Pavilion, Brighton, Oct. 20th, 1809.
Sir,—I am commanded by the Prince of Wales, to acquaint you that His Royal Highness will have great satisfaction in affording the accommodation of his Riding House upon the happy occasion to which your letter refers, and which His Royal Highness sees in a most laudable view.
Sir, your Obedt Servt.,
Benj. Bloomfield. [257]P. Mighell, Esq.
The eventful day was ushered in by the ringing of bells, the British Flag majestically waving on the venerable tower of St. Nicholas’ Church, to which place of Divine Worship the Freemasons of the Royal Clarence Lodge, and their visiting brethren from the neighbouring Lodges, proceeded in procession, about eleven o’clock, the Band of the South Gloucester Militia taking the lead, and announcing their approach by their harmony. An appropriate sermon was preached by the Rev. Mr. Tilt; at the conclusion of which—there being then no organ in the church,—the Musicians of the Prince of Wales’s Band performed the Coronation Anthem. At one o’clock a royal salute was fired from the Battery, and it was repeated by a gun-brig, then lying off the town. About half-past one o’clock the doors of the Royal Riding House, in Church Street, were thrown open for the admission of the benevolent Mr. Mighell’s party, in number about two thousand three hundred, exclusive of a hundred stewards, who assisted upon the occasion. The greatest order and decorum prevailed throughout the feast; everybody was happy, and not an unpleasant incident occurred to mar the harmony of the proceedings. Mr. Phillips, of the New Inn Hotel, who was afterwards known as Jubilee Phillips, had the management of the dinner, the potatoes for which were a gift, and were dug from Mr. Mighell’s garden,—whereon now stands Queen Square,—by his nephew, Mr. Richard Mighell, at present of Albany Villas, Cliftonville. In the farm-yard of Mr. Scrase, about three hundred yards from the Riding House, fifteen hundred poor persons were also dined, at the expense of a party of gentlemen, who opened a subscription for the same benevolent purpose, and similar order and harmony prevailed. On retiring,—which they did about five o’clock,—the grateful recipients gave expression to their loyalty, and invoked blessings on Mr. Mighell and their other liberal friends. The Freemasons dined in their Lodge Room, at the Old Ship—then kept by Mr. John Hicks,—where, also, in the evening, was a Ball and Supper.
In 1803, the Prince purchased property in Castle Square, adjoining the old stables, and year by year, till 1806, constant additions and improvements were made to His Royal Highness’s property. Castle Square, just at its junction with North Street, was, in July 1811, the scene of the last punishment by the pillory in Brighton. The culprit was a man named Fuller, a native of Lewes; at the petty Sessions of which town—Brighton then having no bench of magistrates,—he was convicted of passing at Brighton a two-penny for a two-pound note. The structure of the pillory was upon a platform raised about ten feet from the ground. It consisted of a frame connected with an upright pillar, around which it revolved, and was made with holes and folding boards, through which the head and hands of the criminal were put, and from twelve to one o’clock he continued to take the circuit of an area of about eighteen feet diameter, under the superintendence of Mr. Harry Colbron, the High Constable, who, with his Headboroughs, escorted their prisoner to the place of punishment from the King and Queen Inn, to which house he had been brought from Lewes by the authorities of the House of Correction. A great concourse of the inhabitants assembled to witness the punishment, which was conducted by Catling, the beadle. The stage and pillory were constructed by Messrs. Colbron and Saunders.
