith, they drank it as it came out of the well--a thing abhorrent to
most people who cannot abide plain water. They held it up to the
light, admiring its wonderful clearness: they called attention to the
beads of air rising in the glass, as a plain proof of its
health-giving qualities; they smacked their lips over it, detecting
the presence of unknown ingredients: those who were already rheumatic
resolved to drink it every day at frequent intervals: after a single
draught they felt relief in their joints; they declared that the
rheumatic pains were subsiding rapidly: nay, were already gone, and
they rejoiced in the strength of their faith as if they were driving
an unwelcome guest out through an open door.
The doctor made haste to issue and to print his own examination of the
water. In this document as I have told you, he very remarkably agreed
with the analysis sent down by the egregious Samuel. He appended to
his list of ingredients certain cases which he indicated by initials
in which the water had proved beneficial: most of them at the outset,
were the cases of those who, on the first day, found relief from a
single glass. Many more cases afterwards occurred.
After the town, the country. The report of the valuable discovery
spread rapidly. The farmer folk who brought their produce, pigs,
sheep, poultry and cattle to our markets carried the news home with
them: the whole town--indeed, in a few hours was as they say, all agog
with the discovery and eager, even down to the fo'c'sle seamen to
drink of a well which was by this time reported among the ignorant
class not only to cure but also to prevent diseases. Then gentlemen
began to ride in; on market day there are always gentlemen in the
town; they have an ordinary of their own at the _Crown_; they were at
first incredulous but they would willingly taste of the spring. As
fresh water was comparatively strange to them it is not surprising
that some of them detected an indescribable taste which they were
readily persuaded to believe was proof of a medicinal character. They
were followed by ladies also curious to taste, to prove, and, in many
cases, to be cured.
Meantime everybody, both of the town and of the country, rejoiced at
hearing that it had been decided to take advantage of the discovery in
order to convert Lynn Regis, previously esteemed as on the same level
as Gosport in the south of England or Wapping by the port of London,
into a place of fashionable resort and another Bath or Tunbridge
Wells. It was difficult, however, to believe that the old town with
its narrow and winding streets, its streams, its bridges, its old
decayed courts and ancient pavements could accommodate itself to the
wants and the taste--or even the presence of the polite world.
Then the news spread further afield. The reverend canons in their
secluded close beside their venerable cathedral--whether at
Peterborough, Lincoln, Ely or Norwich, heard the story magnified and
exaggerated, how at Lynn had been found a spring of water that
miraculously healed all wounds, cured all diseases and made the halt
to run and the cripple to stand. Better than all it restored the power
of drinking port wine to the old divines who had been compelled by
their infirmities to give up that generous wine.
In their great colleges, a world too wide for the young men who
entered them as students, the fellows heard the news and talked about
the discovery in the dull combination rooms where the talk was ever
mainly of the rents and the dinners, the last brew at the college
brewery, yesterday's cards, or the approaching vacancy in a college
living. They, too, pricked up their ears at the news because for them
as well as their reverend brethren of the cathedral gout and
rheumatism were deadly enemies. If only Providence would remove from
mankind those two diseases which plague and pester those to whom their
lives would otherwise be full of comfort and happiness, cheered by
wine and punch, stayed and comforted by the good things ready to the
hand of the cook and the housewife.
And from all the towns around--from Boston, Spalding, Wisbeach, Bury,
Wells, there came messengers and letters of inquiry all asking if the
news was true--if people had been already treated and already
cured--if lodgings were to be had and so forth.
And then the preparations began. The committee went from house to
house encouraging and stimulating the people to make ready for such an
incursion as the place had never before known even at fair time, and
promising a golden harvest. Who would not wish to share in such a
harvest?
First, lodgings had to be got ready--they must be clean at least and
furnished with necessaries. People at the spa do not ask for great
things in furniture--they do not desire to sit in their lodgings which
are only for sleeping and dressing--a blind in the window or a curtain
to keep out the sun and prying eyes,--a bed--a chair--a cupboard--a
looking-glass--a table--not even the most fashionable lady asks for
more except that the bed be soft and the wainscot and floor of the
room be clean. The better houses would be kept for the better sort:
the sailors' houses by the Common Stath and the King's Stath would do
for the visitors' servants who could also eat and drink in the taverns
of the riverside. Houses deserted and suffered to fall into decay in
the courts of the town were hastily repaired, the roofs patched up,
the windows replaced, the doors and woodwork painted. Everywhere rooms
were cleaned: beds were put up, all the mattresses, all the pillows,
all the blankets and sheets in the town were brought up and more were
ordered from Boston and other places accessible by river or by sea.
