268 THE BRIGHTON ROAD 



Brighton in 1850, for the sum of £53,000, and never 

 afterwards visited the town. 



XXXVI 



The Pavilion and the adjoining Castle Square, where 

 one of the old coach booking-offices still survives as a 

 railway receiving-office, are to most people the ultimate 

 expressions of antiquity at Brighton ; but there 

 remains one landmark of what was " Brighthelmstone ' 

 in the ancient parish church of St. Nicholas, standing 

 upon the topmost eyrie of the town, and overlooking 

 from its crowded and now disused graveyard more 

 than a square mile of crowded roofs below. It is 

 probably the place referred to by a vivacious French- 

 man who, a hundred and twenty years ago, summed up 

 " Brigtemstone " as " a miserable village, commanded 

 by a cemetery and surrounded by barren mountains." 

 From here you can, with some trouble, catch just 

 a glimpse of the watery horizon through the grey haze 

 that rises from countless chimney-pots, and never a 

 breeze but blows laden with the scent of soot and 

 smoke. Yet, for all the changed fortune that changeful 

 Time has brought this hoary and grimy place, it has 

 not been deprived of interesting mementoes. You 

 may, with patience, discover the tombstone of Phoebe 

 Hassall, a centenarian of pith and valour, who, in her 

 youthful days, in male attire, joined the army of His 

 Majesty King George the Second and warred with her 

 regiment in many lands ; and all around are the 

 resting-places of many celebrities, who, denied a 

 wider fame, have yet their place in local annals ; but 

 prominent, in place and in fame, is the tomb of that 

 Captain Tettersell who (it must be owned, for a 

 consideration) sailed away one October morn of 1651 

 across the Channel, carrying with him the hope of the 

 clouded Royalists aboard his grimy craft. 



