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Jealousy Taunts - Lamentation of Euthymus - The Season's Amusements

The Infirmary at the White Rock, as heretofore shown, was the outcome of the united efforts of both towns, and it was gratifying to find at a meeting on the 18th of January, 1842, that the £867.12s of the preceding year had reduced the debt of the establishment to £96.15.10d. With the object of clearing off the balance as well as to meet the current expenses, the committee were desired to promote a fête champetre in August and in the mean time to write to every clergyman in the rape of Hastings, expressing a hope that they would kindly exert themselves in behalf of the funds. With what good results will be seen in the next year's report.

The great difficulty experienced by the St. Leonards Commisioners in obtaining loans frequently made that governing body the object of sport among the quidnuncs of the older town, where an unconcealed jealousy continued to spring from a mistaken notion of imperilled interests. But the taunts were sometimes returned with interest when the Hastings folk were ironically questioned about their own Commissioners. The force of this rejoinder may be seen in the fact that at the same time the Hastings Commissioners were similarly advertising for money, and the only response to their appeal was by a St. Leonards tradesman. On the 4th of July the Clerk reported that only one offer had been received in reply to the advertisement for £150 at 44 per cent., which was from Mr. Newton Parks, of St. Leonards. This offer was at once accepted. At a later meeting of the Hastings Commissioners (Sept. 5th), the clerk reported that he had advertised for sums of money in the Times and the Sussex Express, and no offers had been received.

Mr. Ross expressed an opinion that further efforts ought to be made, and that some of the Liberal papers ought to be patronised jn the matter of advertisements. Mr. Joseph Brown concurred in Mr. Ross's views, and a motion was carried to that effect. This want of money and other considerations weighed so heavily on the Commissioners’ minds that when Mr. Henbury, the collector of coal-tickets at the Hastings-hill gate applied for his salary to be raised, from 5s. to 6s. per week, the increase could not be granted. It was stated that although the loss on the scavenger's account, owing to an improved system, had only been £6 during the last year, the loss had previously averaged £105 per year. Like the St. Leonards Commissioners, the Hastings board were unable to form the much-desired sinking-fund. Also their advertising in the Liberal papers gave them no greater success; for at a meeting on the 4th of October the Clerk reported that no offers had been received of a £2,400 loan through the advertisement in the Brighton Guardian.

The indications in chapter XXVII of a want of reciprocity between the two towns in matters of amusement was ascribed - perhaps without much foundation for its truth - to the old-town sacerdotal influence of the period. Races, balls, and other amusements of a similar kind, were exclaimed against from the pulpit, and these denunciations were actively abetted by certain members of the lay community who thereby obtained for themselves the not very enviable appellation of Mauworms.

"If," said a writer in a county paper, "These Mauworms would only reflect that St. Leonards, even more than Hastings, depends for its existence on the presence of visitors, ‘and that those visitors expect to have the means of amusement provided for them, they would perhaps pause in their efforts - which, after all are futile - to drive the said into churches and meeting-houses at all times and in all seasons, the effect of which is only to drive them away from the town." Whether the "Lamentations" of Euthymus in the Sussex Express were founded on the active influence of the so-called Mauworms, I will not attempt to decide, but leave my readers to judge for themselves when they have read the following effusion :—

“Dear Hastings, that was once so full,
Has now beeome uncommon dull,
The reason I can’t tell ;
Unless all invalids agree
The air of the unbounded sea
Has ceased to make them well.

The lodging-houses everywhere,
From Fairlight Hill to Castle Square,
Extending on to Pett,
Present a most distressing view,
So desolate and empty too;
'Apartments to be let.'

The Band that last year sweetly play’d
Upon the throng’d Marine Parade -
Eliciting much praise—
I fear this year will only find
As much attention as the wind,
Or when a donkey brays.

The tottering baths on ponderous wheels,
Where 'gents' could wash their heads and heels,
And swim, if they were able,
And flys that formerly yon’d meet
On hill or dale, or in the street,
Are snug in shore or stable,

The tradesmen are as civil quite,
And Boniface much more polite,
And provender is cheap;
And though the fish are somewhat scarce,
And reading-rooms are quite a farce,
A harvest still they reap.

