from here is a grand one, and the masses of rock, and thickly-wooded undergrowth down to the shore, form a picture never to be forgotten. The following narrative which gave the name to the Lovers' Seat is said to have been written by a representative of the heroine of the tale, and their portraits, the original of which was acquired some years ago by the Author from an old inhabitant of Hastings, in whose family they had been for many years. Here is the true story :
This spot first became notorious as the Lovers' Seat about the year 1786, when a Mr. Charles Lamb of Rye, an officer in the preventive service, succeeded in winning the affections of a Miss Elizabeth Boys, the only child of Mr. Samuel Boys, of Elford, Hawkhurst, in the adjoining county of Kent. Mr. Boys was a wealthy country gentleman, dwelling at the seat for many generations occupied by his ancestors. His brother, at the time we speak of, residing at Wigsil, Sussex, was in the House of Commons. Mr. Lamb's position in life was considered by the Boys' family to entitle him to no such pretentions as the hand of Miss Boys, and every effort was made to stop the marriage. Change of air and scene, it was hcped, would efface from the memory of the young lady all thoughts of Mr. Lamb. A farmhouse at Fairlight, in the charge of a trusty servant, was considered a fitting place for the young lady ; but in those days, as now, such efforts do not always succeed. Mr. Lamb commanded the "Stag" revenue cutter, and the cliffs at Fairlight became a spot on which his special vigilance was bestowed. The spot now known as the Lovers' Seat was with these two young people the place of assignation, and there it was arranged they should repair to London and get married, whether old Mr. Boys was willing or not. Accordingly, on the 16th January, 1786, these two young people presented themselves at the church of St. Clement Danes, in the Strand, and were there married. Miss Boys' father never forgave her, but disinherited his only child, and gave his states to his nephew, the son of the brother already mentioned. By him they were shortly spent. Mr. Lamb left the revenue service and built a house, called Higham, at Salehurst. One daughter was the only issue of the marriage, Elizabeth Dorothy Lamb, who married the Reverend Thomas Ferris, the eldest son of Thomas Ferris, D.D., Dean of Battle, and for many years senior Fellow and Tutor of St. John's College, Cambridge. Mr. Lamb lived to see his daughter married, and with three children, when, whilst cruising in the Southampton Water in his yacht in 1814, he was drowned. Two friends were on board with him and at the time of the accident these two friends were below; Mr. Lamb being on the deck. The two friends, on coming on the deck, were surprised and horrified to find only the hat of their friend. In so small a craft, with no place of concealment, the sad truth at once became apparent. The boom, it is supposed , with a sudden gust of wind, had jibbed, and sent their friend, of whom no trace could be found, overboard. The body, three weeks afterwards, was washed on shore at Bognor, and buried at Thakeham, in Sussex. Mrs. Lamb survived her husband for many years, and lived to see the family mansion of Elford re-purchased by her son-in-law, Mr. Ferris.
A distant relation of the family, and the possessor of large landed estates, to whom Mrs. Ferris was heir-in-law, and who had always blamed Mr. Boys for not forgiving his daughter and for disinheriting her, at a very advanced age, forgot all his earlier views and sympathies, and by a will made shortly before his death gave his estates to other parties, thus crushing the last hope of the family of Boys regaining their old and honoured position. Mr. Ferris had a large family, four sons of which now survive, the eldest of which bears the name of Boys, but without the ancestral property, and is the Rev. Thomas Boys Ferris, the rector of Guisley, in Yorkshire. Elford, the family place, was a few years since again sold for the purpose of distribution among the children.
Returning from Lovers' Seat, is Fairlight Place, charmingly situated at the head of the Glen. In 1786 it was occupied as a farm house by a Mr. Hilder, and referred to in the foregoing narrative as that in which Miss Boys was then staying. Fairlight Place is -
