The provision made by Lady Falkland of “antidotes against infection and of Cordials, and other several sorts of Physick for such of her Neighbours as should need them, amounted yearly to very considerable summes ... her skil indeed was more than ordinary, and her wariness too.... Bookes of spiritual exhortations, she carried in her hand to these sick persons.”[590] Mrs. Elizabeth Bedell “was very famous and expert in Chirurgery, which she continually practised upon multitudes that flock’d to her, and still _gratis_, without respect of persons, poor or rich. It hapned occasionally that some would return like the heald Samaritan, with some token of thankfulness; though this was seldom. But God did not fail to reward them with (that which in Scripture is most properly call’d his reward) children, and the fruit of the womb. 3 sons and 4 daughters.”[591] Footnote 590: _Falkland, Lady Lettice, Vi-countess, The Life and Death of._ Footnote 591: _Bedell, (Wm.), Life and Death of_, p. 2. Expressions of gratitude to women for these medical services occur in letters and diaries of the time. The Rev. R. Josselin enters January 27th, 1672, “My L. Honeywood sent her coach for me: yᵗ I stayd to March 10, in wᶜʰ time my Lady was my nurse & Phisitian & I hope for much good: ... they considered yᵉ scurvy. I tooke purge & other things for it;”[592] Marmaduke Rawdon met with a carriage accident, in which he strained his “arme, but comminge to Hodsden his good cossen Mrs. Williams, with hir arte and care, quickly cured itt, and in ten dayes was well againe.”[593] Footnote 592: Jonson, (Ben.), _The Alchemist_, Act IV. Sc. I. Footnote 593: Josselin, (R.), _Diary_, pp. 163-4. Nor was the practice of medicine confined to Gentlewomen; many a humble woman in the country, the wife of farmer or husbandman, used her skill for the benefit of her neighbours. In their case, though many were prompted purely by motives of kindness and goodwill, others received payment for their services. How much the dependence of the common people on the skill of these “wise women” was taken for granted is suggested by some lines in “The Alchemist,” where Mammon assures Dol Common “This nook, here, of the Friers is no Climate For her to live obscurely in, to learne Physick, and Surgery, for the Constable’s wife Of some odde Hundred in Essex.”[594] Footnote 594: _Rawdon, (Marmaduke), Life of_, p. 85.