ions of the British empire. She was welcomed to the throne with extraordinary enthusiasm, and this is not at all to be wondered at. A young sovereign had been unknown in these realms during more than three-quarters of a century. When George III. died at the age of 82 his eldest son was verging on 60. When George IV. died at the age of nearly 70, his brother and successor came to the throne at the mature age of 65, the number of years now reached by her present Majesty. Therefore, when the heralds proclaimed on a fine June day in 1837 ‘ The King is dead! Long live the Queen!” it may well be understood that the substitution of a young girl for a race of old and decripit(sic) kings, was greeted with shouts of acclaim. By far the greatest proportion of those who then swelled the chorus of approbation have passed “ to where beyond those voices there is peace.” The Queen remains a dignified and stately figure, looking down upon the ever-varying panorama of life outspread before her. On the day when she was sworn in as sovereign of these realms she subscribed the oath that she would govern according to the Constitution of the kingdom, and this obligation bas been faithfully kept. Many have been the complexions of the administrations from the time of Lord Melbourne
to that of Mr. Gladstone Lord Salisbury, But while Queen Victoria has always been a constitutional Sovereign, it may also be truly said, that ”Length of days is in her right hand, and in her left hand riches and honour!”
Great Snowstorms in February and March - Frost and Snow in May
1847
A meeting of the St. Leonards ratepayers was convened on the first of February to elect new commissioners in consequence of the disqualification through non-attendance of Robert Hollond, Esq. M.P., Dr. Harwood, the Rey. J. C. Leslie, Mr. W. Waghorne, G. F. Jarman, Esq., Mr. C. Deudney, and Mr. J. Rock. The result was the re-election of Mr. Hollond, Dr. Harwood and Mr. Jarman, and the election of Rev. G. D. St. Quintin, and Messrs. T. Adams, J. Mann, and G. A. Murton, Dr Harwood and Mr. Jarman, however, declined to act, and Mr. Murton, withdrew on the plea of not having sufficient property. Messrs. Adams and Mann qualified. The Commissioners’ meeting having immediately followed the ratepayers’ meeting, the first business of the Board was to appoint William Smith to the office of Coal Meter, and to order that keys of the fire-engine house be kept at the “Horse and Groom” and the “Coach and Horses,” and that notice of the same be painted up. The Clerk reported that Mr. Carey had completed the raddle (hop-pole) groyne and that certain drains were again defective in the West Marina, the latter making it necessary to employ Mr. Walter Inskipp, who had prepared a plan of drainage from the Sussex Hotel to the Haven, west of the town. The Rev. G. D. St. Quintin regretted that he was legally disqualified to sit as a Commissioner, but would suggest the advisability of placing a flight of steps from the parade to the beach on the west side of the confectioner’s shop [afterwards reading-room of the Victoria Library]. The Gas Company’s offer was accepted to light the public lamps during the summer at 2d. per lamp per night. At the next meeting of the Board, June 25th, which was as usual at the Victoria Hotel, with Mr. Alfred Burton presiding, it was resolved to accept Mr. Woodgate’s tender of £3 14s., in preference to Mr. Carey’s of £3 12s., for constructing wooden steps from the parade to the beach; also to permit Mr. Viner (grocer) as far as they had power, to enclose his house at the east end of the Colonnade same as Mr. Brown (wine-merchant) had done at the west end. Mr. T. Skinner having complained of the assessment of the Upper Mews, lately purchased by him, it was resolved that the amount be reduced from $100 to £80. Also that Miss Dynely be rated at £90 for the privilege of connecting a drain with the Commissioner’s sewer. Messrs Hughes and Hunter's tender of £57 158, was accepted for paving with York stone from 105 to 116 Marina, with the understanding that the house proprietors pay one third of the expense. The Clerk was directed to call attention of the trustees of the St. Leonards and Sedlescomb road to an encroachment above the North Lodge. At the next meeting of the Commissioners (Sept. 29) a letter was received from the Trustess to the effect that they were getting an acknowledgement from the Misses Dynely of their trespass, At the last meeting of the Commissioners for that year, namely, Dec. 27, the only business transacted of any importance was the ordering of two notice-boards of the Hackney Carriage Byelaws to be made and put up.
