Bright did _not_ write an account of it. It is hardly
credible that the history as given in the extract from the "Encyclopaedia
Britannica" is actually derived from "Spadacrene Anglica." Yet such is
the case. Owing to the great rarity of the first edition of that book,
and the fact that the later editions were all, more or less, abridged or
incomplete, a series of plausible conjectures by later writers founded
on these imperfect editions has evolved a history of Harrogate in this
period which is, as regards the main facts, largely fictitious. The
object of the following biographical notes is, briefly, to restate the
history of Harrogate during the Elizabethan period, in terms of the only
reliable source for such a purpose, and to trace the accumulated errors,
as far as possible, to their origin and source, an inquiry which the
reprint of "Spadacrene Anglica" at the present time makes not
inopportune.
No history of Harrogate should be written, unless preceded by a
biographical note of the author of "Spadacrene Anglica," to whom and to
whose work Harrogate doubtless owes its position as the premier Spa of
this country; and it is with no little sense of the fickleness of fame
that one finds his name so little known, and his worth as a writer
unrecognized.
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