the restriction should be maintained or not. That it was maintained, a mere glance at Nos. 12 to 16 Wellington place will be sufficient to prove; and now that the property all round that spot is getting to be so generally enlarged and improved it tends on one hand to dwarf by comparison those two-storey houses, and on the other hand to exhibit the unwisdom of the overseers in proposing such a restriction. The St. Clement's and All Saints' work-houses were similarly disposed of about the same time, and the former, being taken down, made way for the Literary Institution, the foundation stone of which was laid with suitable formality some four months later. This ceremony will be noticed further on.
Mrs. Milward re. the East Hill - Sunday School Centenery Celebration
But ere I take leave of the poor-house associations I must just make one allusion to the religious intolerance which at that date exhibited itself in strong colours. A poor widow who had with some difficulty kept herself from being an inmate of the parish asylum, and who had been receiving the gift of a cwt. of coals from the dispenser of another's charity, was told that the gift would in future be withheld because it was discovered that she attended the meetings of the Wesleyan Methodists. The ill-feeling against the Dissenters was probably intensified just at that time in consequence of their having sent petitions to the Legislature for the abolition of church-rates; an Act which provoked counter-petitions from those who sought in their religious duty to uphold the existing system. It was, perhaps, natural that the Rector should head the list of the latter party, he being at that time both the Rector of All Saints and St. Clement's. But even he was reminded that the two parishes had formerly constituted separate livings, and had only been amalgamated, as shown by the Church books, in 1770, and by consent only of a part of the Corporation. The plea for the consolidation of the livings might have been the smallness of the population, which was probably not much over two thousand; but that state of things had long passed away. Years before that, the Rev. W. Whistler, in his letters to relatives and friends, spoke of the crowded state of the churches, and before his death it became necessary to provide extensive gallery accommodation in both edifices. The act of uniting the two benefices was to restrict the Sunday service in each church to one only, which restriction, apart from the question of church-rates, was held by the inhabitants to be wrong. It was said that towards the repairs of one of the churches the Corporation granted certain fee-farm rents, allowed under a statute of Elizabeth, and that as matters stood, with a part of the town's money devoted to such object, the petition of the Rector and his supporters against that of the resident Dissenters could not be sent with any show of propriety. One of the active promoters of what was called the Rector's petition was Mrs. Milward, a lady who was just then about to erect at her own cost a chapel-of-ease (since known as Halton Church), and who also on later occasions contributed munificently to similar erections from the great wealth accumulated by her late husband and his ancestors. It was under the incumbency of that lady's father (the Rev. W. Whitear) that the two livings were united in 1770; and it is therefore not at all surprising that in 1837 the daughter should be a firm supporter of the existing arrangements. It should be stated, however, that the Rev. J. C. Foyster again separated the livings after a period of seventeen years from the latter date.
It is sometimes said that ladies have conservative proclivities, but whether that be so or not, there was no doubting Mrs. Milward's political bias being of an ultra type in that direction. She was displeased at what she regarded as the uncalled-for innovations of the Radical Dissenters, and at the period of which I am writing she exhibited a more arbitrary spirit than had usually been her wont. I have before alluded to her stopping up a certain footpath over the West Hill, and I will not add that in the same year, with an appearance of pique at being obliged to re-open that path, Mrs. Milward intimated her intention of restraining the cricketing, dancing and other sports which at Eastertide and Whitsuntide were indulged in on the opposite hill. In some comments on this threatened restraining, a writer in the Brighton Guardian remarked that "Considering the obligations which the lady is under to the town of Hastings, such an act would be simply a gross specimen of ingratitude. It is not enough (continued the writer) that Mrs. Milward should luxuriate in wealth, the source of which is open to serious question, but she must also now threaten to deprive the inhabitants of the means of healthy recreation which they have hitherto enjoyed." As to the "source of wealth" here obliquely questioned, it is more than possible that St. Leonardensis himself has a right to complain of the manner and the persons by which and by whom certain properties had been kept from legitimately descending to his own family; yet as regards Mrs. Milward's own attitude towards those who engaged in sports and pastimes on the East Hill, it is only just to the memory of that lady to say that there were other motives than those which were alleged for her interference. Several years before that time I was an interested witness to what has been described at page 74 of My Father’s Portfolio, and I had seen with my own eyes even greater immoralities than those which were associated either with the conventional pitch-and-toss by juveniles at the "Black doors," or the more compact toss-ring in a hollow of the hill where veteran gamblers did congregate. Yes! I had seen far worse than that. I had witnessed in fact, more than it would be prudent to describe, and I feel constrained therefore to put it on record that whatsoever might have been the immediate provocative of Mrs. Milward's threatened prohibition, the scenes of revelry and immorality which were unfortunately - though not ostensibly - associated with the otherwise harmless amusements of cricket, tennis, quoits, dancing and drop-handkerchief, were of themselves a sufficient justification for the enforcement of Mrs. Milward's authority. Some of my readers will remember how, in later times, that lady (as the Countess Waldegrave) had to make her voice heard when she found that the fêtes in the Recreation Ground were degenerating into a kind of Rock-fair type.
