lime-stone rock. These latter masses, obtained from quarries in the immediate vicinity, have often in them round or oval nodules of iron-stone, of considerable size. Not many hundred feet westward of the "Monk's Well," apparently derived from the same ridge, is another very abundant stream, which pours down the side of this hill, crosses the road, and proceeds on to the river. At all times the water of this spring has 40° F., only of temperature, and has been used for many years for a cold-bath, in a house erected for the purpose on the upland. It is limpid, colourless, and wholly free from any vestige of steel. If a bottle-full of the Monkswell water be kept carefully corked and sealed for four or five days, and then tested, not the slightest indication of iron in it can be traced, nor is there any notable precipitate at the bottom of the bottle.* Yet, tested at the spring-head, with either gall or prussiate of potash, it is found at every trial to indicate, immediately, as well as abundantly, the presence of that metal. There are also indications of carbonate of lime, in the water, and magnesia, but none of the muriates or sulphates. On evaporation, a pint of it was found to contain 8 grains of solid ingredients, 14 of which is an oxyde of iron; the remainder is a combination of calcareous magnesia; ingredients which render the water extremely useful in all cases of dyspepsia attended by acidity, in green sickness, female debility or obstruction, cachexy, and all those cases of glandular relaxation, torpor and flabbiness of muscles, which are likely to be benefited by preparations of iron. The water, as may be inferred from the above experiment, will not keep, or if at all, certainly not beyond one day, however carefully bottled. It must therefore be drank at the spring-head; and administered in that way, it will be found extremely useful. Having ascertained its composition and See Introduction, page xxxiii., vol. I., for the reason of this pheno menon. nature, I was not long in prescribing it, during my short sojourn in Lincolnshire, to persons in the town, particularly to two or three cases of young females, in all which instances the effects were highly satisfactory. I afterwards conversed with a gentleman who had drank for some days of this spring, a patient of Mr. Hewson, the able surgeon of Lincoln, who was kind enough to lend me his aid and his laboratory for investigating both this water and that of Woodhall Spa, to be presently noticed. In his case, one of general acidity of the stomach, the benefit had been very manifest. I engaged Mr. Hewson to use more generally this natural and valuable preparation of iron, either as mineral water only, by sending the patient from Lincoln to drink it at the spring, or by using the dry sediment in doses of ten grains to a pint of common water, or what would be still better, of soda-water. The people of Lincoln have here within their reach a useful water, if they will but know how to use it; and if Mr. Mainwaring will add to his previous liberality a little speculation, by erecting a small resting or pump room near to the spring, with a dry walk leading to it; and still better, if he should erect at the same time in one of the lower fields a swimming-bath, for which the supply of water is most amply sufficient, open to the air, and with an adjoining room for the convenience of dressing; a dip or two in it during the summer, rapidly executed, would prove a wonderful auxiliary in the restoration of strength, with those who have been long labouring under general or partial debility, unattended with fullness. of blood, palpitation at the heart, or frequent head-ache. I most gladly avail myself of the present opportunity of awaking the attention of those who are within reach of this chalybeate spring, to its sensible and beneficial properties, which I can conscientiously recommend as being equally important as those of Tunbridge Wells water, and in some respects preferable, being more generally applicable to various con stitutions. But I again repeat, the water must be drank on the spot, for it will not bear carriage. The reputation of the neighbourhood of Lincoln, however, as a mineral-watering place, will not rest hereafter on the fame of the "Monkswell" spring alone, now first divulged to the present generation; but upon a much more important discovery, made within the last twenty years, though rendered available only, since 1837-8, of a mineral water, remarkable for the potent ingredient it has been found to hold in solution to a larger amount than has hitherto been found in any other mineral spring in this country. 104 CHAPTER V. THE WOODHALL, OR IODINE SPA. HISTORY of its Discovery-Look for Coals, and find Mineral WaterEstablishment of the Spa-Its Locality-Buildings erected, and Buildings required-THE WELL-Pumping Objectionable-Iodine Suspected and Detected by the Author, and MR. HEWSON-Presence Proved by WEST's Analysis-Larger Quantity of it present than in other Waters in England-PHYSICAL and CHEMICAL Character of the Woodhall Spa Water-Its Taste and Medical Virtues-Diseases cured by it-Influx of Visiters - HOTEL BATH-ROOMS - Accommodations and Charges-Improvements Necessary-Addition Suggested - LINCOLNSHIRE SALUBRITY - The Fenny District and its Drainage New System effectual Agricultural Advantage GIGANTIC PROJECT-Recovery of vast Tracts of Land-Prolific Influence of Lincoln Climate-Dame Honeywood. - FROM One of the resident physicians at Horncastle, in the immediate vicinity of the mineral spring alluded to at the conclusion of the preceding chapter, I obtained the following succinct particulars respecting the history of its discovery. "In the year 1819, some speculators, under the idea of finding coal at Kirkstead, near Horncastle, caused a shaft to be sunk at that place, 100 yards deep; they then bored 100 yards deeper, when the works were discontinued, as it was stated, for want of money. Immediately on the discontinuance of this attempt, a gentleman, owning an estate in the parish of Woodhall, about a mile distant from Kirkstead, was induced, without previously boring, to sink a shaft thereon, of 280 yards in depth. 66 Boring was then had recourse to, which was carried 120 yards deeper, when this scheme, like all the preceding ones, was abandoned as hopeless. In this trial no regular account was kept of the strata passed through, but from the information and specimens received, it appears that the sinking was commenced in the clunch clay, which was found to be 120 yards in thickness; they then passed in succession through forest marble, cornbrash, oolite, Bath freestone, lias, clunch clay again; then a rock, composed of carbonate of lime, siliceous sand, alumine, a greenish substance resembling chlorite, and a portion of mica, in which many terebratulæ were embedded. In this rock the sinking was discontinued. Of the boring no other account has been obtained, than that they left off in a stone of a light colour. A brine spring was found at about 179 yards deep, which was the only water met with. "Several years then elapsed, the shaft was covered over, and nothing more thought of it, until at length the property coming into the possession of T. Hotchkin, Esq., his attention was drawn to the water, in consequence of several persons collecting what escaped from the shaft into a neighbouring drain, and reporting favourably of its curative properties. He erected a small bath for private use; numbers flocked to it, and surprising cures were performed; from which he was induced to provide accommodation for the public." Thus far my medical informant. About a twelve-month after the completion of the accommodations here alluded to, of which I shall say all that is needful presently, a meeting of the medical gentlemen, and of many of the gentry in the neighbourhood, took place at the New Hotel at Woodhall, for the purpose of celebrating the anniversary of the opening of the Spa, which seems to have fully established its claims and identity as such on that occasion. At that time, however, no one was in possession of an accurate analysis of the water; and its virtues were only conjectured |