The Bill for the disposal, however, passed, and on the 27th of July, 1849, a Vestry meeting of the rated inhabitants, determined upon purchasing the property for £53,000, the sum required for it by the Commissioners of the Woods and Forests. Another Bill had yet to be obtained to give the Town Commissioners power to purchase the estate. Such an opposition to the purchase in the meantime sprung up amongst some of the ratepayers, and at a Vestry meeting called to approve of the Bill, that, after two days’ polling, the amendment, in effect “that the purchase be stopped,” was only lost by a minority of 36, the numbers being: for the purchase, 1343; against it, 1307. The Bill was read in the House of Commons a second time, without opposition, on the 14th of February, 1850; and was read a third time in the House of Lords on the 2nd of May, 1850. The money for the purchase, and £7,000 for the expenses of obtaining the Bill, and to restore the building, amounting in the whole to £60,000, was borrowed of the Bank of England, and on the 13th of June, 1850, the Commissioners of the Woods and Forests were paid the sum required. The building is not yet wholly appropriated, but, immediately upon the completion of the purchase, the late Mr. Christopher Wren Vick was employed to effect the work of restoration, and he succeeded in obtaining the original blocks from which the former paper-hangings of the grand suite of rooms were printed, and also in engaging Mr. Lambelet,—who has since died in poverty—the artist who executed the original decorations. On the 21st of January, 1851, the Pavilion was reopened with a grand ball of the inhabitants; since which time numerous balls, concerts, and meetings of scientific, benevolent, and other societies have taken place there, and it has now an excellent gallery for paintings, and several rooms have been set apart for the Brighton Museum, an institution that is well deserving of support. Paintings, by purchase and gifts, adorn many of the walls of the building, and in the Vestibule and Chinese Gallery are some excellent specimens of sculpture, principally by our local sculptor, Mr. Pepper. The most prominent is a full length statue by Noble, of the late Captain Pechell, son of the late member for Brighton, Sir G. R. B. Pechell, Bart. The gallant young officer fell during the Russian War, in the Crimea. Besides the Pavilion and Grounds, the estate has many private houses, including the magnificent range called Pavilion Buildings. The debt consequent upon the purchase is being gradually reduced, and the opponents to the purchase not feeling the burthen which they dreaded, have the gratification of knowing, that, as a lung to their magnificent town, they have that which no other town in the kingdom possesses,—an extensive park of its own in its very centre. CHAPTER XXVII. ON AND ABOUT THE RACE-COURSE.