Gloucestershire | Herefordshire
IN ancient days, when sailors passed within sight of the island near this place, it was customary for them to lower the topmast in reverence to St. Bonifice. The wishing well is near the summit of St. Boniface, interesting to the geologist from the unusual elevation at which it bursts forth, and to the lover of old superstitions from the reverence formerly paid to it, on account of a popular belief that, if one walked backward to the spring, any wish formed while drinking of its waters would be granted. As late as last century it was customary for the youth of both sexes to assemble at the well on St. Boniface's Day and decorate it with chaplets of flowers, and many good "wishes" were interchanged at these annual gatherings. An account of this well is given in Tomkins' History of the Isle of Wight, vol. ii., p. 121.
On the mainland, to the south, is a pool or well called St. Clare's Well.
Near here, in St. Mary's Well Hanger, is St. Mary's Well, 172 feet above the sea.
About half a mile south of Tangley, on the north-west border of Hampshire, is the hamlet of Waterswell Cross, a name probably derived from a cross in ancient days placed over a well in a dry chalk country.
Another ancient holy well in the Isle of Wight was St. Lawrence's Well. Henry Brinsley Sheridan wrote a poem on "A Legend of St. Lawrence's Well." It is now cleared away.
The Holybourne is supplied by a spring from the chalk near the upper green sand outcrop. The spring has an elevation of about 350 feet, and is close to the churchyard. Formerly the water issued from its natural spring almost opposite the west door of the church, and about 20 yards from it ; but when the church [77] yard was enlarged, the spring-head and stream were culverted for about 30 or 40 yards to the pond. What its ancient sanctity was derived from, it is, perhaps, now difficult to say.--Hampshire Field Club, ii., pt. i., p. 5I.
There was a well dedicated in honour of St. Mary, at Sheet, near Petersfield.
Near Hensting is a well surrounded with yew-trees, called Jacob's Well.--ibid., p. 44.
The water from this spring is chalybeate, but by rapid oxidation its iron is deposited along the banks of the stream. The wide-spread prevalence of leprosy in Hampshire in ancient days is beyond dispute. The lepers' hospitals at Winchester, Southampton, Christchurch, and near Carisbrook, in the Isle of Wight, sufficiently prove this. That the lepers sought relief by ablutions in the ferruginous water of some of our Hampshire springs is probable, and this Lepers' Well is, according to tradition, one of these springs. From lepers to mangy dogs is a considerable change, but this change has occurred in the curative uses of the water at Iron's Well. We have no longer lepers, but we have dogs afflicted with the mange, a disease which causes the hair partly to fall off. Iron's Well, by common repute, is useful in curing these dogs. The spring has a little wooden structure, over and round it, with a board wanting at the top, by which you may drop your dog into the chalybeate water; and a convenient arrange-ment exists by which, after he has finished his ablutions, he may scramble out on the other side.--ibid., p. 46.
Near Buckland, north of Lymington, there was a small spring to the north of the great earthwork which was for generations held in great estimation for its reputative curative properties in ophthalmic disorders.--ibid., p. 47.
The well at Stanpit, near to Christchurch, known as Tutters' Well, was celebrated for the cure of sore eyes.