The woman of the house was
very much troubled with fitts of the mother; and having lived here but
a quarter of a yeare, found herself much mended; as also her mother,
troubled with the same disease. I observed in the bottome of the well
deep blew marle.
[The hysterical paroxysms to which females are peculiarly subject were
in Aubrey's time commonly termed "the mother", or "fits of the
mother". Dr. Edward Jorden published a "Discourse on the Suffocation
of the Mother", (4to.) in 1603.- J. B.]
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Alderton. - Mr. Gore's well is a hard water, which, when one washes
one's hands will make them dry, as if it were allume water. I tryed it
by pr?cipitation, and the sediment was the colour of barme, white and
yellow, and fell in a kind of flakes, as snow sometimes will fall,
whereas all the other sediments were like fine flower or powder.
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In Minety Common in Bradon forest, neer the rode which leadeth to
Ashton Caynes, is a boggy place called the Gogges, where is a spring,
or springs, rising up out of fuller's earth. This puddle in hot and
dry weather is candid like a hoar frost; which to the tast seemes
nitrous. I have seen this salt incrustation, even 14th September, four
foot round the edges. With half a pound of this earth I made a
lixivium. Near half a pint did yield upon evaporation a quarter of an
ounce wanting two graines. Of the remainder of the lixivium, which was
more than a pint, I evaporated almost all to crystallize in a cellar.
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