The morning call., 1891-09-13
BRIGHT, BREEZY,
! HISTORIC BRIGHTON.
9J5 9GJ5 PDilgS and Folk Of the Seaside Re-
sort Brought to Mind
When London Mail Coaches Were Bowled
Down to Brighton on Mad Gallop
Scenes at the Present Time.

BRIGHTON, England, august oly lo9l.-
With whatever one may be out of sorts
in English travel; whether weariness,
dreariness or positive illness may have
prompted the coming; with whatever des-
peration one may have escaped London and
its irrevocable grimiuess and hardness,
sunniness and geod-natured laZiness pos
sess the soul whenever PadiingtOn is left
behind and ones face is at last set toward
that famous of all English wateriDg-places,
bright, breezy, historic and glorious old
- yhton.
How the odd things and folk of old
Brighton and new come crOwding into the
mndl History, romance and song all send
their familiar hosts. There is old King
Canute, so pulled with his own greatness
that when his chair was placed upon
the Good win Sands he commanded the
incoming tide to stay its onward
march, and got for his bravad0 an lngla-
riOus ducking in the presence of his en-
tire court The lordly figure Of William,
the Norman cODquerOr, cannot be diSas-
,Ociated from the place. Then every school
child knows of Earl Gndwin, Earl OF
Brighton Manor, who, tempting his soYer-
ign 10 play the fool, was choked to death
IN attempting to swallow bread crust.
The rare old Flemish pirates came over
once and took all the town away. Bright
almston it was called in those DAYS, and
when il was built up again the French came
and made a bonfire of it. 1t was time now
for Brighton to be put in state of defense.
30 they built 4 blOckhOuSe, gun garden
and four gates, AL done oil hynte and sand
III a waTlyke manner"
Then came the era Of the Ancient
Mariners" when war RACED for two cen
turtles between landsmen and sea1ren over
the election of "headborOughs" and "coun-
cilors." when the Ancient Mariners
svore by the good old rule:
The simple plan.
That they should take who have the power,
Aud they should keep who can.
That they should eyermore rule in Brighton;
and tie !andsmen swore, Odds fish, hand
spikes and tackling!' that by the rood,
we'll have our share, the final compromise
being that the sea folk should elect eight
and the landsmen four out of 1.-THE twelve
auncientest, glavest and wySest inhabitants
of the town for assistants TO the conestaDIe
IN every public cause, out OF which came
many Of the raclest and most mrth-proyok-
ing ballads that olden England ever knew.
In Henry WIS time, at the dissolution OF
tie monasteries, the manor Of Brighton,
with tie rectOTy and adyOTSOn, were given
by the King TO Anne OF Cleves for life.
About r hundred years ago the London
mail coaches were bowled down 10 Brighton
at a mad gallup during daylight. and the
present steamship service between New
Haven and Dieppe was fOreshadowed by
--ryice OF packets between Brighton and
n.eppe. The route was advertised as bring
.-1g London and Paris ninety miles nearer
&t4u
BY WAY OF DOVER AND CALAIS.
Aud trim "paeQuet'' sailed every evening
the moment the fOaming horses dashed up
with the London coach to the "Oid Ship"
iuu. and the mails and passengers could be
hustled on board. Half the literature OF the
last Haltury teemed with scenes and incl
dents from these then wonderful old jour
urys, and the crack Of whips, the notes OF
tie coach horns and the screech of the
wheels down the frosty hiliwayS seem to
Il at into your carriage window to this very
hour, welcome and meIodious still.
But George ", good old Dr.. Richard
Russell aud Thaekery, the three who most
made Brighton famous. send you the clear
eSt-cut faces and most pleasant cOmpanlonS
with which to enter Brighton. VINO has
not th4 memory of broad-beamed Martina
Gum. "tne principal bathing woman" of
Brighton, who once had the honor Of duck
ing King George? and who can still be seen
here in a hundred buxOm prototypes as
we'll as her own original self Ia weird
ctayon drawing, holding a piuk-taeed boy
iu lawn with chestnut curlS, the infant
King Of unsaVOry memory, with the cobalt
at her feet aud a lone bathing machine
\ ualed ''Smoaker & Co." in the awful per-
opective. 1t IS sight that will leave
smile on your face past many weary jour
new Then there was the principal bath
ing map." who also ducked King George
He was known to local fame as Old
smoker" and appears aud TeappearS
deathlessiy through old tales and ballads,
ever Tipe for use as the travelling play ac-
tors utility man.
