on,
and it was then that the incident occurred to which I have referred. In
Hazlitt's words:--"A lad offered to conduct us to an inn. 'Did he think
there was room?' He was sure of it. 'Did he belong to the inn?' 'No,' he
was from London. In fact, he was a young gentleman from town, who had
been stopping some time at the White-horse Hotel, and who wished to
employ his spare time (when he was not riding out on a blood-horse) in
serving the house, and relieving the perplexities of his
fellow-travellers. No one but a Londoner would volunteer his assistance
in this way. Amiable land of _Cockayne_, happy in itself, and in making
others happy! Blest exuberance of self-satisfaction, that overflows
upon others! Delightful impertinence, that is forward to oblige them!"

[Sidenote: THE LORD OF THE TIDES]

Brighton's decline as a fashionable resort came with the railway.
Coaches were expensive and few, and the number of visitors which they
brought to the town was negotiable; but when trains began to pour crowds
upon the platforms the distinction of Brighton was lost. Society
retreated, and the last Master of Ceremonies, Lieut. Col. Eld, died. It
was of this admirable aristocrat that Sydney Smith wrote so happily in
one of his letters from Brighton: "A gentleman attired _point device_,
walking down the Parade, like Agag, 'delicately.' He pointed out his
toes like a dancing-master; but carried his head like a potentate. As he
passed the stand of flys, he nodded approval, as if he owned them all.
As he approached the little goat carriages, he looked askance over the
edge of his starched neckcloth and blandly smiled encouragement. Sure
that in following him, I was treading in the steps of greatness, I went
on to the Pier, and there I was confirmed in my conviction of his
eminence; for I observed him look first over the right side and then
over the left, with an expression of serene satisfaction spreading over
his countenance, which said, as plainly as if he had spoken to the sea
aloud, 'That is right. You are low-tide at present; but never mind, in a
couple of hours I shall make you high-tide again.'"

Beyond its connection with George IV. Brighton has played but a small
part in history, her only other monarch being Charles II., who merely
tarried in the town for awhile on his way to France, in 1651, as we have
seen. The King's Head, in West Street, claims to be the scene of the
merry monarch's bargain with Captain Nicholas Tattersal