BRIGHTON was, probably, a British settlement, for in its vicinity are numerous traces of the rude fortifications or 'earthworks' of our ancestors.

 

That it existed during the Saxon period of English history is indisputable. Its name is Saxon, derived, it is said, from Brihthelm, a Bishop of Selsey, and we know that it paid a rent or 'gablun' to Earl Godwin, the great Saxon noble.

 

In 1081, this rental was paid in homely North Atlantic herrings (4,000 bailees) yearly—equivalent, in our money, to something like £300. There were then two distinct settlements here - one upon the heights, 'a colony of landsmen'; one upon the shore, a village of 'jugs' or fishermen.

 

The town was numbered among the rich manors bestowed upon the Earl of Warrenne by William the Conqueror, and this Norman Earl held a sovereign sway over Sussex for some years. But he was a clever Earl and was too astute to make any attempt at hustling the people of Brihthelm, who have always been celebrated for their stubbornness. The Sussex men still show some of this spirit by such proverbs as, 'I will not want when I have, nor, by God, when I haven't, tool'

 

and

 

'Burn a Brighton man for a fool—but walk wide of his ashes'

 

Anyway, the Earl of Warrenne became a frequent week-end visitor to Brighton (he rebuilt and lived in the old Castle of Lewes) and was often to be seen at Brill's Baths and Sherry's, and the Regent Dance Hall, or rather their predecessors of that time. Rudyard Kipling, who so well understands the sturdy independence of the men of Sussex, has written some verses which purport to be the views of a Norman baron about the Saxon people.

 

They seem to hit off the attitude of the Sussexian of today so happily that I must borrow them at this point:

 

'They'll drink every hour of the daylight and poach every hour of the dark

It's the sport not the rabbits they're after (we've plenty of game in the park)

Don't hang them or cut off their fingers. That's wasteful as well as unkind

For a hard-bitten South-country poacher makes the best man-at-arms you can find

Appear with your wife and the children at their weddings and funerals and feasts

Be polite but not friendly to Bishops; be good to all poor parish priests

Say "we", "us" and "ours" when you're talking instead of "you fellows" and "I"

Don't ride over seeds; keep your temper; and never you tell 'em a lie.'

 

 

The French attacked the town, and burnt it, in the reign of Richard II. In 1513 they again made a descent upon the coast, under 'Prior Jehan', but were compelled to retreat, with considerable loss.

 

During the war between Henry VIII and Francis I in 1545, they harassed the whole southern coast, under their high admiral, Claude d'Annebault, who, says the old chronicler, Holinshed, 'hoisted up sails, and with his whole navie came foorth into the seas, and arrived on the coast of Sussex before Bright-Hamsted (Brighton) and set certain of his soldiers on land to burne and spoile the countrie; but the beacons were fired, and the inhabitants thereabouts came down so thick that the Frenchmen were driven to flie, with losse of diverse of their numbers, so that they did little hurt there.'

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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