Page:A tour through the northern counties of England, and the borders of Scotland - Volume I.djvu/158

 two degrees. At the three houses above-mentioned accommodations are very good, and the terms as follow: a bedchamber per week 5s. a private parlour 1l. 1s. breakfast is. 3d. per head; public dinner 38. per head; supper is. For the large common sitting and dining room no extra charge is made. The bathing is 6d. each time.

The warm springs were discovered in the year 1698; but it is only of late years that much company has resorted to the place, for the taste for natural scenery is of recent growth, and the larger number of visitors have since that time consisted of the admirers of its beauties rather than the drinkers of its waters, which are esteemed somewhat similar to the Bristol waters, and used in diabetes, spitting of blood, &c. These have no sensible appearance of mineral impregnation, nor have their analysis afforded any thing remarkable, the residuum being chiefly calcareous earth, with which all the water around here is highly charged. One spring behind the new bath is called, from this circumstance, the petrifying well; having the property of incrusting in a short time any substances exposed to its action, with calcareous matter. Indeed, the centre of the valley affords a curious phenomenon of this nature, in a vast bed of tupbum, or petrified moss, as it is vulgarly