Smuggling - Regatta Funds Missing - Enormous catch of Mackerel
At a time when almost every body was either a practical or a theoretical smuggler, it would be a phenomenon for a woman to marry a man, or a man to marry a woman whose friends were strangers to "free-trade," yet it would be hardly regarded as the right sort of thing for the sons of bold smugglers to unite themselves to the daughters of Revenue-officers. To my own intimate knowledge, however, one such case occurred, in which the officer who seized the boy-smuggler and his cargo, being father to the one was, against his will, made a father-in-law to the other. The newly made husband in this case was he whose many exploits have been given in detail under the title of "The Last of a Family of Smugglers" and will probably appear further on in this History.
#I hardly know whether, in the writing of this History - much of it against time, and with only partially arranged materials - I have already described the curious and pseudo- practices of the Mrs. Nash above referred to as the receiver of the "box of candles," and those also of her relatives, Mrs. Jerry Curtis and Mrs. "Minny" Mann; but if I have not done so, I must reserve the narrative for another occasion. These portly and presentable dames had no pretension to a superior education, but their lingual attainments were of a persuasive character, whilst their chances of becoming acquainted with visitors were heightened in consequence of their husbands being connected with the pleasure-boat interest.
And this again reminds me that there was no regatta in 1837 in which the boatmen could compete for prizes. The fact is worthy of note in consequence of a balance of £49 left over from the regatta of the previous year being, as it was declared, not to be found. Well ! if there was no regatta for the boatmen, there was something quite as good for the fishermen, the mackerel catches being so enormous as to enable them to realise considerable sums of money. The one great drawback was the limited means of conveyance to the London market, and this was so much felt on Sunday the 9th of July, that excellent fish were purchasable at 3/- the long hundred (132). Money was therefore plentiful for the customary squanderings at the Rock-fair toss-ring, and not much perhaps was laid by for use during the severe and trying winter which followed.
Turning again to political matters, I find that on September 6th the "Liberal Association" met at the Pilot Inn, and enrolled several new members. At the same time a denial was given to what was termed an infamous falsehood which had been propagated that Hollond had voted with Planta against the proposal of voting by ballot. These meetings continued to be held, first at one house, and then at another; and superlative efforts were made to keep the Liberal party well in hand with the view of turning out the Conservative representative on the first opportunity that might present itself. Meanwhile, the "Loyal and Constitutional Association" was equally vigilant in the Conservative interest, as will be shown by an address which near the close of the year was given to it by its President, A. Sutherland Graeme, Esq., which will appear in the next column.
Having incidentally associated the religious services at the Swan Hotel in 1837 and the building of the Wellington-square Chapel in 1838 with the clerkship of St. Leonardensis at the Hastings Post-office as a preliminary to more important matters yet to be introduced, I now delay for a moment the notice of other subjects which should come in datal order, to notice the death of Mr. William Woods, the announcement of which arrived just as my so-called preliminary allusion to the Post-office had been made. The deceased gentleman was the eldest son of Mr. John Woods, who in 1837, and for many years thereafter, was Postmaster for Hastings. In that year the said William Woods was in a large house of business in London, and in 1839 he came home to take the situation vacated by myself, and with the ulterior object of joining his two younger brothers in America. It was my own ambition also to become a free, roving yankee, but the Fates decreed that I should be a humble St. Leonardensis, instead; and with the help of blustering Notus, sent me back in a shattered condition to again try my luck in old England. Mr. Woods was more fortunate, for after continuing his Post-office duties for five or six years, he set sail for the "Land of the West," which he reached in due course, and pursued his way up country to Chicago. Like many another emigrant, the subject of this notice experienced not a few vicissitudes in his new home, and was one whose premises were consumed by the ravages of the great Chicago fire. And, as misfortunes rarely come singly, the cruel war which raged so fiercely between the northern and the southern states of the Union, deprived him in some way of his brother Charles and a son of his brother Bartlett. Then in 1867 his father died - the good old man who had been successively a grocer and draper at Winchelsea, a draper at Hastings, a publican at St. Leonards, and for about thirty-five years the highly respected Postmaster of the premier Cinque-Port. And now the grave has closed over the remains of the son as well as those of the father; and although they are separated by thousands of miles, our hope is that their spirits will be as affectionately united in another sphere as we know that they were in this. Mr. William Woods died at Chicago on the 19th of June, in the 88th year of his age, leaving behind him a widow and family, one brother (Bartlett) and his family, and one sister (in England) and her family. The deceased, I believe, left Hastings on St. Swithen's (sic) Day, 1843, whilst his brothers took their departure from the same town on Whit-Monday, 1836. The latter traveled to London, not in two hours, as may now be done by railway; not even in seven house, as might then have been done by the St. Leonards fast coach "Dispatch," but in thirteen hours by the "Old Blue" Van, which carried a promiscuous freight of fish, flesh and fowl, and at the lowest possible rate compatible with "comfort and safety/" It was a capacious conveyance which left Hastings every afternoon at three o'clock; and, like the Vicar of Wakefield's piece of furniture that served the double purpose of a chest of drawers by day and a bed by night, it was equally subservient to the requirements of humanity and merchandize. Perhaps, however, if the elder Woods had known what he learnt at a later period, that the attempt to make one thing serve a two-fold purpose was sometimes a failure, he would have hesitated before he arranged with the "Old Blue" to take his sons the first portion of their very long journey. His after experience was this:- He was a rather stout man, and as he had some difficulty in donning and offing his overcoat, he conceived the idea of having a thick out-door coat that should, per se, obviate the necessity of wearing two coats. "A very good plan," said the wife; "a capital idea," ejaculated the tailor; and "the very identical" exclaimed the wearer. But, lo! when-ever he made a call on his friends, and yielded to the invitation to stay a little while, he was immediately solicited to take off his coat. This, of course, he politely declined to do; but on one occasion a lady, who would not hear of his keeping on his overcoat - as she supposed it to be - in a warm room, and afterwards go out and not feel the benefit of it, laid hold of the garment to pull it off, when she quickly discovered that the wearer had no coat underneath. Nonplussed at the incident, Mr. Woods, amidst the irrepressible mirth of his friends, entered into a somewhat awkward explanation, whilst the conviction that his one coat could at the best but badly serve the purposes of the two, and that his conception was really a misconception.
