Object of the Month – Pearce’s Brighton Guide 1861

Brighton Guide 1861

Pearce’s Brighton Guide set out to woo the potential tourist with its bright orange cover, coloured street map, and its illustrations of the Old Steine and the Royal Pavilion. It assumed that the modern traveller would arrive by railway and thus described the route from London to Brighton noting that once the visitor had arrived:

Railway Carrier

‘to the sea then we shall at once conduct him and shall afterwards endeavour… to point out all the objects of interest in and near this “Queen of Watering Places”.’

Advice was given about places to stay and aside from the more fashionable accommodation on the seafront, apartments could be obtained in ‘respectable houses’ in Gardner or Bond Street for six or seven shillings a week.

Brighton Map

The guide offered the tourist various descriptive tours of the town including a walk along the promenade to the Chain Pier. The promenade itself was to be swallowed up a few years later by the construction of the Aquarium, which opened in 1872. Visitors were directed to the souvenir shops on the pier and the steps that once led to the Dieppe bound steam packets, before Brighton lost the route to Newhaven and Shoreham.

Hot Air Baths

Various visitor attractions were listed, such as the ‘Roman or Turkish hot air baths’ at 65 Western Road, tennis at the Bedford Hotel, racing at the Brighton Race-course in August and sea bathing from bathing machines, which cost a shilling per person or six pence for a child. For the less energetic, there were a number of reading rooms where a copy of the Brighton Times could be found by those seeking the ‘fashionable arrival list’. The Royal Brighton Literary & Scientific Institution was located adjacent to the Albion Hotel and the Chess Club met on the Chain Pier.

Surgeon Dentist

The back pages of the guide carry a number of advertisements for local businesses, including one for Mr. Morganti, a dentist who supplied:

‘A good set of TEETH on the new Vulcanite principle – £5’

Schweitzer & Co., chemists of King’s Road offered Franken’s Celebrated Stuttgart Water and Cocoatina (a chocolate drink) which was recommended for those with ‘weakness of the stomach’ and became ‘exceedingly delicious’ when Brandy or Wine were added.

This line from the guide book may be as equally applicable to the visitor of 2011 as it was to the one in 1861:

Pavilion Parade

‘the visitor who has for weeks or months been confined to the impure atmosphere of the close streets of London, will be delighted to breathe the pure sea air’

Paul Jordan, Senior History Centre Officer

Halloween Roundup

Mysterious and eerie? A roundup of our Halloween entries in case you’ve missed any of these spooktacular tales…

How is the Ghost?

A letter from the Standford Estate enquiring about the Preston Manor ghost

Beware the Wolfman!

Lycanthropy in mythology

Transcript of twitter Q&A with Paula Wrightson (Ghosts and Preston Manor)

Have you been in contact with the spirits? What would you want to ask a ghost?

A Ghost in the House?

Does this photograph show the ghost of young Anthony Shirley?

Object of the Month – Toms’ Witch Stones

For this month’s object we take a look at an amulet known as a lucky stone or witch stone.

Personality of the Month – Henry Solomon (1794-1844)

One of Brighton’s most dramatic ghost stories

Read and enjoy. If you dare…

Object of the Month – Toms’ Witch Stones

The bewitching month of Halloween is upon us, a time when people relish the strange and macabre and delight in tales of ghosts and witches. Such tales are often entwined with folklore passed down among generations along with the amulets or keepsakes that fuel them. For this month’s object we take a look at an amulet known as a lucky stone or witch stone.

H. S. Toms, local archaeologist and curator of Brighton Museum (1897-1939), carried out an abundance of research on the folklore surrounding such stones, which have a naturally formed hole.

Herald 13 August 1927

He went to great lengths to record the custom of the stones in Sussex. They were hung by doors to protect against witches and evil fairies and worn around the neck to worship the god of Luck. It was believed the stones were effective at protecting against harm when placed either indoors or in the garden.

Toms examined previous discoveries of the tradition of the stones at a Roman Villa in Havant to determine an origin of the custom in antiquity. He was intrigued as to why the practise still continued in the 1920s.

Brightonians were known to suspend the stones outside the door of cottages in Brighton or outside houses in Patcham and Southwick. Upon encountering a lucky stone on the Downs, some believed that spitting through the hole before casting it over their left shoulder would bring them luck.

W. Jacobs was a friend of Toms who shared his enthusiasm for the folklore of the lucky stones. The two would often share their findings. Among Toms’ archive is a note from Jacobs on his own investigations of the custom.

“In the garden hanging round a post are a dozen or more of holed stones each about the size of a dinner plate.

Mr Smith’s daughter who was explaining the business to me showed me a “lucky stone” which she had found herself in 1913 and which had been hanging over the staircase in the house since that date to “prevent any unlucky happenings on the stairs.”

Miss Smith offered me a lucky stone which I accepted and herewith hand on to you.

(signed) W. Jacobs.

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Toms’ folklore collection is full of interviews, photographs and specimens all illustrating similar tales and belief in the power of the lucky stones. It seems some people have spent years trying to protect themselves from the menace that is embraced during this Halloween season.

Krystyna Pickering, Collections Knowledge