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Royal Tunbridge Wells
of which to boast. A more prosaic, and, incidentally it may be mentioned, a better-authenticated incident is the basis of its future fame and well-being. Going back to the beginning it owes its existence to the deplorable fact that in the early years of the seventeenth century a young English nobleman played havoc with his health by indulging overmuch in riotous dissipation at the Court of James I. So, we may say, out of evil cometh good— which, it is not to be denied is a text more immoral than most, and one to be avoided by the preacher, lest evil is done in order that good may come—a result that cannot be depended upon. The nobleman in question, Dudley, third Baron North, was in the spring of 1606, being then twenty-five years of age, ordered, on pain of death through a lingering consumption, to leave the metropolis and its pleasures, and repair for a while to the country, in order that, the fates being propitious, a course of fresh air, simple diet, early hours, and an undesirably small quantity of intoxicating liquor, might assist his vigorous constitution to conquer the seeds of the fell disease with which he was threatened. The physicians not caring where he went so long as they got him 20 |
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