The Brighton of my Boyhood 



by Queen Elizabeth, they made but short 

 work of the ralHnors which the Town Council, 

 with an eye to the more private promenad- 

 ing of fashionable visitors, planted round 

 its pleasant greensward. They had their 

 way for the time, but they could not prove 

 their claim ; and so in the end the railings, 

 and one by one the other improvements, 

 came in, and thrust aside the old fishery, 

 for all its stubborn traditions and unprove- 

 able rights, and built up the Brighton we 

 have to-day. 



The fishermen were a great feature in 

 the keeping of Christmas in old Brighton, 

 for on Christmas Eve they went about the 

 town with lanterns, singing carols and old- 

 fashioned hymns. It was always our cus- 

 tom, when they reached our part of East 

 Street, to listen to at least one carol before 

 we admitted them, just for the pleasure of 

 hearing the voices on the fine air ; and then 

 to welcome them into the coach-office. At 

 the opening of the door they called out 

 their seasonable greetings, and began stamp- 

 ing the snow off their great boots, the light 

 of their lanterns showing their breath on 

 the frosty air and catching them beneath 

 noses and chins in a way that rendered the 

 best-known face strange and grotesque. 

 And then they came clumping in with : 



