ROSS'S
HASTINGS AND ST. LEONARDS GUIDE.
DESCRIPTION OF HASTINGS.
THE TOWN OF HASTINGS (which gives name to the rape that includes it) is situated in a valley, open to the south, but nearly surrounded with high hills and cliffs on the north, east, and west, rising to an elevation of from 300 to 600 feet, thus protecting the town from all winds that are injurious to the constitution ; at the same time affording to the visitor a choice of climate, either on the surrounding hills, where the air is cool and bracing, or in the protected vales, where it is soft and genial.
The modern range of lodging-houses are situated under the Castle-cliffs, rendering this part of the town, as a place of residence, the most genial on the southern coast. The purity and mildness of the air, its bold and craggy cliffs, the conveniency of its beach for bathing, either at high or low water, together with the wild and picturesque beauty of the surrounding country, have combined to render it one of the most fashionable watering-places on the southern coast. It is distant from the metropolis 58 miles, Dover 48, and Brighton 36. The number of inhabitants is 12,000.
