driven to St. Leonards with a load of meat, the horse started off without controul(sic), and collided with a basket carriage belonging to Mr. Avery, inflicting thereupon considerable damage, and injuring the horse. The cart was turned completely over, and the meat, together with the driver, deposited underneath; but, strange to say, Mr. Talbott and his horse and cart escaped unhurt.
An accident of a serious nature occurred on the 13th of August to Mr. Rose Hilder, a St. Leonards flyman. He had just driven his carriage on to the stand when one of the fore wheels locked against the spring of the drag-chain and capsized the driver, head foremost on to the iron railing of the parade. The pony immediately set off towards Hastings, leaving its driver behind in a state of profuse bleeding. The injured man was first taken into Mr. Hempsted’s shop, thence to Mr. Penhall’s, at Eversfield place, afterwards to the Infirmary, and finally to Mr. Savery’s, at York buildings. There, at last, a surgeon was found, in Mr. Savery, himself, who dressed the unfortunate man’s wounds, and had him taken to his home in a precarious and even dangerous condition.
It was a period of numerous accidents in both towns. At St. Leonards, in addition to the case of poor Hilder, a carter of the name of Horace Quaife, while endeavouring to stop a runaway horse, was thrown down and so greatly injured as to necessitate his being taken to the Infirmary, where he died. Another accident was that to Mr. Spark’s of Mercatoria, who fell from a window of a house on the Marina, and was greatly injured. Mr. Sparks was afterwards a crippled invalid for many years before his death.
Horse accidents would make up a considerable catalogue of casualties during a year, yet are they thought but little of in comparison with railway accidents. At about this time they were more than usually frequent in and about the two towns, one of them, as above stated, causing death. The next to be noticed was on the 28th of August, when two ladies and two gentlemen, unattended by a riding-master, were proceeding along the Grand parade, and when just at the corner of London road, one of the ladies fell from her horse and was so injured that for a considerable time her life was despaired of. She was taken into Mr. Hempsted’s chemist’s shop, where physicians and surgeons were quickly in attendance doing all they could for the relief of the unfortunate lady, with her bleading(sic) head and lacerated face. For nearly two hours the sufferer lay in a semi-unconscious state, during which time her groans evoked the greatest sympathy on her behalf. At length, however, she was conveyed in a carriage to Hastings, where, with her family, she had been sojourning as a visitor.
A Fatal Accident occurred on the 17th of October, to an unmarried labourer, named Mark Ransom. During a high wind he was precipitated from the scaffolding of a new building at Upper Maze Hill, and when picked up it was found that his head was bent under him, and covered with some planks that had fallen at the same time. He was taken to his home at Bohemia terrace where he died three days later. His remains were interred on the following Sunday in -
