TUNBRIDGE WELLS, a municipal borough and inland watering-place of England, chiefly in the Tonbridge parliamentary division of Kent, but extending into the eastern division of Sussex, 32 m. S.E. by S. of London by the S. railway. Pop. 35,367. It owes its popularity to its chalybeate spring and its beautiful situation in a hilly wooded district. The wells are situ ated by the Parade (or Pantiles), a walk associated with fashion since the time of their discovery. It was paved with pantiles in the reign of Queen Anne. Reading and assembly rooms adjoin the pump-room. The town is built in a picturesquely irregular manner, and a large part of it consists of districts called "parks" occupied by villas and mansions. On Rusthall Common about a mile from the town is the curiously shaped mass of sandstone known as the Toad Rock, and a mile and a half south-west is the striking group called the High Rocks. The Tunbridge Wells sana torium is situated in grounds sixty acres in extent. Five miles south-east of Tunbridge Wells is Bayham Abbey, founded in 1200, where ruins of a church, a gateway, and dependent buildings adjoin the modern Tudor mansion. The vicinity of Tunbridge Wells is largely residential. To the north lies the urban district of SOUTH
BOROUGH (pop. 7,352). There is a large trade in Tunbridge ware, which includes wood-tables, boxes, toys, etc., made of hard woods, such as beech, sycamore, holly, and cherry, and inlaid with mosaic. Tunbridge Wells was incorporated in 1889.
The town owes its rise to the discovery of the medicinal springs by Dudley, Lord North, in 1606. Henrietta Maria, wife of Charles I., retired to drink the waters at Tunbridge Wells after the birth of her eldest son Charles. Soon after the Restoration it was visited by Charles II. and Catherine of Braganza. It was a favourite residence of the princess Anne previous to her acces sion to the throne, and from that time became one of the chief resorts of London fashionable society. In this respect it reached its height in the second half of the 18th century, and is specially associated with Colley Cibber, Samuel Johnson, Cumberland the dramatist, David Garrick, Samuel Richardson, Sir Joshua Rey nolds, Beau Nash and Mrs. Thrale. The Tunbridge Wells of that period is sketched in Thackeray's Virginians.