"Some of them are very scarce and rare. Therefore, such as have them not, have here their whole substance, and need not trouble themselves for the treatises." Unfortunately, they did not have their "whole substance," and hence these errors.
"Spadacrene Anglica" deals mainly with the Tuewhit Well or the English Spa. It is not my intention to discuss here either the history of its distinguished author or the early history of the English Spa. This task has been kindly undertaken for me by my friend and colleague, Dr. Alexander Butler, to whom I take this opportunity to express my grateful thanks for his very suggestive contribution.
Suffice it for the purpose of this short introduction to state that the medicinal qualities of the Tuewhit Well were discovered about fifty-five years prior to the publication of "Spadacrene Anglica," the credit of the discovery being due to a certain Mr. William Slingsby, not to his nephew, Sir William Slingsby as has been persistently but erroneously stated. The Tuewhit Well was first designated "The English Spa" in or about the year 1596 by Timothy Bright, M.D., sometime rector of both Methley and Barwick in Elmet, near Leeds, which goes far to support the well established belief that the waters of the Tuewhit Well were the first to be used internally for medicinal purposes in England. To-day the word Spa is, of course, a general term for a health resort possessing mineral waters, but in the days of Dr. Timothy Bright no such meaning attached to it; Spa was the celebrated German health resort, and one can readily conceive with what patriotic enthusiasm Dr. Timothy Bright would proclaim the Tuewhit Well as "The English Spa" when the medicinal properties of this Well were found to resemble those of the two famous medicinal springs of Sauveniere and Pouhon at Spa.
"Spadacrene Anglica" (as already mentioned) was published in 1626. Later in the same year appeared another work on Harrogate, entitled "News out of Yorkshire," by Michael Stanhope, Esq. Further, the time of Mr. William Slingsby's birth has been traced back to between the years 1525 and 1527. The year 1926 is therefore the tercentenary of the publication of Deane's "Spadacrene Anglica," and Stanhope's "News out of Yorkshire," and may also be regarded as the quatercentenary of the birth of Mr. William Slingsby. What a triple event for commemoration!
In this edition of "Spadacrene Anglica" the original title-page and initial letters have been artistically reproduced by the publishers; the text has not been modernized except in the case of the old vowel forms I and U for the consonants J and V. Otherwise, the original spelling and the use of capitals and italics have been retained. The long S has not been retained. With these slight changes one cannot but admire the forceful English in which it is written, and the clearness of the style of the author.
I am indebted to my daughter Dorothy for the sketch of the Tuewhit Well.
JAMES RUTHERFORD.
Saint Mungo,
12, York Road,
Harrogate, 1921.
Biographical Notes
OF
Edmund Deane, M.D.
and others in relation to the Tuewhit Well, The English Spa.
BY ALEX. BUTLER, M.B.