hot, dry summer, followed by cold northerly winds. The malady was in some places preceded by ill-smelling fogs ...
Another visitation occurred suddenly in April, 1658, and was chiefly prevalent in England, after great extremes of weather; the following summer was exceedingly hot, and a fatal epidemic fever prevailed at its close ... In 1663 it is said that 60,000 persons were attacked with the influenza in the states in one week. The disease was attributed by Paulini to an intense fog which came from the Adriatic ...
In 1675 Germany was visited in September, and England in October by a similar epidemic; the previous summer had been unusually warm, and followed by cold, most weather. The epidemic was preceded in France by these fogs ... The influenza which prevailed throughout all Europe in 1729 and 1730 was attributed by Hoffmann to changes of weather from heat to cold, and cold to heat, greater than he had ever experienced; by Loeu it was referred to thick sulphurous fogs ... The influences on which catarrhal epidemics depend appear to have continued in operation from the year 1732 to 1737, and they were associated with remarkable electrical and telluric phenomena.
During the spring and autumn of 1732 the weather was unusually dry; the aurora borealis was often peculiarly vivid; volcanic eruptions occurred in various parts of the world; south winds were attended with a dry, and those from the north with a rainy state of the atmosphere. The disorder is said by Huxham to have ceased suddenly after the explosion of a meteor in the air, which was accompanied with a foetid fog and produced, for an hour, an appearance as though the north of the heavens was on fire ...
The years 1741 and 1742 were remarkable for atmospheric vicissitudes, frequent appearances of the aurora borealis, and of meteors resembling soldiers fighting in the air. Catarrhal fever visited several countries during the years 1741 and 1742, and in the spring of 1743, after five months of excessively severe weather with easterly winds ...
The spring of 1762 was characterised by remarkable alterations of intense heat and cold, and by a rapid succession of wind frost snow and rain; an epidemic catarrh was general in Europe. It prevailed among sailors in the Mediterranean in July, during the prevalence of hot weather with easterly winds ...
The autumn of 1775 appears to have been remarkable both in France and Britain for this noisome fogs, so prolonged as to obscure the Sun for many weeks. In France the weather was cold and rainy, in Scotland unusually dry. The commencement of the year was very cold, then followed snow, abundant rain, and sudden changes of temperature. These vicissitudes occurred later in England than on the Continent, in correspondence with the latter appearance of the epidemic. Disease prevailed at the same time among dogs and horses; meat suspended in the air by means of a kite, near Glasgow, quickly became tainted ...
As respects the relation of the epidemic of 1782 to meteorological conditions, we may mention that the summer of 1781 was excessively hot and dry, no rain falling in England from the middle of June to the middle of September; the autumn was cold and damp, and the winter changeable. The spring of 1782 was remarkably late, the hedges in some parts of England not being full blown until June. In May the weather throughout Europe was singularly disturbed, gloomy, cold, and humid. Dr. Darwin observes that the Sun was for many weeks obscured by a dry fog and appeared red s through a common mist. In Bedfordshire according to Dr. Hamilton, the temperature of the 22nd of May was one degree lower than that of the 22nd of the previous December. on the 2nd of January the thermometer at St. Petersburg rose during the night from 5 deg. below to 30 deg. above zero, and in the morning, in that city alone, 40,000 persons were affected with influenza. For three months previously to the occurrence of the epidemic, in the midland counties of England, scarcely a day passed without rain; and the outbreak of the disorder was preceded by thunderstorms presenting remarkable phenomena:- the lightning consisted of balls, which stuck against each other and emitted sparks[a]; and although the thunder was distant, houses were burnt trees shattered, and several persons killed ...
The influenza of 1803 advanced in a northerly direction. North-easterly winds, thick, foetid, acrid fogs, vivid appearances of aurora borealis, and sudden atmospheric changes, had been previously observed, and in some countries shocks of earthquakes were experienced ... In September, 1830, the disease again appeared at Manilla; it attacked some parts of Britain in the spring of 1831, but did not reach others until the autumn. Remarkably thick fogs and great variations of weather had been observed for some months previous to its appearance. ”}} My reference to the serious epidemic of influenza which followed the great snow of 1836, and the copious extracts which I gave from the influenza epidemics in general, having called forth an expression of satisfaction, it may be apropos to say that at the threshold of 1837 the said epidemic and the question of a harbour engrossed almost the exclusive attention of the inhabitants. On the third of February, Mr. Burton, although in a weak state of health, and suffering from mental depression in consequence of Mrs. Burton's death, was engaged, with his assistants, in surveying the western part of St. Leonards with a view to the erection of a pier. the design for this must have been upon a comparatively small scale, as the estimated expense was only £6,000 the sum to be raised by £50 shares, and the work to be begun as soon as two-thirds of the amount was subscribed for.
