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Preface
resorted there, derived from old books unknown to Burr and Amsinck, from correspondence that has since seen the light, and from letters hitherto unpublished. It has been my object to bring together all the information that can be gleaned about " Tunbridge Wells," and, in the furtherance of this project, I have not hesitated freely to use contemporary descriptions of the place and of the company.
The first mention of Tunbridge Wells is to be found in Dudley, Lord North's A Forest of Varieties, privately printed in 1645, and published fourteen years later under the title of A Forest Promiscuous of Various Seasons' Production, In Gramont's Memoirs is an account of the visit of the Court to the Kentish spa in 1663, and then, except for casual allusions by Evelyn and Pepys, there is silence until Celia Fiennes rode Through England on a Side-saddle in the time of William and Mary, and visited Tunbridge Wells in 1697. How the growing town appeared in 1712 may be read in John Macky's Journey through England. Twelve years later Daniel Defoe was there, and he put on record his impressions in his Tour through the Island of Great Britain. As has been said, Burr wrote his history of the viii |
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