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BRIGHTON 185 |
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expect it would eat away the whole Town, above 100 Houses having been devoured by the Water in a few Years past. This Danger is so imminent, that they have been obliged to get Briefs to beg Money all over England, to raise Banks against the Water; the Expence of which, the Brief expressly says, will be Eight Thousand Pounds; which if one were to look on the Town, would seem to be more than all the Houses in it are worth." This Brief was read at East Hoathly Church in 1757, as we learn from Turner's Diary (p. 250). John Owen's (p. 282) account of Brighton is at least exceedingly concise. " Brighthelmston is a town pretty large and populous, chiefly inhabited by fishermen. It has a comodious Harbour and a Mt on Sat."
The beginning of much better times came when Dr. Russel of Lewes (p. 245) strongly recommended his patients to visit Brighton for the benefit of the sea air and the mineral spring called St. Anne's Well, in Hove, and unlike some others he followed his own advice. So much did he contribute to the growth of the place that by grateful Brightonians he has sometimes been called the founder of what was a prosperous market town centuries before he was born. It is rather singular that he should have no statue in a town where such memorials are rather numerous.
The Iter Sussexiense of Dr. John Burton, written in Greek in 1751 and translated into the vernacular by Blaauw, contains an unadvertising description of Brighton: "A village on the sea coast, lying in a valley gradually sloping and yet deep. It is not indeed contemptible as to size, for it is thronged with people, though the inhabitants are mostly very needy and wretched in their mode of living, occupied in the employment |
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