beautiful land and sea views, and it is seen from all parts of the neighbourhood, especially from the circular route on the trams.
In the Queen's Road is the General Post Office, the Town Hall and the Gaiety Theatre. During late years, Queen's Road has gradually become a busy commercial thoroughfare.
Returning to the Memorial and carrying one's mind back no longer than a century ago, one could have stood on the old wooden structure marked on the early maps, -"Priory Bridge," and looked up the Priory Valley without seeing anything beyond the Water Mill House down the Brooks, and a few old farm buildings scattered about the Priory Farm, and the Priory Stream, meandering through the valley where the Cricket Ground is, and running westward along the present site of Pelham Street ; and on the western side of the valley, the Priory Farm, and White Rock, jutting far into the sea.
On the site of the Farm was an Old Priory of the Holy Trinity, founded in 1191, and destroyed by an inundation of the sea about 1430. Relics of this Priory were discovered in 1796 when a pond was drained off, and consisted of enormous sluice gates and timbers of huge dimensions.
A lot of old shanties on the America ground, fully described elsewhere, were beyond the jurisdiction of the Corporation.
The site of the present railway station, Havelock Road, and Cambridge Road, as far as Priory Street, were then on a level with the sea, and once the bed of the Old Haven. Robertson Street and Terrace, Carlisle Parade, Trinity Street, and Harold Place had not been dreamt of. The Priory Farm was tenanted by a Mr. Foster, and was a favourite resort for picnics. The writer has spoken with several inhabitants, now past the meridian of life, who used to stay there when youngsters for a change.
Naturally, like St. Leonards, this part of the Borough has undergone marvellous changes. The writer of Diplock's Guide of 1846 says : "South-east of the Priory Farm is what is called the Government Ground, which has been considered as offering the most eligible site for a harbour or docks. Several surveys have been made at different times and plans drawn out ; the first, by the late Sir John Rennie, civil engineer, in 1816, and in 1837 by Mr. Cubitt and Mr. Brooks, civil engineer, for the site opposite the Government Ground, at the estimated expense of £150,000. This proposed harbour is shewn in the Panorama of Hastings.
