As my remarks on " Smugglers and Smuggling " will have particular reference to some transactions which occurred in the immediate neighbourhood of Hastings, it may not be amiss to give a brief description of its state at the period of which I am writing.
Hastings, now a fashionable watering place, and second to none in the kingdom, then consisted, mainly, if not entirely, of what is now called the Old Town," that is, that part lying between the East and the West Hills ; namely High Street and All Saints Street, and the streets along by the sea shore, as far as, and including George Street. George Street, however, is considerably altered, there are only fourteen houses that were there when was young, and there is only one person living in the street that lived there fifty years ago. Westward of George Street, very nearly all is modern : there were a few houses and ship-wrights' shops on the southern or sea side of the road ;-a stable and a stone-mason's yard where Pelham Arcade now stands ; a thatched house (where they sold gin) on the site of the present Castle Hotel, and nearly opposite, - a limekiln somewhat about where numbers 3 and 4 in the Square now are. The site of Wellington Square was a field ; close to the late Post-Office stood a building made of two boats, one keel upwards on the top of the other, this was called sometimes "the boat-house," sometimes " the ark;" two houses and -
