onasteries were subject to frequent sale and division. The third
descended to the earls of Arundel, falling to the share of the duke of
Norfolk in 1415, and being divided in 1502 between the families of Howard
and Berkeley. That Brighton was a large fishing village in 1086 is evident
from the rent of 4000 herrings; in 1285 it had a separate constable, and in
1333 it was assessed for a tenth, and fifteenth at L5:4:63/4, half the
assessment of Shoreham. In 1340 there were no merchants there, only tenants
of lands, but its prosperity increased during the 15th and 16th centuries,
and it was assessed at L6:12:8 in 1534. There is, however, no indication
that it was a borough. In 1580 commissioners sent to decide disputes
between the fishermen and landsmen found that from time immemorial Brighton
had been governed by two head boroughs sitting in the borough court, and
assisted by a council called the Twelve. This constitution disappeared
before 1772, when commissioners were appointed. Brighton refused a charter
offered by George, prince of Wales, but was incorporated in 1854. It had
become a parliamentary borough in 1832. From a fishing town in 1656 it
became a fashionable resort in 1756; its popularity increased after the
visit of the prince of Wales (see GEORGE IV.) to the duke of Cumberland in
1783, and was ensured by his building the Pavilion in 1784-1787, and his
adoption of it as his principal residence; and his association with Mrs
Fitzherbert at Brighton was the starting-point of its fashionable repute.

See _Victoria County History--Sussex; Sussex Archaeological Society
Transactions_, vol. ii.; L. Melville, _Brighton, its History, its Follies
and its Fashions_ (London, 1909).

BRIGHT'S DISEASE, a term in medicine applied to a class of diseases of the
kidneys (acute and chronic nephritis) which have as their most prominent
symptom the presence of albumen in the urine, and frequently also the
coexistence of dropsy. These associated symptoms in connexion with kidney
disease were first described in 1827 by Dr Richard Bright (1789-1858).
Since that period it has been established that the symptoms, instead of
being, as was formerly supposed, the result of one form of disease of the
kidneys, may be dependent on various morbid conditions of those organs (see
KIDNEY DISEASES). Hence the term Bright's disease, which is retained in
medical nomenclature in honour of Dr Bright, must be understood as having a
generic application.