, and England and Scotland have them also. Not only in the
British Isles, but in all parts of Europe they were much frequented in
the Middle Ages, and they are not without their visitors to-day. As
late as 1805 the eminent Roman Catholic prelate, Dr. John Milner, gave
a detailed account of a miraculous cure performed at a sacred well in
Flintshire. Gregory of Tours was one of the first to notice the
healing power of springs in connection with the saints. He asserted
that the diseases of the sick and infirm were banished upon the
contact of a few drops of water drawn from a spring dug by St.
Martin's own hands.

From Fosbrooke's _British Monachism_ we learn that "on a spot called
Nell's Point, is a fine well, to which great numbers of women resort
on Holy Thursday, and, having washed their eyes in the spring, they
drop a pin into it. Once a year, at St. Mardrin's well, also, lame
persons went on Corpus Christi evening, to lay some small offering on
the altar, there to lie on the ground all night, drink of the water
there, and on the next morning to take a good draught more of it, and
carry away some of the water each in a bottle at their departure. At
Muswell Hill was formerly a chapel, called our Lady of Muswell, from a
well there, near which was her image; this well was continually
resorted to by way of pilgrimage. At Walsingham, a fine green road was
made for the pilgrims, and there was a holy well and cross adjacent,
at which pilgrims used to kneel while drinking the water. It is
remarkable that the Anglo-Saxon laws had proscribed this as
idolatrous. Such springs were consecrated upon the discovery of cures
effected by them. In fact," Fosbrooke adds, "these consecrated wells
merely imply a knowledge of the properties of mineral waters, but,
through ignorance, a religious appropriation of their properties was
made to supernatural causes."

"Holywell, in the county of Flint," we are informed by Salverte,
"derives its name from the Holy Well of St. Winifred, over which a
chapel was erected by the Stanley family, in the reign of Henry VII.
The well was formerly in high repute as a medicinal spring. Pennant
says that, in his time, Lancashire pilgrims were to be seen in deep
devotion, standing in the waters up to the chin for hours, sending up
prayers, and making a prescribed number of turnings; and this excess
of piety was carried so far, as in several instances to cost the
devotees their lives."[36]

Pennant also tel