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made its first journey from Edlin’s Victoria Hotel at the beginning of June and was timed to be in London within seven hours, thus travelling at the rate of nearly nine miles an hour, including stoppages to change horses. At first it performed the up-journey on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, returning on the intermediate days; but after a few weeks, when the companion or duplicate coach was finished and other arrangements completed, the up and down journeys were performed daily. The appointments of the “Victoria” were said to be perfect in every particular; and it is probable that the builder was the late James Rock, sen., who at that time had a branch factory at St. Leonards, and was also one of the St. Leonards Commissioners.

Princess Victoria at St. Leonards - her Accession to the Throne

The appellation of the new coach reminds me that I have something more to say of the royal lady whose name was thus complimentarily appropriated and whose loyal reception by the people has been already described. The illustrious Princess and her mother frequently took carriage and walking exercises during their sojourn, and were highly spoken of for their friendly bearing towards the gentry, and for the absence of all ostentation when having to converse with persons of inferior grade. They not infrequently paid a visit to the better sort of shops - what at that time were a few in number - and amongst the establishments thus honoured was Mr. Southall’s Library, which was inspected on the 28th of January by the Duchess of Kent, the Princess Victoria, Sir John Conroy, Lady Flora Hastings, and the Baroness Letzen. Of course, the distinguished visitors expressed their pleasure at the attention shown them; and, as may be imagined the establishment which had been successively known as Eber’s Library and Southall’s Library, at once changed the simple appellation for the more pretentious name of the “Royal Victoria Library,” mounting at the same time the Royal Arms, which have continued to this day. The royal ladies and their suite usually attended service at the St. Leonards Church, the only one then in existence west of Pelham Crescent, and on one or more occasions the ministers who officiated were the Dean of Chester and the Rev. D. Shuttleworth. On Wednesday the 14th of January, a grand dinner party was given by their Royal Highnesses, to which were invited some of the nobility and gentry of both towns.

During the royal sojourn, a boy named Leppard, who worked on Mr. Deudney’s farm, was presented with a new shilling for having answered some questions put to him by the Princess Victoria. He was afterwards offered half-a-crown for the small coin which had just come from royal hands; and although he rejected the offer, he subsequently confessed to having spent the shilling as he would have done an ordinary one. This boy at a later period took what is called the “Queen’s shilling,” and served as a soldier in different parts of the world. He ultimately returned to St. Leonards, and related some of his adventures and escapes to his former employers; but he is not now, as far as I know in the land of the living.

It was at 9.30 on the morning of Thursday, the 29th of January, that the royal party took their departure from St. Leonards, to the regret of both residents and visitors to whom they had endeared themselves by their courteous demeanour, their general kindness, and their many acts of benevolence. One general wish was expressed that their Royal Highnesses would come again when the new roads and parades then forming were finished, and when the town could exhibit an aspect of greater completeness. This hope was never realised as regards those royal personages, although many members of the Royal Family have since honoured the town with their presence.

The Duchess of Kent and Princess Victoria, who became patrons of the St. Leonards Archers in December, 1834, jointly, in 1835, presented an embroidered banner, designed by the Princess; and also presented the Victoria Challenge Prizes, which was afterwards annually competed for. The Duchess continued a patron until her death, in March, 1861, and her daughter, as Princess or as Queen, from 1834 till 1876. The winners of the Victoria Prizes in 1835 were Miss Simpson and Mr. Fleetwood, M.P.

When first writing this History I had occasion to notice the contemporary deaths of several aged persons who were among the first inhabitants, and another of such whose demise occurred in 1879 was Mary, the wife of James Drury. Her death took place on the 19th of March, in her 76th year. Previously to her marriage she had held service in the family of Mr. Burton, the founder of the town.

Mrs. Anna Maria Cooper, another old inhabitant died on the 15th of the same month, at her residence Walland’s Lodge. She was the widow of Joseph Sidney Cooper, Esq., and the mother of the late Mr. de Brabant Cooper Major of the Cinque Ports Rifles. She was also a daughter of Mrs. Roe, of whom I had knowledge as far back as 1824, and of whose choice patterns of fancy-needlework, still in my possession, I sometimes look upon with almost childish admiration.

Mrs. Roe kept a fancy repository adjoining the “New Warm Baths” in the Fishmarket at a time when that district from Commercial Road to the Battery was more a place of business than even George Street, occupied as it was by butchers fishmonger, poulterers, drapers, tailors, hatters, and bankers. It was at 1 East Parade, opposite to the Battery that the mother of Mrs. Cooper removed her fancy repository after that house, adjoining Mr. Cooper’s Library, had been vacated by the Hastings, Hailsham, and Ticehurst Union Bank, the proprietors of which were Messrs. Mitchell, Milles, Ward & Co. When the husband of Mrs. Cooper retired from business at Hastings, he invested his capital in the erection of the first houses on the east side of Warrior Square, to which were given the name of Belgravia. He was a man of refined taste; and as an active member of the St. Leonards Mechanics’ Institution, his services were conspicuously valuable when the said institution in 1853 held an extensive and unique Exhibition at the St. Leonards Assembly Rooms. Mrs. Cooper survived her husband’s death a considerable number of years, and at her own death had attained to the age of 81. It was but a few weeks before her death that the old lady called on me, specially, as she said, to say Good-bye! and to wish me and my family well; as, in all probability, it would be her last opportunity. This mark of respect from one who was apparently in her usual health, but who was destined so soon to quit an earthly sphere, seems of peculiar significance.

