ST. WINIFRED’S WELL.
One of the most copious springs in Great Britain is the famed St. Winifred’s well, near the town of Holywell, in Flintshire. The well is an oblong square, about twelve feet by seven, and its water, say the people of the district, has never been known to freeze. This latter assertion may be true, as besides containing a fair percentage of mineral matter that lowers its freezing point, the well is inside a beautiful chapel, which was erected over it by Queen Margaret, the mother of Henry VII. The water thrown up is not less than eighty-four hogsheads every minute, and the quantity appears to vary very little either in drouth or after the heaviest rain, showing doubtless that its primitive sources are numerous and widely distributed. Sir Winifred’s has been the object of many pilgrimages.