cumstance to be deplored. This industry not only gave employment, directly or indirectly, to a large number of tradesmen, artisans and labourers, but it also was a great attraction to visitors. The owners of the vessels, together with their friends, would come frequently to Hastings to watch the progress of construction, and even those who were not so closely associated, were to be seen manifesting a lively interest in the work. It was no uncommon thing to see thirty or forty persons on the top of the Pelham Arcade watching the various operations of the shipwrights in their front; and many a family has been known to prolong their stay in the town on learning that a vessel in full rig was to be launched on a certain day.
Three Day's Bazaar for the Infirmary - Accidents and Marvellous Escape
Whether it was for the purpose of watching the operations of the shipwrights that a young gentleman of the name of Thornton found his way on to the top of the Arcade I do not know but whatever might have been the inducement, his presence there would have had a very serious result but for an apparently miraculous escape. Venturesome, as boys too often are, he got upon the parapet which encases the elongated glass dome of the Arcade, and commenced walking thereon, when he lost his balance and fell through on to the floor. The strange thing is that although he carried away some of the bars and glass of the sky-light and descended to the depth of 17 feet, his greatest injury was the dislocation of a finger. Verily, some people have a charmed life! This happened on the 8th of April.
And now that I have referred to the Arcade, it will not be out of place to notice a few other events with which that building was associated at a later period of the year. On the 13th of December the "Unrivalled Fire King," Mons. Chylinski, who had performed before the continental monarchs and princes, gave his "chemico-physical and gymnastical exhibition" at the Arcade, to a full audience, and with the accompaniment of an orchestra. His feats of strength for a comparatively slender man were really marvellous, and no less so were his fire-daring performances. He placed a man on the table then held both the man and the table suspended by his teeth. He then placed two men on his shoulders and carried another in his hand. He next allowed a stone, weighing about 200 lbs. to be broken on his head. In his chemico-physical feats he took a red-hot iron from a charcoal fire with his bare hands, licked it, and twisted pieces off with his teeth; took coins from boiling lead with his fingers, stood in a cauldron of boiling butter, stood bare-footed on a charcoal fire, with a red-hot iron crown on his head, and did numerous other things, which had nothing in common with mere conjuring. The audience had good proof of the genuineness of the heating process, and the only explanation that suggested itself was that Mons. Chylinski, the marvellous Polish athlete, possessed the secret of a chemical application which neutralized in a most astonishing manner the power of caloric.
Four days after the above-named performance, the Arcade was used for a purpose more greatly to the advantage of the town, namely, a three-days' Fancy Bazaar in aid of the Building Fund then being raised for the Infirmary. The sale was under the patronage of Her Majesty the Queen Dowager, who contributed largely thereto, whilst the following ladies presided at the stalls:- Lady Fitzroy, Hastings; Lady Ashburnham, Broomham; Lady Micklethwaite, Tunbridge Wells; Mrs. Milward, Hastings; Mrs. Harwood, St. Leonards; Mrs. Brisco, Coghurst; Miss North, Hastings; Mrs. Birch, Bexhill; Mrs. Smith-Bird, Hastings; Mrs. Wrench, Salehurst; the Misses Rush, St. Leonards; Mrs. Druce, Hastings; and Mrs. Duke, Hastings. The first day's receipts were £371, the second day's £175, and the third days £92. This would make a total of £538; but the stated total at the time as I understood it was £662, less £25 expenses. On the first day of the sale a gentleman sold in front of the Arcade a pair of handsome goats, and handed the proceeds to the Committee. I described among the events of the previous year the contentions over the site and plans of the proposed Infirmary, and I may here remark that in the month of June 1839, an arrangement was made with the Trustees of the Eversfield Estate for a piece of land whereon to build the proposed institution. This arrangement was confirmed in a formal manner on Thursday the 7th November, by the Committee and other promoters, who met for that purpose at the Marine Hotel. The price of the ground was £300, and the site was at the White-rock, midway, as it was considered, between the two towns. The gentlemen present at that meeting were the Right Hon. Joseph Planta, M.P. (chairman), Drs. Cook, Harwood and Duke; Revs. Foyster, Rush and Pearse; Major Jeffries; and Messrs. Milward, Brisco, Troup, Phillips, Bishop, Alcock, Hardman and Hicks. It was decided not to begin the building until the money already promised amounted to £1,500. Four months later the donations had been considerably augmented, one of the £50 having been received from the Earl of Ashburnham. At the same time the Committee accepted the plans of Mr. Dillon, at an estimated cost of £1,750, and the work was immediately commenced. But here, for the present, I will leave the Infirmary project.
