Well, well!

On International Women's Day homage is paid to the Honourable Susanna Noel 'who with her son Baptist, 3rd earl of Gainsborough, gave this well together with 6 acres of land to the use and benefit of the poor of Hampstead 20th December 1698'. The motto says:

Drink Traveller and with Strength renewed
Let a kind Thought be given
To Her who has thy thirst subdued
Then render Thanks to Heaven

The generosity of the Hon. Susanna, recently widowed when she gave this Christmas present to the Hampstead poor (of which, unlike today, there were many), should not be scoffed at as simply seeking a reward in Heaven. The well draws upon the chalybeate spring discovered a few years earlier. Its ferruginous waters, although famously foul-tasting, were highly regarded as a remedy for neurosis, hysteria and of course anaemia - all conditions, it must be said, to which women were judged particularly prone. Flasks of well water would be bottled here to be sold in London at the Eagle and Child in Fleet Street every morning at 3 pence per flask; and conveyed to persons at their own homes for one penny per flask more. The flask to be returned daily.
So, a nice little earner for Hampstead folk who were prepared to get up early, fill the flasks, walk the few miles down to the pub in Fleet St., deliver (and collect) the flasks to customers, and trudge back up the hill at the end of the day a bob or two richer - all thanks to Sue.