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and of the opening of the Hastings and Ashford branch in 1851; and has probably forgotten the earlier schemes and dates. The advertisements of the two companies were in substance as follows :-

"Notice is hereby given that application will be made to the next session of Parliament to make a Railway, with all proper works connected therewith, commencing by a junction with a line of the intended South-Eastern Railway, at or near a certain ​road​ in the parish of Smarden, in Kent, and terminating at or near the Fishmarket, in the parish of St. Clement's, Hastings; which said Railway is to pass through the several parishes, townships or places of Smarden, Bethersden, High Walden, Woodchurch, Tenterden, Appledore, Stone, Iden, Playden, East Guilford, Rye, Winchelsea, Icklesham, Pett and Fairlight, or some of them. And notice is hereby also given that maps, plans, sections, &c. will be deposited with the Clerk of the Peace for Kent, at his office in Maidstone, and with the Clerk of the Peace for Sussex, at his office in Lewes, on or before the first day of April next.

— Dated this 14th day of February, 1839.
JOHN P. FEARON, Temple.”

"LONDON, LEWES, ST. LEONARDS AND HASTINGS RAILWAY."

"Notice is hereby given that application is intended to be made to the next session of Parliament for leave to bring in a Bill or Bills for making a Railway or Railways, to commence by a junction with the London and Brighton Railway (now in course of construction) in or near to a certain field in the parish of Keymer, and to terminate at or near the Fountain Inn, St. Leonards; and which said Railway will pass from, through or into Keymer, Cuckfield, Clayton, Ditchling, Wivelsfield, Westmeston, Plumpton, Chiltington, Chailey, Lewes (under the Castle), Barcombe, Hamsey, Southmalling, Southover, Iford, Glynde, Beddingham, Firle, Ripe, Chalvington, Selmeston, Alciston, Alfriston, Berwick, Arlington, Wilmington, Folkington, Jewington, Hailsham, Willingdon, Eastbourne, Westham, Pevensey, Hooe, Wartling, Bexhill, Hollington, Bulverhithe, and St. Leonards. Also that duplicate plans, sections, &c., will be deposited for public inspection, at the office of the Clerk of the Peace, in Lewes, &c. It is also intended to apply for power to deviate to any extent not exceeding 100 yards, and in passing through any town to any extent not exceeding ten yards on either side of the line delineated in the plans, &c.

— Dated this 11th day of February, 1839.
SWEET, SUTTON, THURLOW, solicitors, Brighton.
H. FAITHFULL and R. BRIGGS, solicitors, Lewes."

The foregoing quotations from the advertisements of the rival railway companies, will, it is believed, convince the respected correspondent of the Gazette that my statements were thoroughtly (sic) accurate in connection with the projected railways to Hastings and St. Leonards in the year 1839.