In 1814, the Prince purchased Marlborough House; and the same year the houses and shops on the north side of Castle Square, and the whole of the old stables and coach-houses between the south side of the Pavilion, and terminating in a line with the bottom of North Street, were pulled down, and a noble range of domestic offices was erected on the site. Immediately north of the stables were the residence and grounds of Mr. Louis Weltjie, Clerk of the Prince’s Kitchen. A portion of his brick-fronted house still remains, just within the southern entrance of the Pavilion Grounds. Weltjie and his wife were Germans, who had saved money while in the service of several of the nobility, and they invested it in the purchase of the property which they afterwards disposed of to the Prince, who reposed such confidence in Weltjie, that in December, 1788, upon His Royal Highness being—as was his perpetual condition,—in pecuniary embarrassment, and it had been determined by himself and his royal brothers, the Duke of York and the Duke of Clarence,—who were also in difficulties,—to speculate upon the prince’s accession to power in consequence of the afflicting malady of their royal father, George III., Weltjie was selected as one of a party to effect a negociation in England, Ireland, and Scotland, of some post-obit bonds. Weltjie, however, fearing the consequences, withdrew from the project by introducing two persons of property and extensive money connexions, one of whom on the 16th of that month, perfected a bargain secured by the three royal brothers, for £30,000, payable when a certain event should take place. The bonds went into “The Market,” and the witless purchasers who had obtained them at a premium, being afraid to acknowledge that they held any such obligations,—inasmuch as by anticipating the death of the sovereign they subjected the parties to all the penalties of petty treason,—their redemption was never claimed. Annexed is a copy of the bond referred to:—
Know all men by these presents that We, George Prince of Wales, Frederick Duke of York, and William Henry Duke of Clarence, all living in the City of Westminster, in the County of Middlesex, are jointly and severally, justly and truly indebted to John Cator, of Beckenham, in the County of Kent, Esquire, and his executors, administrators, and assigns, in the penal sum of Sixty Thousand Pounds of good and lawful money of Great Britain, well and truly paid to us at or before the sealing of these presents. Sealed with our seals this 16th day of December, in the 29th year of the reign of our Sovereign Lord George III., by the Grace of God, King, Defender of the Faith, Anno Domini 1788.
The condition of the above obligation is such, that if the above bounden George Prince of Wales, Frederick Duke of York, and William Henry Duke of Clarence, or any or either of them, or any other of their heirs, executors, or administrators, shall well and truly pay or cause to be paid unto the above-named John Cator, his executors, administrators, and assigns, the full sum of Thirty Thousand Pounds of lawful money of Great Britain, within the space or time of six calendar months next after any one or either of us, the said George Prince of Wales, Frederick Duke of York, and William Henry Duke of Clarence, shall come to and ascend the throne of England, together with lawful interest on the same, to be computed from the day that such event shall happen, up and home to the time of paying-off this obligation, then and in such case, the same shall be null and void; otherwise to be and remain in full force and virtue.
George Prince of Wales, *
Frederick, *
William Henry, *Witnesses,
Andrew Robenson,
Charles Bicknell.
In May, 1813. at a Court Baron of the Manor,—Brighthelmston-Lewes,—leave was given to the Prince Regent [260] to extend the fence which surrounded the Marlborough domains to the Royal Mews, and in 1815 His Royal Highness erected the lower section of the east and north boulder-fronted wall, placing on it the dwarf palisading that now crowns it, as raised to its present height; and in 1817 Marlborough Row became the Prince’s property, and its site was added to the Royal Domain, which was then made to occupy an area of about seven acres.
Prior to 1817, the royal visitors to the Prince of Wales had been his Royal Consort, the Princess of Wales, in August, 1795, his daughter, the Princess Charlotte, July 27th, 1807, his brothers, the Dukes of Sussex, York, Clarence, Kent, Cumberland, and Cambridge, and their Royal Mother, Queen Charlotte, who paid her only visit to Brighton, accompanied by the Princesses Elizabeth and Mary, on the 24th of October, 1814, and they continued their stay till the 29th of that month, during which period Her Majesty graciously ordered the distribution of £50 to the poor, and became, with a liberal donation, the Patroness of the Dollar Society for the relief of the indigent. The Princesses were also donors to the Society. The foreign potentates who had been visitors were the Emperor of Russia and the King of Prussia. Various princes of the crowned heads of Europe had also paid their respects to the Prince, whose companions were the elite, if not the most dissolute of the nobility of the day. So notorious, in fact, were the doings at the Pavilion, that Lord Chancellor Thurlow, himself not the purest in conduct nor the most refined in manners, refrained from calling upon the Prince. One day, while walking on the Steine, his Lordship was met by His Royal Highness, in company with Lord Barrymore, Sir John Lade, [261a] and other like companions. “Thurlow,” said the Prince, “how is it that you have not called on me? You must name a day when you will dine with me.” Lord Thurlow, casting a look round upon the Prince’s friends, said, “I cannot do so until your Royal Highness keeps better company.” Lord Thurlow died of the gout at Brighton, on the 12th of September, 1806, his dying words being, “I’m shot if I don’t believe I’m dying.”
