in anything but a sanguine strain. In his description of the Harold he says - "Every comfort, luxury and convenience have been fprovided for thiose who honour this delightful town with their company." He next says — "The Conqueror Hotel is indebted for its title to the same historical circumstance as the Harold; and wishing well to both of them, we would that in a short period its spirited proprietor could be able to exclaim with the Roman Conqueror, Veni, vidi, vici. Even if he should not meet with success, he will have done more—deserved it."
Erection of Shepherd Street, Cliff Cottages, Verulam Place & the first National Schools
Having mentioned Shepherd street as one of the earlier creations outside of Mr. Burton's boundary, I will here show how it came by its name. In anticipation of the general exodus of the squatters from the Priory-ground in 1835-6 — of which I shall have more to say hereafter — a Mr. and Mrs. Shepherd betook themselves to 16 Marina, where, as lodging-house keepers, they resided for several years. Mr. Shepherd purchased some plots of ground in the Warrior field, and erected two or three small houses thereon. By-and-by, when other houses were placed alongside, the honour was done to Mr. Shepherd, as the owner of the first property, of calling the place Shepherd street, which name it has retained ever since. Mr. Shepherd died in the year 1840, at the age of 70, and his wife died in 1850, at the greater age of 81. They were interred in the burial ground of St. Leonards Church, and on their memorial stone was inscribed - "They lived many years in perfect unity with each other, and died much beloved by all who knew them."
I have also referred to Verulam place as one of the erections of 1833. The builders or first owners of this handsome block of houses, as nearly as I can recollect or ascertain, were as follows :— No. 1 was built or bought by Mr. John Austin; No. 2 by Mr. John Hudson; No. 3 by Mr. Twisden; Nos. 4 and 5 were built by Messrs. Burchell and Knight, and owned by Mr. David Manser; No. 6, by Mr. Dives, for Mr. Hilder, of Rye, and tenanted by Mr. Nelson Andrews; No. 7, by Mr. Pilcher, and tenanted for many years by Miss Hancock; Nos. 9 and 10, by Mr. Phillips, and also owned by Mr. Manser. It is an apropos incident that another Mr. Manser had been in the habit of getting water from a spring on the site of Mr. David Manser's houses, and after conveying it over the White-rock hill in a budge, selling the same to the folk on the "American" Ground at a penny per pailful. When the cliff was excavated preparatory to the building of these houses, a number of coffins and a quantity of human remains were found by the workmen; thus showing, together with traces of ruins near the cliff just by, that it had been a place of burial in ancient times. As a souvenir of this discovery, the late Mr. George Voysey, a respected architect, had some of the skulls in his possession for several years. This was the second discovery of ancient burial places and remains of religious houses which the workmen had made along the cliff subsequent to the commencement of St. Leonards town. The first was near the Archway, and has already been described. But, almost within stone’s-throw of Verulam place the remains of a third religious edifice was discovered in a similar way, in the following year. This is probably what was anciently known as the Church of St. Michael. Perhaps it would be more correct to say that the finding in this case was the realisation of a previously entertained belief.
Years before that so-called discovery, I had been an occasional laundry-boy, and had dried clothes on Cuckoo-hill, and had fixed my line to a staple driven into a piece of old masonry that was understood to be the ruins of St. Michael’s-on-the-rock. There were, of course, no houses on that spot in those days, and only old Hastings people can at the present time imagine what Cuckoo-hill, together with its contiguous White-rock hill, Step-meadow lane, lime-kilns, etc., was like.
While on the subject of ecclesiastical remains, I may mention that at about the year 1878, a large number of human bones were found at Bohemia, close to an old wall on the Magdalen Charity Estate, and known to have been the ruins of an almshouse or hospital from which the parish, it is supposed, changed its name from that of St. Margaret's, "Thus, within five or six years from the commencement of St. Leonards by Mr. Burton, the pick and the shovel had revealed the hidden remains of no fewer than four religious houses and burial-places, all within the range of a mile.
In the same year—that is to say in 1833 - and on the 19th or 20th of March, one of his Majesty's revenue cutters - the Ranger I believe it was - captured at sea 120 tubs of contraband spirits, and passed St. Leonards with signal flying, to the roadstead off Hastings, whenee the same were landed by coastguard galleys at the Customs-house. About a fortnight later, namely, April 5th, the Hastings and St, Leonards smugglers were again unfortunate, they having allowed the Government officers to get hold of a waggon-load of tubs. On the same day The Coutts East Indiaman passed St. Leonards, and brought-up for a short time off Hastings, from which vessel Mr. Dudley North sent ashore for his aunt Milward a Cape sheep and a number of foreign fowls.
Dudley North- with whom, some ten years previously, St. Leonardensis had had many a romp in the garden, coach-house and "Old Martha's" apartments at Croft House - was brother to the late Frederick North, Esq. M.P., and his aunt Milward, who was afterwards Countess of Waldegrave, became a widow the same year - her husband, Edward Milward, Esq., having died in 1833.
It was also in the same year, and on the 21st of June, that a ship bound for Van Dieman’s Land, anchored off Hastings, and received on board a quantity of merchandize and other freight. This ship was commanded by Capt. Daniels, a favorite son of Mr. Thos. Daniels, of the Anchor Inn, Hastings, and who, at a subsequent date, was unfortunately drowned. I think it must have been on that occasion that a son of Mr. Foster, of the Priory Farm, set sail for the other side of the globe. I remember, seeing a large array of ploughs, harrows and other farming implements upon the beach, the said Mr. Foster after an unsuccessful career abroad, returning home, singing, as he rode into Hastings on one of the coaches, "There’s no place like home."
