Declare, quite emphatic, you ought and you must
Give up all you've got to the old Hastings man.
Odds and Ends
Under the this(sic) heading the following paragraphs are also copied from the St. Leonards Gazette and Visitors' Vade Mecum of Dec. 19th, 1857.
"Extraordinary Phenomenon - Nine-tenths of the St. Leonards people having been compelled to become residents of Hastings during the advent of Christmas, were so debilitated by the sudden change of air, that it was found necessary that it was found necessary(sic) to restore them to their own atmosphere with all posible promptitude."
"Sudden Fright. - It is said - with how much truth we know not that several highly respectable families at Eversfield place, on hearing that their place of residence had changed its geographical position, were so alarmed at the fact of their having no longer an abiding place, that messengers were despatched with all haste to the Archway, to secure as many inside dwellings as the pressure from without would admit of."
"Wonderful, if True! - a report has got abroad that in order to check the growing properties of the fat boy of St. Leonards, who has grown too big for his clothes, a Grand Council was held and resolutions passed that he be beaten with many stripes and that the instrument to be used should be a coach-whip from the White Rock bazaar. In carrying the resolution into effect, however (so the story runs), the 'Ghost of the Old Commission' suddenly and unexpectedly made its appearance on the site of the old Priory Bridge, where it arrested their progress, and frightened them out of all propriety."
"A New Town - It having been discovered that St. Leonards-on-sea is a misnomer, it is proposed to remove the newest, largest and most valuable portion to Hastings, there to be used up as occasion may require. The remaining portion - which will be very small - is to have a mil(e)stone hung round its neck and cast into the sea, where it will form the nucleus of a new town, which, when of sufficient size, will assume its rightful title of St. Leonards-in-sea. The work is to be executed by a joint-stock company (limited liability), whose offices are at the Hastings Town Hall."
"What Next? - A pun my word, things are coming to a pretty pass! Mile's Boy has set it about that at recent meeting of Councillors, down-east, in consequence of Winter having come among them, it as so bitterly cold that some of 'wissages' were quite blue; but the thought of a little nose-pulling, and the prospect of a good roasting at the expense of the western coal-merchants - for which they had a burning desire - quite -
