The charge for drinking the water at the pump was threepence: half a guinea entitled the visitor to its use throughout the season. At a later date when Bagnigge Wells was mainly frequented for its tea-gardens, a general charge of sixpence was made for admission. The Long Room,[51] the old banqueting hall of Bagnigge House, was about seventy-eight feet by twenty-eight feet with a rather low ceiling and panelled walls. At one end of the room was a distorting mirror, a source of considerable amusement, which, for instance, revealed to Captain Tommy Slender of the Middlesex Militia, so odd a figure, that he was almost “hyp’d to death.” Filled with apprehension he consulted a physician, who understanding the use of the concave and convex mirror made his patient take copious draughts of the water, and, after pocketing his fee, led him to another panel of the glass, where the Captain beheld a portly well-conditioned man. Vastly pleased he went home convinced of the virtues of the wells. At the other end of the room was a good organ[52] which provided music for the company. A water organ was also to be heard in the grounds. The organ performances were prohibited on Sundays by the magistrates from about 1772, apparently with the idea of rendering the attractions of Bagnigge Wells less dangerously seductive. The organ was, however, played regularly on the week-day afternoons.[53] [Illustration: “THE BREAD AND BUTTER MANUFACTORY, OR THE HUMORS OF BAGNIGGE WELLS,” 1772. (INTERIOR OF LONG ROOM.)] From about 1760 till near the end of the eighteenth century Bagnigge Wells was a popular resort. Some hundreds of visitors were sometimes to be found in the morning for the water-drinking, and early breakfasts were provided. In the afternoon the Long Room and the gardens were thronged by tea-drinkers, especially on Sundays. Stronger beverages were not unknown, and a bowl of good negus was a feature here. The lawyer, the man about town, and the active city merchant, no less than the gouty, and the hypochondriac, came to while away an hour or two:-- Ye gouty old souls and rheumaticks crawl on, Here taste these blest springs, and your tortures are gone; Ye wretches asthmatick, who pant for your breath, Come drink your relief, and think not of death. Obey the glad summons, to Bagnigge repair, Drink deep of its streams, and forget all your care. The distemper’d shall drink and forget all his pain, When his blood flows more briskly through every vein; The headache shall vanish, the heartache shall cease, And your lives be enjoyed in more pleasure and peace. Obey then the summons, to Bagnigge repair, And drink an oblivion to pain and to care.[54] The city matron deemed it the very home of fashion:-- Bon Ton’s the space ’twixt Saturday and Monday, And riding in a one-horse chair on Sunday: ’Tis drinking tea on summer afternoons At Bagnigge Wells with china and gilt spoons.[55]