It will have been seen that the year 1847 was a rather quiet one in so far as the board of Commissioners were concerned, whilst from what follows it may be judged that the work of the Overseers was also not of a laborious character. The nominations for the latter, which took place on Lady Day, were John Painter, Chas, Thorpe, John Peerless, Richard Lamb, and William Chamberlin; the first two afterwards receiving magisterial appointments. - The Surveyors were Robert Deudney and Edward Farncomb, the Assessors were William Noon and Newton Parks, the Outbounds Assessors were Edward Farncomb and Richard Lamb, and the Vestry Clerk was John Phillips, The vestry meeting on this occasion was held at the “Fountain Inn,” the “New England Bank” at Bopeep, which had existed for considerably over a century; having given place to the railway terminus, and being therefore no longer available for parochial transactions. Not far from its site, however, a larger and more modern structure was in course of erection by Mr, Payne, the latest tenant of the old wayside inn, where used to be held an annual fair, and where, before the Bopeep barracks were razed, in 1811, many a soldier was known to have hobbed-nobbed with smugglers, notwithstanding that the former were frequently called upon to assist in the capture of the latter. The new house was completed by the summer of 1847, and on the 22nd of July the second of that year’s vestry meetings was held therein. This meeting—which I had the privilege of reporting for a county paper, there being no local paper as yet existent in Hastings and St. Leonards--was attended by Messrs. Robert Deudney, Robert Eldridge, Wm. Payne, John Peerless, Geo. A. Murton and C. M. Thorpe. At the conclusion of the business, which was not of an elaborate character, Mr. Payne was congratulated on the completion of his substantial and convenient house, which included in its design a spacious room for assemblies. It occurs to me among other reminiscences that I supplied the band for the first balls and quadrille parties at the Railway Terminus Inn, where the floor-boards had no abnormal vibration, as well as for the last dances at the New England Bank, where, notwithstanding additional supports were specially applied for the occasion, the visible contraction of the old walls was was such as to threaten a general collapse. But to return to the parish meetings, the third and last one for the year was on the 4th of November, and at which Mr. Alfred Burton presided. The only business transacted besides the making of a sixpenny poor-rate and a fourpenny borough-rate, was the passing of a resolution to deduct 20 per cent. instead of the hitherto 10 per cent. from the general assessment, an exception to be made only in the property of the South-Coast Railway Company, an agreement having been entered into for a fixed sum of £400 per mile.
The overseers appointed for the Magdalen parish were Edward Mitchell and C, T, How; whilst John Austin and George Voysey were appointed surveyors, and W. Noon and N. Parks assesors(sic). The meetings(which were more frequent and more numerously attended than those of the adjoining parish) were seven in number during 1847, but the business like that of the other bodies already named was of a generally quiet character. The meetings were variously held at the Horse-and-Groom, the Saxon, and the Warrior’s Gate; the levies upon the ratepayers were three sixpenny poor-rates and one threepenny highway rate, an appointment to collect the latter having fallen to Mr. James Everett.
The gratification which one feels in the knowledge that of the many townsmen who attended the parish meetings of forty years ago there are still living a number equal to the digitals of a single hand is chasened(sic) by the reflection that save such few, all have passed over to the silent majority.
Having described the St. Leonards and St. Mary Magdalen officials, and the principal transactions of the several bodies for the year 1847, it will be convenient here to summarise the meterological conditions of the said year. As viewed in the main, the weather of the year was of an exceptional character, the range of temperature being no less than 78 degrees in our own locality and 87 in some of the more inland districs(sic). The difference of barometric pressure also was as much as 2.18 inches. The temperature of January was 8 deg. below the same month of the preceding year; and, as the month came in with frost and snow, the “Printer’s Devil” of the Sussex Express referred to it in the following ode :—
”Hail Forty-seven! well I know
Your advent great is frost and snow,
While the keen arrows from your quiver—
Imp, though I be—provoke a shiver.
Young Year! to make your first essay
You choose a most untoward day—
The busy day of publication—
For one in my unhappy station.
Now come my bustle, toil and care;
Called here, called there, called everywhere.
Worn from my legs, I dare not drop,
For our Express trains never stop;
Yet all my sorrows shall explode,
Gun-cotton like, in this poor ode.
I'm fairly qualified, I think,
And dabble quite as deep in ink
As Bulwer, Box, or any writer
With intellect a trifle brighter;
And, howsoever Punch may vapour,
Like, him, I spoil a deal of paper.
New Year! whatever you produce
For comfort ornament or use;
Whether you tease us or befriend us,
Or benefits or torments send us,
Or bad men vex, or tyrants lord it,
We'll duly note it and record it;
And to the myriad friends who read,
Express it with a railroad speed.
I watched your latest predecessor,—
Not very fiercely a transgressor, —
But truth obliges me to say
Evils occurred beneath his sway;
Yet, would I have it understood,
He sometimes laboured for our good;
And Charity forbids to fix
Much stigma on old ’Forty-six,
How often on a Friday night,
Toil-worn, and in a piteous plight,
I’ve longed and sighed for foaming beer—
To me, alas ! both scarce and dear.
The rich may look on beer with loathing;
To us ’tis meat and drink and clothing.
Oh, 'Forty-seven ! in your brief reign
Let not the thirsty poor complain !
Remember, poverty’s no fault;
So take, oh take, the tax off malt!
Then Labour's sons well-pleased and happy,
May quaff a cheap and wholesome nappy;
At their warm hearth discuss its merits,
Free from the baneful taint of spirits.”
