Suicide at Guestling. The body of Mr. Henry Eaton, a sub-postmaster, 51 years of age, and well known at Hastings, was found in Snepp’s pond, near the White Hart inn, on the 25th of September. At an inquest held by Mr. Kell, coroner for the Rape of Hastings it was stated that the deceased had been in a low state of mind, had said that at Christmas he should not be alive, that people did not know what he suffered, that his brother died in a lunatic asylum, and that Mr. (surgeon) Ticehurst who had been consulted , held a private belief that Eaton would become insane.
There were several other deaths which necessitated the holding of coroner’s inquests, the record of which in this History is not desirable. But the foregoing instances, together with those described under the heading of “Accidents and Fatalities” are sufficient to show that the year 1861 was remarkable for its number of sudden deaths.
Public Entertainments
Biology. During the last week in February and the first week in March, lectures and practical illustrations on Biology were given in Hastings and St. Leonards by Messrs. Sheldon Chadwick and J. H. Powell. Much satisfaction was manifested by the audiences at the complete success of the “operations”, a number of persons being called on to the platform and made to do the bidding of their biological commanders, to the no small amusement of the company.
Metropolitan Sights, or A Week in London. Of this entertainment, the Hastings and St. Leonards News had the following remarks:- Mr. T. B. Brett’s fourth reading on this subject took place in the St. Leonards Mechanics’ Institution on Tuesday evening [Feb. 26th], and we must confess to having listened to it with more than ordinary pleasure. The ground traversed by the lecturer included the western portion of the Strand, Leicester square, St. James’s Park to Vauxhall Bridge, returning aqua as well as via Father Thames to “our lodgings in Cheapside.” The general character of the reading [and musical illustrations] was not quite so funny as the first, but much more utilitarian, and therefore much more likely to fulfil Mr. Brett’s design of being “useful to those who wish to spend a holiday in the Metropolis”. Commencing his day’s pleasures in “Commercial” London, Mr. Brett ably acted as cicerone to his hearers in visiting the following places, a short account of each of which was given, with historical and biographical sketches of persons and events of passing objects worthy of note:- Exeter Hall, with a sketch of Canon Dale’s lecture on “Underground London” (in which were noticed the Metropolitan Subterranean Railway, Thames Tunnel, Fleet Sewer, &c.). Thatched House Tavern; Franklin’s residence in Craven street; Covent Garden Market; and St. Paul’s (Covent Garden) Church; Lowther Arcade; Hungerford Market; Charing-Cross Hospital (built by Decimus Burton, of St. Leonards and London); Trafalgar -
