Worthing, and Bexhill. Viscount Elmley, Earl Beauchamp's son, was present at all the functions.
The names of the Deputies having been called, the Mayor appointed as his chaplain for the day the Rev. Hugh Basil Cole, M.C., and the company proceeded to Holy Trinity Church. The sermon was preached by The Lord Bishop of Lewes, C.M.G. Some striking words fell from the Lord Bishop in his sermon, when he said the Speaker had sent him a book bearing on the subject of what the proceedings of the day meant, and he wanted to gather some lesson from their past history to serve them in these very modern days. After reading the book the Speaker had sent him, he had remarked to a friend that the history of the Cinque Ports was part of the History of England, to which the friend retorted that it was much more than that, for it was in fact the history. That he found absolutely true. He felt that they must look back with pride upon their history, and he ventured to say that it was history which should be taught in every Kent and Sussex school, so that the boys and girls "We might say with truth, have heard with our ears, our fathers have told us what works Thou didst in their days, in the times of old."
On hearing these words, I was reminded that a few days before they were uttered I received a letter from Mr. Charles A. Farmer, that clever journalist who was attached to the staff of the Argus and whom we all missed when he left us, in which he said : "I read with pleasure of your work in getting out a new edition of your ' Hastings of Bygone Days.' Not only was it an inexhaustible source of pleasure to me in my happy Hastings days, but it remains a much used friend. Only on Sunday I was turning it over, and it is one of those local histories which may be dipped into at any point, in any mood, and never fail to yield a picture recalling fond scenes or a good yarn of the old, old town. In many towns now - at Birmingham, for instance local history and topography is a subject in the schools, that made me wonder why the subject should still be neglected in Hastings. If we teach our young people more about the towns they live in they will grow up happier, prouder, and more contented citizens." I leave this question to the Education Committee. Did it ever strike my readers how incongruous it seems that a native of East Anglia should become a historian of Hastings. My dear young readers, I had not lived long in my adopted town before I loved it for its historic associations, its beautiful surroundings, and its health-giving air. I sought a "hobby," and I found it in the study of its history. It is my fascinating, and I wished others to share the results of my "hobby," and I hope the picturesque scenes and ceremonials associated with the Courts of Brotherhood and Guestling which assembled at Hastings through the instrumentality of its Mayor will lead others to dive into its meaning. The Cinque Ports were the providers, of our Navy, and from the Kent and Sussex iron foundries the guns and ammunition wrere produced and the hardy race of seamen to man the ships of war were bred on these shores.
