"the spring arises on
the north side of a brook which runs almost directly from the west to the
east, and so very near to it that a moderate shower will raise the brook
as to cover it. About 200 yards up this brook, on the same side, are
several springs, one of which was much taken notice of by our ancestors,
and consecrated to St. Sunday, no common saint. Over it is the following
inscription:--

Fons occulis morbisque
cutaneis diu celebris, A.D. 1726."

"Saint Sunday" must have been some local saint; or, more probably, a
jocular embodiment of the sacredness of this day of the week with its
peculiarly pagan name, to the cause of idleness, and so dubbed by the
native wit of Willenhall; anyway, no saint of this name is to be found in
the authorised Calendar of any church.

One of the Wilkes MSS. utilised by Shaw, and dated 1737, records the
following experiment worked by the learned doctor with the local mineral
waters:--

"I evaporated in a brass furnace 13.5 gallons to 3 quarts, then let
it stand 3 days to settle, and poured the clear water from the
foeces. This was a light smooth insipid earth of a yellow colour,
fat between the fingers, insipid and impalpable, which being dried,
weighed 93 grains. The remaining 3 quarts I evaporated in a brass
kettle and had from it 53 grains of a very salt glutinous substance
which dried into a solid mass of a brown colour. When the water came
to a pint or thereabout, it began to smell like glew, and continued
to do so when in a solid substance; it was then also as high-coloured
as lye; but I am afraid this colour might arise from the brass
kettle, in some measure, or too great a fire, being perhaps burnt."

Another of his scientific records runs:--

"Oct. 9th.--I put into a Florence flask as much of this water as
filled it up to the neck within 5 inches of the top. This I placed
in a sand heat and increased the fire gradually till it boiled; and
so I evaporated ad siccitatem. Some volatile sal stuck to the glass
even up to the top; at the bottom was a small quantity of dark
coloured matter, like that above, but I could not get together 2
grains of either. Here it is plain this sal is so volatile as to be
raised and fly away by heat."

In another place he writes:--

"On the 5th of November, 1737, I filled several glasses with this
wa