The main feature of the place, however, is its recently re-established Brine Baths. The efficacy of the saline springs was first brought into notice of late years during the sad visitation of cholera to the town in 1831. In that year, when numbers of the inhabitants were being carried off by the pest, some parties, in their agonies of distress and their desire to find means of saving the lives of those near and dear to them, dipped the sufferers into the warm brine in the evaporating vats of the salt-works, and this was found to produce such marvellous results that it was generally adopted; indeed, it is affirmed that all who were so treated, even those in a state of collapse, recovered from the attack. The fame of these cures spread far and wide, and numbers being brought there for that and other complaints, it was determined to form a bath. This was done, and the efficacy of the brine firmly established. Later on a company was formed; but although baths were erected, and patients were not wanting to visit them, the whole matter fell into a state of unfortunate inanition, despite the attention which had been directed to the place by Dr. Hastings and other men of eminence. In 1871 Mr. Bainbrigge, F.R.C.S., a medical man of enlarged experience and skill, visited the baths for the purpose of examining, and analyzing, and reporting upon their properties and efficacy. The result was, that a joint-stock company for the erection of new baths, the opening up of the curative properties of the waters, and the development of Droitwich into an inland sea-bathing place, was formed, and baths were erected. These baths were opened in 1873, and since then the whole affair has passed into the hands of a few private individuals. The old George Hotel, with its pleasant garden (closely adjoining the bath), has been converted into a private boarding-house, and about eight acres of pleasure-grounds and gardens, with here and there a pleasant residence attached, have been added and laid out with taste.
The visitor will find many objects of interest in Droitwich; and many places of note—Whitely Court, the truly “Stately Home” of the Earl of Dudley, being one of them—are within easy drive of the place.
MELBOURNE HALL.
MELBOURNE HALL is interesting from the curious and unique character of its gardens rather than from the elegance or beauty of the house; but it possesses in its historical associations, and its connection with famous families, a larger share of importance than falls to the lot of many more pretentious places. It is to the history of the “Home,” and its charming and curious grounds, as well as to the history of the noble families to which it has belonged, that we purpose to direct attention.
Melbourne itself—from which is derived the title of Viscount Melbourne, as well as the name of the thriving city of Melbourne, in our far-distant dominion of Australia—is a small manufacturing and market town in Derbyshire, being situated on the borders of Leicestershire, and lying in the charming valley of the Trent. It is only eight miles from Derby, from which place it is conveniently reached by a branch railway; it is, therefore, now, since the opening of this line, of easy access from that great centre of railway traffic. The town contains some goodly manufactories of silk and Lisle-thread gloves, figured lace, &c., for which it is much noted; and it is also well known for its productive gardens and nurseries. It is but seven miles from famous Ashby-de-la-Zouch, the scene of Sir Walter Scott’s undying “Ivanhoe,” and where the splendid ruins of the grand old castle of the Zouches still stand in all their beauty, and are among the most majestic and picturesque in the kingdom, Kenilworth scarcely excepted. Melbourne is also within some few miles of Calke Abbey, the elegant seat of Sir John Harpur Crewe, Bart.; and not much farther from Donington Park, the seat of the late Marquis of Hastings and the present Earl of Loudoun; Staunton Harold, the charming residence of Earl Ferrers; and Elvaston Castle, the ancient seat of the Earl of Harrington, whose gardens are much of the same character as those we are about to describe. Indeed, the whole district, turn in whatever direction one may, is full of interest and beauty.
At Melbourne, as stated in Domesday Book, King Edward VI. held “six carucates of land for geld. Land for six ploughs. The King has one plough there, and twenty villanes, and six bordars, having five ploughs. A priest and a church there, and one mill of three shillings, and twenty-four acres of meadow. Wood, pasturable, one mile in length and half a mile in breadth. In the time of King Edward it was worth ten pounds; now six pounds; yet it renders ten.” It was from very early times a royal manor, and was granted by King John to Hugh de Beauchamp, whose eldest son gave it in marriage with his daughter to William Fitz-Geoffrey, but within a short period it again reverted to the Crown. By Henry III. it was, in 1229, granted to Philip de Marc, from whom it again passed into the sovereign’s hands. The manor and castle were afterwards held by Edmund, Earl of Lancaster, brother to Edward I., and passed to his son Thomas, by whom they were conveyed to King Edward II., who granted them to Robert de Holland. This person was summoned to Parliament as a baron, but having joined in the insurrection, he surrendered himself at Derby, and was ultimately beheaded for high treason, and his estates were confiscated. They were then held by Henry, Earl of Lancaster, who had a grant of a market, &c.; and they continued attached to the earldom and duchy of Lancaster until 1604, when they were given by King James to the Earl of Nottingham, who soon afterwards conveyed them to the Earl of Huntingdon, from whom they passed to the Marquis of Hastings.