Double sided broadside ballad entitled 'A poem of the New Wells at Islington'. Printed by George Croom, at the Blue Ball in Thames Street, the broadside refers to the rediscovery of the monastic springs in Islington by Richard Sadler during the building of his 'Musick House' in 1683. Written in the first person the ballad describes a visit to the Wells with particular reference to the type of Londoners who had gone there to partake of the spring water.
Subsequently referred to as Sadler's Wells, Sadler claimed that drinking the water from the wells would be effective against 'dropsy, jaundice, scurvy, green sickness and other distempers to which females are liable – ulcers, fits of the mother, virgin's fever and hypochondriacal distemper.' As noted in this ballad a visit to the Wells quickly became a highly fashionable and popular outing.
