flat-topped rocky eminence which is separated by a deep trench from the castle that it overlooks? The name must certainly have been derived from the chapel and college of St. Mary, founded in the castle in very early Norman times. The “Lady's Parlour” has a kind of rampart on two sides of its level, softly turfed area, a rampart that has every appearance of being artificial, and that pleasantly screens the “ Parlour” from cold winds, Is it too far-fetched a supposition that the canons conceived the “happy thought” of naming this pleasant resort of theirs “Our Lady's Parlour”? I fear that the name is disappearing even from the guide books; but the boys and girls who in former times made the place their favourite playground will never forget it.
In the early decades of this century, when Hastings had been only recently discovered by men of taste and genuine love of the beautiful in nature, the settlers there as well as the visitors were such as could, and did, appreciate the unspoiled features of the place. They lived there — not as many now do - because they could get there the same social life as in London plus the sea air, but because they could get there an indescribable but very tangible something which was the antithesis of town life, a something which appealed perhaps more strongly to the cultured mind of a generation or two ago than to the more artificially-cultured mind of to-day. There are such men and women living there to-day, but they are as a rule to be found in those parts of the town which retain most of the Hastings of old, and their presence — as I have already said — exercises a scarcely appreciable influence upon the general character of the place..
In giving my reminiscences of people, it behoves me to be chary of mentioning names which are not already public property. It must be understood, therefore, that the names I mention are representative of quite a little community of men and women many of whom might, had circumstances or ambition impelled them, have also made their names public property. ‘The virtues and talents which made these locally honoured were of a similar quality to those of their more famous relatives and friends. ‘The indefinite social community which I have in mind was composed in part of residents, and in part of visitors who either remained in the town a long time or frequently returned to it, and who associated with the residents much more intimately than it is now the custom for seaside visitors to do,
Among the residents were the Norths, whose name was familiar to me from my infancy as a “household word.” As descendants of the Dudley Norths they held Rougham in Norfolk; but they spent most of their time in their pleasant residence in -
