Fulfilled predictions of the Afghan War - Marriage of Miss Shuttleworth
There was a regatta on the 19th of July, and another on the 26th of August, the particulars of which I do not appear to have at hand. There was also a novel aquatic competition (at Hastings) on the 29th of August, got up by Mr. Cresswell, a gentleman at that time residing at Verulam place. Eight men, each in a fish-tub, and using a shovel to paddle with, started from the Battery to go round a tub off Beach cottages and back. It proved to be tough work, and only two out of the eight accomplished it, the other six having capsized at different parts of the course; but being good swimmers, no harm befel them. The successful men were Chas, Brazier, 1st; Richard Hide, 2nd. There was a second match, in which the eight competitors were boys. These made rather a better race than the men did; but six of them, as in the first match, were swamped; and so, following the example of the seniors, they swam over the course unencumbered by tubs or shovels. To James Stonham and George Harman were awarded the 1st and 2nd prizes. The contest afforded much amusement, and was witnessed by a crowd estimated at 3,000. On the 26th of September, a galley race was announced for the prize of a £25 cup between four gentlemen of London and four amateurs of Hastings. I did not see this contest and do not now remember who were the winners; but about twelve days later, namely, October 7th, there was a galley race between, the John Bull and the Swift, the former being rowed by Messrs. W. and J. Carswell, Charles Ansoore and S. Gill, and the latter by Messrs. Wm. Scrivens, Thos. Cogger, F. Emary and George Barton, The Swift won easily.
Among the important events of 1842 was that of the Afghan war, a startling feature of which was the melancholy reverse sustained by the British forces as made known by the news which reached Hastings on the 1st of April. The total destruction of an army of some 13,000, including camp followers, was received with as much consternation as regret, whilst it brought forcibly to mind the prediction in Zadkiel’s legacy, published in March, 1841, in which, while treating of the great conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter on the 26th of January, 1842, the author said:-
“Moon and four planets in Capricorn, transiting the. cusp of the house of war, denote the crash of armies; the onslaught of thousands upon thousands in the wide-spread fields and by the broad rivers of Asia. There shall be seen in Chorassan and Afghanistan, and throughout Baloochistan, from the Caspian Sea, to the Bay of Bengal, myriads of martial men striking liberty in many a blood-stained struggle.”
And now that I have introduced the subject - more by accident than by design - it will not be innapropriate to quote another prediction from the Legacy of 1842, which, by a noticeable coincidence, is receiving fulfilment at the very time that I am writing. It runs thus:-
“The naval powers of the conntry will feel the effects of these numerous planets in the 6th house. The modes of naval warfare will undergo extreme mutations, and, ere many years, destruction will be hurled at the foes of this country upon the waves by means of instruments at present unknown.”
Another event which caused a flutter of excitement in Hastings and St. Leonards, not unattended with regret, in 1842, was the burning of the Sussex Advertiser office at Lewes. Be it remembered that after the death in 1841 of the spasmodically resuscitated and briefly existent Cinque-Ports Chronicle, the Hastings people were mainly dependent for their local news and advertisements on the Brighton Guardian and Sussex Advertiser, from which latter afterwards sprang the Hastings and St. Leonards Chronicle. It may be easily understood, therefore, that the total destruction of such a newspaper plant was looked upon as a local calamity. To me, at least it was of personal interest, as I was then and for several years after, the sole agent for the paper in St. Leonards. It occurred on the 2nd of May. and in a copy of the paper for May 10th, is the following notice :—
“We beg to announce to our readers and the public that notwithstanding the late Fire by which the Printing Materials and Stock-in trade of the ‘Sussex Advertiser' were completely destroyed, that paper will continue to be published as usual every Tuesday morning, owing to a continuance of that kind assistance of Messrs. Baxter, by which the last numer was got out immediately after the calamity, those gentlemen (in the most handsome manner and with a manly cordiality which will ever be rememdered with feelings impossible to be conveyed in, words having placed at our entire disposal one of their Printing Offices, completely fitted with type, machines, and everything requisite for the publication af a Newspaper, and where our men are now employed in preparing the 'Sussex Advertiser' as usual, until our own stock can be replaced.”
