A HISTORY OF SUSSEX 



men. A large force of troops was encamped at Hove in 1793 and 1794, a position chosen, 

 apparently, more for its social than its military advantages. The West Cliff battery at Brighton 

 was established in 1793 and armed with French guns taken in Howe's victory of i June, 1794 ; 

 the battery was twice removed to admit of the widening of the King's Road, the site being at length 

 sold in 1 86 1. 1 The Margaret Street battery existed between 1793 and 1799.* A three-gun 

 battery at tlie White Rocks at Hastings was armed with pieces taken in the San Josef 'at the battle 

 of St. Vincent in 1797 ; this battery was destroyed in 1832 in order that the Parade might be 

 continued through it. 8 



In the beginning of 1798 the French had in their eastern Channel ports upwards of 1,300 

 vessels of various kinds available for transport, and the 'army of England,' 100,000 strong, was 

 cantoned from Bruges to Rouen ; by the autumn it had fallen to 30,000 men. The project re- 

 mained in abeyance during 1799 and 1800 while the French, for a time, could hardly hold their 

 own on the Continent ; but when Napoleon took the design in hand in 1801, adopting all that was 

 best in the plans of his predecessors and adding the impress of his own military genius, the tension 

 here became acute. Latouche-TreVille, the admiral in command of the flotilla at Boulogne, asked 

 permission to raid the coast between Folkestone and Hastings, nightly, with detachments of 1,000 

 men; if leave had been given the British Navy might have had some interjection to throw in. The 

 highest French authority on the subject 4 shows that nothing was settled by June, and doubts 

 whether Napoleon was in earnest, but on 24 July Lord St. Vincent wrote that the French prepara- 

 tions ' were beginning to wear a very serious appearance.' On the same day Nelson, just returned 

 from the Baltic, was commissioned as commander-in-chief between Orford Ness and Beachy Head. 

 Besides a squadron of men-of-war the Sea Fencibles were placed under his authority. Floating . 

 batteries were anchored among the sands, and it was proposed to use the Fencibles to man the 

 stationary ships and the flotilla at sea, but as early as 30 July Nelson found that 'they were always 

 afraid of some trick in other words, of being impressed for foreign service if they set foot on board 

 a man-of-war.* On 7 August the district captain at Winchelsea wrote to the admiral that in the 

 event of actual invasion the men might be depended upon to appear, but not otherwise." From 

 Hastings 138 men were now enrolled, 93 from Rye, and 17 from Winchelsea. Moreover, although 

 they all expressed their readiness to fight when the enemy appeared, they said that to leave their 

 work indefinitely would mean the ruin of their families, and Nelson implicitly admitted the justness 

 of the plea. 7 Of 2,600 Sea Fencibles registered between Orford Ness and Beachy Head only 

 385 volunteered to man the stationary ships, but of these not one came from Sussex or Kent. 8 

 Fortunately the defence did not depend on the Fencibles, and before he had been on the station a 

 fortnight Nelson had come to the conclusion that the French scheme was impracticable in face of 

 the British Navy. Towards the end of August he adopted Dungeness, ' which is a station far 

 preferable to the Downs," as the pivoting centre for his mobile squadron. 



When the war was renewed in 1 803 the Sea Fencibles were reconstituted in deference to 

 popular fears, although no confidence was placed in them by experts. The outer ring of fleets, 

 with a great volunteer army at home, were relied upon for security, but especial measures to assist 

 the defence were taken in Sussex and Kent. A flotilla of small craft was stationed at Rye, a night 

 watch of fishing boats patrolled the coast, and the fire beacons of mediaeval ages were again pre- 

 pared. One evening in November, 1803, there was a panic at Brighton, where they thought they 

 saw the enemy advancing shorewards, and many families living near the sea arranged to send the 

 women and children inland when the moment of trial came. It had been proposed in 1796 to 

 defend the exposed portions of the coast, where a hostile landing was comparatively easy, by the 

 erection of martello towers adapted from a type of fortification which had given our men-of-war 

 much trouble in Corsica. They were then recommended by Lord St. Vincent as useful to support 

 such defending force as might be at hand at the moment of descent, but their construction was not 

 begun until after the war recommenced in 1 803. A further defence, the Royal Military Canal, was 

 constructed in 1807 ; most of its 23 miles of length were in Kent, but the western head extended 

 to Pett Level. It was intended to confine an enemy, who had landed, within the Dungeness 

 peninsula and Romney marshes, but was never completed according to the original design. The 

 martello towers were begun in 1804, and there were 46 of them between Rye and Eastbourne ; in 

 Kent and Sussex there were 74 altogether, and the westernmost was on Seaford beach. The 

 circular redoubt at Seahouses, Eastbourne, armed with 1 1 guns, was officially a martello tower ; 

 No. 69 was a little inland, on Anthony Hill at Langley Gate. 9 Ordinarily each tower mounted 

 one 24-pounder and contained quarters for i officer and 24 men ; they were so close together that 



1 Erredge, op. cit. 71, 7*. ' Brighton Gazette, 1 8 April, 1895. ' W.O. Ord. Rents, i. 



4 E. Desbriere, Pnjets et tentative: de dibarquement aux lies Britanniques, Paris, 1 900, etc. 

 * Nicolas, Letters and Despatches, iv, 432 (Nelson to St. Vincent). 



6 Add. MSS. 34918, fol. in. ' Nelson to St. Vincent, 9 Aug. 1801. 



' Nicolas, iv, 446 ; Add. MSS. 34918, fol. 214. ' W. O. Ord. Engineers, cxlvii. 



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