My correspondent once more supplies me with what remains to be said in conclusion, of the present account of Dover :"During the winter months the society is good, and much amusement is to be had at balls and parties. Dover, in fact, is a most desirable residence, where, besides recovering your health, you may live independent and retired, or you may mix in all its gaiety if you please; and I feel greatly indebted to you, as others I am sure ought to feel, for having been the first to recommend this now prosperous watering-place to public notice."

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CHAPTER XIV.

SOUTH EN D.

HOCKLEY SPA.

SOUTHEND under Medical Protection-New Attraction-DiscoVERY of a Mineral Spring near it-HOCKLEY Village-How to find it out-Road and Principal Towns-Favourable View of Essex-RALEIGH-Pretty Approach-HOCKLEY SPA LODGE-History of the Discovery-The First Case of Cure-Practical Reputation-Analysis by PHILLIPS-My Visit Examination of the Water-Physical and Chemical Characters -Taste and Effect of the Water-COMPLAINTS in which it will be useful-Quantity to be drank-Excellent in Weakness of BonesSTRIKING RECOVERY-Favourable Position of Hockley-IMPROVEMENTS suggested-How to make it into a Spa-Character of its Climate-Beautiful Scenery Around it-DRIVE to Southend-The KING'S ARMS-First View-OLD SOUTHEND-HOPE Hotel-The Shore, THE JETTY and the Mount-The CLIFF-Terrace-Hanging GardensThe ROYAL HOTEL-Sea Bathing-Expenses of Living-LodgingPreferable Houses.

THE fact that a physician of eminence in London, author of several valuable works, and one of my oldest friends, had, - during two summer seasons lodged his numerous family by the sea-side at Southend, after having in previous years tried the effect of the Isle of Wight, Broadstairs, and Ramsgate, none of which he had found useful to them, led me to pay a visit to that home sea-side place. Its loca

tion in a country having so bad a name with invalids, was not otherwise likely to have tempted me to such a step: the less so as I had made up my mind to terminate my tour of the English Coasts at Dover, leaving the cockneyfied watering-places of the Isle of Thanet to their own well and familiarly known merits and recent improvements.

Southend too presented a farther attraction in the circumstance of a new mineral spring having been very recently discovered within a few miles of that place, at the small village of Hockley, and to which Mr. Richard Phillips, who had analyzed the water, had called my attention. Thither, therefore, I proceeded in the month of January in the present year, considering it my duty to include among the Spas that were to form my second volume, then preparing for press, one newly come into notice, and under such able chemical auspices.

Essex is a county with a bad name; and when I heard of a Spa being about to be established in that part of it which, like a peninsula, lies between the river Crouch and its marshes, to the north, and the Thames and its lowlands to the south, I turned up my nose at the idea. The very name of the village of Hockley, in which the spring was found, was quite new to me, nor could I easily detect its topography on the map. Many of my readers may be in the same predicament, and I shall, therefore, direct them how to find the new Spa out; for that it will be sought, or looked after so soon as the accommodations now preparing or meditated on the spot shall be completed, I have no more doubt than I have of my having been to see and examine it.

The direct road is the high turnpike and mail road to Ipswich, Yarmouth, and Norwich, as far as Shenfield Lodge, a short distance beyond which it turns to the right, reaching by good turnpike roads, in various turnings and twistings, Wickford, and then Raleigh; two miles farther than which, a little to the left, is Hockley.

The principal places I passed through in my little excur sion, escorted by a gentleman well acquainted with the country, were Romford and Brentwood (both of which are now accessible by railway), Billericay, and Raleigh, all nearly of the same size and disposition; though the two last are likely to strike the traveller, even at a distance, from their peculiar situation upon elevated ground, commanding very fine prospects all round. The former of those places was perceived clustered into an almost compact group, upon a rising belt of hills, four or five miles before we reached it; and when once reached, it presented some of the most extensive and striking views, as well as distant peeps of an undulating country, which, in this instance at all events, belied its common reputation of being flat, marshy, and unprofitable. These views are fully enjoyed for the distance of three miles beyond the town, where we took a S.E. direction, and were struck with three or four enchanting coups d'œil of extreme beauty, than which few more popular counties can boast of better. To such as are fond of a diversified champaign country, well wooded, and well cultivated, and presenting an infinite variety of undulations, this excursion of a few miles will prove a source of delight.

At Raleigh the singular and almost startling appearance of green mounds, and an escarpment joining two of these, suggests to the traveller who approaches them from London, on his right hand, as he ascends a very steep hill towards Raleigh, the recollection of some Roman entrenchment, or probably some fortification of a more recent date, which must have very effectually commanded the road, and the access to the town. The line of approach to the borders of Hockley parish from Raleigh is very cheering. Just before reaching the turnpike one of the finest and most extensive valleys which lay at our feet on our left, and exhibited to advantage a vast tract of the fairest part of Essex, seemed to be divided in twain by a tongue of lands a portion of the

very hill on which we were standing, which projected forward, and whose termination was marked by Hockley Church, well grouped in the landscape. But the beautiful effect of this view vanished on entering the little village of Hockley, which consists merely of a few straggling cottages, and the Bull Inn, at the back of which is the famous Bull Wood, and a superb scenery all the way southward down to the

Thames.

Quitting the main road by a bye-lane, not far from the turnpike, we were conducted to the lowest part of the village, where we found three or four cottages, the property of Mr. Fawcett, solicitor; one of which, more showy than the rest, bore the inscription of "Hockley Spa Lodge." In this I took shelter for the night, and there learned from the elderly couple who occupied it, and received us hospitably, the history of the discovery of the well, which was briefly this:

Mr. and Mrs. Clay, for such was the name of my goodnatured and clear-headed host and hostess, had determined upon building for themselves a cottage in this elevated region, after having escaped the relaxing and weakening effects of a long residence in Cheltenham. A well was sunk for water, for the convenience of the cottage, when in throwing out the sod a hard stone was found, about a foot in diameter, which when exposed to the air fell in pieces. It was hollow within, about the size of a two-quart basin, in which was fine clear water. Proceeding further down, a kind of ragstone and gravel appeared, and clear spring-water flowed. Mrs. Clay, who had been asthmatic all her life, and subject to cough, except when she drank Cheltenham water, after drinking of the new well's water for some little time, found that she lost her difficulty of breathing, and her cough became less troublesome. At the end of a twelvemonth, was so much better in both respects, that she was inclined to attribute her recovery to air and situation only. A visit,

she