But strangers I should like to see,
Drawing their purses frequently,
To benefit the town;
And purchasing from every shop,
From leg of lamb to mutton chop,
From silk to satin gown.

Perhaps the season’s not set in,
Or visitors are short of tin,
And that’s the reason only;
Or else they've found some other place,
Which suits as well their lungs to brace,
And makes sweet Hastings lonely.

'Tis true to Brighton they may go
By rail as swift as any crow,
But lodgings there are dear ;
Where Royalty has spread her wings
You can’t expect to get cheap things -
The peasant or the peer,

Is it because the London cits
Have lately almost lost their wits
About their sovereigns, light;
And so remain in smoky town
Until the Sovereign of the Crown
Has set their money right?

Now, West, the landlord of the Anchor,
Will promise to become their banker
(On which he has a bet),
Provided they, with sovereigns light,
Frequent his house by day or night,
To drink his heavy wet.

Another month, I hope to find
The town of Hastings not behind
The Isle of Wight or Brighton ;
And if Euthymus then is here,
To see the visitors appear,
Depend on it he'll write on."

That in the comparative absence of visitors at both towns in the month of June there was all the dulness(sic) that Euthymus described I could not venture to doubt, nor would I deny the disappointment: felt by tradesmen and lodging-house keepers that the coach communication which commenced on the 23rd of May between St. Leonards and the South-Eastern Railway at Tunbridge Wells had not as yet brought them the benefits that had been expected. But if I skip over a period of two months and lead my readers into the second week of August - the week which in a series of years immensely surpasses all other weeks of the year for an influx of visitors - I shall be able to show that the "Lamentations" of Euthymus were somewhat premature From that date, throughout the autumn and winter, the town of St. Leonards and its elder sister Hastings were remarkably full of good families, and the fact was regarded as some sort of proof that although the South-Eastern railway was still 30 miles distant, and the Brighton railway 40 miles, they both contributed to the altered condition. But perhaps the most important factor in the calculation was the great reduction which had been made in the rents of houses and apartments, Knowing that Brighton and Tunbridge Wells were both in direct communication with London, and seeing that Hastings and St. Leonards were more than usually unfilled even for an off-season, the owners and occupiers mutually accepted the seeming necessity to lower the rents to nearly half what they had previously been as an inducement to a migratory public to travel farther and fare better.

Whatever might have been the cause, the effect was undoubted, The town was full of visitors, and amongst them were Lord and Lady de Tabley, Gen. Sir E. and Lady Paget, Rt. Hon. Sir Joseph and Lady Littledale, Sir J. and Lady Hanbury, Col. the Hon. Douglas Pennant and family, Lord Marsham and family, the Marchioness Cornwallis, Lord Faversham, Dowager Countess Sefton, Lady Shadwell, Lady Clomel, the Marquis and Marchioness of Hastings and suite, Lord Henry Hastings, and many other distinguished families.

In a newspaper paragraph of that date, the townspeople were gratulated uponthe returning tide of prosperity, as well as upon the efforts put forth to provide innocent recreation and rational amusement. It said

It is gratifying that the town towns are recovering something of their former gaiety, and that the amusements are likely to be carried on in the spirit which was wont to enlighten the favoured and fashionable watering place in olden time.

The writer had probably his mind’s eye upon an anterior period of some five-and-twenty years, or say from 1815 to1828, when amusements, more than politics, occupied the minds of the people, and, when the old town of Hastings could boast of more aristocratic visitors than it has ever been able to do since the passing sing of the Reform Bill. It will probably come in my way to give proof of this hereafter, but for the present I will confine myself to the narration of a few more of the amusements of 1842. In addition to, the Archery balls, the Race balls, and Assembly-room balls alrendy referred to, there were Mr. Hart's annual ball, a Regatta ball, the Christmas ball, Mrs. Lushington's balls and suppers, and a ball and supper given by Mr. and Mrs. Hollond, the last-named on the 24th of September, two nights after the annual rages at Bopeep. There were also frequent races.on the water, some of which may be here described.