CHAPTER XXVI. THE MARINE PAVILION AND ITS OCCUPANTS. The ascendency of Brighton over every other marine resort in the kingdom may be regarded as having been established by the attachment to the town of His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, George IV., who in 1782—when he was about twenty years of age,—honoured it for the first time with his presence on the occasion of his visit to his uncle, the Duke of Cumberland, who then occupied Grove House. The auspicious event was celebrated by the inhabitants with a general illumination, every pane of glass in the town displaying a candle stuck in a lump of clay, the primitive style of candlestick for illuminations before coloured glass well oil-lamps, called Coronation Lamps, came into vogue, previous to the adoption of gas. The following year the Prince repeated the visit, occupying the house adjoining Grove House, belonging to Thomas Kemp, Esq., of whom it was subsequently purchased by his Royal Highness. This house formed the nucleus of the Marine Pavilion, the erection of which commenced in 1784, and the building was completed in 1787. At this period a barn stood out abruptly in East Street, at the corner of North Street, but as it incommoded the public drive it was taken down, and a handsome house,—the original of the present north-east corner of North Street,—was erected at the rear of its site, by Mr. Hall, surgeon. The other dwellings, northward to Carlisle House, were then built. The east or sea front of the Pavilion, which extended about 200 feet, consisted of a circular building in the centre supported by stone Doric pillars, and crowned with 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 was towards East Street. It consisted of a plain main building to which, in 1802, were added two projecting wings, that formed a square fore-court, in the centre of which was a handsome sun-dial, supported by the figure of a negro that was much admired for its beauty of design and accuracy of sculpture. Immediately north of the Pavilion was Marlborough House, the property and residence of the Duke and Duchess of Marlborough. It was a massive square building of brick, two stories high, and a part of the east front formed a noble bow having three windows on each floor. There were six windows also on each floor in this front besides those in the bow. A range of nine windows on each floor faced the north. The northern boundary wall of Marlborough House was in a direct line with the present southern wall of the Pavilion Stables, and the cluster of elms on the gentle mound just north of the present Pavilion marks the site of the Duke’s residence, which was a temple of benevolence and charity, the poor and needy, daily participating in his bounty. The following extracts from the _Morning Herald_ will show that his Grace’s good deeds to the poor extended over a series of years:—