all every house had St. Leonards in the lease and deeds [Cheers]. He (Mr. Ross) had not heard, except from sources like that, that almost every house in the district had got St. Leonards in the deeds. If they had, it was principally among the clients of Mr. Beecham. He did not believe any other lawyer in the borough would put down St. Leonards. The whole of the voters this side of the Archway could be disenfranchised if any litigious person liked to do it, because Mr. Beecham had put them in St. Leonards instead of the borough of Hastings. [By the same parity of reasoning all the marriages at Mr. Hume's church would be null and void, because they were registered as at St. Mary Magdalen's, St. Leonards.] There had been a great deal of talk about the feelings of the inhabitants, but if they were to go along the whole length of the district in question, the Council would find, he believed, that they had got the majority of the holders of property in their favour. [What a mistake the Council must have made in not securing that majority before all but about five or six of the owners and occupiers had appealed to the proprietors of the two St. Leonards Visitors Lists not to have their names placed as the Town Council desired. There were three owners of property in Eversfield-place who were residents of the old town - namely Winter, Vidler and Bromley, and these were three members of the Council who, at their own sweet will were going to make Hastings of a long-existent St. Leonards. It is surmised that the Council would have had a difficulty in naming any other Hastings owners or holders of property in that district of the same way of thinking as themselves. Even a tenant or Mr. Winter's (Mrs. F. Gausden) was opposed to the views of her landlord]. It was decidedly right, continued Ald. Ross that Hastings should have a postal delivery as far as the Archway. If St. Leonards had a general post-office he had no objection to their keeping it, except that it was unjust to the country at large. [Surely "the country at large" ought to have been very grateful to the Hastings Alderman for his desire to see justice done to "the country at large"; but how does the "no objection" square with previous statements?] St. Leonards had been at a stand-still for the last ten years, during which time there had been hardly a house built along the front; the building had been on the east side of the Archway [Although Mr. Ross intended the last remark to apply to the part of St. Leonards over which the Commissioners had jurisdiction, even in that he was decidedly incorrect; for, during that period, there had been no fewer than 20 of the largest mansions erected westward of 81 Marina - viz. 72 to 78 in 1749; 79 to 82 in 1853; 89 to 91 in 1857; 128 and 129 in 1853; and 130 to 133 in 1855. A little latitude is allowed for exaggerated statements during the warmth -
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From Historical Hastings
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