As the earlier meetings of the Infirmary Committee were held at the Marine Hotel, it may be stated that Mr C. P. Hutchings had become the successor to the deceased Arthur Deudney, and on the 22nd of March his opening dinner took place, which was attended by some forty or fifty of his friends and supporters. Mr. Hutchings lost no time in making it known that in consequence of the completion of new and nearer roads, he had established a more advantageous line of posting to London. This route was described as John's Cross,10 miles; Stonecrouch, 9; Pembury, 8; Sevenoaks, 12; Bromley, 14; and London 10. Then, as if to still further facilitate the posting business, Mr. Jas. Rock was announcing at the same time that visitors could be supplied at his coach-building establishment with traveling carriages for London without the additional expense of returning them to Hastings, he having business premises in Oxford street. While on the subject of traveling - as we had no railroad to Hastings at that time - its apropos to mention that on the 4th of December Dr. Lardner delivered in Hastings an instructive lecture "On the Locomotive Engine and Railroads," exhibiting a beautiful model engine constructed by a working engineer of the Brighton Railway Company, and stating that the construction of a railway from Brighton to Hastings would be a work of unprecedented facility. This lecture was given at the Hastings Mechanics' Institution, in Waterloo place, and in the presence of a crowded audience, including Lord Monteagle, Mr. and Mrs. North, Miss Shuttleworth (afterwards the mother of Sir Ughtred Kay-Shuttleworth), Dr. Cook, &c.
This brings me to other matters in connection with the Mechanics' Institution, the importance of which will be recognised by several of its now old, but still valued members. The meetings and classes had hitherto been held in a room in Waterloo place, situate at the lower end of Mr. Henry Thwaites's garden; but this, in addition to other inconveniences, was being left so far behind the centre of a population that was moving westward, that, at a quarterly meeting on the 6th of February, a scheme for removal was lengthily and entelligently (sic) embodied in the Committee's report. Mr. Major Vidler had submitted two plans, either of which he would adopt, for the erection of a house at his stone-yard in High street, and in which he proposed to let to the Institution on lease, a room, with movable partition, 17 feet by 33 feet, and 12 feet pitch, the same to be kept open from noon till 10 p.m., with his own services as librarian, for £25 per year. The rent and librarian's salary in the old room amounted to £17, yet the Committee were somewhat chary of encountering the increase of £8 per annum for the superior advantages which were almost certain to accrue from the change. The number of members at that time was 116, and these included, not only the present scribe, whose lot it would soon be to reside at St. Leonards, but also three or four other persons who were already located there, and where the advantages of a kindred institute were not then available. Obviously these western members were anxious for a removal that would bring the Institution somewhat nearer to them, but there was an "up-town" party then, as there has been since - the Town-hall business to wit - who were in favour of retaining the old room, with certain alterations which Mr. Thwaites had proposed to make. The meeting was therefore adjourned to the 18th of February, when a letter was received from Mr. North, promising to contribute £1 a year towards the additional expense. This seemed to be a sort of turning point, and it was finally resolved to accept Mr. Vidler's proposal. No time was lost in commencing operations, for on the 13th of March, Mr. North laid the foundation stone of the new building, of which Mr. Major Vidler was the owner and architect; and after the ceremony such of the members as chose adjourned to the Swan Hotel to partake of a cold collation. Mr. North was President of the Institution, but Mr. Dunk presided at the dinner, and among the party were the secretaries, Messrs. Womersley and Halloway.
