44 
FRIDAY, APRIL 177TH, 1908. 
Brighthelmstone— Brighton, 
BY 
Mr. W. HARRISON, D.M.D. 
Lantern Lecture. 
HE history of Brighton in pictures might well have been the 
sub-title of the interesting lecture which was given by Mr. 
Walter Harrison, D.M.D. There are not many men who know 
so much about the history of Brighton in its olden days as Mr 
Walter Harrison, following as he does close upon Mr. J. G. 
Bishop and one or two others who stand in the front rank of the 
chroniclers of Brighton, and probably only Mr. Harrison has the 
equipment for a lantern lecture on “ Brighthelmstone—Brighton.” 
For many years past it has been the hobby of Mr. Harrison, not 
only to compile information relating to the town, but to collect 
pictures that would illustrate its past history, and to turn them 
into lantern slides. The result is that he has now a unique 
collection of lantern slides relating to Brighton, and he was able 
to show upwards of 160. 
It might fairly be said that he gave an illustrated history of 
Brighton from prehistoric Gays, for one of the earliest pictures 
shown was of the amber cup now in the Museum, found in the 
grave of some Brighton potentate of the Bronze Age. Pictures 
of the ancient British camp at Hollingbury and of the Goldstone 
stone recalled evidences of days when the inhabitant of Brighton 
probably wore little else than a coat of blue paint and a bone in 
his ear, and on his walks abroad carried a business-like piece of 
chipped flint tied in a stick, to hammer fraternal greetings in the 
skull of his neighbour. From these times of legend and suppo- 
sition, it was a long leap to that quaint map which depicts the 
French attack on the town in the fifteenth century. Whether the 
date was 1514 or 1545 (as was discussed recently in the Hera/d) 
Mr. Harrison did not seem to dogmatise. Then he came toa 
prized possession, a picture of Brighton dated 1720, showing a 
few houses clustered on white cliffs doing duty for the Front, with 
St. Nicholas on a hill away out in the country in the background. 
In those days Brighton had not realised its possibilities in 
the way of Metropole or Grand Hotels. Mr. Harrison quoted 
the Rector of Buxted who wrote in 1736 :—‘‘I fancy the architects 