This was not an entirely new project, but its revival was probably due to the efforts which a certain party were just then putting forth for the formation of a harbour at Hastings. The Town Council had already resolved to set on foot a subscription to defray the expense of a survey. Such expense, it was thought, would be about £100; and as the borough funds could not be touched for such purpose, the proposed mode of raising the money was resorted to. The general sickness at that time had however a depressing influence on public matters, and the progress made in the harbour question both at St. Leonards and Hastings was very slow. On the 15th of March, however, the Hastings Harbour Committee which had been previously formed, met in the Town Hall to discuss the subject, and whilst the Priory site was generally considered as the most eligible, some of the committee desired to draw to Mr. Cubitt's attention to the Fishmarket as a more suitable site. It was generally held, however, that the old Corporation party were averse to a harbour of any description, and as every public project in those days was made a party question of, the Radicals taunted Mr. North for his continued adherence to the party of obstruction and his practical indifference to the interests of the borough. The following remarks clipped from a newspaper of the period very fairly exhibit the feeling of irritation against one of the best men that ever represented Hastings, but whose moderation and generally safe calculations were viewed as defects rather than as virtues by the so-called party of progress. Alluding to the harbour question, the newspaper article here reproduced says :-
It is too true that the prevailing influenza is proving to be very serious, but the harbour mania will prove to be equally fatal to the political existence of Mr. North. We say it at once, and we hurl defiance at anyone who chooses to accept the challenge, that Mr. North's unpopularity and the incapacity of his intellect to grasp a subject of magnitude, coupled with his fondness for the 'Dilly,' have done irreparable injury to the cause which he and his underlings would have the people believe they espouse. The fact is that Mr. North anticipated an election in the spring, and, finding that his Parliamentary conduct had brought him below par., he at once seized the harbour question as a clap-trap. But the people are determined not to trust their interests to one who has neither the mind nor the moral influence to represent them effectually (sic). Really, the farce that has played during the time he has been a Member of the Lower House has become almost unbearable. When he declared to the council meeting that a survey and report for a harbour could not be done under from 12 to 18 months it is clear that his object was not to promote it, but to delay it.
I am not sure that this last allegation was altogether untrue, for I remember that, as even in later years, there were persons who looked upon Hastings and St. Leonards as rising towns of a fashionable character, whose interests would be likely to suffer by the introduction of a harbour and its unavoidable associations. This would account for the fact that a subscription list lying at the Bank for over two months received signatures only for the amount of £20. Yet, notwithstanding the constantly mis-judged motives of Mr. North, it was that gentleman who, at a quarterly meeting of the Town Council on the 3rd of January, moved that £30 be coveted towards the expense of a harbour survey. This was not carried however until the next quarterly meeting, the chief opponent being Dr. MacCabe, who was then Mayor, and not one of the Old Corporation party, but a man whom the Liberals themselves delighted to honour. But in the meantime, the promoters of the scheme took up the matter energetically, and I believe I am right in saying that at a meeting held at the Royal Oak, Mr. S. Putland, of St. Leonards, with some other persons, offered to canvass the town for subscriptions. anyhow, printed papers were circulated and a sum of £200 was obtained by the end of March. Mr. Cubitt was communicated with, and his consent obtained to comply with the wishes of the committee for the sum of £150. By about the middle of June Mr. Cubitt's plans and estimates were received, the latter amounting to £150,000. It was calculated that the harbour would occupy from five to seven years to construct, and that the repairs and wages to necessary attendants would cost about £500 a year. The site selected was a part of the Holy Trinity ground, then known as the Priory. But the space to be appropriated to the scheme for a harbour, as designed by Mr. (afterwards Sir William) Cubitt, was not confined to that of the Priory; it embraced the whole foreshore from the Priory stream to the old Battery at what is now East parade. The scheme however was never carried into effect; the £150,000 being regarded as too serious an outlay, and the design as being altogether upon too large a scale. The abandonment of Mr. Cubitt's designs for the Hastings harbour and the proposed pier at st. Leonards being also deferred, two smaller plans were submitted in the following year - one by Lieut.-Col. Williams, and one by Mr. John Smith. These will be noticed in their proper place, and in the meantime it will be convenient to invite my readers' attention to another project of simultaneous origin, which began curiously and ended ingloriously.
On the 10th February a meeting of property owners and occupiers in the parish of St. Mary Magdalen, east of the Archway, was held at the Saxon Hotel for the purpose of conferring with the surveyors and solicitors of the Eversfield Estate, expecting an application to Parliament for an Act to regulate that part of the borough. The Bill had been prepared by the said solicitors and surveyors without any previous consultation with those whose interests were directly affected by its provisions; and the result of the meeting was to declare by a unanimous resolution the inexpediency of the Bill. Notwithstanding this expression of feeling, the Bill was smuggled into Parliament, and the inhabitants had to take further action to prevent the passing of the same. Accordingly on the 8th of March a second meeting was held at the Saxon Hotel, not merely to vote the inexpediency of the proposed Act, but to petition against it. It was found to contain provisions similar to those of the St. Leonards Act, and with which the people were not very favourably impressed. Two surveyors- one in London and one at Hawkhurst, managed the affair; but, as I shall show, neither creditably nor successfully. It was naturally supposed that after so decided an expression of opinion, the agents would not presume to usher the Bill into Parliament; but to the astonishment of the objectors the petition for the Bill - signed only by eight persons - was unblushingly presented. The signatures attached to the document were two farm tenants one inhabitant (who not having attended the meeting, supposed he was doing what the meeting desired), one -
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