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Royal Tunbridge Wells
much Sovereigns in their Principalities as in their Kingdom : the Power is equal, though their Titles are not. So, Sir, though with respect to the greater number of your Subjects you are King in Bath, you may be styled Prince at the Hot-Well, Duke at Tunbridge, Earl in Scarborough, not to mention four Lordships of Buxton, and your own kindred's famous Place of Resort, St. Winifride's Well: They all acknowledge you for their Chief; and though some of these lesser of your States, like other Princes of a higher Name, you may never favour with your Presence, and others rarely, yet all feel and acknowledge the benign Influence of your Authority."
Tunbridge Wells had the advantage of Bath only in being nearer London. It lacked the old-world air of the Somersetshire town, with its Bladudian legend and a history dating from the days of Julius Caesar; nor had it architectural beauties equal to the magnificent Abbey Church and the splendid Roman Bath. Wanting, too, at the Kentish spa was the social prestige that Bath had gained during the quarter of a century that Nash had ruled. It was, indeed, as crude in its habits as Bath had been in 1705. " Before that famous arbitrator 148 |
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