Terrific Storms; the Writer on board an Emigrant Ship

And now, having gone back once more to the subject of ​road​s, I may as well record the fact that on the first of July a meeting of property-owners of Grand parade, Cliff cottages, and other districts was held at the Saxon Hotel, to take steps to compel the Trustees of the Eversfield Estate to repair the ​road​s along the front line, and to restore the wall damaged by the sea, as well as in future to secure the esplanade from the sea's encroachment. It was argued that the said Trustees had for a long time totally neglected their engagements, with the object of driving the inhabitants to accept the Act of Parliament sought to be obtained, with all the expensive machinery that would be necessarily attached thereto. After considerable discussion, the meeting was adjourned for a week, to see what the Trustees were disposed to do. At the adjourned meeting it was proposed "That the Eversfield Estate be requested to repair the frontage, and, together with Mr. Manser, dedicate the back ​road​s to the public, as directed by the Highway Act." To this motion, the solicitor to the Estate (Mr. Benham) had the modesty to propose, as an amendment, "That unless this meeting, and every individual in it, disowns that he is the author of the paragraph relative to the proceedings of the meeting inserted in the Cinque Ports Chronicle of Saturday, this meeting do adjourn." The Chairman refused to put the amendment, and the original motion was carried. Of what nature was the paragraph complained of, this deponent wotteth not, as it never came before his vision. It may be stated, however, that the expense of repairing the ​road​ and restoring the sea-wall, leaving out the more dubious undertaking of protecting the parade from future encroachments of the briny monster, were sufficiently formidable to induce the Trustees to shirk it if possible. During the wet and boisterous March of that year the ​road​s and parade had fallen into a wretched condition, and on the 31st of that month, during a fierce gale, 100 feet of the concrete wall opposite to Cliff Cottages (now 5 and 6 Eversfield place) fell into the sea with a terrific crash and splash. The parade and ​road​ were also washed out to a considerable extent. Four months later, namely, July 24th, another large portion of the wall was torn out, many smaller breaches were made, and the whole of the wall between the Archway and the White Rock, it was feared, would succumb to the ravages of the sea, if the gale continued till another flow of the tide. Fortunately, the wind lulled as the tide receded, and further destruction was averted. The damage, however, was roughly estimated at £2,000. There was considerable destruction also at Hastings among which was the carrying away of 100 feet of a stone groyne at the East Well, constructed by Mr. Major Vidler. On the following day, a smart off-land breeze having sprung up with the veering of the wind, the Channel presented such a scene as is witnessed not more than a few times during the period of a long life. From Dungeness to Beachy-head the sea was crowded with vessels of all kinds, and presented a complete forest of masts to the interested spectators who had taken advantage of the return of fine weather to view the ravages of the previous gales. For an entire week there had been a succession of these violent storms, and it was computed that at least a thousand vessels passed Hastings to the westward on that 25th of July, most of which had previously sought shelter in the Downs.

There was one, however, the good ship Wellington, an "American liner," that bravely ventured out from the Downs no fewer than three times during that week of tempests, and had twice to submit to be driven back by the storm to her anchorage. The present writer was an emigrant on board that ship, and a short account of the scenes he witnessed and the injury he sustained, which later caused him to return and take up his permanent abode at St. Leonards, would, he conceives, be quite in keeping with this history. Unfortunately, his journal, from the day he left Hastings on the top of the "Royal Blue Van" to the day when he rounded Dungeness Point and bade adieu to his native town as he just caught a glimpse of Fairlight Mill, was lost with articles of far greater value, on board ship, and a fairly retentive memory is now nearly all that remains from which to tell the tale.

I will therefore draw upon that memory to the extent necessary for a connective narrative, said narrative being unavoidably more biographical than historical. As already stated, I was an emigrant on board the President during the tempestuous weather of July, 1839, which played such havoc with the sea-walls of Hastings and St. Leonards. But to show how I got me there, I must begin at the beginning. Smitten with republican notions - of which I have been long since cured - I resolved to emigrate to the State of Illinois, an extensive region of prairies which had then been admitted into the American Union about twenty years. I had been privileged to read the glowing accounts which came from Charles and Barlett Woods to their father, the Postmaster of Hastings, and my imagination, growing upon what it fed, conjured up a new world so superior to the old, that one only had to make up his mind to quit the latter for the former to secure a fortune. "Come out here, you deal old patriarch," said one of the sons in a letter to his father, "we have neither corn-laws nor game-laws; if we want a turkeycock or any other bird - domestic or wild - we go and shoot it; if we want a pig or two we go and catch them in the forest; if we want vegetables of any sort, we dig for them; if we want wood for our fire or furniture for our log-huts, we cut it; and if we want tobacco for our pipes we grow it." Well, thought I, that must be the proper country to go to! Here am I, working for the Government, Sundays and week-days, from a quarter past four in the morning until eleven at night, for the comparatively small sum of £20 per annum and my board. Albeit, I was by no means of a discontented spirit. I had known, ere then, what it was to live upon four shillings a week; so that, by comparison, I had already reached a position of luxury. But that position threatened to be a stationary one, there being no prospect either of lighter labour or more remunerative pay. Thus, with a limited area for advancement on the one hand, and a wide field for enterprise on the other, it appeared to be the proper thing to make choice of the latter. The idea was warmly encouraged by my employer, who was pleased to say "I shall be sorry enough to lose you, but you know it is my wish to join my sons in America, if I can only get their mother to accompany me; and my delight will be all the greater to find you with them, because I know that with your ingenuity and industry you can be of great service in a country where, if there is great abundance, there is also much practical application required to mould that abundance into old-world notions of comfort." "You have given us proof (continued my respected chief) that you can make your own clothes and mend your own boots; that you can make a table or repair a lock; that you can paint a door or paper a wall; that you can keep accounts or report a sermon; and that if you ever take to yourself a wife you can knit her shawls and mittens." It needed not all this enumeration of my humble capabilities to urge me to seek my fortune in a far off land; although, having once set my mind upon the venture, the too flattering testimony of my qualification for the undertaking afforded, without doubt, an additional encouragement. But how about the means? I had only been a little over two years in the situation I then held, and my small savings did not amount to more than enough to pay my "steerage" passage to New York and the still greater journey by land and river to my proposed destination. Here, however, a friend came to my aid. A retired Welsh banker, of the name of Morris, who had firstly taken up his abode at 1 Beach terrace, and afterwards at 10 Pelham Crescent, had been pleased with my civility, and having obtained satisfactory replies to some questions put to the Postmaster, invited me on two or three occasions to dine with him and his lady at a certain time in the afternoon when I could be best spared from my official duties. This generous invitation resulted in a still more generous offer to pay for many things which were deemed to be necessary for the voyage. It must be remembered that there were no eight-to-twelve-days' transatlantic passages at that period; and that one of the first requirements for a steerage passenger was to provide himself with at least forty days' provisions.

