The Brighton of my Boyhood 



east end of North Street lay Castle 

 Square, the ever-stirring scene of the 

 goings and comings of the several coaches. 

 Passing beyond this you came out upon 

 the Steine, a beautiful greensward granted 

 to Dutch refugee fishermen in Queen 

 Elizabeth's time, for the drying of nets and 

 harbouring of boats. On the south it lay 

 open to the sea, looking north you had a 

 peep of Hollingbury Hill ; on its western 

 side stood the pretty mansions of Mrs. 

 Fitzherbert and other distinguished 

 persons, while the eastern was as yet little 

 built upon. This grassy space contributed 

 greatly to the pleasant appearance of the 

 sea-front. Such houses too as were then 

 built along the cliff were good of their 

 kind ; they were of modest though varying 

 heights, and were often constructed of 

 water-worn flints cemented in mortar, and 

 they had bowed glass windows of many 

 panes. Of the inns here, or otherwhere in 

 the town, the "Old Ship" ranked as far 

 and away the most stylish. Along the 

 cliff, and in front of these buildings, ran a 

 roadway (in places only a footway) edged 

 with a wooden paling and connected here 

 and there with the beach by a rough-and- 

 ready set of wooden stairs. Russell Street 

 was the most westerly limit of my Brighton, 

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