Reuben May, the Chapel keeper at St. Mary’s, fractured an arm and bruised his body by falling from a ladder whilst lighting the gas in the portico.
Providential Escape. Instead of passing under the scaffold where a house, 22 George street was being erected, two ladies passed outside just as the scaffold broke down and precipitated two workmen to the ground, causing one of them a severe wound on the head. A similar providential escape once occurred to the present writer. It was his business every morning to go to the West Marina, when he invariably passed from the Victoria Hotel to the footpath at 47 Marina; but on one particular morning, for no conceivable reason, he turned outside the pillars that support the colonnade just at the instant when several hundred-weight of hard plaster detached itself and fell to the ground.
Mr.“Curly” (William) Taylor, late of the Rising Sun was, on the 20th of May, standing against Mr. Bourner’s? shop in George street, when a horse and cart were suddenly swung round by a mourning coach colliding with the cart, the shafts of which pinned the aged man to the wall and caused him serious internal injury.
Fatal Accidents at Sea. On the 17th of December, while Edward Ramson, aged 17, was reefing a sail on a Dover brig, he fell overboard and was drowned. He was a son of George Edward Ransom of 123 All Saints street. Three days later, Henry Brazier, of Bourne Walk, aged 27, was knocked over by the boom of the Harbinger schooner, and drowned.
A Curious Explosion. An accident , unattended by injury, but causing some amusement, occurred on the 2nd of June, when a puncheon of yeast suddenly burst, with a loud report in front of Government House.
A Monster Egg. Whether by accident or design must be left to conjecture, but on the 28th of December, a hen belonging to the Rev. Robert West, of Pett, produced an egg the size of which was 9 inches by 7¾. Perhaps she intended it for Christmas, but got too late. The hen, however, was not more notorious and eccentric than was afterwards her owner, for which see page 201.
Dinners (Private and Public)
The Mayor C. Clift, Esq.) gave a dinner on the 13th of January to the Recorder (W. W. Attree), and the Borough and County Magistrates.
The Swan Hotel Tradesmen’s dinner on the 13th of January was attended by about fifty persons engaged in commercial pursuits.
The “Royal Oak” Tradesmen’s dinner, by Mr. Yates, on the 16th of Feb. was well attended and the provender unexceptionable.
The Trade-protection dinner, on the 16th of March, was held, as usual, at the Kings Head, with G. Scrivens’s Esq in the chair and Mr. Womersley in the vice-chair.
The Whitsuntide festivities were celebrated with an apparent zest, greater than ever. About 2,000 persons were brought in by railways and the members of the several clubs paraded the town in large numbers. The “Old Friendly” -
