George Bradshaw

"The handsome and important terminus will for the future be exclusively identified with the “South Eastern Railway;” the two names now indissolubly joined as “Paddington” and the “Great Western.”"

"Principal buildings are the church (rebuilt in 1821 on the site of an old one), old Town Hall, Queen Mary’s grammar school. The manufactories of sadlers’ ironmongery constitutes the principal trade."

"Four principal streets within the site of the ancient walls intersect at the middle, where stands Bishop Story’s decorated English Market Cross."

"In the vicinity of Tortington, a very pretty English village, with an old Norman church, and the remains of its priory, founded by Lady Hadwisa Corbet in the 13th century."

"A short distance from a small hamlet on the coast, which has some admirers as a retired watering place."

"This market town has become very fashionable as a watering-place. Its rise from an insignificant hamlet to its present rank has been rapid almost beyond precedent, even in the annals of this coast."