Page:The National Gazetteer - A Topographical Dictionary of the British Islands, Volume 1.djvu/383

Rh BRIGHTON. 373 BRIGHTON. preferred. From the dangerous nature of the coast few vessels can discharge their cargoes on the beach, and the traffic by sea is carried on through the ports of Newhaven and Shoreham. About 400 men are engaged in the fisheries, mackerel and herring being the chief fish taken, though the town is also well supplied with every other description of fish, brought from London. The number of boats employed is about 120. The fishermen hold a market on the beach, near the end of Market- street, and the mode of effecting sales is by Dutch auction. The manufacture of Tonbridge ware is carried on by some of the inhabitants. Brighton was first con- stituted a parliamentary borough by the Reform Act, and has since returned two members to the imperial parliament. The parish of Hove, into which the western part of the town extends, is included within the limits of the borough. The local government was formerly conducted by a constable, eight headboroughs, and a numerous body of commissioners, elected under an act of parliament by the principal householders. It is now vested in a mayor, a recorder, 12 aldermen, and 36 councillors, under a charter obtained in 1854. The borough is divided into six wards, and contains within the parliamentary limits 13,946 houses, inhabited by a population of 87,311, according to the census of 1861, showing an increase of 17,638 in the decennial period. The municipal borough, however, is not co-extensive with the parliamentary, and contains only 12,708 houses, with a population of 77,693. Brighton forms a Poor-law Union of itself, having the management of its own poor, independently of the New Poor-Law Act. The police of the town is administered by a stipendiary magis- trate, assisted by the mayor and a chief officer of police. It is the head of Excise and County Court districts, and a coastguard station. Six newspapers are published in the town, called the Brighton Gazette, Chronicle, Examiner, Quardian, Observer, and Herald. The living of Brighton is a vie. in the dioc. of Chichester, consolidated with the rect. of West Blatchington, val. 900, in the patron, of the bishop. It is at present held by the Rev. Henry Michell Wagner, M.A., Surrogate, and Treasurer of Chichester Cathedral, an appointment of the val. of 200 per annum. The parish church, dedicated to St. Nicholas, and situate at the W. end of Church-street, was beautifully restored in 1854 conformably to the wing resolution: "Resolved that the restoration and enlargement of the parish church, wherein his Grace the Duke of Wellington, at an early period of his life, was wont to worship, would be an appropriate and enduring monument of our gratitude and veneration for his memory." It stands on the summit of a bill, com- manding a splendid sea view, and is an ancient structure, chiefly in the perpendicular style of architecture, with a r and spire, forming a conspicuous sea-mark. The church contains an oaken screen finely carved, and an ancient circular font ardoned with figures in relief, which were re-cut in the last eentury. The font was brought from Normandy soon after the Conquest. There are several interesting monuments, including one to Captain Tettersell, who assisted Charles II. to escape to France, after the battle of Worcester ; and one to Phoebe Hessol, who served as a foot-soldier in the 5th Regiment at the battle of Fontenoy. There is also in the churchyard an ancient cross. The places of worship belonging to the Established Church are seventeen in number, viz. eleven churches and six proprietary chapels. With the exception of St. Mark's Church, the presentation to the churches and to the Chapel Royal is vested in the Vicar of Brighton, whereas the presentation to the respective proprietary chapels, with the exception of St. George's Chapel, is under the " 40 years' Act," more than 35 of which years have now expired. The endowments of St. Peter's, Christ Church, St. Paul's, All Saints', St. Stephen's, St. Michael's, All Souls', and St. John's, arise from rented sittings ; All Souls' possessing an additional endowment of 77 per annum, and St. John's of 93 7*. 10(1. per annum. The church of St. Mary Magdalene, reared by the benevolence of the sister and son of the vicar, in a poor part of Brighton, mainly for the benefit of the poor, contains 600 open sittings without any pew-rental, fee, or reward whatsoever. The endowments of the proprietary chapels arise from rented sittings, selected and set apart by the Vicar of Brighton, calculated to produce 150 for each of the respective ministers of such chapels. A church in Bur- lington-street, Marine-parade, is in course of completion ; and a site in the northern part of Brighton has been pur- chased for the erection of a church for the use of the poor, and at the conjoint expense of the sister and son of the vicar, similar in purpose and in detail to the church in Bread-street. The Roman Catholics have two churches, one dedicated to St. John the Baptist, in the Bristol-road, the other, dedicated to St. Mary Magdalene, is a Gothic building, situated in Upper North-street, and was opened in February, 1862. The places of worship for Dissenters are very numerous, and some of them spacious and handsome buildings. They include four chapels be- longing to the Baptists, seven to the Independents, four to the Wesleyans, two to the Presbyterians, and one each to the Society of Friends, Unitarians, Primi- tive Methodists, Irvingites, Bible Christians, and the Countess of Huntingdon's Connection, and a Jewish synagogue. The situation and character of Brighton make it a favourite place for the establishment of schools ; and besides the private boarding-schools, num- bering more than 100, and numerous day-schools, there are several important institutions for education. The principal are the Brighton College, founded in 1848 (the buildings, situated on the cliffs and forming a quad- rangle, are in the Tudor style, and were erected from the designs ofG. G. Scott); St. Mary's Hall, at Kemp Town, founded about 1830 as a school for the daughters of clergymen ; a noble central National school, capable of accommodating 650 children, in connection with which are two branch National schools and two infant schools ; a proprietary school belonging to the Dissenters ; and a training school for female teachers. There are seve- ral free schools, including one for girls, founded by Swan Downer in 1811, which has an income from en- dowment of about 300 per annum ; a blue-coat school with an endowment of 70 a year, the produce of a bequest by William Grimmett in 1768 ; an orphan school, a school for the blind, one for children of fishermen, and several ragged schools. Brighton supports an Athenaeum, a scientific institution, a savings-bank, and a working men's institute. The town contains many important institutions for the relief of the sick poor. One of the chief of these is the County Hospital, a plain but noble building, situated in an airy spot near the Downs, and supported by subscriptions. It was originally founded in 1826, on a piece of land presented to it by T. R. Kemp, Esq. The Earl of Egremont and the Marquis of Bristol were the great benefactors of this hospital, which lias been twice recently enlarged. The latter built at tiis sole expense the chapel. The Brighton and Sussex Dispensary, situated in Queen' s-road, is a fine building of Kentish ragstone. The Lying-in Institution is in West-street, and the Girls' Orphan Asylum in the Eastern-road ; as is also the Brighton Asylum for tho Education of the Blind, erected in 1861, at the cost of 4,900. This last is a handsome Elizabethan building of red brick, faced with Bath stone. The almshouses are called the Percy and the Howell ; the former, for six widows, has an endowment of 85 per annum, and Miss Wagner has lately built at her sole expense six more almshouses for the reception of aged spinsters in straitened circumstances. Other charitable institutions are the Provident Dispensary, Dorcas Society, an eye infirmary, This last has been in active operation for thirty- eight years, and includes a mendicity department, the ibject of which is to protect the charitable from imposi- .ion, and to relieve tho deserving; of 117 begging letters sent for examination in 1862, only 19 were found deserving, and of the petitions 24 were sanctioned to he amount of 172 lo., and 69 were rejected. The mnual value of the parochial charities amounts to [early 900. There are two cemeteries, both situated to
 * wo penitentiaries, and the Brighton Provident Society.