Having shown that the fashionable season of 1842 was an unusually good one, and that it did not justify the “Lamentations“ of Euthymus, it may not be out of place here to mention that the visitors coming in on the splendidly appointed coaches finely horsed and well “guarded“ by red-coated bugle-men - were incessantly, annoyed by the disreputable system of touting which then so extensively prevailed in both towns. No sooner had the coaches from London, Tunbridge Wells, Dover and Brighton set down their passengers than the latter were literally besieged by the touters of people calling themselves respectable tradesmen. This annoying practice was perhaps more reprehensible as applied to St. Leonards than to Hastings, seeing that in the newer town the rivals, such as grocers, butchers, poulterers and fishmongers, were usually only two in number, and with fair dealing could command a good trade as well without the touting system as with it. Nay ! a better one even; for it came to my own knowledge that families were actually deterred coming & second time in consequence of these cruel importunities. Not only were ladies and gentlemen harassed for their custom on alighting from the coaches or their private carriages, but in many instances, they were also followed into their apartments by professed touters like a pack of hungry hounds. To such a pitch was this carried that the touters came to blows with each other, and the infliction of fines by the magistrates in a few cases of assault, and a threat to award heavier punishment for repetitions of such scandalous scenes, did more than anything else to bring the system to an end.
The above remarks when first published brought the query from an "Old Subscriber," "Did not the disgraceful competition you speak of between butchers, bakers, and others have its origin in the new town?" My answer is, certainly not! ‘The system was practised in Hastings. though perhaps to a less annoying extent, before St. Leonards existed. As long ago as 1823 a gentleman named Lambert, who took apartments at York Buildings, complained of the annoying system of touting, he having had no fewer than 72 cards either thrust into his hands or delivered at his lodging within the space of four hours. This, I submit, is conclusive that the touting system was of an old-town origin.
I turn now to other matters of a personal nature, and these will lead ultimately to political actions and conditions of 1842. On the first of January it came to the knowledge of the Hastings people that Sir James Graham, as Home Secretary, had recommended to the Lord Chancellor the names of Robert Ranking, Wastel Brisco and Wiliam Staines to be added to the Bench of Magistrates. These gentlemen being of Conservative politics, their appointment was so distasteful to the Liberals that the representatives of the latter at a quarterly meeting of the Town Council on the 4th of February commented pretty freely upon it. The Mayor (Mr. Duke) considered it an uncourteous treatment of the Council Board, whilst Mr. Yates held it to be an infringement on the rights of the Council. The latter gentleman admitted that the law was against them, but he nevertheless was of opinion that the Home office had greatly insulted the town by not consulting the Council. Alderman Smith remarked that there had been persons appointed before then who had not been recommended by the Council. Mr. Thwaites had no fault to find of the gentlemen appointed, but he would move “That this Council deprecate the conduct of the Secretary of State in not showing that courtesy to the town which is due to it.” Mr. Emary would not go quite so far, because he recollected that on a previous occasion when Mr. Brisco’s name was included in a recommended list, it was struck out, and a Liberal substituted. It was therefore the same, politically speaking, with Whigs and Tories; so that what they could not prevent he thought they should bear with a good grace. Mr. Ginner thought it a very discourteous act, but hoped Mr. Thwaites would not press his motion. Mr. Putland was for a resolution of a milder character without forgetting what was due to themselves. Mr. Thwaites would try and meet the objections by proposing "That the Council disapprove the conduct of the Secretary of State by recommending gentlemen to be placed on the Commission of the Peace without previous reference to the Town Council; and that the additional magistrates were unnecessary." Alderman Smith objected to the last sentence for the reason that when he was in office he frequently had great difficulty in getting the attendance of a second magistrate. - The motion was carried by a majority of one.
On the 27th of January the Liberal Member (Mr. Hollond) paired off with Viscount Eastnor till after the Easter Recess, and on the 7th of April the pairing was extended till the 25th. On the 21st of June Mr.Hollond (Hastings) and Mr.Elphinstone (Lewes) voted in the minority of 157, against 290, in favour of the Ballot. Two days later the Conservative Member (Hon. J. Planta) left Hastings for London, promising on his return to take up his abode at St. Leonards. At the same time Mr. North and his family left Hastings for Rougham Hall, Norfolk.
