company him to witness the exploit. On getting down to the space in front of the Hotel, where the Baths, but not the parade wall had been built, the boat came ashore, and the "batsmen" assembled on the beach, confronted by a solitary preventive-man. This guardian of the coast was made to understand that it would go hard with him if he fired his pistol. This he did, nevertheless, but as no one was wounded, the party rushed upon him and might have inflicted on him some bodily harm but for the interposition of Mr. Deudney, whose friend, Mr. Beecham, had gone away from sheer fright. The result was that the preventative mans pistol and cutlass were wrenched from him and thrown into the sea, whilst with surprising dexterity, the large cargo of spirits was got clean away to Westfield and other places without the loss of a single keg.
I have previously alluded to the races of 1828, then known as the Hastings Races, which were held on a suitable course just westward of St. Leonards, and by way of diversion I might have added that six years before that memorable period found me — a child of six summers — at similar races when they were held on Bulverhithe Salts. I had followed the stream of horsemen and pedestrians, unknown to my parents, and but for my having been discovered on the ground by a Mr. Fisher, eating-house keeper, of Hastings, and by him restored to my home, I might have come to grief, as did several of the riders of the running horses. My present allusion to the races, however, is to show that in its second year of existence, St. Leonards combined with Hastings for the first time in carrying out the arrangements of this, the greatest event of the year.
It was also in 1830 that St. Leonards started its first regatta, which in consequence of rough weather, was postponed to the 5th of October. But in the meantime an elegant two o'clock dejeuner was set out in the St. Leonards Assembly Rooms by Mr. Hodgson, the event being more memorable by a display of fireworks at night. So, too, in the same year was inaugurated that terpsichorean gathering known as the Batchelor's Ball - an annual re-union which has existed from that time to the present. This first event of the kind was attended by 170 persons, and the company expressed great satisfaction at the catering of Mr. and Mrs. Hodgson. It was then that the commencement of fashionable assemblies at St. Leonards gave a spur to the people of Hastings, who, in a spirit of emulation, engaged in a round of gaiety such as had not before been known.
Only two evenings after the first Batchelor's Ball, Mrs. Camac entertained 300 guests at a ball and hot supper. Then followed in rapid succession subscription balls at the Swan Hotel, balls and parties by Mr. and Mrs. Milward, the Misses Milward, Sir Wathen Waller, Mr. Planta, Mr. Elphinstone and others. But more of this anon. 'Ere St. Leonards had been in existence for two years, the Poet Campbell had taken up his abode at No. 10 South Colonnade where he resided for a period of five years and wrote his "Ode to the Sea," his poem on Poland, and other pieces.
The accompanying view shows the locality of the transaction in 1830; also the Hotel, the Baths and Library, the mansions created west of the Hotel and then the space then unbuilt upon between 57 Marina and the Sussex Hotel
