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at his residence at the southern extremity of the Steine, near the spot on which the Albion Hotel now stands, and the year after he repeated his visit, having evidently taken a great liking to the place. On this last occasion he took up his abode at a house belonging to the late Thomas Kemp, Esq., which formed the nucleus of the Pavilion, both visits of his Royal Highness being celebrated by the inhabitants by illuminations and other manifestations of joy in honour of the auspicious event. After purchasing this residence the Pavilion was commenced in 1784, and completed in 1787. The east front of the building was 200ft. in extent and consisted of a circular building in the centre supported by stone Doric pillars and crowned by a dome, and on each side there was a range of bow-fronted apartments one story high above the basement, with balconies and verandahs, the entrance front being towards East Street. A large barn that stood on the spot adjacent to the present County Bank was removed to assistthe approach, and when visitors were travelling from London on the Cuckfield Road, and entered Brighton direct to East Street, passing Marlboro Place (then called North Row), there were two remarkable objects which struck the eye—a lofty, hideous, wooden weigh-scale, on the right hand at the bottom of North Street; and the bam spoken of on the left hand, opposite to it, in the same street, abutting nearly to Castle Square. This unsightly object —the weigh-scale—served to assess the toll which all weighty matters, such as hay, corn, bricks, &c, paid on entering the town. At the present time, when heavy goods are weighed while they are in the waggon, the horses are driven over a platform and just exceed the machine, while the carriage rests entirely upon it, and self-acting mechanism underneath calculates the toll, as in existence at the Western Road and King's Road Toll Houses. But our primitive weigh-scale here spoken of raised the carts and waggons a few inches in the air to the great dismay of the driver and his horses. The ground whereon |
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