129 St the “ Maudlin ” parish (now a part of St. Leonards town), he having held the office in 1626, and his predecessor, Thomas Brett, the office of bailiff in 1656.
The Fish Pond Murder - Articles on Poetry and Rhyme
Pearson was tried at the Sussex Spring Assizes, but that belongs to the history of the following year, when the Guestling poisoning case will also be noticed. Suffice it here to say that nearly a century had passed since any similar scene had presented itself at Hastings, and there were few persons, if any, even among the oldest by whom the “ Murder at Fairlight ” could be remembered except as a tradition. Some details of this have been recently given in connection with the “True Story of the Lover's Seat,” but a brief recapitulation is here presented. The perpetrator of that deed was Lawrence Halliday[a] (not, perhaps a native, although married at Hastings). He was a barber in the Fishmarket, and among his customers was an elderly gentleman who lived in a lonely home[b] near the Fish Ponds, and on whom it was customary for Halliday to wait at stated intervals, On one occasion he was tempted perhaps by the reputed wealth of his customer and the loneliness of the situation to cut the old gentleman’s throat and rob the house, Some time elapsed before the murder was discovered but Halliday was eventually taken, tried, condemned, and hung on a gibbet near Fairlight Mill[c]
Under the heading of “Cultivation of Poetry,“ the Hastings News, which was established in that year, remarked :—“ One suggestion thrown out by Mr. Scrivens deserves more attention than we dare prophesy the members will give it, We allude to his advice to give the cultivation of a love of poetry & place among the many other good things encouraged by the committee of the Mechanics’ Institution. Æsthetical pursuits may be more advantageously made a study than matter-of-fact Englishmen generally conceive. Next to direct religious tuition the refinement of sentiment fostered (if not created) by such a study we hold to be foremost of popular auxiliaries to the moral improvement of society. A degree of poetic feeling is indispensible(sic) also to success in all branches of trade where taste is required. A dull, unimaginative soul can never be more than a plodder in his craft — will never make anything like an artist, nor even become in the true sense of the term a skilful artizan(sic). Neither for its sentiment nor its trade utility is poetry to be lightly esteemed with impunity. He who despises poetry is either too morally bad or too intellectually obtuse to appreciate the richness of its worth.”
He who now makes this extract was at that time engaged in writing rhymed advertisements for different tradesmen, among whom were Messrs. Robinson and Oliver, two young men who had left George Bennett’s drapery establishment at 41 High street (previously the Cossums for a hundred years or more) and had set up business for themselves at 60 George street. The writer of those metrical announcements was assured of their effectiveness in helping the new drapers into fame; and who will say that the encouraging words of the News were not a further incentive to continue to practically nurse the poetic feeling which it avowed was indispensible{sic} to success in all branches of trade? Anyhow, while thus advised on the one hand to cultivate poetry, and adjured on the other to “ eschew poetry,” the would be rhymster pursued the even tenour of his way, steering a middle course between the ornamental and the useful, and ultimately grasping in measured periods a mass of historical facts relating to the town of his nativity never before attempted. Apart from this later feature — not yet completed—there may have been a few compositions bearing the impress of poetry, but, as a rule, the object has been to relate facts, or to give useful advice in correct tone and measure rather than to revel in flights of poetic fancy.
I will now advance to its close my review of 1848 with a few topics of a more cheering character than the one with which the immediately a preceding instalment terminated; and, firstly, as the municipal elections have just taken place, it may be interesting to read the results of the similar elections of 45 years ago. The borough was then divided into two wards only, and the number of Councillors to be elected were four for the east ward and two for the west. The numbers polled on that occasion were for the east ward - Clement (L) 496, Amoore (C) 490, Stubbs (L) 447, Hickes (C) 108, Langham (C) 363, Thwaites (L) 264, and Duke (L) 56. For the west ward - Mann (C) 115, Beck (C) 81, and Austin (L) 76. Here it may be noticed that as compared with the elections of the present year, 1893, although the votes recorded for the opposing candidates were individually less divergent, the total Conservative majority of 1848 was not very dissimilar to that of 1893. In each case the number of candidates was ten, whilst the Conservative majority of the earlier period was to the latter, roughly as 1:5 to 1:9.