Certainly the town had never before had such a cleaning while the
painters worked all night as well as all day to get through their
orders.
It was next necessary to provide supplies for the multitude, when they
should arrive. I have spoken of the plenty and abundance of everything
in the town of Lynn. The plenty is due to the great fertility of the
reclaimed land which enables the farmers to grow more than they can
sell for want of a market. There is sent abroad, as a rule, to the low
countries, much of the produce of the farms. There was therefore no
difficulty in persuading the farmers to hold their hands for a week or
two, and when the company began to arrive, to send into the town
quantities of provisions of all kinds--pork, bacon, mutton, beef,
poultry, eggs, vegetables and milk. Boats were engaged for the
conveyance of these stores down the river. There would be provided
food in abundance. And as for drink there was no difficulty at all in
a town which imported whole cargoes of wine every year.
I must not forget the preparation made in the churches. There are two
in Lynn, ancient and venerable churches both. I believe that they were
always much larger than was ever wanted considering the number of the
people, but in Norfolk the churches are all too large, being so built
for the greater praise and glory of God. However, both in St.
Margaret's and in St. Nicholas, the congregations had long since
shrunk so that there were wide spaces between the walls and the pews.
These spaces were now filled up with new pews for the accommodation of
the expected invasion of visitors. I confess that I admire the simple
faith in the coming success of the spa which at this time animated not
only those most interested as the doctor himself, but also the people
of the town who knew nothing except what they were told, namely that
the well in the doctor's garden had properties, which were sovereign
against certain diseases, and that all the world had learned this fact
and were coming to be cured.
There were next the public preparations. The necessity of despatch
caused the structures to be of wood which, however, when brightly
painted, may produce a more pleasing effect than brick. First, there
was the pump room. This was built, of course, over the well in the
doctor's garden, which it almost covered: it was a square or oblong
building, having the well in one corner, and containing a simple room
with large sash windows, unfurnished save for a wooden bench running
round the wall and two others in the middle of the room. The water was
pumped up fresh and cool--it was really a very fine well of water
always copious--into a large basin; a long counter ran across the room
in front of the basin: the counter was provided with glasses of
various sizes and behind the counter were two girls hired as dippers.
The doctor's door opened out of the pump room so as to afford
readiness and convenience for consultation.
Lastly it was necessary to provide for the amusement of the visitors.
Everybody knows that for one person who visits a spa for health, there
are two who visit it for the amusements and the pleasures and
entertainments provided at these places. I have mentioned the open
fields within the walls of the town which were anciently covered with
the buildings and the gardens of the monks and friars and the nuns.
They are planted in some places with trees: for instance below the
Lady's Mount, in which is the ancient chapel, there lie fields on
which now stand many noble trees. The committee chose this spot for
the construction of the assembly rooms. They first enclosed a large
portion with a wooden fence: they then laid out the grounds with
paths: this done they erected a long room where the assembly might be
held, with a smooth and level floor fit for dancing. This room was
also to be the resort of the company in the mornings and when the
weather was rainy: adjoining the long room was the card room, with one
long table and several small tables: and the tea room, where that
beverage could be served with drinks and cordials to counteract its
(possibly) evil effects. A gallery at one end was ready for the
music--outside there was another building for the music to play on
fine evenings.
I must not forget the decoration of the trees. Nothing could be more
beautiful than this avenue after nightfall: lamps of various colours
hung on festoons from branch to branch: across the avenue in arches,
and from tree to tree in parallel lines: these in the evening produced
an appearance of light and colour that ravished the eye of every
beholder. Those who knew London declared that in the daytime this
place could compare favourably with the Mall in St. James's Park, and
in the evening after dark even with the Marylebone Gardens or
Vauxhall.
