Eastbourne Memories - A Victorian Perspective

An Account of, notable events, Persons and town history - online book

	CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTORY. The Author s origin and antiquity.—How to spell East-Bourne the wrong way. — William the Conqueror cited. — Ancestors. — The South Gloucester Militia in 1806. B OOKS of the nature of this one often begin with a statement of when and where the author was born, but it can be a matter of very little interest to the readers of this book to know that I was born on October 18, 1841, at Upton-on-Severn, Worcestershire, my father being at the time a young M.D. in attendance on the 8th Earl of Coventry who consented to become one of my godfathers. After his death in 1843 my parents went to Colchester for several years, and finally settled in London in 1848, whence I took innumerable journeys to East-Bourne at short intervals for health reasons, because London air, and water full of living creatures, did not agree with me. I have often been invited, and not unfrequently urged, to commit to paper some of my Recollections and Reminiscences of East-Bourne both in respect of people and things. Such notes as I may be able to put down B