But as these associative reminiscences will be dealt with in chapter X, their more appropriate place, I will not stop here to give the details of the death of two children by burning at the Priory, nor the child similarly burnt on the Barrack Ground; nor will I describe tho(sic) rescuing a family from fire in High street, nor a second fire in High street soon after; nor the death of a Mrs. Hunter by falling into the fire in a fit the same evening; nor the application to the Board of Ordnance to extend the Marine parade by taking in the disused battery, of which Mr. Alderman Ross's father had been the Master-gunner; nor the déath of a poor-boy by falling from the East-cliff whilst taking birds’ nests; nor the burglary and robbery by Mike Wood at Mr. Hogsfiesh’s in West street; nor the burglary and robbery of money and valuables at Mr. Catley's; nor the finding and squandering of money by a man which had been buried by his transported brother; nor the commencement of the Hastings Waterworks; nor the suicides of George Gilmore by hanging at the Ship Inn, and of Coastguard Terry, of 38 Tower, by hanging in the Fishpond wood; nor of the death of a visitor by falling over the East cliff; nor the fracturing of an arm by a young gentleman falling a less distance over the cliff, and the breaking of a labourer’s leg on the same day. Nor will I stay to discuss the question of a harbour at the Priory which a Mayor's meeting took into consideration on the 2nd of April; nor the judiciousness or otherwise of selling the Theatre in Bourne street for a third of its cost, and converting it into a Wesleyan Chapel. I will not scant on the naming of the Prince George cutter at Ransom and Ridley's yard by Prince George of Cumberland; nor on the laying the foundation stone of the new Market by His Royal Highness; nor upon the generous donations of his father to charitable institutions and poor people.
I will now note that in 1833 a Fancy Bazaar was held in the St Leonards Assembly Rooms, by which means sufficient funds were realized to build the first National Schools of St. Leonards-on-sea. To these were attached the Sunday Schools which until then had been carried on in the Assembly Rooms, and which were first initiated at 36 Marina. The erection of the new schools did not, however, take place until the following year.
The National Schools were the first schools of a public character that were established in St. Leonards, and the first building that was specially erected for such schools was at St. Clement's place, at the top of East Ascent. It was completed in the year 1834, at a cost of about £270, and paid for with money that was realized by the fancy bazaar which was held at the St. Leonards Assembly Rooms in the preceding September. It was a long and rather low building, with less convenience and a meaner style of architecture than would suffice for the requirements of the present day; and certainly it would hold a very subordinate place if brought into comparison with the new Board schools at Silverhill, whose formal opening was taking place when this was first written in 1879, or with the larger and more ornate Board school at Tower road since opened. The old buildings for the St. Leonards National Schools now under review was entered by means of a small porch or lobby at the side overlooking the Undercliff houses, and from which a door at the right hand led into the Boys’ school and another at the left, admitted to the Girls’. The number of scholars at the time of opening was seventy, and for several years the building appeared to answer, although somewhat indifferently, the purpose for which it was designed. From what has already been stated, it will be understood that there had been previously a makeshift rendezvous for both secular and religious instruction, first at 36 Marina, and secondly in the crypt of the Assembly Rooms. It is shown in the Blue-book that the schools received a Government grant of £70 in 1836, but whether this was to pay off a balance due on the erection and fittings, or for some other purpose, I do not know. Mr. and Mrs. Edward Tebay were, I believe, the first master and mistress, and these were succeeded by Mr. Barnes and Miss Bulley.
Then in the Boys’ school there came another change, and about the year 1842, what with the difficulty of getting a competent master at the salary offered, and a change which had taken place in the ministerial arrangements of the church, the Boys’ school became disorganized, and for a week or two was actually closed. St. Leonardensis, who being at that time the pedagogue of a private establishment and a rather successful rival of the "National," was appealed to for help by a deputation consisting of Mr. Peerless and the temporarily officiating clergyman.
Disagreement of a parson and pedagogue - Deaths of old inhabitants
To successfully manage both a private and a public school at the same time appeared to be an impossibility, and to give up one for the other was at least undesirable; but, the importunities being repeated, an assistant was procured, and the attempt was made. The fugitive scholars were got together, the classes were arranged, and the whole thing was in a fair way of being re-organized, when an incident occurred which caused another collapse. The clergyman who was doing duty at the church pro tem., and who was also interesting himself on behalf of the school, entered the schoolroom as the first class was being exercised in Geography, and expressed his surprise that books on such a subject should be used in a school of that character. He then began to examine the boys in the Church Catechism, and finding them less ready in their answers than he thought they ought to be, requested an immediate discontinuance of the geographical lessons, and at the same time remarked that all that was required for boys in a parochial school to know was "how to read the scriptures, how to write a letter to their parents if they happened to be away from home, and how to cast up a few figures in arithmetic." In addition to that, however, he said, the most essential things to be learnt were the Church Catechism and the Collects, together with civility, obeisance and general good behaviour. He had noticed, he said, that not one of the boys made a bow to him when he entered the room. In the discussion which naturally followed between the master and the minister something on the one side was urged about the folly of educating poor boys above their station, and something on the other about the speaker himself having had, as a poor boy, to fight his way through all sorts of obstacles and difficulties to the position of a public instructor, he had naturally a sympathy for the poor boys who were coming after him, and thought that there should be no such restriction placed upon their educational training as was then pro-