All these preparations were pushed forward with the utmost diligence,
so that everything, might be ready by the first of May, on which day
it was hoped that the season of the spa would commence. Musicians and
singers were engaged: they came from London, bringing good
recommendation from some of the pleasure gardens where they had
performed with credit. They were to play for the dancing on the nights
of the assembly; they were also to play in the morning when engaged or
bespoke by the gentlemen. They brought with them two or three
fiddlers; players on various instruments of brass, and the horns. A
dancing master, Mr. Prappit, came from Norwich: he was busy for three
weeks before the opening, with the young folks of the town, who had
never before danced anything more ambitious than a hey or a jig or a
country dance, or a frolic round the May pole. Mr. Prappit was also
engaged as master of the ceremonies, a post of great responsibility
and distinction.
A theatre is a necessary part of every public place: therefore a troop
of strolling players received permission to perform three evenings in
the week in the large room of the _Duke's Head_ inn: I know not what
reputation they had as actors, but I can bear witness that they made
as much as they could out of a passion, tearing it, so to speak, to
rags, and bawling themselves hoarse, so that at least they earned
their money, which was not much, I fear.
The cock pit was newly repaired for the lovers of that manly and
favourite sport to which the gentlemen of Norfolk are, as is well
known, much addicted. For those who prefer the more quiet games there
was the bowling green. And lastly, for those who incline to the ruder
sports, there were provided masters of fence who could play with
quarter staff or cudgel, jugglers and conjurers, with rope dancers,
tumblers, merry andrews and such folk, together with a tent for their
performance.
These details are perhaps below the dignity of history. I mention them
in order to let it be understood that the invention--the lying
invention of Sam Semple, was bearing the fruit which he most desired
in the deception of the whole town. There was never, I believe, so
great a deception attempted or carried into effect.
Meantime, the work of the town continued as usual. The port had
nothing to do with the spa. For my own part I was discharging cargo
from _The Lady of Lynn_, and making ready to take in a new cargo.
All day I was engaged on board: I slept on board: but in the evening I
went ashore and looked on at the preparations, and at this new world
of fashion and pleasure the like of which I had never seen before.
And, as usual, the ships came into port and dropped anchor off the
Stath: or they cleared out and went down the river with the current
and the tide. There were two kinds of life in the place when there had
never before been more than one: and while the people in one part of
the town had nothing to think of but amusement, those at the other
part were as usual, engaged in their various work. The clerks ran
about with their quills behind their ears; the porters rolled the
casks, the bargemen brought their unwieldy craft alongside with many
loud sounding oaths and the yohoing without which they can do nothing;
and in the taverns the sailors drank and danced and sang, quite
unmindful of the people in the streets behind them.
The first arrivals were the gentlefolk from the country round Lynn.
They learned when everything would be ready and they came in as soon
as the gardens were laid out, the long room finished and the first
evening announced--they had but a few miles to travel; they engaged
the best lodgings and demanded the best provisions. As for wine, they
could not have better because there is no better wine than fills the
cellars of our merchants or our vintners.
As these good people came to the spa it was thought necessary to drink
the waters and this they did with much importance, every morning. The
natives of Norfolk are, I verily believe, the longest lived and the
most healthy people in the whole world. With the exception of
ague--they call it the bailiff of Marshland--the people in this county
seldom suffer from any disorder and live to a good old age. Yet all
with one consent began the day by drinking a glass of the cold bright
water served in the pump room. Very few of them, I say, were troubled
with any kind of complaint: though the gentlemen are hard drinkers,
they are also hard riders and the open air and cold winds of the
morning drive out and dissipate the fumes of the evening and its wine.
For this reason, though many of our sea captains drink hard at sea,
they are never a bit the worse for the fresh salt air is the finest
restorative, and a sailor may be drunk once every twenty-four hours
and yet live to a hundred and be none the worse. Most of those who
drank the waters had never felt any symptoms of gout or rheumatism,
lumbago, sciatica, pleurisy, consumption or asthma, or any other
disease whatever. They flocked to the pump room in order to drive away
even the possibility of these symptoms. To drink the waters for a
month, or even for a fortnight, was considered sovereign for the
keeping off of all kinds of sickness for at least a whole year to
come. It was strange how quite young men and young maidens suddenly
conceived this superstitious belief--I can call it nothing but
superstition--that those who were perfectly well would be maintained
in health--_although_ young people of this age do not commonly
contract the diseases above enumerated--by drinking a glass of water
every morning. That old men, who will catch at anything that offers to
restore health, should resort to this newly discovered universal
medicine was not so strange. Captain Crowle, who, to my certain
knowledge, had never suffered a day's sickness in the seventy years of
his life; who kept his teeth firm and sound; whose hair had not fallen
off; who stood firm on his legs and square in his shoulders; who still
drank free and devoured his rations as eagerly as any able-bodied
sailor, marched every morning to the pump room and took his glass.