February was even colder than January, notwithstanding that the maximum temperature once or twice reach 53 deg. On the morning of the 12th, the thermometer at Hastings registered 18 or 19 deg. of frost, whilst at Greenwich, the cold was 7 deg. more severe, and at Uckfield, the temperature was only one degree above zero. This, as may be conceived, was the greatest cold of the year. An almost unparalled(sic) snow storm commenced on the 7th and continued for a week, some description of which will be given further on. The next month was a comparatively dry one, but the mean temperature was still low, being over two degrees below the average, and four degrees below that of March 1846, The thermometer, on one occasion, registered 13 degrees of frost, and on the 11th of the month another heavy fall of snow threatened at first to be as formidable as the one in February, April was even colder by comparision(sic) than the three preceding months, the mean temperature being six degrees below the average. It came in with sharp frosts, snow and cold rain, and went out with severe storms of wind, hail and lightning, (as predicted). During twenty-one nights out of the thirty, a thermometer laid on the grass registered a temperature of between 18 and 32 deg. The 4th day (Good Friday) was unusually cold and gloomy. The first week in May was also very cold, frost and snow being prominent features After the 8th day, however, a period of warmer weather, with growing showers set in, and vegetation improved rapidly, On the 23rd and 28th the heat was quite abnormal, reaching to about 77 at Hastings, and to 84 at Camberwell. The price of corn was kept up, however, partly from scarcity and partly from the greed of merchants to obtain famine exactions. On the 15th of May a load of wheat was sold at Windsor for £31, and in the Hastings market the quotations were not materially less. Trade was also depressed and bread earners were in great distress through the dearth of employment, as is now the case, thirty-eight years later, at the time of writing. It was on the 28th of the same month of May that a public meeting was held at Hastings, under the presidency of the Mayor, (Mr. F. Ticehurst), to devise means for relieving the wants of the poor, mainly in consequence of the high price of bread and the prospect of further scarcity, notwithstanding that the Corn Laws had been repealed ten months previously. There was even greater distress at the time in Ireland, to alleviate which, Lord John Russell’s Government voted ten millions of pounds. Although the next month (June) was five degrees less warm than that of 1846, it was nevertheless a period of thriving vegetation, and hopes were beginning to be expressed that a bountiful harvest was on the way to reduce the price of the quartern loaf from fourteen pence to a price within reach of the half starved poor of these towns. The month of July was in every way favourable to agricultural prospects, the mean temperature being above the average of twenty years, and the maximum for over a week ranging between 80 and 90 degrees. August was another fine fructifying month, the maximum temperature reaching to 83 degrees, and the mean temperature to over an average of twenty years. An excellent harvest was the result. September was as remarkable for its reaction of temperature, the mean being several degrees below average, and the minimum on grass below the freezing point on ten or eleven nights. The 24th was noted for a display of aurora and a disturbance of magnetic instruments, simultaneously with the stationary position of Mars, the quartile relations of Jupiter and Uranus, and an eclipse of the moon. October came with another surprise, the weather being remarkably fine, and the heat four degrees in excess of a twenty years’ average. It had not been equalled in October since 1811, the great comet year as it was called, There were auroral displays and great magnetic oscillations on the 15th, 23rd and 24th. Similar phenomena occurred on the 1st, 2nd and 19th of November; and although the later part was very cold, the earlier part was so much the other way as to bring up the mean temperature to 4 deg. above the average of twenty years. Two more displays of aurora occurred in December, and although many of the nights were cold, the average temperature was considerably above par. The lowest barometric range of the year (28.38) occurred on the 7th of this month, and was said to have been the lowest reading over England for many years.
The snow-storm of the 7th to the 12th of February should now be noticed, it having swept over the southern counties with a severity very rarely equalled. In absolute depth, the snow was said to have exceeded even that at Christmas in the year 1838, although in certain localities the storm of eleven years previous was much more severely felt, the drifts in the valleys and hollows being greater, and the wind which aided the accumulations being stronger. Many of my readers are already familiar with the details of the exceptional storm of 1836, and have been let into the secret of my own adventures in connection with that memorable event. As in 1836, so in 1847, traveling(sic) was entirely suspended, and for almost an entire week the mails were unable to reach Hastings. The storm may be said to have commenced on Sunday the 7th, although it was not till Monday that the depth of snow was so great as to cause serious apprehension. On that day a train from Hastings to Brighton, with fifty passengers, came to a dead lock at a point a little beyond Lewes, notwithstanding that it was drawn by three engines, whilst several other trains were snowed up all night. Pedestrianism, as a rule, was kept within narrow limits, and where it was entered upon as a necessity, it was attended by many inconveniences, and in a few cases with disaster. The Seaford postman, who was several times in danger of being lost, managed to get over twelve miles of ground in fifteen and a half hours. The conflict between the two vapours of snow and steam afforded a subject for the muse of a rhymster(sic) in a Lewes journal, who Express'd himself as follows :-
“Whoever could dream that the blasterer Steam,
Whose powers we all so well know,
In a trial of skill, and opposed to his will,
Would be beaten by soft-hearted snow ?
“Steam left his abode and took to the road,
With ladies and gents in his train;
And, proud of his might, he e’en screech’d with delight,
But the sequel will show ’twas in vain,
“For the envions snow-his implacable foe,
Determined, it seems, to prevail,
Produced his broad flakes, without any mistakes,
And blocked up the course of the rail.
“The driver was vexed and the stoker perplexed,
When the engine no longer could go;
And many fair faces left Steam’s warm embraces
To be far too familiar with snow.”
