manager, so contrived as to be able to contribute, weekly, two or more columns of history, biography and reminiscence for over eighteen of those years; and now that the said journal has been given up, although at 82 years of age, he cannot hope to bring the several separate portions of those of his literary productions intended for preservation, up to date, he is, nevertheless, endeavouring to advance them as far as life and health will permit.
Chapter I St Leonards, 1828-29
As remarked in the Introduction this history was commenced on the Jubilee Birthday Anniversary of the town and the following is a reprint of the first article.
Although there has been no rejoicing - no demonstration to signal the fiftieth anniversary of the founding of St Leonards, the present is deemed to be an opportune moment to review the rise and progress of a town which hath many charms and features peculiar to itself, and whose origin is still fresh in the recollection of many living persons who were among its earliest inhabitants. The period is the more suitable because it marks an epoch of circumstances as well as of time. In the present month of March, the not greatly used Subscription Gardens - which, from Mr Burton's original designs, were so tastefully formed from a portion of the St. Leonards Vale, and which for half a century have been regarded as one of the great ornamental enclosures of the town - are on the eve of conversion to sites for a number of villa residences. And whilst this diversion of the original design is about to be effected, there are works both on the west and on the east, drawing nigh to completion, which may be regarded as in one sense restorations, and in another sense some improvements on the original plans.
The high wall which separates a portion of the Marina from East Ascent is one of these; and it hardly needs to be told to those who have witnessed the inroads which fifty years have made upon the soft stone of which this wall is composed, how greatly the facing of the same with solid concrete will add both to its appearance and durability. Not only is this wall being thus restored and improved, but additional means of strength and safety are to be applied to the long flight of steps which conduct to East Ascent and Mews Road - those steps over which in the early days of St Leonards two horses and a carriage took a frightful leap to destruction, and from the debris of which the battered and shattered form of George Phillips was extracted, to be for many years afterwards a marvellous monument of the surgeon's skill and the "noble art of healing".
On the west side of the Subscription Gardens - one might almost say the far west - the finishing touch is being given to a sea wall and parade, together with a series of groynes which not only replace the weaker walls and groynes carried away in Mr Burton's time by a free and furious tide, but which also surpasses them in length, strength, height and security. It extends from 66 to 145 Marina, and while it offers protection to eighty of the best houses on the Marina against the recurrent inroads of the sea, it seems, as if it were, to complete the design of fifty years ago. The St. Leonards Commissioners did good work in their time, such as it was, but to the energy of the Hastings Urban Sanitary Authority is to be attributed this great improvement, as well as that of East Ascent. There is only one serious drawback to this undertaking, and that is one which was foreseen by those who have watched the action of the sea during the fifty years now under consideration.
The effect of baying out the sea at one place by means of walls and groynes is-