"Jack," he said, "the discovery is truly miraculous. By the Lord! it
will make us all live to be a hundred. Already I feel once more like a
man of thirty. I shall shake a leg, yet, at the wedding of Molly's
grandchildren."
They all consulted the doctor--the sick and the well alike--the former
in order to be cured and the latter in order to guard against disease.
Now that one knows the foundation of the whole business it is
wonderful to reflect upon the number of cures the doctor was able to
register in his book: cures about which there could be neither doubt
nor dispute, so that one is fain to think that faith alone may be
sufficient to drive out rheumatism. The prescription of the worthy
doctor rested entirely on the curative power of the water. "You will
take," he said to every one who came to him, "every morning before
breakfast for choice, a glass of the water. Or, if you prefer first to
take a dish of tea, a cup of chocolate, or a draught of beer, do so by
all means. In that case take your glass an hour--not more--after
breakfast. I prescribe in your case, a dose in a glass numbered A or
B--or C"--as the case might be. "It contains seven ounces and six
drachms"--or some other weight as the case might be. He was very exact
in the size of the glass and the weight of the dose. "This is the
exact quantity which operates efficaciously in your case. Do not take
more which will not expedite your cure: nor less which will hinder it.
Seven ounces and six drachms."
The doctor's dignity and gravity indeed were a credit to the town. Out
of London, I believe, there was no physician with such outward tokens
of science. The velvet coat he now wore habitually: a new wig greatly
delayed had been brought from Norwich: his lace and his linen were
clean every morning: his fingers became curly from the continual clasp
of the guinea. No one, I am sure, expected to find so grave and
dignified a physician in a town occupied mainly by rude tarpaulins and
their ladies. Where nothing better than a mere apothecary could be
expected there was found a physician in manner and in appearance equal
to the most fashionable doctor of medicine in London itself.
"Before breakfast, madam," he repeated. "Fasting, if possible. If that
is not convenient, after breakfast. Think not to hasten the operation
of the waters by too generous a use of them. Seven ounces and six
drachms in weight. Let that be your daily allowance: that and no more.
For your diet, let it be ample, generous, and of the best quality that
the market supplies. It is providentially, considering the wants of
the spa--the best market in Norfolk, provided with birds of all kinds,
both wild and of the farmyard: with beef and mutton fattened on the
pastures of Marshland; and with fruit and other things of the very
best. Partake plentifully, madam. Do not deny yourself. Tea, you may
take if you desire it: very good tea can be obtained of the apothecary
at a guinea a pound. For my own part I allow the beverage to be
sometimes useful in clearing the brain of noxious vapours and the body
of corrupt humours. For wine I recommend Port, Malmesey, Madeira or
Lisbon--but not more than one measured pint in the day. You must take
exercise gently by walking in the gardens, or in the long room, or by
dancing in the evening. And you may maintain cheerfulness of mind,
which is beneficial in any case whether of sickness or of health, by
taking a hand in the card room."
To the gentlemen who had not as yet fallen victims to any of the
prevalent diseases he would discourse much after the same fashion.
"Put out your tongue, sir--I believe it to be furred---- So.... Dear
me! Worse than I suspected. And your pulse? I believe it to be strong.
So. As I thought. A little too strong, perhaps even febrile. Your
habits, I suppose, include a hearty appetite and a full allowance of
strong ale and wine. You ride--you hunt--you attend races, cockpit and
sport of all kinds; you are not addicted to reading or to study, and
you sometimes play cards."
"The doctor," said his patients afterwards, "knew exactly and could
tell by my pulse and my tongue my daily way of living. 'Tis
wonderful!"
"It is my duty to warn you, sir, that you have within you the seeds of
gout--of inflammatory gout--which will fix itself first upon the big
toe and thus become like a bag of red hot needles. Afterwards it will
mount higher--but I will spare you the description of your dying
agonies. You may, however, avert this suffering, or postpone it, so
that it will only seize upon you should you live to a hundred and
twenty, or thereabouts. The surest method is by drinking these waters
every year for a week or two. One tumbler every morning fasting. You
will take a measured weight of seven ounces and six drachms--" or as I
said before some other weight. "I prescribe in your case, no other
medicine. Let your diet be generous. Confine yourself to a single
bottle of wine a day. Ride as usual and, in fact, live as you are
accustomed. Nature, sir, abhors a revolution: she expects to perform
her usual work in the usual manner."
