Defoe declares Tunbridge Wells then the more fashionable place, favoured by "the Nobility and Gentry, as Epsom rather by Merchants and Rich Citizens"; both frequented rather for "the Mirth and Company, for Gaming or Intriguing or the like," than for "meer Physick"; and he states that Londoners of a lower class who sought serious treatment found it by walking out to the wells of Dulwich and Streatham, so much beset on holidays by "an unruly and unmannerly" crowd that the "better sort" kept aloof from such Cockney haunts. One notes how a contemporary French _Guide du Baigneur_ advertises Dulwich and Streatham as well as Epsom among our spas, though other more famous British resorts have not yet swum into the ken of this authority. The sulphur water of Streatham, indeed, may still be tasted, pumped up behind the counter of a dairy by a dispenser who has informed me that he finds it excellent as "supper beer"--_de gustibus_, etc. John Toland in 1711 gives the wordiest account of Epsom spa and its company, lodged in a group of hamlets about the main street, with the paved Terrace, Assembly Room, and two rival bowling-greens as centres of intercourse. The writer himself had a "Hermitage" at Woodcote Green, from which he thus describes, is his _Letter to Eudoxa_:-- By the Conversation of those who walk there, you would fancy yourself to be this Minute on the _Exchange_, and the next Minute at St. _James's_; one while in an _East-India_ Factory, or a _West-India_ Plantation, and another while with the _Army_ in _Flanders_, or on Board the _Fleet_ in the _Ocean_.... A fairer Circle was never seen at _Baiae_, or _Cumae_ of old, nor of late at _Carelsbad_, or _Aix-la-Chapelle_, than is to be admir'd on the High-Green and in the Long-Room, on a publick Day. If the _German_ Baths out-number us in Princesses, we out-shine them in Nymphs and Goddesses, to whom their Princes wou'd be proud to pay Adoration. But not to dissemble any Thing, bountiful Nature has likewise provided us with many other Faces and Shapes, I may add, with another Sett of Dress, Speech, and Behaviour (not to mention Age) ordain'd to quench the cruel Flames, or to damp the inordinate Desires, which the Young, the Handsom, and the Accomplish'd, might undesignedly kindle.... The Rude, the Sullen, the Noisy, and the Affected, the Peevish, the Covetous, the Litigious, and the Sharping, the Proud, the Prodigal, the Impatient, and the Impertinent, become visible foils to the Well-bred, Prudent, Modest, and Good-humour'd, in the Eyes of all impartial Beholders. Our Doctors, instead of prescribing the Waters for the Vapours, or the Spleen, order their Patients to be assiduous at all publick Meetings, knowing that (if they be not themselves of the Number) they'll find abundant Occasion to laugh at bankrupt Fortune-Hunters, crazy or superannuated Beaus, marry'd Coquets,