The Effects of a Storm. During a gale on Wednesday, the 5th of March, the pressure of the shop front of Mr. Hempsted’s at Grand parade was so great that one of the squares of glass was forced into fragments , and with a detonation that astounded those who heard it. Near the same time (about 10 p.m.) the inmates of a house on the Marina were alarmed by the crash of a skylight at the rear of the building, and the destruction of some glass and earthenware in one of the upper rooms. The cause was afterwards discovered to be the dislodgement of some of the compo’ ridge by the force of wind, and which together with a loose plank, was precipitated with great violence over the roof and on to the frame-work of glass as described.
A Proposed Harbour.
The deadlock of the partly built harbour in the first year of the 20th century while the writing of this History is still in progress, should invest the discussions on a proposed harbour in 1862 with a halo of interest, and which discussions might have been useful to all parties concerned had they been before them ere the present harbour project had had its first conception. In addition, therefore to what has already appeared on the harbour question in the preceding chapter, considerable space will be given in the present volume to that strongly debated topic in the year now under review. Brett’s St. Leonards Gazette, of Jan. 25th, 1862, had the following remarks:-
- Several times during the last score of years or so, the question of a harbour or pier has been mooted in Hastings and for Hastings, and every time the subject has fallen to the ground, without the response that was necessary to success. The obstacles, pecuniary and other have been generally considered of an insurmountable character, and thus, after a little “ventilation”, the several schemes have been abandoned. The last of these – not two years since – was that of a floating breakwater, which being heralded forth with promises of great results for little money, and as the offspring of great scientific and engineering pretensions, appeared calculated to eclipse all previous speculations of its class, and to secure for the borough of Hastings such unprecedented advantages as should at once place its inhabitants in the van of wealth and civilization. It was, indeed, a pleasant prospect, most beautiful to behold; but, alas! this elisium has never been realized, and instead of basking in the golden sheen of prosperity, we have been left to wallow in the slough of despond.
- Softly, thou hard-natured pen of steel! Remember that all things must die so that all things may live, and that the loss of one friend may be the gain of two. Had the Breakwater floated, as in our then immature judgement we desired it should, the still brighter vision which -