But what a change has come o'er the scene! Instead of those immoral pastimes on the East hill meeting the gaze of impressible (sic) youth, we had on the 30th of June, 1880, when these remarks were first penned, an army of young folk assembled for pure enjoyment such as has never before been witnessed in this ancient borough; and instead of the bickerings and unchristian animosities of churchmen and chapel-men over the question of church-rates, we had the Episcopalians and the Nonconformists - although their demonstrations were not made on the same day - in more wholesome rivalry to celebrate the Centennial Anniversary of Sunday Schools.
The foregoing reference to Church and Dissent, and their relative positions in 1837, reminds one that in the autumn of the same year a site was purchased for the present Baptist Chapel in Wellington Square; also that in the following spring the clergymen of Hastings and St. Leonards exerted themselves in a special manner to prevent Sunday trading. The latter movement will be noticed in its due order of time whilst of the former it may be said that previously to the erection of such chapel the Rev. Mr. Saffery conducted religious services in the Swan Assembly Room, to which at that time there was a private entrance from the Oak Pavement. .And here I must make a short digression to show my own familiarity with these services. I was but twenty-one years of age, but I had witnessed many events to which succeeding generations had been strangers, and I had also experienced not a few vicissitudes. From 1829 to 1826 I attended the Sunday school in connection with St. Clement's and All Saints' churches, which for a time was held in the old Town hall previously to that building being taken down in 1823. During the next four years I was successively a scholar choir-boy and teacher in the Croft Sunday-school, after which - for reasons already stated - I attended the services at Ore church as often as meteorological and other conditions would permit. I now come to 1837, a year which found me "on Her Majesty's service" at the Post-office, number 4 George street. My duties extended from a quarter-past four in the morning until eleven at night; and the only difference between week-day and Sunday was that the latter entailed the greatest amount of labour. I shall have much to say on post-office matters, some of which will be entirely new to my readers, and the whole, I trust, not without interest; but for the present, I only desire to show that the office work on Sunday was of such a nature as to preclude my going to a place of worship more than once a day, which on one Sunday was in the afternoon and on the other in the evening. Even then the church or the chapel must be near at hand, and my sitting must be near the door, that I might be within call in case of ship-letters being landed - an event as likely to occur on a Sunday as on any other day. Where then could there be a more convenient place for religious instruction and congregational devotion than Mr. Saffery's meeting-room, which could be reached in a walk of two minutes? These meetings were enjoyable to one who, with all his faults, has ever striven to feel a due veneration for God and goodness, yet there was one saddening circumstance in connection with them, the telling of which should afford a simple but salutary lesson.
Mr. Saffery was in the habit of calling for his letters at the Post-office, and in so doing was always pleasantly chatty with the post-clerk, whilst he was slightly morose to the post-master. This difference of behaviour was attributed to the fact that for the time being the former was a worshipper at the Swan meeting-room, and the latter at the church of St. Mary-in-the-Castle. As master and man had a regard for each other which could only have been exceeded by a relationship of father and son, Mr. Saffery's apparent slight to the one and attentions to the other were mutually noticeable. Matters went on in this way for some time, when, chancing to meet the reverend gentleman close to Mr. Phillips's theological library in George street, I was asked to accept as a present a copy of Our Young Men, a new prize-essay by the Rev. Dr. Cox. After a little diffident hesitation I acquiesced, and was then complimented for my devout demeanour and vocal assistance at the religious meetings, and was pressed to allow myself to become an acknowledged member of the Baptist persuasion. To this I objected; firstly, because I still had an affection for the Church, from which I did not desire to be divorced, and secondly, because I had a natural disposition to avoid any entanglements that would restrain my liberty of action. This objection, however, was evidently displeasing to Mr. Saffery, for he thenceforth treated me with the same coolness as that which he had shown towards my official superior. Seeing that the reverend gentleman, with all his professional piety, could not bear defeat with equanimity, I requested permission to return the present, but the permission not being granted, I have retained the book for about 60 years as a memento alike of the donor's generosity and mistaken deportment. I was present at the opening of the new chapel, the contemplation of which betrayed me into this digression; but a durable impression was made upon my mind that its first minister was probably a good and earnest man, but that like many other good and earnest men, was not infallible.
My readers may not care to have the narrative of events too frequently interrupted by reminiscences of a personal type, yet I cannot wholly banish the thought that when the reader has learnt something of the antecedents of the writer he is in a better position to judge how far that which is written bears the stamp of authority, as having been derived from personal experience. Therefore until someone exclaims, Hold, enough! I must continue the occasional infliction, even though it should be at the risk of betraying the identity of St. Leonardensis.
Loyalists and Hanoverians - Beach Cottages Parade dispute - Sea-beach wasteland
A municipal election took place on the 15th of August when Mr. Stephen Putland was returned unopposed, for the West Ward, in the room of Mr. W. M. Eldridge. At the same time Mr. Will Ginner was elected for the East Ward, in the place of ex-Mayor Thorpe. He was opposed by Mr. T. Hickes, but gained his election by 211 votes against his opponent's 143. At that time the Liberals and Conservatives were playfully designated Loyalists and Hanoverians, the former arrogating (sic) to themselves the right to be considered the sole champions of the young Queen, and looking upon their political rivals as siding with the Duke of Cumberland, who was an inveterate Tory, and who although entitled to rule over -
