nightly throng. It is said of Tom Barry, even by competent critics of the present day who witnessed his performances at Hastings "Astleys," that no one has ever excelled him as a circus clown.
Another terrific gale and destructive sea - Breaking into the Gaol
There was another terrific gale on (I believe) the 18th of December, and this, like the October storms, caused a greater destruction at Hasting(sic) than it did at St. Leonards.
There in the Fishmarket two or more vessels had been lying ashore discharging their cargoes, and as the wind rose to a violent gale with a heavy sea, it was totally impossible to get them off, and it would have been certain destruction to ships and crews if such an attempt had been made. The only thing to be done was to attach strong hawsers to the vessels and haul them higher up the strand as the tide flowed in. Everything was prepared that could be thought of to effect this object, but the fierce hurricane had such an effect upon the spring tides as to make the huge waves irresistible. They beat against the sides of the vessels, tore away the ropes and chains, dashed up among the rigging, carried the masts by the board, and made complete wrecks of the Telemachus of Rye, and the Hull Packet, of Sunderland. There was a total eclipse of the moon at the time, and of such pitchy blackness was the night that although at a less exciting moment I could have walked through West street blind-folded, on that occasion I bruised myself by falling over doorsteps and scrapers. Getting at last into Commercial road, where hundreds of people were in danger of injury from capstan-bars and snapping hawsers, I became a sorry spectator of "Old Davy’s dreadful doings."
In a commercial sense the early part of the year was good for the tradesmen in general, the town being full of visitors who had the means to purchase luxuries as well as necessities. But in other ways there was a prevalence of discontent. The recent large increase of freemen, the extended franchise by means of the Reform Bill, and the numerous Commissioners under the newly acquired Act changed, as it were, the government of the town from an autocratic to a democratic body, and greater reforms, greater economy, greater intelligence, and greater improvements appeared to be looked for than could be accomplished. There was no locally printed newspaper at the time, but there were county journals which catered for Hastings, and in a January issue of one of these it was said thatThen, in the same month, after 9 fishermen had been committed to the assizes for breaking open the gaol and assaulting the Mayor, the same journal commiserates the offenders thus:-Local management is in the hands of a parcel of old women. We speak as well of the Municipal body as of the Commissioners. Never was displayed so poor a spirit as in the management of the new market. Incapacity has rendered it worse than useless. They have established a fishmarket on the very spot from where they have been endeavouring to remove it. Recently a party connected with this interest attacked and broke open the gaol, and liberated those convicted of an offence against the local Act, and yet the parties go unpunished
Poor fellows! They are very hardly dealt with. They are prohibited selling fish on the stade as heretofore and the new Market is wholly unsuitable.
Falling of a reservoir - Destruction of a groyne - Giving up the Fish Market &c.
I, too, sympathised with the fishermen and their families, and as a draper's assistant at an establishment situated immediately between the new market and the place previously occupied by the fish-sellers, I can testify that both for convenience and for sanitation the covered and uncovered, but moveable states which the fisherfolk had used perhaps for centuries on the beach contiguous to the stade (thus named the Fish market) were preferable to those in the Commissioner's newly built premises in George street. It was claimed for the fishermen that they had a chartered right to the use of the stone-beach from which they were ejected, but if not that, they certainly had a possessory title, and there was an intention to memorialise the Commissioners on behalf of the fishermen's claim setting forth, also, that although the new Act gave powers to build a market or markets, there was not only no stipulation for a fishmarket, but an expressed exception from tolls or duties in the hawking and selling of fish. By the new arrangement, the stall-keepers would have to pay 1/6 a day for the use of the stall or table and an additional duty of 6d a bushel on their fish. This tax was regarded as an impost both by sellers and byers, inasmuch as it naturally caused the fish to be dearer than it would otherwise have been. True the new Act gave to the Commissioners power "with the consent of the Mayor, jurats and commonality, first obtained to order stalls and standings to be erected on -