If any came to him already afflicted with gout or rheumatism he
prescribed for them in a similarly easy and simple fashion.
"You have been taking colchicum--" or whatever it might have been. "I
recommend you on no account to discontinue a medicine to which you are
accustomed. Gout is an enemy which may be attacked from many points.
While it is resisting so far successfully the attack by the drugs
which have been administered to you, I shall attack it from an
unsuspected quarter. Ha! I shall fall upon the unguarded flank with an
infallible method. You will take, sir, three glasses of water daily;
each before meals. Each glass contains the measured weight of seven
ounces and six drachms," or some other weight was carefully
prescribed. "You will, in other respects, follow the diet recommended
by your former physicians."
"The doctor," said his patients, "is not one who scoffs at his
brethren. On the contrary, he continues their treatment, only adding
the water. And you see what I am now."
"Observe," the doctor continued, "my treatment is simple. It is so
simple that it must command success. I shall expect therefore, to find
in you, for your own share in the cure, that faith which assists
nature. Nothing so disconcerts an enemy as the confidence of victory
on the other side. Before that faith, gout flies, terrified; and
nature, triumphant, resumes that nice balanced equilibrium of all the
functions which the unlearned call health."
The doctor also encouraged his dippers, one of whom was a young woman
of attractive appearance and great freedom of tongue, to relate for
the benefit of those who drank the waters, cases of cure and rapid
recovery. This encouragement caused the girl who had a fine natural
gift of embellishment or development, to sing the praises of the spa
with a most audacious contempt for the structure of fact.
"Lawk, madam!" she would say, using the broad Norfolk accent which I
choose to convert into English, because her discourse would be
unintelligible save to the folk of the county. "To think what this
blessed water can do! That poor gentleman who has just gone out--you
saw yourself that he now walks as upright as a lance and as stiff as a
recruiting sergeant. He first came to the pump room, was it a
fortnight ago or three weeks, Jenny? Twelve days? To be sure. You
ought to know--Jenny dipped for him, madam. He was carried in: his
very crutches were no good to him; and as for his poor feet, they
dangle for all the world like lumps of pork. And his groans,--Lawk!--they
would move a heart of stone. Jenny here, who has a feeling heart,
though but a humble dipper at your service, madam, like myself and
pleased to be of service to so fine a lady, burst into tears when she
saw him--didn't you, Jenny, my dear? Before all the people, she did.
Well, he drank three tumblers every day--each exactly seven ounces
and six drachms in weight--oh! the doctor knows what to do for his
patients--did your ladyship ever see a wiser doctor? On the third day
he left off groaning: on the fourth he said, 'I feel better, give me my
third tumbler.' Didn't he say those very words, Jenny? 'Give me my
third,' he said. On the fifth day he walked in by himself. It was on
crutches, it is true, for even this water takes its time. Lord forbid
that I should tell your ladyship anything but gospel. On the sixth day
he used a walking stick: on the seventh, he said, walking upright, his
stick over his shoulder, 'If it was not Sunday,' he said, 'I should cut
a caper--cut a caper,' he said. Jenny heard him. And now he talks of
going home where a sweet young lady, almost as beautiful as your
ladyship, waits for him with a fortune of twenty thousand pounds. She
couldn't marry a man, could she, madam, with both feet, as a body might
say, in the grave? Nobody except the doctor and us dippers, knows the
secrets of the spa. If we could talk--but there we are bound to
secrecy, because ladies would not let the world know that they have had
ailments--but if we could talk, you would be astonished. Tell her
ladyship, Jenny, about the old gammer of ninety, while I attend to the
company. Yes, sir, coming, sir."
And so she rattled on, talking all day long and never tired of
inventing these stories. The people listened, laughed, affected
disbelief, yet believed. They drank the waters, and put down their
twopences, which went into a box kept for the doctor. What with the
patients' guineas and the daily harvest of this box he, at least, was
in a fair way of proving the truth of his own prophecy that everybody
in Lynn would be enriched by the grand discovery.