But more than Martha Gum, "Old
SmonkeT" OF George " 10 Brighton was
that luminous old pudge, the true patron
~aint OF the place, DR.. Russell. How he
must have ehuckled to himself when he
sent broadcast through Britain that great
treatise, The Efficacy of Sea Water IN
G!andular Diseases" and saw Brighton
almost instantly grow as rich as Canterbury
I'D the time OF the pilgrimages. The old
ilkpr knew that the universal British pulse
md purse lay Just beneath the universal
British glandular disease; and by the covert
..putian of the peculiar adaptablnty and
%dry Of Brighton salt water IN particular,
stream of people and gold began flowing
toward this one cove OF the sea that mas
-. never ceased increasing.
1t is but an hour and a quarter from Lon
dom Il is so near that it is almost an ever
present and blessed temptation 70 millions
of harrIed and hurried men and women.
For every city whm or hurt il is an outlet
and panacea; for 0verdepTesSion or eXulta-
ton; for headache or heart singing; Tor de-
hili,y or plethora-there is the sudden re-
olive the apologetic note telegram, the
fleet hanson and the next Pullman express
t1 Brighton. Therefore from Easter until
september Brighton is simply beamlng
laced London-b b. y-the-Sea. Il is London at
fi- best Brighton East street is turned into
l.
TiccadillY and Kings road, the great sea-tront
t4gT0ughfare, Is transformed into splendid
ROTTEN Row
For London and all other common folk
who come TO Brighton the great attraction
IS this Kings road. an unknown driveway
and prone ade three miles long; tne vast
how ground and glmcraek shops beneath
its sea-frOnt edge; the wide reacn OF fore
shore. ample enough in the area Tor mill
on people to deport themselves upon; the
shore Itself lined with innumerable sailing
craft rOwbOats and bathing machlneS-the
I'D closed van on wheels which English
ronseryatism and prudery will seemingly
never relinquish-and the endless sea, upon
which perhaps $1,000 souls from the home
pens Of London daily gaze and gaze with a
- vacunus sort ofsdreamy longing, as though
= tie life-giYiDg feast could never De given
For these same common folks there is
rlly another such pleasant pandemo-
mum to be found in the whole world as
uu1n The sands and shingle between Kings
lad aud the sea. Half the humber pros, !"
lHe vagrom players, ''eccentrles" and
I.Iutebanks of London. free OF Zee or
license, take possession Of these miles OF
ilre,hGre, where the liyelOng day the multi
J.i- IS entertained In return Tor whatever
.luui-s it may choose to shower upon the
A-rrs and players. | have in one day
t~ratei zoo Of the performers-a no
mean vliageful by themseVes-~ho 0
We're entertaining from 5000 to 100000
u-url- These are the 'buskers or
letters" Of Brighton. Put all the
re,t OF the seaside fakirs in England to
r-l.-r and the whole of them would not
lrsh the same variety, ingenuity and
IcuresQueness of these merry nomads
La. Uurnt-cork minstrels and the deathless
domestic tragedies Of Punch and Judy eyer
c.---t hold the vast crowds heart The
A.. lockers stroll or stand at the edge Oh the
. Ln---road esplanade, about sixteen Ieet
a1 We the various m0untebanks who per-
form on the sand and shingle beneath; The
latter are surrounded by rings and eddles Oh
children sometimes numbering from l5.OOO
10 1000 on a sunny day, and their only ap-
laI4u, temporary sorrow is found in the
Aefe.ess interruptions by the donkeys,
drivers and riders, with which they ire
traA