Page:Poems of Anne Countess of Winchilsea 1903.djvu/46

 zlii INTRODUCTION ���portrait of Pope, and whose house was often Pope's head- quarters in London, lived but a short distance away, in Cleveland Court. Lady Winchilsea knew Jervas, and admired his work, especially the portrait of her friend, the lovely Mrs. Chetwynd. It was at the house of Jervas that Pope was staying when Lady Winchilsea invited him to the famous dinner which was followed by the dramatic recital destined to play so interesting a part in the relations between Pope and Ardelia. �Visits to the more noted watering-places were not infre- quent. We have seen the depression of spirit engendered by the public and private disasters incident on the revolution. But Ardelia's peace of mind was assailed by another and even more insidious foe. That "anxious Rebell," her heart, was reinforced by another enemy within the gates. She was, in fact, an unfortunate victim of the Spleen, a fashionable eighteenth century distemper, the protean woes of which had early cradled her into song. Many were her ineffectual attempts to find relief through visits to various health resorts. Of these Tunbridge Wells with its "quick spring of spirit- eous water " was the most fashionable, and its fame as a cure for the Spleen was long-lived. We find Lady Winchilsea here once in 1685 and again in 1706. �A less noted resort, but one much frequented by the gentry and lauded by medical men was, at Astrop, a small vil- lage near London. A "Learned Physician" in 1668 gave four pages to an encomium of the well dedicated to St. Rum- bald, a child which spake as soon as he was born. This well, says the Learned Physician, "openeth, astringeth, and consolidateth egregiously." It takes away " ecrementitious Humidities of the Brain .... opens the obstructions of the Liver and Spleen, cures the Flatus Hypochondriacus, and the Palpitation and Trembling of the Heart proceeding from thence It fastens the Teeth though ready to drop ��� �