All these were supplied by my new-found friends, Mr. and Mrs. Morris, who showed as much solicitude for my welfare as though our acquaintance had been of many years’ duration. The provisions consisted of two or three bushels of bread, sliced and re-baked; hams, baked in paste; salted beef, in air-excluding coverings; soup-and-boulli; preserved milk; biscuits, various; split peas; potatoes; a canister of tea; a similar canister of coffee, a canister of moist sugar, and a corresponding one of lump sugar - all with locks and keys. To these were added a small medicine chest, two gallons of brandy, two gallons of rum, and two gallons of wine; which last-named articles my teetotal friends must forgive me for making so prominent. And then, that I might be able to amuse myself on board - as I had on one or two occasions amused the folk who had thus befriended me - my Spanish guitar was to be taken with me in as secure a manner as possible by being placed in a strong mahogany case made expressly for the purpose. The order was given to Mr. W. H. Honiss, whose factory was opposite to York Buildings, and whose foreman or manager was our present respected townsman, Mr. C. J. Womersley, who afterwards succeeded to the business. The order was given at a short notice of two days, but the case was completed within the time, at a cost of £1 18s 6d. If I am tediously minute in the details of this "musical box," it is because that although it did not serve its original purpose, it has nevertheless served its owner for a period of forty-two years in other ways, and is the only relic of an ill-starred and unaccomplished voyage. These numerous articles, together with myself and personal outfit, were conveyed to London by the "Royal Blue Van," and were finally deposited at the St. Catherine's Docks. I immediately paid my passage money, and was thus partly relieved of the anxiety which I naturally felt for the safety of the coin which I was carrying about with me. I next went to the nearest outfitter and purchased bedding and cooking utensils suitable for the voyage; and after seeing them placed with my other goods and chattels, I went back to the city and there engaged lodgings for a week at a coffee-shop in Cannon Street. My readers must not imagine me taking rooms in one of the grand restaurants in the splendid thoroughfare now known by that name. No, no! The Cannon street of that day - Little Cannon street I ought to say - was a very narrow and crowded thoroughfare, with scarcely room enough for two vehicles to pass. A perfect stranger in London, without a single friend or acquaintance to advise or direct me, save the Van-driver, I had to depend mainly upon my own discernment for the success of my arrangements. So far everything had proved satisfactory; but when engaging my sleeping apartment, not wishing to be suspected of doubting that I should be placed in a comfortable room, I did not ask to see it; and when the time came to retire, I found myself in what might be fitly described as a white-washed closet, seven feet long by five feet wide. I felt at once that I had been taken in; and, as I had both heard and read of terrible things being done in London, my foremost hope was that I should not be "taken-in-and-done-for." I got into bed, after placing my money in as secure a place as I could think of, but to sleep was impossible. Even if the rattle of vehicles in the street and the fancied noises in the house had not kept me upon the qui vive, the sultry weather of July in such a pent-up apartment was quite sufficient to prevent me falling into the arms of Somnus. Glad was I when the morning came, and thrice glad to find that no harm had befallen me. Should I pay for the engaged lodging, and seek elsewhere for a more comfortable room? No! I would try it another night, when, after an additional period of unrest, it might be that "Nature's sweet restorer, balmy sleep," would come to my relief. This second trial was made with complete success, and for the remainder of the term I traversed the to-and-fro of St. Catherine's Docks and Cannon street so frequently and so freely that I began to feel as much at home in mighty London as I had previously done in respectable Hastings. During the period of final preparation two large parcels had reached me from the latter town, one containing a quantity of choice seeds from Mr. Buchanan's Nursery, in the Old London ​road​, and the other consisting of new and second-hand clothes. Both of these parcels I had undertaken to carry along with me for the Messrs. Woods, in the far, far, west. Two young men of the name of Foster had also joined me from Fairlight Down, and had selected berths in the big ship immediately under mine. All was now ready for the emigrants and their luggage to be brought on board, and with some confusion, together with an equal amount of amusement, the work was effected. Were it even of the greatest, instead of the least importance to this story, I could not recall a tithe of those amusing episodes, but there is just one incident which, as having made on my own mentality an abiding impression, I will briefly relate. Among some live animals that were being put on board was a sturdy pig which a brace of swine-herds were unavailingly endeavouring to pull and to push up an incline of planks. The squealing of the animal attracted crowds of on-lookers both from the quay and from the deck; and just as there appeared a likelihood of the wayward squealer taking a leap into the water, a sailor sprang to the rescue with a shout of "Get away you landlubbers!" and then by a short tug at the curly tail, sent the hitherto obdurate specimen of porcinity galloping up the planks with a "Wheek, wheek, wheek!" In an instant the quadruped was among the bipeds, some of whom were screaming in turn as they backed out of the way and stumbled over sundry obstructions on deck.