And now again to politics. I promised to give a reprint of Mr. Sutherland Graeme's address to the "Loyal and Constitutional Association," and here it is.
"GENTLEMEN, - On the 21st of this Month our Association will have existed one year, and not doubting but that you will meet to celebrate the first Anniversary, I avail myself of the present mode of addressing you, regretting that circumstances will deprive me, of being present and personally congratulating you upon the signal success which has hitherto attended the formation of a Society founded upon "Loyal and Constitutional" principles. I should indeed but indifferently appreciate the honorable post which your kind confidence assigned to me, on the first night of our Meeting, could I permit the present occasion to pass away unnoticed; and though unavoidably absent from that post, yet I would prove by my present address to you, that my earnest and heart-felt interest in the increasing prosperity and ultimate success of our good cause, is as warm and energetic as ever. It is in accordance with established usage for a Committee of Secretary to make a Report upon each Anniversary, of the progress and results attending the labours of an Association: for such Report I must look to you; but I hold it to be part of my province to draw your attention to passing political events, with the view of ascertaining whether the principles which we profess, and under the animating impression of which we originally determined to associate ourselves together, have not made such an advance among the intelligent and well-disposed classes of Society as to warrant the renewed expression of our anxious hopes, that they will eventually prevail to such an extent in the Great Council of the Nation, as to secure the re-establishment of a wise and efficient Government, founded upon strictly constitutional principles in "Church and State." Since we first met, great events have taken place, the most important of which has been that appeal to the Electors of the United Kingdom which has recently been made in consequence of the lamented death of our late Sovereign William the Fourth; and it is upon the result of that appeal, we should in the first place cordially congratulate ourselves. Before, however, entering upon that subject generally, permit me to remind you that in the course of the few observations which I made on the first night of our meeting, I thus spoke, with reference to the position in which our own Borough was then placed. "When the proper time shall arrive, the members of this Association will possess the usual opportunity (through the medium of the different addresses), of becoming acquainted with the political sentiments entertained by the respective candidates, and we shall then be able to judge whose are most in accordance with those principles upon which it is proposed to form this Association." I have seen no poll book, and of course must of necessity be ignorant of the vote which each individual member of our Association gave upon occasion of the late Election, but I have every reason to believe that all tendered their suffrages in support of that candidate who did most undoubtedly profess, and who has never shrunk from the profession of, principles, in accordance with those entertained by the Association; and if it should unfortunately have happened that in one or more instances this should not have been the case, it can afford no triumph to our opponents, because then, either undue influence must have wrought upon the mind of the Elector, or he could never have been originally honest in his desire to co-operate with ourselves. To return to the General Election, and in the language of those who supported the Reform Bill, in the belief that "through its medium the real wants and wishes of the people would be made known," I unhesitatingly declare that the result of the late contest throughout the country has been of a nature to diffuse joy and satisfaction in the minds of all real Conservatives. I well remember upon more occasions than one, telling you that the majority of the reflecting people of this country were not in favour of the destructive measures introduced by Her Majesty's Government; I well remember, while addressing you, calling upon the Noble Viscount at the head of Her Majesty's Government to dissolve the Parliament, and by so doing ask the people these questions: "Are you willing to sacrifice your Church? Are you willing to destroy the Institutions of your Country?" And I also well remember using these prophetic words, little imagining then that the truth of them would so shortly become apparent "Then shall the united voices of the people of Great Britian (sic) reply in the negative; through the months of their Representatives, they will say, they are not content to do this great wrong, and that they -
