that but for the humane character of their captors, the plea set up by these night-birds of having to go to a dance could hardly have sufficed to save them from that unutterable fate which is due to every owl that plucks the plumes of a 'Peacock' or pecks at the bill of 'Growse', notwithstanding that old birds are not to be caught with chaff".
Letter to the Postmaster General
The word Growse used above was the name of the Town Clerk, who wrote to the Postmaster-General (the Duke of Argyll) as follows:-
"Dec. 7th, 1857.
My Lord Duke -
At a meeting of the Council of the Borough of Hastings, held on the 4th day of December, instant, the following resolutions were passed:-
"Resolved that the calling the town of Hastings by any other name than its proper name is injurious to its best interests as a watering place, and that this Council do agree that all that portion of the Borough of Hastings which lies to the east of the Archway, which is the boundary of the township, shall henceforth be styled Hastings, and the names of streets and places be written up accordingly.
Resolved that the foregoing resolution be forwarded to the Postmaster General, requesting him to take into his serious consideration the necessity of making an alteration in the postal regulations of this borough, and that there should be only one General post-office for the whole of the borough. The reason of the last resolution being passed is because there is great confusion in the delivery of letters owing to a certain portion of the Borough being styled St. Leonards, which is quite wrong, as all the property on the east side of St. Leonards archway is strictly Hastings, and nothing can be legally shewn to the contrary. Therefore the Council intend for the future to have all that portion of the borough on the east side on the east side of the archway and which is not included in the township of St. Leonards by Act of Paliament, called Hastings.
The Council therefore desired me to ask your lordship to make an alteration in the postal regulations, and to make only one general post-office for the whole borough, and so to reguate the delivery of letters that all those directed to any houses on the east side of the archway should be directed Hastings.
Robert Growse
Town Clerk."
In the above letter to the Postmaster-General, Mr. Growse expressed the views of the Council as embodied in the resolutions, and wrote, as in duty bound, agreeably to instructions, but at a later date when discussing the question with some St. Leonards people in a friendly manner at the British Hotel, he admitted that he personally differed from those views, and had privately told the members of the Council that if their -
