waters," though she does not say at what place. It would be either at
Barnet, Epsom, or Tunbridge, all of which places are mentioned by
contemporary letter-writers as health resorts. At Barnet there was a
calcareous spring with a small portion of sea salt in it, which, as we
may gather from a later letter, had been but recently discovered. This
spring was afterwards, in the year 1677, endowed by one John Owen, who
left the sum of £1 to keep the well in repair "as long as it should be
of service to the parish." Towards the end of last century, Lyson
mentions that the well was in decay and little used. One wonders what
has become of John Owen's legacy. The Epsom spring had been discovered
earlier in the century. It was the first of its kind found in England.
The town was already a place of fashionable resort on account of its
mineral waters; they are mentioned as of European celebrity; and as
early as 1609 a ball-room was erected, avenues were planted, and neither
Bath nor Tunbridge could rival Epsom in the splendour of their
appointments. Towards the beginning of the last century, however, the
waters gradually lost their reputation. Tunbridge Wells, the last of the
three watering-places that Dorothy may have visited, is still
flourishing and fashionable. Its springs are said to have been
discovered by Lord North in 1606; and the fortunes of the place were
firmly established by a visit paid to the springs by Queen Henrietta
Maria, acting under medical advice, in 1630, shortly after the birth of
Prince Charles. At this date there was no adequate accommodation for the
royal party, and Her Majesty had to live in tents on the banks of the
spring. An interesting account of the early legends and gradual growth
of Tunbridge Wells is to be found in a guide-book of 1768, edited by
one Mr. J. Sprange.

The elderly man who proposed to Dorothy was Sir Justinian Isham, Bart.,
of Lamport in Northamptonshire. He himself was about forty-two years of