Sketches of leafy Warwickshire, rural and urban . ent century. In 1808, William CharlesMacready, the celebrated tragedian, sojourned there. An in-teresting entry in his diary will serve to show the condition ofthe Midland Bethesda at that time. He says:— Birmingham was the most important of the towns of whichmy father held the theatres, and there we soon arrived. Thesummer months were passed there, diversified by a short stayat Leamington, then a small village, consisting only of a fewthatched houses—not one tiled or slated; the Bowling Greenbeing the only one where very moderate accommodation
Sketches of leafy Warwickshire, rural and urban . ent century. In 1808, William CharlesMacready, the celebrated tragedian, sojourned there. An in-teresting entry in his diary will serve to show the condition ofthe Midland Bethesda at that time. He says:— Birmingham was the most important of the towns of whichmy father held the theatres, and there we soon arrived. Thesummer months were passed there, diversified by a short stayat Leamington, then a small village, consisting only of a fewthatched houses—not one tiled or slated; the Bowling Greenbeing the only one where very moderate accommodation couldbe secured. There was in process of erection an hotel of more pre-tention, which, I fancy, was to be the Dog or Greyhound, butwhich had some months of work to fit it for the reception ofguests. We had the parlour and bedrooms of a huckstersshop—the best accommodation in the place—and used each morn-ing to walk down to the springs across the churchyard, withour little mugs in our hands, for our daily draught of theLeamington Ill z > < or_i-Io I zol-a z S< HI The Midland Bethesda 17 There is not now a single cottage left with a thatchedroof, that primitive but picturesque covering being discontinuedin 1843. But change has made the place prettier than it was in itspalmy days, when George IV., the first gentleman in Europe,followed the example of Macready and imbibed his glass of Spawater, and then returned to the princely Castle at Warwick. John Ruskin, in Prsterita, makes some amusing remarksabout this Midland Bethesda. He visited Leamington in 1843,when he was worn by overwork, and was recommended to adoptthe advice of the famous Dr. Jephson. The sufferer came downto the Royal Spa and consulted the eminent physician, whoexamined him for ten minutes and then said to him : If youwill stop here, in Leamington, for six weeks, I will set youright. But the author of The Stones of Venice was an un-believer. He looked upon Dr. Jephson as a quack, becauseh
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