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Development of Tunbridge Wells
At the end of the year 1664 the Plague sent many people from London to seek refuge at this, among other places; and soon it became patent alike to landowners and tenants that it was absurd that visitors should perforce have to reside five miles off at Tunbridge, or even so far away as Southborough or RusthalL Clearly there was a handsome profit to be gleaned from these birds of passage, and there was no reason why the inhabitants of "The Wells " should not secure it. As a consequence of this train of thought, lodging-houses for the company, in the immediate vicinity of the springs, were built. At first Mount Ephraim, one of the three hills near the wells, was the favoured spot. It owed its name to the Baptists who erected a chapel there, as Mount Sion was given its designation by the Presbyterians and Independents who set up their places of worship on that eminence. The third hill was presently called Mount Pleasant, perhaps to emphasise the fact that it had no connection with Dissent. The Culverden, sometimes given in early guide-books as an independent hill, was, however, but a prolongation of the chine of Mount Ephraim. On Mount Ephraim was erected an Assembly
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