Eastbourne and its Quiet Charms—Hastings—Its Fishermen—The Battle of Hastings—Loss of the _Grosser Kurfürst_—The Collision—The Catastrophe—Dover—The Castle—Shakespeare’s Cliff—“O’er the Downs so free”—St. Margaret’s Bay—Kingsdown—Deal—A Deed of Daring—Ramsgate and Margate—The Floating Light on the Goodwin Sands—Ballantyne’s Voluntary Imprisonment—His Experiences—The Craft—The Light—One Thousand Wild Ducks caught—A Signal from the “South Sand Head”—The Answer—Life on Board. The coast north‐east from Beachy Head is rugged and interesting till Eastbourne is reached, one of the quietest and prettiest of the south‐ coast watering‐places, and one which has been very greatly improved of late by the lavish expenditure of his Grace the Duke of Devonshire, the principal landowner in the neighbourhood. Some of the promenades are planted with trees _à la boulevard_. The bathing and boating are both excellent; while in the neighbourhood are the ruins of Pevensey, an old Norman castle, and Hurstmonceaux, a red‐brick castle of the mediæval period, ivy‐and creeper‐covered, and embowered in trees. It is the delight of artists, who annually besiege it in great numbers. Eastbourne has some hundred fishermen engaged in the herring and mackerel fisheries. They have a benefit association or club, into which they pay a monthly subscription, and when their nets are damaged or lost a part of the money needed to repair or replace them is found. There is also a lifeboat, which has done excellent work. And next in sequence comes historical Hastings, which extends for near a mile along the sea at the present time, or, if we include the fashionable town of St. Leonard’s‐on‐Sea, its sea front must be reckoned at nearly three miles. Many readers will be familiar with the charming glen or vale in which it is situated, and which opens to the sea on the south. Hastings is otherwise sheltered by high hills and cliffs, and has a warm, even, and yet bracing climate; for salubrity it will rank with any of the popular sea‐side resorts. It has a steady population of about 35,000, of whom 700 are fishermen and boatmen. In one week the herring catch has been worth £5,000. A boat fitted for the herring or mackerel season is worth £350, and for trawling £200. The mackerel season commences in April and continues till the latter end of July, while the trawling commences and ends two or two and a half months later. The herring season commences in September and ends in the latter part of November. There is a church at Hastings, under the eastern cliffs, for the special accommodation of fishermen.