2-982-478 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Scarborough Spa - from a sketch by Miss Claxton, 1858. Resort on the coast of Yorkshire. 'Apart from the excellent qualities of its mineral waters, the "queen of watering-places" is famous for its romantic and picturesque location...The Spa House is handsome and commodious, and is reached from the town by a bridge, called the Cliff Bridge, which was built in 1826, in order to afford facilities for obtaining the waters without the trouble and fatigue of a somewhat steep ascent. The mineral waters owe their discovery to a lady, a Mrs. Farrow, who lived at Scarborough in 1620, and who observed that...it must have medicinal properties. Mrs. Farrow having caused experiments to be made with it, it was found to answer so well for many disordered conditions of the human frame that it became the usual physic of the inhabitants. Its fame soon extended all over Yorkshire, and in process of time it acquired a reputation scarcely second to that of many of the German spas. Its effects in debility arising from diseases of the stomach and digestive organs, on the kidneys, &c., are well known, and, in combination with pure bracing air and delightful sea-bathing, has made Scarborough the resort not only of all health and pleasure seekers in Yorkshire, but from all parts of the kingdom'. From "Illustrated London News", 1858.