At nightfall, passengers' heavy boxes and bales having been put down in the hold, and their lighter trunks and hampers ranged alongside of their berths, permission was given to the emigrants to sleep for the first time on board. I was one of the motley throng who descended the steerage steps for that purpose; and truly, methought, the scene was a strange one. My berth was the top shelf of a triple tier abaft the midships and beneath me were the two young men from Fairlight Down. Immediately opposite were three of the "Canadian Rebels," who had been brought to England to be tried, and whose sentence was that of banishment to the United States. One of these had lost a leg, and another had lost his left arm, but the latter, with his right hand, made some very clever sketches as he lay in an uppermost berth immediately under a deck-light. Very near to me, in the same range of berths, was a man of gigantic stature from Tunbridge Wells; and, sad to say!! he was as coarse in language as he was abnormal in size. Sheets, table-cloths and other household articles were put up as temporary curtains to screen one family group from another, but most of the 103 souls in that part of the ship retired to rest without undressing. Morning came with nothing strikingly noteworthy until, at a suitable state of the tide, a steam-tug came alongside to tow the huge craft out of the docks and on to the bosom of Old Father Thames. The passengers now crowded upon deck to take, it might be, a long or last farewell of their friends and acquaintances. There was a large number of spectators at the Dock-gates to witness the scene, and a hearty cheer from the multitude announced the moment of departure of the noble ship, with its living freight of young and old, sad and gay, from the land of their birth to the new one of their adoption. - It was an impressive sight, and even the most callous could barely fail at such a moment to wish a pleasant voyage, a safe arrival, and ultimate prosperity to the emigrants. Again, as the ship was towed out into the stream, hats were raised, handkerchiefs were waved, and a loud shout of farewell was given from the shore, which evoked a cordial response from the -