substance," and hence these errors.

"Spadacrene Anglica" deals mainly with the Tuewhit Well or the English Spa. It is not my intention to discuss here either the history of its distinguished author or the early history of the English Spa. This task has been kindly undertaken for me by my friend and colleague, Dr. Alexander Butler, to whom I take this opportunity to express my grateful thanks for his very suggestive contribution.

Suffice it for the purpose of this short introduction to state that the medicinal qualities of the Tuewhit Well were discovered about fifty-five years prior to the publication of "Spadacrene Anglica," the credit of the discovery being due to a certain Mr. William Slingsby, not to his nephew, Sir William Slingsby as has been persistently but erroneously stated. The Tuewhit Well was first designated "The English Spa" in or about the year 1596 by Timothy Bright, M.D., sometime rector of both Methley and Barwick in Elmet, near Leeds, which goes far to support the well established belief that the waters of the Tuewhit Well were the first to be used internally for medicinal purposes in England. To-day the word Spa is, of course, a general term for a health resort possessing mineral waters, but in the days of Dr. Timothy Bright no such meaning attached to it; Spa was the celebrated German health resort, and one can readily conceive with what patriotic enthusiasm Dr. Timothy Bright would proclaim the Tuewhit Well as "The English Spa" when the medicinal properties of this Well were found to resemble those of the two famous medicinal springs of Sauveniere and Pouhon at Spa.

"Spadacrene Anglica" (as already mentioned) was published in 1626. Later in the same year appeared another work on Harrogate, entitled "News out of Yorkshire," by Michael Stanhope, Esq. Further, the time of Mr. William Slingsby's birth has been traced back to between the years 1525 and 1527. The year 1926 is therefore the tercentenary of the publication of Deane's "Spadacrene Anglica," and Stanhope's "News out of Yorkshire," and may also be regarded as the quatercentenary of the birth of Mr. William Slingsby. What a triple event for commemoration!

In this edition of "Spadacrene Anglica" the original title-page and initial letters have been artistically reproduced by the publishers; the text has not been modernized except in the case of the old vowel forms I and U for the consonants J and V. Otherwise, the original spelling and the use of capitals and italics have been retained. The long S has not been retained. With these slight changes one cannot but admire the forceful English in which it is written, and the clearness of the style of the author.

I am indebted to my daughter Dorothy for the sketch of the Tuewhit Well.

JAMES RUTHERFORD.

Saint Mungo,
12, York Road,
Harrogate, 1921.

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES

The present reprint of "Spadacrene Anglica" should arouse a keen literary interest in its author, Edmund Deane, and in the early history of Harrogate. As one who had the privilege of reading the original edition of this work, belonging to Dr. Rutherford, I was struck by the marked contrast between Deane's account of the history of the medicinal waters of Harrogate, and that which is to be found in more recent writings on that subject.

These modern accounts cannot be better or more authoritatively exemplified than by taking a short extract from the article "Harrogate" in the "Encyclopædia Britannica."[1]

This paragraph, as a statement of facts, accurately sets out what is to be found in more or less detail in the accessible literature of to-day and will be referred to afterwards as the recognised history of Harrogate. It has received the express or tacit sanction of the Corporation of Harrogate and is embodied in its publications. Further a memorial has been erected to Sir William Slingsby, the Captain William Slingsby of Bilton Hall referred to in the above quotation, as the discoverer of the Tuewhit Well.

Notwithstanding the complete credence that has been given to this account for many years, I think there can be no doubt that it is entirely erroneous, and that unmerited fame has been given to Sir William Slingsby as the discoverer of the medicinal qualities of the Tuewhit Well, and to Dr. Bright as the author who first wrote an account of it.

Deane's history of the medicinal springs of Harrogate in the Elizabethan period is to be found in the earlier chapters of his book. It is therefore only necessary to mention here that, according to "Spadacrene Anglica" the Tuewhit Well was not discovered by Captain (or Sir) William Slingsby, it was not discovered near the close of the 16th Century, and Dr. Bright did not write an account of it. It is hardly credible that the history as given in the extract from the "Encyclopædia Britannica" is actually derived from "Spadacrene Anglica." Yet such is the case. Owing to the great rarity of the first edition of that book, and the fact that the later editions were all, more or less, abridged or incomplete, a series of plausible conjectures by later writers founded on these imperfect editions has evolved a history of Harrogate in this period which is, as regards the main facts, largely fictitious. The object of the following biographical notes is, briefly, to restate the history of Harrogate during the Elizabethan period, in terms of the only reliable source for such a purpose, and to trace the accumulated errors, as far as possible, to their origin and source, an inquiry which the reprint of "Spadacrene Anglica" at the present time makes not inopportune.

No history of Harrogate should be written, unless preceded by a biographical note of the author of "Spadacrene Anglica," to whom and to whose work Harrogate doubtless owes its position as the premier Spa of this country; and it is with no little sense of the fickleness of fame that one finds his name so little known, and his worth as a writer unrecognized. As far as I know, no biography has been written heretofore, nor is his life given in the various collective records of the lives of British medical men, such as Aikin, etc.[2] The same neglect of him occurs in the "Dictionary of National Biography," where in view of the national importance of the Spas of this country, a biography of Deane might not unreasonably be expected. Here and there one is able to glean some small scraps of information about him, but the result of all the gleanings from contemporary records, so far, can be condensed in a very small compass. It does not seem amiss therefore to record here what is known of the "father of Harrogate" albeit at present unrecognized by his off-spring.

Deane was descended from a family who for many generations lived at Saltonstall, a hamlet in Warley in the parish of Halifax, and whose history appears to have been quite uneventful.