Amongst the most notorious of the Prince’s companions were the brothers Barrymore, the eldest,—who had been ordained to the church,—being known amongst them, for his irreligious propensities, as Hellgate; the second, for his immorality, Newgate; and the third, for his lameness, Cripplegate. The latter was the survivor of the infamous trio, his infirmities not permitting him to indulge in the vices which prematurely terminated the career of his brothers. They had a sister, who surpassed them in evil qualifications, and she bore, for her coarse volubility, the nickname of Billingsgate. Another of the clique was Colonel Hanger, familiarly known as George Hanger, the Knight of the Black Diamond, the wit and satirist of the party. His Life, [261b] written by himself, abounds with sarcasms and truisms, but though designed to “point a moral,” it does not “adorn a tale,” that teems with sensualities. Upon one occasion Sheridan and Hanger were dining in the room of the old building where the Prince usually dined, termed by them, in consequence of its contracted dimensions and generally excessively heated condition, the Royal Oven. In the course of the meal Sheridan said, “How do you feel yourself, Hanger?” “Hot, hot;—hot as h—l,” replied Hanger. “It is quite right,” was Sheridan’s severe rejoinder, “we should be prepared in this world for that which we know will be our lot in another.” Reckless roistering and inconsiderate practical joking were the delight of the Pavilion party, the hours of the night being principally the time when they immoderately enjoyed themselves. Upon one occasion, on a dark evening, they procured a coffin, and having put into it something resembling a corpse, dressed in a shroud, they stood it on end, without a lid, in front of the door of a tradesman’s house, at which they knocked, and then hid away. On the servant “answering the door,” as it is termed, the light of the candle in her hand displayed the spectre-like figure, which so frightened the poor girl that she shrieked and fainted. The inmates of the house, taking the alarm, ran to the door, and were equally terror-stricken. Cries of help quickly brought to their assistance many neighbours; but the concoctors of the joke had taken the precaution to fix to the handles of the coffin a strong rope, by means of which they, with little trouble, drew away the cause of the alarm; and there being thus nothing left to be frightened at, the inmates of the house became, for some time, laughing stocks for their credulity.
The numerous tricks practised upon the townsfolk did not in the least offend them, as in the event of any damage being done, that could be recompensed in a pecuniary way, the greatest liberality was always shown; in fact, the inhabitants had found that Royalty was the staple article upon which they existed, and they so assimilated their ideas with their position, that their chief fears were that they might by some inadvertence or mischance give the Prince offence, hence His Royal Highness was their chief study. The feeling, however, was graciously reciprocated by the Royal visitor, as exhibited upon the occasion of the anniversary of the birthday of His Royal Highness, August 12th, 1806—and it was generally so on like events—when a deputation of the inhabitants presented to the Prince the following address, to which every householder of note had previously subscribed his name:—
To his Royal Highness the Prince of Wales,
We, the Ministers, High Constable, Churchwardens, Overseers, and principal Inhabitants of the Town of Brighthelmston, with the most grateful recollection of the many gracious instances of your Royal Highness’s patronage conferred upon us, to which alone are to be attributed that prosperity and those advantages unfelt by, and unknown to, any other Provincial Town, most humbly approach your Royal Highness, to express the dutiful and thankful sentiments which this recollection inspires, and more particularly calls forth on the anniversary of this day. While we entreat your Royal Highness to accept these our humble acknowledgments and congratulations, we devoutly implore the Supreme Disposer of all events long to preserve a life so invaluable to us, to whom your immediate protection is so liberally dispensed, and so dear and important in its general consequences to the nation at large.