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us!" Such a terrible retort was this, that Pulford at once confessed his inability to continue the discussion, and so gave in to his more powerful, if not more logical antagonist. Such an argument would lose half its force in the present day, for St. Leonards can at least boast of a police-station. It is still true, however, that such of the St. Leonards people as may have an unconquerable desire to become inmates a “workus” cannot gratify that desire without going to the other side of Hastings.

Only three ratepayers of Magdalen Parish - A four horse Omnibus &c.

They cannot be lodged in a private house at the expense of the public, as was the custom in the last century, when the inhabitants were few and far between, and when, as in the parish of St. Mary Magdalen — the greater portion of which is now incorporated with St. Leonards — there were only three persons to pay the rates and only one to collect them, the latter being himself the overseer and the "only principal inhabitant."

In number 14 of My Father's Portfolio, edited by the Boy Brett, reference is made to the will of one Richard Roffe, a yeoman, bearing date 1781. Now to this said Richard Roffe, who, in an indirect line, was an ancestor of mine—was paid, in the year 1762, the sum of £3 as twelve months’ rent for a pauper named Roots. There was also paid £1 as a half-year’s rent for John Dunk. The overseer who paid the sums, as well as other sums for "jurneys" and payments at "sevril" times, was one Samuel Cramp, and the three ratepayers were himself, Sir Charles Eversfield, and Mr. Joseph Lingham. The last-named was, presumably, the father of “Old Ben” Lingham, of Hole Farm, with whom, it used to be said in my young days, the best of living could be had, upon "pickled pork, a foot thick." This triumvirate of ratepayers, at an assessment of 1/3 in the pound, contributed a sum of £10 5s. 74d., which enabled the said Samuel Cramp to pay the whole of the parochial expenses, with a balance of 10s. 44d. to the good. We are told that "union is strength," but I am afraid that with all our present systems of union and union houses we shall never have strength enough to bring back the cheapness of old times. Perhaps my readers would like to see a specimen of parochial diction and orthography of one-hundred-and-sixteen years ago; if so, it is here re-produced.

"Hastings As a Rate or Assessment on the Several Inhabitants of the parish of St. Mary Magdalen in the Liberty of the Town and port of Hastings a fore Said the Eighth day of September by me Samuel Cramp the only principal Inhabitant and overseer of the poor of the Said parish of St. Mary Magdalen by and with the consent of two of his Majesty Justice of the peace of the said Town and port where of one is of the Quorum for and Towards the necessary Relief of the poor of the Said parish for the purposes in the Several Acts of parliament relating to the poor being a Rate for Relief of the Said parish from the Seventh day June 1762 to Mich.s day at one shilling and three pence in the pound”

If it should appear that I sometimes diverge from the straight path of St. Leonards History, it is because the interests of the town are in many ways, so intimately blended with those of Hastings as to make it difficult to separate them. Thus in the ball described in the next chapter, as having taken place at Hastings there was a unity of two peoples and purposes. They met to do honour to the Liberal principles espoused by their candidate, as against what was then thought to be the Whigism or quasi-Liberalism of Messrs. North and Warre, the Representatives but recently elected and who were to take their seats in the first Reform Parliament a month later. It is no betrayal of secrets, however, to explain that the voters, with their wives, daughters, or sweethearts who formed the St. Leonards contingent of that merry company, were mainly those who resided eastward of the Archway, the majority of electors on the other side, through causes and circumstances which need not be stated, being swayed by a different political view or motive.

Having incidentally alluded to the first Reform Parliament which met on the 5th of February, 1833, at which St. Leonards - as included in the parliamentary borough of Hastings — was represented by Messrs. North and Warre, I may dismiss that allusion with the additional remark that one of the greatest Acts of that session of Parliament was the one which provided for the extinction of slavery in the British Possessions; and that one of the greatest losses of that year was the destruction of both Houses of Parliament on the 16th of October. But it may be mentioned that on the same 5th of February, when the great council of the nation assembled at St. Stephen’s, a more ordinary assembly welcomed to Hastings the arrival of Prince George of Cambridge, on a visit to his uncle and aunt, the Duke and Duchess of Cumberland. This royal Prince was but a youth of fourteen, yet his first visit to Hastings was witnessed by a greater number of persons than was his last visit, as Duke of Cambridge, 43 years later. As on the latter occasion he lost no time in taking a drive to St. Leonards, so on his former visit he honoured the St. Leonards people with his presence the first day after his arrival at Breeds place; that is to say, on Thursday the 6th of February.

