Page:History of the Fylde of Lancashire (IA historyoffyldeof00portiala).pdf/331

 drifted past the town in an apparently waterlogged condition.

About that date, 1769, several heaps of mortar and other building materials, lying on the road which separated the front of the village from the edge of the cliffs, showed that more were anxious to follow in the footsteps of Whiteside and his earlier imitators.

Some idea may be formed of the class of people who visited Blackpool at that period from the charges made at Bonny's Hotel and the Gynn, the two principal inns, for board and lodging; at the latter eightpence per day satisfied the modest demands of the host, while at the former the sum of tenpence was exacted, with a view no doubt of upholding its superior claims to respectability. In drawing our conclusions from these facts we must bear in mind that a shilling in those days represented much greater value than it does at present, so that the charges may not have been really so inadequate as they now appear. The village contained neither shop nor store where the necessaries or luxuries of life, if such things were ever dreamt of by the people, could be purchased, and large quantities of provisions had to be laid in at one time. Occasionally a sudden and unexpected influx of visitors occurred inopportunely, when the larder was low, and as a consequence the hungry guests were forced to wait, temporising with their appetites as best they could, until a journey had been made to Poulton and fresh supplies procured.

Ten years later the hamlet had grown somewhat in size, and the annually increasing numbers who flocked to its shores showed that its popularity was steadily gaining ground. Intercourse with the world beyond their own limited circle seems, however, to have had anything but an elevating or civilising effect upon the inhabitants, for we find amongst them at that time a band of professed atheists, whose blasphemous conduct called forth no rebuke or opposition from the rest, but was quietly tolerated, if not indeed approved. Each fortnight during the summer fairs were held on the Sabbath to provide refreshment and amusement for the visitors, who came in crowds to witness the magnificence of the highest spring tides. These gatherings usually terminated in disgraceful scenes of revelry and debauchery. Smuggling was carried on between the coast opposite the Star-hills and the Isle of Man, but never to a great extent or for any lengthened period.