The present structure
connected with the well was renovated in 1851. It was built in 1670
to replace an earlier one, repaired by George Jamieson, the artist,
but soon afterwards completely demolished by the overflowing of the
adjoining Denburn. The present building, according to Mr. A. Jervise,
in the fourth volume of the "Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries
of Scotland," "bears representations of the Scottish Thistle, the
Rose of England, and the Fleur-de-lis of France, surmounting this
inscription:--
'As heaven gives me
So give I thee.'
Below these words is a carving of the rising sun, and the following
altered quotation from Horace:--
'Hoc fonte derivata Salus
In patriam populumque fluat.'
"It appears," continues Mr. Jervise, "that the virtues of this Spa were
early known and appreciated, for in 1615 record says that there was
'a long wyde stone which conveyed the waters from the spring, with
the portraicture of six Apostles hewen upon either side thereof.' It
is described as having then been 'verie old and worne.'"
An unusual kind of holy well, viz., one, in which salt water takes
the place of fresh, is to be found in the case of the Chapel Wells
in Kirkmaiden parish, Wigtownshire, half way between the bays of
Portankill and East Tarbet. About thirty yards to the north-west are
the ruins of St. Medan's Chapel, partly artificial and partly natural,
a cave forming the inner portion. In days gone by, the spot was much
frequented on the first Sunday of May (O.S.), called Co' Sunday, after
this cave or cove. Dr. Robert Trotter, who examined the chapel and
the wells in 1870, gives the results of the observations in the eighth
volume of the "Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland"
(new series). He says, "These wells--three natural cavities in a
mass of porphyritic trap--are within the tide mark, and are filled
by the sea at high water of ordinary tides. The largest is circular,
five feet in diameter at the top, and four feet at one side, shelving
down to five feet at the other, and is wider inside than at the top,
something like a kailpot in fact, and it is so close to the edge
of the rock that at one place its side is not two inches thick. The
other wells almost touch it, and are about one foot six inches wide
and deep respectively." Sickly children were brought to be bathed,
the time selected being just before sunrise. Dr. Trotter mentions
that children are still brought occasionally, sometimes from long
distances. The ceremony described to him by an eyewitness was as
follows:--"The child was stripped naked, and taken by the spaul--that
is, by one of the legs--and plunged headforemost into the big well till
completely submerged; it was then pulled out, and the part held on by
was dipped in the middle well, and then the whole body was finished
by washing the eyes in the smallest one, altogether very like the
Achilles and Styx business, only much more thorough. An offering was
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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