to her humble shed with befitting ceremony. Her predecessor was taken back for repairs or to be "laid up in ordinary".
The Postal Imbroglio
On page ___[a] it was stated that the St. Leonards Commissioners at their meeting on December 24th resolved to send a letter to the Secretary of the General Post Office and a copy of the same to the Mayor of Hastings. To understand the nature of that letter it is necessary to refer to a report of the Town Council meeting held on the 4th of the same month which appears on page ___[b] in the next chapter. There it will be found that in renewing an agitation for the abolition of the St. Leonards Post Office, the real object was professedly to alter to the name of Hastings all that portion of St. Mary Magdalen parish that was not included in Mr. Burton's purchase for the town of St. Leonards, and which though not so included, had borne the name of St. Leonards for about 27 years. I will, however, here give an outline of the birth and growth of the district coveted by Hastings at this juncture. Mr. Burton commenced building the town of St. Leonards in 1828 - the same year in which the Woods and Forest Commissioners claimed the ground at the Priory, and gave the inhabitants a seven years lease dating from the preceding year. Over this ground, Hastings proper had no jurisdiction, its western limit being the Priory bridge, now the site of the Albert Memorial. Between Hastings proper and St. Leonards proper, there were no front-line habitations except the then recently erected Verulam place by Mr. Manser, Mr. Austin, Mr. Hilder and others. This range of ten houses was built on the western side of the then steep road over the White Rock, about seven years before the said road was levelled, and no one thought of calling it Hastings. There was, in fact, a mile of road between Mr. Burton's new town of St. Leonards and the old town of Hastings. The former town having sprung into existence in a remarkably short time, builders and speculators began to look about for other sites, and in 1829 or '30 ground was purchased immediately contiguous to Mr. Burton's property on the Eversfield estate. Among the purchasers and builders were Mr. Manser, Mr. Towner, Col. Jeffreys, Mr. Inskipp, Mr. Beecham and Mr. Eldridge, and by 1831, Adelaide place - now 1 to 13 Grand parade - and some houses in the rear were completely erected. As before stated, this property was a mile distant from the western boundary of Hastings, and it was also a mile and a half from the Hastings Post Office, then in George street. St. Leonards having been made a post-town from the first; and distant from that of Hastings; it was naturally convenient for the property that joined St. Leonards to be -
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