The “Flying Man” was Mr. William Constable, who, on the disposal by his brother of his business to Mr. Ireland, accompanied Daniel to America, where they devoted themselves to scientific pursuits. His flying freak, on his return, was as well for a scientific purpose as to benefit Mr. Ireland, and the principle has been since applied in saving human life in cases of fire and shipwreck. In 1841 he introduced the art of photography, then called Daguerreotype, into Brighton, his “blue room” being a very attractive feature on the Marine Parade, near Atlingworth Street. He died on Sunday, December 22nd, 1861.
Other speculators from time to time, with but little better success than Mr. Ireland, tried their luck upon the estate. Year by year showed the gradual decay which neglect engenders; the buildings became dilapidated and unsafe for occupation, the flowerbeds were transformed into a wilderness of weeds; and at length, after having been made even the asylum for wild beasts, and the arena for the dissoluteness of pleasure fairs, the Gardens, that might have continued one of the chief prides of Brighton, and the Cricket Ground—the fame of which is perpetuated by Mason’s celebrated print of the renowned players of Sussex and Kent, and their supporters,—the envy, as it was, of other cricketing counties, were sacrificed to the spirit of building, from the want of foresight in the inhabitants, who now universally admit that both should have been preserved to the town, as they were an establishment for the people’s amusement and recreation, with which nothing of the kind in the county could compete. The present, the Royal Brunswick Cricket Ground, kept by the veteran Box, is capacious and well-formed; but it lacks the picturesqueness, and the spectators have not the shelter from wind and rain, and the shade from the trees which gave so vast a superiority to the Hanover Ground. Previous to the formation of Ireland’s Gardens, some tea-gardens were in existence on the Marine Parade, about the locality now occupied by Eaton Place. They were merely a summer retreat for a cup of tea during an afternoon stroll, and a place of call in winter for a glass of hot elderberry wine.
In the “good old times” the people’s entertainments differed much from the sports of the present race, as the following copy of a handbill will show:—
COCKING.
To be fought at the Cock Pit,
WHITE LION,
North Street, Brighton,
on
THURSDAY,
The 18th April, 1811,A Main of Cocks for Twenty Guineas
a Battle, and Fifty Guineas the Main;
between the Gentlemen of the Isle of
Wight and the Gentlemen of Sussex.Feeders: Pollard, Isle of Wight; Holden, Sussex.
N.B.—A pair of Cocks to be on the Pit at
Eleven o’clock.[Rudduck, Printer, Brighton Place, Brighton.
On Easter Monday, April 23rd, 1810, the holiday folks, in all their Sunday finery, assembled in great numbers, as was their custom, at the Bear public house, Lewes road, on the ground contiguous to which they were entertained with the polished diversions of cock fighting and the baiting of a badger. On the following day, Easter Tuesday, according to annual custom, a bull-bait came off at Hove; when, during the proceedings, the bull unexpectedly broke from the stake, and in an instant charged upon and routed the compact phalanx of gazers, happily without inflicting material injury on any one. The incident caused a postponement of the bait till June 11th. The hand-bill announced:
A BULL BAIT AT HOVE,
ON
MONDAY,
June 11th, 1810.A Dinner will be provided, and on Table at
Two o’clock.
The dinner took place at the Ship Inn, Hove, in the field belonging to which,—that whereon the Coast Guard Station is erected, at the bottom of Hove Street,—the baiting took place.
The vicinity of Brighton is admirably adapted for Hunting, a sport which received considerable impetus from the Prince of Wales having an excellent pack of harriers kennelled at the Prince’s Dairy, a suburban retreat on the London Road, which His Royal Highness purchased of Mr. William Stanford, in October, 1805. In October, 1821, some of the dogs exhibited symptoms of hydrophobia; the whole pack was in consequence destroyed by poison, and the carcasses were conveyed away in a waggon and buried in a pit, purposely dug to receive them, in the south part of Streeter’s garden, just within the gateway, to the right of the church path, opposite North Street Brewery. The Duke of Richmond at that period hunted his fox hounds in the neighbourhood of Brighton. The present packs are supported by subscription, and consist of the Southdown Fox Hounds, and the Brighton and the Brookside Harriers.