A few months previously, namely, on the 24th of February, Mr. North's daughter-in-law, Miss Janet Shuttleworth (only daughter of the deceased Robert Shuttleworth, Esq., of Gawthorp Hall, Lancashire) was married at St. Clement's church by the Hon, and Rev. N. Eden to James P. Kay Shuttleworth, Esq. This lady was much beloved by the people of Hastings, and it is by no means out of place to notice her marriage, seeing that her eldest son, Mr. Kay-Shuttleworth (now Sir Ughtred Kay-Shuttleworth) was destined, 27 years later (1869), to succeed his step-grandfather, Mr. North, as the Liberal Member of Parliament for Hastings, and later on to marry a daughter of Sir Woodbine Parish, of St. Leonards. But, to return to Mr. Hollond, that gentleman was seriously unwell in the month of July, and being thus unable to attend to Parliamentary duties, he paired off with a Conservative Member for the remainder of the Session. He, however, recovered his health, and in the fourth week of September arrived, with Mrs. Hollond, at St. Leonards, and immediately issued invitations to a grand ball and supper at the Allegria.
My next notes on personal and political topics relate to the Municipal Election on the 1st of November. In the West Ward there was no struggle, Mr.Austin (Liberal) and Mr. Deudney (Conservative) being elected unopposed; but in the East Ward the political fight was a severe one, the result being the election of three Tories (Messrs. Ticehurst, Amoore and Ransom) and one Whig (Mr. Kelland), and the consequent rejection of three Radicals (Messrs. J. D. Thwaites, H. Thwaites and J. Ranger. The united numbers polled by the Tories were 839, whilst those for the defeated candidates were 507. The votes recorded for the Whig or Moderate Liberal were 5 below those of the lowest Tory, and 78 above those of the highest Radical. The winning candidates regarded their success as a great triumph for Conservatism, and celebrated the event with a dinner at Carswell’s Swan Hotel. For the information of some of my younger readers, it may be explained that Mr. Ticehurst was a surgeon; Mr. Amoore, a grocer; Mr. Wm. Ransom, a ship-builder ; Matthew Kelland, a retired draper; John Dungate Thwaites, a block-maker; Henry Thwaites, a grocer; and Joseph Ranger, a surgeon. The last-named gentleman béing lowest on the poll might have been in some measure due to a fear among the burgesses of having too much doctor-craft, there being already a surgeon in the Council and a surgeon in the civic chair. William Duke was the gentleman who filled the office of chief magistrate at that time, and it was he who had to preside for the second time at the Mayor's dinner on the 9th of November. This was not because he had been re-elected to the office of Mayor, but because Mr. Wastel Brisco - who had been elected without his sanction, demurred to such election, and claimed the privilege of five days’ grace to make up his mind. He was naturally piqued at the discussion which had taken place at a recent meeting of the Council anent his appointment as a Justice of the Peace, and he also reminded the Council that when he wished to decline the invitation to become Mayor two years before they talked about compelling him to accept office. Mr. Ross, in his objection to Mr. Brisco, stated that it had been affirmed of Mr. Brisco that if he were proposed for the office, rather than accept it he would ‘fine off; and as Mr. Brisco had been a resident for fifty years, and had deprived the town of one of its most picturesque walks, he (Mr, Ross) would oppose his election, even if he stood alone. Mr. Brisco denied ever saying he would fine off; he had only said that he was disinclined to accept the office because he had seen 60 little of public life. Ere the five days’ grace expired, however, Mr. Brisco acquiesced in the decision of the Council, and became Mayor for the next twelve months. This election of a Conservative Mayor and the previous defeat of the advanced Liberals at the municipal election naturally depressed the supporters of the latter, and - as is usually the case with the vanquished - they set about to discover the means whereby the positions might be reversed.
Having in chapter XXVII described the fatal mishaps of 1842, such as the running down of a fishing boat, the upsetting of a coach, the terrible accident in the harvest field, and the drowning of four persons by the submergence of a pleasure-boat, I now proceed to the record of some other deaths, including those of a violent as well as those of a natural occurrence. Mr. Thomas Emary, of the Albion Hotel and previously of the Castle Hotel, died on the 7th of February, after a brief illness; and on the Sth of September a highly esteemed and charitable lady died at St. Leonards in her 71st year. Her name was Marion Charlotte Wakefield, relict of Edward Wakefield, Esq., of Springfield, Antrim, Ireland. Her remains were interred in a vault within the St. Leonards Church, the service being read by the Rev. James Murray, at that time curate. Also in the month of October a vault in St. Clement’s Church received the remains of Mrs. Sarah Gillbe, -