It will have been seen that Mr. North was President of the Mechanics' Institution, and that to him was relegated the honour of laying the foundation-stone of the new building. My readers have also been informed of the fact that in the preceding year the same gentleman laid the foundation stone of the Literary and Scientific Institution, of which he was also President. It was proposed by the latter society that lectures should be delivered on alternate Wednesdays; and, as a commencement, Mr. North delivered an interesting discourse on the rise and progress, as well as the aim and objects of the Institution. He did so he explained, that he might not be charged with shrinking from a task the like of which he had himself urged upon other members. Tracing back the origin of the society, the lecturer dwelt upon the smallness of its beginning, and named the gentlemen who constituted the first seven members. These I will take the liberty of classifying as follows :- One president (F. North), one Colonel (Elliott), one surgeon (R. Ranking), one Independent Minister (W. Davis), and three solicitors (W. Scrivens, T. B. Baker, and J. Phillips). That small number, the lecturer remarked, had been since augmented to nearly 100. After adverting (sic) to the advantages which such an institution was calculated to confer both on the inhabitants and visitors, who had long complained of the want of a library of reference, Mr. North pointed out the principal objects sought to be attained, and dwelt upon the desirability of forming a museum of Natural History. He opined that the town and neighbourhood offered peculiar facilities for collecting valuable specimens of geology, botany and marine productions. He also stated that Capt. Smee had consented to the removal of the collection of birds, &c., which were deposited in his (Mr. N.'s) house, to the Institution. Speaking of science the lecturer said that its beneficial application to the ordinary affairs of life had been ably demonstrated, whilst the idea that extensive knowledge was prejudicial to religion, he refuted by a reference to Newton and Locke. He noticed with approbation the career of the Mechanics' Institution as a kindred society, and brought his remarks to a close amid general applause. - The second lecture by members of the society was one by Dr. Cook on "The Circulation of the Blood in Men and Animals," and the third was by Mr. Ranking on "Entomology." Dr. Cook's lecture was a kind of sequel to those which he had delivered at the Swan Hotel a year before, and which were so humourously (sic) described in verse by "Lousia Eliza Lovelore" (see chap. cxv.) These earlier lectures were repeated by the Doctor in the Literary Institution during the latter part of the year, and were regarded as being of an erudite and instructive character. One of them was "On the Structure and Functions of the Brain of Man and Animals," and another was "On the Nervous System of Animals. They were illustrated with numerous diagrams, wax models, and specimen skulls of all nations, including the head of an Egyptian mummy from Thebes. It may be stated that the Institution was presented with the head of a lion which was shot at Delhi by Mr. Robert Thatcher, and the head sent to Mr. Shadwell, of Hastings, as an acknowledgement of the latter gentleman's service in teaching Mr. Thatcher the skilful use of the gun.
It was the practice for the Hastings people to hold their Eastertide and Whitsuntide amusements on the East hill, and whilst doing so in 1839, a coastguard named Mintel was in a booth erected by Mr. Wood, of the George Inn, for eating and drinking purposes. Mintel was invited by the publican to take some refreshment, but after a short time he complained of being slighted, and then walking towards Mr. Wood, he pulled the trigger of a loaded pistol, which, fortunately for both parties, did not go off. The miscreant was immediately seized by several persons, who threatened to throw him over the cliff. Mr. Wood, however, saved his would-be murderer from the rage of the bystanders, and also exerted himself on the man's behalf when the case was privately investigated in the gun-room of the Watchhouse. Capt. Peat, in addressing the prisoner, remarked that he was a disgrace to a Service from which he must be dismissed with all the ignominy attached to one who had contemplated murder. It was only by the interposition of Providence that he was not standing at the bar of justice to answer for the murder of a man whose kindness afterwards saved him from the summary retaliation of infuriated witnesses. Here again Mr. Wood interposed, and begged that the man might be simply removed from a station in which it was not safe for him to remain. No cause could be assigned for this rash attempt by an apparently sober man unless it was that of a misconception of some trifling and casual allusion to. No explanation was, however, given by the man as an excuse for his rash act, even if had anything to do with it which is very doubtful.