About forty years since “hobby horse” exercise was a very favourite diversion with the gentry. These “hobbies” were the original velocipedes, now worked by a crank action; but they then consisted only of a fore and a hind wheel, with a slight saddle rail between, upon which the rider sat, holding on by a handle that guided the front wheel, and then, by striking out his feet with a walking action, the machine became propelled, its speed being regulated by the ability of the horseman. Much practice and great judgment were required to make a proficient rider. Many extraordinary feats of pedestrianism were performed with these machines; but the most arduous were the competing with the stage coaches to and from London. The earliest account we have of stage coaches at Brighton is in 1798, when the Princess of Wales pair-horse or post-coach was put on the road to London by way of Steyning and Horsham, the same route by which the eight-horse fly-waggons had previously travelled. Pack-horses were the only mode of performing the journey prior to the fly-waggons, and the lanes and bye-ways then being very narrow, recesses in the hedge-rows were made in certain places to permit of the laden animals standing aside that they might be passed, as their packs, which extended considerably on each side of the animals, would otherwise, frequently come in unpleasant contact with the fair sex, who on pillions occupied similar positions to merchandize when on horseback. In 1801, two pair-horse coaches ran between London and Brighton on alternate days, one up, the other down, and they were driven by Messrs. Crossweller and Hine. The progress of these coaches was amusing. The one from London left the Blossoms Inn, Lawrence Lane, at 7 a.m.; the passengers breaking their fast at the Cock, Sutton, at 9. The next stoppage for the purpose of refreshment was at the Tangier—Banstead Downs,—a rural little spot, famous for its elderberry wine, which used to be brought from the cottage “roking hot,” and, on a cold wintry morning, few refused to partake of it. George the Fourth invariably stopped here and took a glass from the hand of Miss Jeal, as he sat in his carriage. The important business of luncheon took place at Reigate, where sufficient time was allowed the passengers to view the Barons’ Cave, where it is said the Barons assembled the night previous to their meeting King John at Runnymeade. The grand halt, for dinner, was made at Staplefield Common, celebrated for its famous black cherry trees, under the branches of which, when the fruit was ripe, the coaches were allowed to draw up and the passengers to partake of its tempting produce. The hostess of the hostelry here was famed for her rabbit puddings, which, hot, were always waiting the arrival of the coach, and to which the travellers never failed to do such ample justice that ordinarily they found it quite impossible to leave at the hour appointed; so grogs, pipes and ale were ordered in, and, to use the language of the fraternity, “not a wheel wagged” for two hours. Handcross was the next resting place, celebrated for its “neat” liquors, the landlord of the inn standing bottle-in-hand at the door. He and several other Bonifaces, at Friar’s Oak, &c., had the reputation of being on pretty good terms with the smugglers who carried on their operations with such audacity along the Sussex Coast. After walking up Clayton Hill a cup of tea was sometimes found to be necessary at Patcham; after which Brighton was safely reached at 7 p.m. It must be understood that it was the custom for the passengers to walk up all the hills, and even sometimes, in heavy weather, give a push behind to assist the jaded horses.
About 1809, a great revolution took place in coach travelling. Some gentlemen,—at the head of whom was the late Mr. William Bradford, or, as he was then styled, “Miller” Bradford,—12 in number, formed a capital by shares of £100 each, and established two four-horse coaches. The cattle were cast-horses of the Inniskilling Dragoons, then stationed at Brighton. In 1815, another vehicle of the same class, the “Bellerophon,” a huge concern, built with two compartments, one carrying six, the other four inside, and with several out, was driven by Mr. Hine. This coach received its name from the ship in which Bonaparte, after his defeat at Waterloo, was conveyed to exile at St. Helena. The “Bellerophon” was soon found to be too heavy for the improving speed, and was abandoned for lighter vehicles, until travelling attained its perfection on the Brighton road, the time taken in the transit having diminished from twelve hours to five, and on one occasion the “Quicksilver,” with a “King’s speech” of William IV., made the journey down in three hours and forty minutes! From the year 1822, at different periods of the year, not less than sixty coaches were on the road,—thirty each way.