Turning back from a slight digression in noticing the deaths of two old inhabitants, I find myself once more confronting the fact that in 1835 the Duchess of Kent and the Princess Victoria as patrons of the St. Leonards Archers, jointly presented the Victoria Challenge Prizes which were competed for annually over a period of 44 years. And, as the name of the highest lady in the land had been thus associated with St. Leonards both before and during her long and conspicuously good reign, I deem it not amiss to briefly notice a few events embraced by the period between her Majesty’s residence amongst us, and the 24th of May, 1879, when the Queen’s 60th birthday-anniversary was celebrated, not only by the Queen’s St. Leonards Archers, but also, with more than the usual demonstrations in all parts of the British Empire and in countries other than our own. The sixth decade of the Sovereign’s life was seized upon by her subjects for celebration as though it resembled the end of one chapter and the beginning of another. As Princess Victoria, the Royal lady left St. Leonards when she was approaching her sixteenth year, and as Queen Victoria she commenced her reign when she had but just matured her eighteenth. That the sixtieth birthday of a monarch who had swayed the Sceptre of England for forty-two years should be heartily commemorated is, in the nature of things, not so very wonderful an event.

Mighty changes had come over the continent of Europe since the celebration of Her Majesty’s natal-anniversary ten years before, whilst the foundations of her own throne had remained unshaken. One saw no special reason why the Queen should not rejoice with her people even when another decade had been added to the past, and before which epoch, the Jubilee year of her reign would have arrived. When Her Majesty first saw the light in 1819, the long reign of her grandfather was at length coming to a close. It had been drawn out over a period corresponding exactly with the number of years in which the present Queen of England and Empress of India had lived. If we assume that a sovereign ascended the throne in 1819, the year of the “Peterloo Massacre,” or nearly half a generation before the passing of the Reform Act, and still in possession of that throne such assumption will afford us some idea of what the reign of George III was like as to its duration.

Sixty years when represented by mere numbers, may seem but a brief span, but in truth there is a great gulf fixed - a chasm, scarcely measurable by time, between 1760, when as a young man, the Third George ascended the Throne, and 1820, when the demented King bade adieu to everything terrestrial. When her present Majesty was born, two entire generations had passed away since her grandfather declared in his first speech in Parliament, “Born and educated in this country, I glory in the name of Briton.” The German partialities of the first and second Georges had been rather too conspicuous to please the English people; so that the new King’s declaration was highly satisfactory. With three-score years of rule before him, it could hardly be otherwise than that they should embrace many events of great importance.

Our American colonies declared themselves independent, and erected themselves into the mighty republic known today as the United States; the French Revolution swept away one of the proudest and most ancient monarchies of Europe; and we had engaged in a war with France, which lasted three-and-twenty years. All this time the reign of George III continued, and his Jubilee was celebrated in 1809 and 1810 by only a very small portion of those who remembered his accession. An infant in 1760 might be a grey-headed man half-a-century afterwards and would know nothing of the rejoicings which had welcomed the new King to the Throne. After the Jubilee, however, George III was but little seen, although nominally his reign extended over another decade of years. The malady by which he had been attacked rendered it impossible for the aged monarch to take part in public affairs; and for ten years, wandering from room to room of his palace, the light of reason gone, the old King presented a melancholy contrast to the energy and vivacity of his youth.

In 1819, when Victoria was born, the flickering life of her regal grandsire was well-nigh extinguished, and in a few months thereafter it had altogether vanished. Then came to the throne the Prince Regent, who for ten years had practically exercised the duties of sovereignty; but as he was sixty years old, it was barely possible that his reign could be a long one. It lasted just a decade, and then his younger brother, the Duke of Clarence, took the crown and sceptre at the mature age of 65. Here again, the demands of Nature were against a long reign, and that of William IV was only seven years. Early in the morning of the 26th of June, 1837, there was a voice heard in Windsor Castle - “The King is dead! Long live the Queen!” The prayer of the herald, as it fell upon the ears of those assembled in the palace on that find summer morning, has been answered, “Long live the Queen!” Fifty-nine years have passed since the echoes of that voice resounded through the corridors and passages of the stately castle where the remains of the departed King lay; and the Queen is still amongst her people.

The maiden of eighteen is the great-great-grandmother, of seventy-seven. The hair, no longer auburn, has become whitened in the service of the State. It was a wondrous change for the people to have a young sovereign after a succession of aged kings. What matter of surprise then that tumultuous acclamations hailed the coming of the youthful Queen to the throne? Many who are still amongst us can remember that stirring time; can hear again, in imagination, the ringing of bells and the firing of cannon; can recall the proclamations in the market places of the towns; can hear the lusty cheers; can rehearse the eager expressions of hope; and can pass in review he bright anticipations.

There were none in St. Leonards in 1835 who did not wish long life and happiness to the youthful Princess who had then taken her departure after a three months’ sojourn; and there could have been but a few in the whole world, if any, who in 1837, did not wish that the life of the new Sovereign might be as cloudless as the summer sky outstretched above them, and as full of cheerfulness as the rays of the meridian sun, then at their longest. Tennyson wrote of the “fierce light which beats upon the throne,” and there can be no doubt whatever of the truth embodied in the sentiment. That fierce light has been shining upon the Queen during the long period of sixty years, amid the strife of parties, and the bitterness of sects. May it continue-