But it is not doubtful that on a bitterly stormy night of the 7th-8th of December some seventy kegs of brandy were got ashore at the Rock-a-nore and hauled up the cliff at a height of nearly 300 feet. On the Sunday morning a Custom-house office while walking under the cliff near the [[[East Groyne|east groyne]] discovered the bow of a boat protruding from between the rocks, and immediately suspected it of being one from which a cargo of contraband had been safely worked during the night. The officer in question has received some hint of the affair, after the intimation had become useless to act upon. The boat was a new one, and, like most of such craft, had been roughly put together for the purpose. The sea was in a too turbid condition to admit of the boat being put off again, hence the situation in which it was found. This achievement of the smugglers in getting ashore during an easterly gale, and hauling seventy or more tubs of spirits to a height of 300 feet, and then securing them without the knowledge of the coastguards and customs officers is worthy of record. A less hazardous but an equally spirited affair of was that which has been related to me by an eye-witness. A boat belonging to "Karby" Simmons - a fisherman who was well known in his day - had been seized for having smuggled goods on board, and after the removal of the same, the boat in question was drawn to the "Condemmed (sic) Hole" behind Beach Cottages, where all consfiscated (sic) property of that sort was secured until a time of general delivery by sale. The boat had not been in its new situation long ere a party of smugglers proceeded to remove a false bottom which the Customs officers had not discovered in the boat, and beneath which some kegs of spirits other than those which had been seized were concealed. These were quickly shouldered in the broad light of day, and carried round the Castle cliff over the space now occupied by 8 to 10 Breeds place. To what further distance they were conveyed, and in what place they were deposited, is a secret only known to the "free-traders" themselves. Albeit, this exploit was never more to be repeated, for every board seized after that was sawn asunder at midships, and its false bottom, if any, detected.
Although much has appeared in these pages concerning the Hastings benefactions, no part has been taken by the writer in the later controversy on the Magdalen Charity. The reason for this will probably be explained further on; but in the mean time, I will refer to a little matter in connection with the Saunders Charity which some persons may have forgotten and others have not know of. When a slip of ground was recovered by the taking down of the Priory Bridge and the filling-in of the Priory stream, the Trustees of Saunders Charity applied to the Town Council for permission to build a school-house thereon. The question was referred to a committee, whose report embodied a recommendation not to comply with the application, nor to suffer any permanent building to be erected in front of Kentish Buildings. Supporting this recommendation was a memorial from the inhabitants of the district which intimated that their promise of £50 towards the improvement would not be realised if the ground was not kept open. Mr. Clement advised the Council how they disposed of the ground. He knew a gentleman who was prepared to give a thousand pounds for it, and it was not unlikely that someone would give more. Mr. Thwaites did not believe that any such sum could be obtained for it, but this was met by Mr. Clement's offer to put down half the amount at any time as a guarantee of good faith. His object, he said, was to prevent the land being sold at a nominal price under a system of jobbery such as had existed under the rule of the Commissioners, by which persons obtained property on favourable terms because they belonged to that body - twenty pounds a year, for instance, below its value. My readers have no need to be told that not only was permission not given to the trustees of the Charity to build upon the land in question,but that in after years the open space was increased by the purchase and razure of Kentish Buildings contiguous thereto. The wisdom of the Council's refusal, as well as that of Mr. Clement's advice not to sell the ground for a small sum, and if at all, by public auction only, will not be doubted in the present day by any advocate of open spaces and improved positions.