A four-horse omnibus plied between St. Leonards and Hastings at this time, and although the distance over a heavy road, including the White-rock hill, was fully a mile and a half, the charge, if I remember rightly, was but sixpence for each passenger the whole of the distance. It was a well-appointed omnibus, and although it did not run every few minutes as the present omnibuses do, it made several journeys a day, and was well patronized. A praiseworthy innovation upon previous customs was made by the proprietary of this omnibus in a less amount of tight-fitting straps and other clothing for the horses. It was thus that persons of humane feelings sat behind the animals with greater comfort; and had such consideration for beasts of burden been more general and more lasting, there might never have been any occasion for a Society for the Suppression of Cruelty to Animals. When this omnibus service ceased, a few years later, much inconvenience was felt by persons who desired to get from one town to the other, although the St. Leonards tradesmen regarded it as being more a boon than a bane, because it lessened the facilities of intercommunication, and induced the public to make fewer purchases in the old town. It should be put on record, as a factor in the causation of jealous rivalry between the two towns, to which allusion has been made, that except under special circumstances, it has never been the custom for the East to purchase from the West, whilst it has always been the practice of the West to buy largely of the East. Perhaps it was the feeling engendered by this fact which, after the giving up of the omnibus service prompted those who were endeavouring to establish themselves permanently as tradesmen in St. Leonards to afford as little encouragement as possible to the two or three abortive attempts which were made to revive the said service. Then, too, as even in the present day, the omnibuses were not looked upon with a very favourable eye by proprietors of flys and other vehicles; for, although in those days one could not find a cab-stand at every turn, there were the proprietors of the St. Leonards, the Conqueror, the Harold, the Saxon, and the Sussex hotels ever ready to supply a carriage at short notice, whilst there was the all but ubiquitous riding-master, Edward Stevens, who could as promptly send out a horse or a carriage from, his several establishments at St. Leonards, at the Priory, and at Hastings.

An unfortunate episode in the career of Mr. Stevens was that during the time he held the St. Leonards Mews he not unfrequently quarrelled with a tipsomaniac wife, who resided over the stables which Stevens occupied close to the old Battery at Hastings. Whenever these family jars were of more than ordinary severity, two men (usually "Tawnser" Adams and "Jemmy" Hyland), one of them dressed in a woman's gown and bonnet, rode what was called the "Squimmington." They mounted a horse and with brushes, skimmers, brewer's grains etc., pretended to assault each other, at the same time mimicking the parties who were The subject of their burlesque, by repeating the words which the husband and wife were known to have used in their quarrel. This practice—which would not now be tolerated-whilst it amused the townspeople, gave the utmost publicity to the quarrels, and brought the parties under the ban of public opprobrium. One such scene was witnessed at St. Leonards in 1833; the horse which was used for the exhibition being the property of Mr. Burton, the founder of the town, and one which was ordinarily employed to drag up the three or four bathing-machines which St. Leonards then only possessed. The animal was taken from the stables with-out leave, and the men who had thus acted upon their own responsibility were sharply reprimanded by Mr. Burton; who, although admitting that he saw no great harm in riding a “Squimmington,” strongly objected to the authors of the burlesque taking his horse for such a purpose.

Thus dwelling on the existence of an omnibus service in the year 1833, reminds me that the coaches which ran through St. Leonards from Hastings to Brighton, and vice versa, were not infrequently taken advantage of to get “a lift” from one town to the other. The apparent distance of the two towns in those days was much greater than the space would be by actual measurement, there being no buildings between White Rock and the Saxon Hotel to relieve the weariness of a loose and rugged road, and a view of one town from the other being obstructed by projecting cliffs. Apropos, however, of the Brighton and Hastings coaches, the competition between them about that period was so severe that the fares came down to a shilling for a ride of forty miles. Even this was outdone by the proprietors of one of the opposition coaches offering a shilling to each passenger in addition to a free passage. The absurdity then ceased; for after enjoying the fun of it for a few days, the public found out that what they were expected to give the coachmen and porters was more than equal to the amount of a reasonable fare.

It was not by land only that there was competition in the means of conveyance, but by water also. Besides the annual regattas of that period, which were as well worthy of the name as any we have seen in later years, there were several spirited contests of a less pretentious character, but which excited even a greater amount of interest among the partizans of each side. They were, indeed, in a local sense, to Hastings and St. Leonards, what the University Boat-race has become to the country at large; and, strange as it may appear, politics had not unfrequently a good deal to do with them. There were several contests between the Tory galley John Bull and the Reform galley Elphinstone; and, be it remembered, the galleys in those days were not the fragile craft which as we now see have to he carried on to the water by their crews, instead of the crews being carried on to the water by the galleys. They were strong boats, and they were also swift boats when manned by about 70 stone of pluck and sinew. What native is there of over three-score-and-ten who does not remember something of those stalwart “American” oarsmen, the Cobbys, the Braziers, and others, who rowed in the Elphinstone? It was that boat which, on Wednesday, the 12th of June, 1833, was cheered to the echo by the St. Leonards people as it overhauled the Emma in a grand match which had been arranged by the backers of each competitor. The course was from the Battery at Hastings to the St. Leonards Hotel and back, the Elphinstone winning, after a gallant struggle, by a minute of time. Then, again, these spirited contests were not confined to the boats impelled with oars. For, in the same year, on the 14th of October, large stakes were deposited and many bets were ventured on a race with the Spring and Nelson. These were pleasure luggers and occasional pilot-boats. They sailed over a course of twelve miles, and I remember that the enthusiasm was intense when, after a splendid contest, with all the canvas set that could be carried, the Spring came in only a quarter_of a minute before its rival.

Riding Squimmington - Royal St. Leonards Archers - St. Leonards Commissioners

My allusion to the use of the skimmer and other domestic utensils by the men who rode ‘‘squimmington” for Mr. and Mrs. Stevens, has brought a reminder that by his workpeople, Mr. Stevens was known by the nick-name of “Skimmer.” Whether this doubtful honour was conferred upon him at -