"_Brisket._ I vow it is a pleasurable Morning: the Waters taste so finely after being fudled last Night. Neighbour _Fribbler_ here's a Pint to you.
"_Fribbler._ I'll pledge you, Mrs. _Brisket_; I have drunk eight already.
"_Mrs. Brisket._ How do the Waters agree with your Ladyship?
"_Mrs. Woodly._ Oh, Sovereignly: how many Cups have you arrived to?
"_Mrs. Brisket._ Truly Six, and they pass so kindly."
By degrees these medicinal waters, or Spas, as they were termed in later times, fell into desuetude, possibly because medical knowledge was advancing; and the Wells, with their gardens attached, became places of outdoor recreation, where the sober citizen could smoke his pipe, and have his beer, or cider, whilst his wife, and her gossips, indulged in tittle tattle over their Tea--which, although much dearer than at present, was a very popular beverage, and so, from health resorts, they imperceptibly merged into the modern Tea Garden--which, in its turn, has become nearly extinct, as have the Ranelagh and Vauxhall of a former age; which, however, we have seen, in our time, somewhat resuscitated in the outdoor portion of the several Exhibitions which have taken place, in the few past years, at South Kensington.
The White Conduit had a history of its own, which we can trace back, at all events, to the fifteenth century, for it was built as a reservoir to supply what was, afterwards, the Charterhouse.
This we can see by a royal licence, dated December 2, 9 Henry VI. an. 1431,[21] which granted to John Feryby, and his wife Margery, that they might grant and assign to the Prior and Convent of the House of the Salutation of the Blessed Mary of the Carthusian Order, by London, a certain well spring (_fontein_) and 53 perches of land in length, and 12 feet in breadth, in the vill of Iseldon (Islington) to have to them and their successors for ever, and to the same Prior and Convent, to take the said land, and construct a certain subterraneous aqueduct from the aforesaid well spring, through the aforesaid land, and through the King's highway aforesaid, and elsewhere, as it may seem best &c., _non obstante_ the Act against mortmain (_Teste Humfride Duce Gloucestr' Custode Angliæ apud Westm._).