Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 3.djvu/163

 n a IIL FEB. 25,i9iL] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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Customs and Modern Court Rule,' or Baroness Bloomfield's ' Reminiscences of Court and Diplomatic Life ' may be recom- mended. There is a comparatively recent publication dealing with Court dress. A new edition appeared in 1903. It is en- titled ' Dress Worn by Gentlemen at His Majesty's Court,' and was published by Messrs. Harrison & Sons. Perhaps it might be useful. T. S. R. W.

[MR. J. HOLDEN MAcMiCHAEL also thanked for reply.]

SCARBOROUGH SPA (11 S. iii. 129). The earliest association of the term ' Spa ' with Scarborough will be found in Thomas Hinderwell's ' History and Antiquities of Scarborough and Vicinity,' 4to, with plan and plates of views, York, 1798. It is described as being one of the most accurate and interesting of all the English topo- graphical works, being a complete history and description, not only of the town and its stupendous castle, but also of the sur- rounding country, &c. Hinderwell says :

" Mrs. Farrow, a sensible and intelligent lady, who lived at Scarborough about the year 1620, sometimes walked along the shore, and observing the stones^over which the waters passed to have received a russet colour, and finding it to have an acid taste, different from the common springs, and to receive a purple tincture from galls, thought it -probably might have a medicinal property. Having, therefore, made an experiment herself, and persuaded others to do the same, it was found to be efficacious in some complaints, and became the usual physic of the inhabitants. It was afterwards in great reputation with the citizens of York, and the gentry of the county, and at length was so generally recommended, that several persons of quality came from a great distance to drink it ; preferring it before all the others they had formerly frequented, even the Italian, French and German spaws."

The mixture is described as a compound of vitriol, iron, alum, nitre, and salt, and Mr. J. S. Fletcher, in his ' Picturesque Yorkshire,' says that it is much more than probable that visitors at last took a healthy dislike to it, and a hearty liking to the scenery which surrounded the stones " of a russet colour." " It is not generally observed," says the latest historian of Yorkshire, "that the paople who frequent Scarborough are an devotedly attached to the " spaw " waters as to other liquids which may be obtained in the refreshment-rooms of the adjoining saloon." The following authors have written upon the Scarborough " Spa " : Drs. Wittie, Simp- son, Tunstall, Short, Shaw, and Belcombe, by whom the waters have been analyzed.

J. HOT.DEN MACMICHAEL.

This spa was first discovered about 1620 by Mrs. Farrow, a Scarborough gentlewoman, who, observing the stones in the watercourse to be of a russet tincture, and finding the water to possess an acid taste, &c., concluded it to be of medicinal value. She took it herself, and advised its use to her neighbours, and it soon became the common physic of the neighbourhood. In a few years its fame reached Hull. Dr. Robert Wittie, who practised there from 1638 to 1656, often recommended the water to his patrons, and on his removal to York in 1656 he prepared his work upon it entitled ' Scarborough Spaw, or a Description of the Nature and Virtues of the Spaw at Scarborough,' published 29 May, 1660.

The connexion between Col. Fairfax and Scarborough Spa through Dr. Wittie seems fairly obvious. These particulars are, in the main, deduced from " The Natural, Experi- mental, and Medicinal History of the Mineral Waters of Derbyshire, Lincolnshire, and Yorkshire, particularly those of Scar- borough, by Thomas Short, M.D., of Sheffield," London, 1734, published in pursuance of a resolution passed at e, meeting of the Council of the Royal Society dp/ed 17 Sept., 1733. E. G. B.

The earliest medical book seems to be Dr. R. Wittie's ' Scarbrough Spaw, or descrip- tion of its Nature and Virtues,' 12mo, pub- lished in London in 1660. S. D. C.

MARINE INSURANCE (11 S. iii. 107). Has MR. WHITWELL looked at the biblio- graphies referred to by me in the ' Register of National Bibliography ' under the word insurance ? The first is a volume by Mr. Frederick Martin on the ' History of Lloyds ' (1876). It contains on pp. xi xx a biblio- graphy of marine insurance. The second is a work on marine insurance by William Gow. The second edition came out in 1900, and contains on pp. xiii-xiv a list of the literature on the subject. The fourth edition appeared in 1909, and the biblio- graphy is on pp. xvii-xviii.

W. P. COURTNEY.

It is stated on what appears to be good authority that at a very early period in the history of the Anglo-Saxons a kind of in- surance was known among them, according to which the members of " guilds," on pay- ment of certain fixed contributions, guaran- teed one another against loss from "fire, water, robbery, or other calamity." As regards marine insurance, strictly so called,