Dr. Bright was a prolific writer and the names of his works are given in a footnote.[16] Some of his books passed through several editions. Burton's "Anatomy of Melancholy" is said to have been suggested by his "Treatise of Melancholy," and Shakespere was evidently acquainted with his book, "Characterie, an Arte of shorte, swifte and secrete Writing by Character."
"This is not my writing,
Though, I confess, much like the character"
Twelfth Night. Act V, Sc. 1.
"All my engagements I will construe to thee,
All the characterie of my sad brows."
Julius Cæsar. Act ii, Sc. 1.
Hargrove appears also to be the earliest to assert that Bright was the first writer on Harrogate. In his "History of Knaresborough" it is merely stated "soon after its discovery Dr. Bright wrote on its virtues and uses."[17] There is no authority for that assertion in any of the works of Dr. Bright mentioned in the footnote, and the only evidence in support of Hargrove is that given by Wheater,[18] who writes:—
"Dr. Bright was first to rush into description and he acquits
himself with true Elizabethan flavour. He observes regarding the
water that 'It occasions the retention of nothing that should be
evacuated and by relaxation evacuates nothing that should be
retained. It dries nothing but what's too moist and flaccid, and
heats nothing but what's too cold, and e contra: that though no
doubt there are some accidents and objections to the contrary, it
makes the lean fat, the fat lean, cures the cholic and the
melancholy, and the vapours: and that it cures all aches speedily
and cheereth the heart.' Such a recommendation," &c.
This quotation, which is apparently the only evidence in support of Hargrove's assertion that Bright wrote the first account of the English Spa, is not taken from Bright's writings at all, but from Dr. Short's summary of "The Yorkshire Spaw." "The Yorkshire Spaw" was a treatise written by Dr. John French in 1652, and so far therefore from being written by Dr. Bright, was actually written thirty-seven years after Bright's death.
It is perhaps only fair to the memory of both Hargrove and Wheater to state that neither of them would have fallen into this error if they had had the privilege of reading Deane's dedication to "Spadacrene Anglica," in which he states that Dr. Bright intended to write an account "in case hee had longer lived." No edition after the original edition contains this dedication, for, as will be shown later, this very important part of Deane's work was omitted by John Taylor in the second edition and was not restored in any of the later. Moreover it is quite clear from the dedication of Taylor's edition, in 1649 that copies of the original edition were even then unobtainable, owing probably to the commotions which had accompanied the civil war.
I may here therefore emphasise the good service that has been done to restore the true history of the medicinal waters of Harrogate, by the reprinting of the original edition of "Spadacrene Anglica" by my friend Dr. Rutherford.