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PREFACE
Although Tunbridge Wells is, with the exception of Bath, the oldest watering-place in the kingdom, and was for a century second in importance as a spa only to the Somersetshire city, no great mass of literature has arisen around it. Innumerable books have been written on Bath, many volumes have been devoted to Brighton : only two authors have written the history of " The Wells," Thomas Benge Burr, in 1766, and Paul Amsinck, sometime Master of the Ceremonies there, in 1810. These works are now scarce, and, further, it cannot be said that either has any great claim to consideration, for the account of the place is not by any means complete, and more than half the space is devoted to mansions, some of which are not in the immediate neighbourhood. The field, therefore, may fairly be considered clear for a twentieth-century writer, who, whatever his failings may be, has at least the advantage of presenting to the reader information as to the place and to the company that
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