CHAP. 4.

Of five fountaines neare unto the town, which doe participate of minerall vertues.

Out of the divers Fountaines springing hereabouts, five are worthy the observation of Physitians. The first whereof is very neare unto the river banke, over against the Castle, called by the name of the Dropping-well, for that it droppeth, distilleth, and trickleth downe from the hanging rocke above. The water whereof hath a certaine quality or property to turne any thing, that lieth in it, into a stony substance in a very short space.

Three of the others (being all of them much of one, and the same nature) are termed by the country people thereabouts the Stinking-wels, in regard they have an ill, and fetide smell, consisting most of Sulphure-vive, or quicke brimstone. One of them, and that which hath the greatest current, or streame of water, is in Bilton park.

The other two are in the sayd Forest; one is neare unto the towne; the other is further off, almost two miles from it, beyond a place called Haregate head, in a bottome on the right hand of it, as you goe, and almost in the side of a little brooke.

The fift, and last (for which I have principally undertaken to write this short Discourse) is an acide, or tart fountaine in the said Forest, commonly named by the vulgar sort, Tuewhit-well, and the English Spaw, by those of the better rank, in imitation of those two most famous acide fountaines at the Spaw in Germany, to wit, Sauvenir, and Pouhon: whereof the first (being the prime one) is halfe a league from the Spa, or Spaw village; the other is in the middle of the towne.