Page:History of the Fylde of Lancashire (IA historyoffyldeof00portiala).pdf/336

 have already alluded; in the evening or during unfavourable weather cards and backgammon, or the theatre, were the means with which the visitors beguiled the wearisomeness of the quiet hours. The "Number 3 Hotel" above-mentioned stood behind the present building bearing that name, at the corner of the Layton and Marton roads.

Mr. Hutton relates several somewhat startling instances of the curative properties of the sea at Blackpool; amongst them that of a man, by trade a shoemaker and a resident of Lancaster, who having become, through some unexplained cause, totally blind, visited this watering-place for six weeks, during which he drank large quantities of the marine element, daily bathing his eyes in the same, and at the end of that time had so far recovered his sight that he could readily distinguish objects at a distance of two miles. Another case was that of a gentleman, who, having been seized with a paralytic attack, which deprived him of the use of one side, was ordered by his physican to Bath, but finding, after a fair trial, that he derived no benefit from the combined action of its climate and waters, he determined to travel northwards and make a short sojourn at Blackpool. Whilst there the invalid was daily carried into and out of the sea, and even after this process had been only twice repeated he had lost the violent pains in his joints, recovered his sleep, and in some considerable degree the muscular power of the affected side, but of his further progress there is no account.

The following lines, written by a visitor a few years after the incidents we have just narrated, also show in what great estimation the climate and sea of the village were held as remedial and invigorating agents:—

"Of all the gay places of public resort, At Chatham, or Scarbro', at Bath, or at Court, There's none like sweet Blackpool, of which I can boast, So charming the sands, so healthful the coast;— Rheumatics, scorbutics, and scrofulous kind, Hysterics and vapours, disorders of mind, By drinking and bathing you're made quite anew, As thousands have proved and know to be true."

At this time Blackpool was not only without a church, but in the whole place there was no room where the inhabitants or