And now that Mr. W. Ransom, the originator of the Hastings News, has been a worthy candidate for municipal duties, it will be apropos to refer to what that continuous worker for the town’s good had to say so long ago as 1848. In a long article of eloquent diction on the Hastings Mechanics’ Institution a portion of which has before been quoted — the Editor of the News remarked ”There are yet some of our townsmen who do not fully appreciate the excellence of this institution. Hence our motive in bringing its claims before the public. We cannot condemn too strongly that short sighted policy of some employers who forbid the connection of their apprentices and work-people with a society like this, under the idea that their time and thoughts would be rendered less available for business by it.” In commenting on this article, a certain diarist wrote that “No one appreciated the force of those last remarks more than did he who seconded the proposal to form a similar institution at St. Leonards, and who, with Mr. Philip Hook, was the means of getting the townspeople together to consider the matter, In 1835 and ’36 he was a member of the Hastings Institution, which was then located in Waterloo place. Knowing this, his employer used to say in his presence he would never have in his service anyone who was mad after education and music. Such people (he continued) generally got to be lazy and not worth their salt. Look, said he, at So-and-So and So-and-So, — meaning two well educated persons, as we thought at the time he had cause to do, — they are fit for nothing. Such words were, however, thrown away on him for whom they were intended as a warning; for notwithstanding that the latter could only get to the institution from a quarter to half an hour before closing time, it served as an impetus for extending the limited general knowledge already acquired under unusual difficulties. His employer, with tact and industry, grew more wealthy and secured more public influence than the better educated persons he had denounced, and he might then have repeated his remarks with even more telling effect. But he discovered that his own advancement might have been further enhanced by the educational training he had at one time condemned. He had seen, too, in years that had passed, that in the energetic and faithful discharge of his duties his assistant by his striving after knowledge (including even music) under hardships and privations, had not made the servant of less value to his master. And to his credit, be it said, the possessor of wealth and influence practically recanted his earlier impressions by recommending his former assistant as private tutor to several families.
(Omitted from its proper place)
CHAPTER TIME 1848.
(Extracts from a local diary, continued.)
Again copying from the diarist’s bock, I find, under the date of May 8th, as follows :— ”Truth is sometimes stranger than fiction, and this fact appears to be an illustration. An elderly woman, apparently from the country, seeing some hosiery ticketed at a draper’s door-way, simply and unaffectedly asked, while she pointed to one of the tickets, ”What may be the price of that? Really I'm so deaf that I don’t know what it means.” Soon after the old lady's remark my risible organs were again excited on hearing that a person had cut his hand with a trug-basket, and threatened that in future he would leave edge-tools alone.
May 9, Wrote the following song as
AN ANSWER TO JEANNETTE AND JEANNOT.
Yes, I'm going far away, far away from my Jeannette,
Yet, ‘midst the scenes that meet my view [ will not thee forget.
To thee my heart will still beat true wherever I may go,
No change of fortune or of place shall change thy fond Jeannot.
It might be wished that war should cease, but that can never be
So long as tyranny exists and slaves are still unfree;
There must be soldiers brave and true to guard a nation’s laws,
There must be gallant warriors to fight in Freedom’s cause,
Should Fortune smile on me, Jeannette, and lead me on to fame,
Your own Jeannôt will still be found in word and deed the same;
And not a lady in the land, e’en though she be a queen,
Shall ever win my love from one who has so faithful been.
So, when I’ve worn the jacket red, and beautiful cockade,
You'll find at last I’ve not forgot the promises I made;
My gun I'll leave behind me, and my sword I'll lay aside,
And come to thee, my own Jeannette, to claim thee as my bride.
May 10. Wrote the following jeu d'esprit
Many a Slip 'Twixt The Cup and the Lip.
A couple to the altar hied,
That they in wedlock might be tied,
The clergyman had not arrived,
The maiden asked the time,
”What's that to you” the bridegroom said;
“Thank you!” quoth she, ”we're not yet wed,”
Then shouted as from church she fled,
“ Some other may be thine !”’
The Reason Why.
“ Why place your coffee, Mr. Meek,
Down there, may I request?”
“Why, madam, ’tis so very weak,
I thought I’d let it rest.”
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