The present Owner of the property is George Cobb, Esq., an Alderman of the Borough of Brighton, who, a few years since, purchased of the executors of the late Sir Thomas Clarges the moiety which that baronet held.
Sir Thomas, in his latter days, was what is modernly termed, a little “cracky” in the cranium. Just about the period of the murder of the Italian boy, by Bishop and Williams, when pitch plasters were in vogue, and were as much terrors in the public mind as garottings now are, Sir Thomas had a pony which he imagined was unwell, and beyond the aid of veterinary skill. He therefore, with the manual service of his groom, undertook to cure it himself, and thus proceeded:—He procured a sheet of canvass, which he spread with a composition of pitch, tar, and tallow, and in this cere-cloth he encased the body of the animal, and twice daily, in the midst of Summer, took it, with merely a horse-cloth over it, on the Race-hill and submitted it to severe exercise, the groom walking it briskly, and himself riding beside it on horseback for two hours at a stretch. His intention was to pursue this course till all the virtue in the composition would become absorbed by the afflicted system of the animal, when its cure would be effected and the canvass would of its own accord drop off. The severity, however, of the process, was too much for the poor creature; for having borne the punishment somewhat more than a week, one morning, when Sir Thomas and his man went to the stable in Rock Mews, where a box had been specially fitted up, the straight-jacketed small edition of a horse was a stiffened corpse.
Immediately previous to her retirement from the stage, Mrs. Siddons filled an engagement here for three nights, namely, Tuesday, August 8th, 1809, as “Mrs. Beverley” in The Gamester, [214] Tuesday, 15th, as “Lady Macbeth,” and on Thursday, 18th, as “Isabella,” in the tragedy of that name. The receipts of the house for the 15th, amounted to £172 16s, a sum by far exceeding that which the Theatre could boast of having held on any night previous. On August 29th, she also appeared as “Margaret of Anjou,” in the tragedy of Earl of Warwick, for the benefit of Mr. Murray, on which occasion the receipts amounted to £150 5s; and on September 12th, as “Lady Macbeth,” for the benefit of Mr. Cresswell. On the last occasion Mr. Charles Kemble, for the first time on any stage, made his appearance as “Macbeth.” Every actor of celebrity has trodden the boards of the Brighton Theatre, which has been the nursery for supplying many first-rate performers to the patent houses of the Metropolis. At a Masquerade which took place here, October 8th, 1812, a great disturbance arose in consequence of Theodore Hook and his friends appearing unmasked.
The several lessees have been Mr. Trotter, Mr. Grove, Mr. Brunton, sen.,—father of the late Dowager Countess of Craven, who at the time of her marriage was acting on the stage of this Theatre, in her father’s company,—Messrs. Jonas and Penley, Mr. (Romeo) Coates, Mr. John Brunton, jun., Mr. (Jerry) Russell,—when the house was open only on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays,—Messrs. Bew and Vining, Mr. Charles Hill, Messrs. Walton and Holmes,—a commonwealth,—Messrs. Saville and Harroway, Mr. Hooper, Mr. Poole, Captain Belcour, Mr. H. Farren, and the present respected lessee, Mr. H. Nye Chart. Formerly, the season extended from July to October; now the house usually continues open from the latter end of July until the beginning of March.
Upon the completion of the present Theatre in the New Road, a permanent building for a Circus was erected on the Grand Parade, between Carlton Street and the weigh-bridge, which, for obtaining the weight of the loads in the waggons and carts that traversed the turnpike road to Lewes, stood at the spot that forms the bottom of Sussex Street. It was completed by Messrs. Kendall and Co., and opened in August, 1808. The building had a frontage of neat design, in width one hundred feet, which was also its depth, that extended into Circus Street. A wing to the north of the Circus was appropriated for a billiard lounge, confectionary, &c.; and the corresponding wing to the south for a coffee-house and hotel. The representation of a prancing horse surmounted the centre of the structure.
The only incident worthy of record which took place in this building during the few years that it was devoted to equestrian exhibitions, was an accident which befel the daughter of the lessee, Mr. Saunders, on the evening of Monday, August 28th, 1809, on the occasion of a bespeak of the Duke of Marlborough, when, while riding round the ring, which was thirty-six feet in diameter, Miss Saunders lost her equilibrium and fell. She was borne away insensible, amidst the intense anxiety of a most fashionable audience. The announcement, however, of the Acting Manager, Mr. Clark, that she had received but a slight injury, gave a salutary relief to all present. At her benefit, which took place on the previous Thursday, under the patronage of Lord and Lady Somerset, the house was crowded in every part.
In 1812 the Circus closed from want of support, and for a few years the premises were occupied as a Bazaar, a speculation which was quite a failure, although every inducement in the way of loos, lotteries, and lucky-bags, was introduced, with occasional displays of fireworks and the ascents of fire-balloons from the parade ground opposite, now the extreme north Enclosure. At that period, and for some years afterwards, the land northward from the Pavilion boundary wall to the Level was enclosed with posts and rails in areas like the present, and formed a public promenade, and the parade ground of the military. How it became enclosed with iron railings and planted with trees and flowers, to the exclusion of the inhabitants, has never been satisfactorily explained. Occasionally attempts have been made to investigate the business; but inasmuch as money is required for such a purpose, and the majority of the ratepayers are contented with the excellent manner the Enclosures are conducted, they allow the Trustees who have possessed themselves of the right, to continue in undisturbed possession.
From time to time since the demolition of the Grand Parade Circus, various troupes of equestrians have visited Brighton. Saunders’s was the first, his exhibition, which took place on the present site of St. George’s Place, being termed a Mountebank performance, and consisting, besides feats of horsemanship, of such tricks as are witnessed in shows at fairs and races. On Thursday evening, June 21st, 1821, from six to eight thousand persons assembled to witness the equestrian exploits, &c., of this company. In the midst of the amusements one of the scaffoldings, on which were nearly a hundred persons,—men, women, and children,—gave way, and the whole fell to the ground, a depth of about four or five feet. Many persons received severe bruises, and Mr. Siller, of His Majesty’s private band, had his leg broken in two places. The chief prop of the scaffolding was some slight paling, the yielding of which to the great pressure above occasioned the accident, which, under the circumstances, might have produced far more serious results, as many persons were immediately under it at the moment. Cook and Bridges—familiarly known to the juveniles of the time as “Cook and Breeches,”—afterwards came and took up their position on the Level; and then followed Ryan, Cooke, Batty, Tournaire, &c., in more or less permanent buildings; followed by the flying visits of troupes in mammoth tents. The last erection for the exhibition of horsemanship, and that still in existence, is the affair in Sussex Street, the hitherto success of which is evidence that the intelligent portion of the community have not failed to appreciate the talent which has been produced.
Chapter XXV.
BRIGHTON FROM ITS SIMPLICITY TO ITS PRESENT RENOWN.
The primitive state of Brighthelmston, both as respects the condition and habits of the inhabitants and the position and style of the habitations, must to a considerable extent be left to conjecture, as there is no doubt the great changes which have taken place in and about the town to give it the importance which it at present possesses as England’s “Queen of Watering Places,” have all been effected within the last 150 years.