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diff --git a/45856-0.txt b/45856-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..f64316f --- /dev/null +++ b/45856-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,7032 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Smugglers, by Charles G. Harper, +Illustrated by Paul Hardy + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: The Smugglers + Picturesque Chapters in the Story of an Ancient Craft + + +Author: Charles G. Harper + + + +Release Date: June 1, 2014 [eBook #45856] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SMUGGLERS*** + + +This ebook was transcribed by Les Bowler + + [Picture: “The Gentlemen go by”] + + + + + + THE SMUGGLERS + + + PICTURESQUE CHAPTERS IN THE + STORY OF AN ANCIENT CRAFT + + BY + + CHARLES G. HARPER + + “_SMUGGLER_.—_A wretch who_, _in defiance of_ + _the laws_, _imports or exports goods without_ + _payment of the customs_.”—DR. JOHNSON + + ILLUSTRATED BY PAUL HARDY, BY THE AUTHOR + AND FROM OLD PRINTS AND PHOTOGRAPHS + + [Picture: Title page] + + LONDON: CHAPMAN & HALL, LTD. + + 1909 + + * * * * * + + PRINTED AND BOUND BY + HAZELL, WATSON AND VINEY, LD., + LONDON AND AYLESBURY. + + + + +PREFACE + + +_OPINIONS have ever been divided on the question of the morality_, _or +the immorality_, _of smuggling_. _This is not_, _in itself_, +_remarkable_, _since that subject on which all men think alike has not +yet been discovered_; _but whatever the views held upon the question of +the rights and wrongs of the_ “_free-traders_’” _craft_, _they have long +since died down into abstract academic discussion_. _Smuggling is_, +_indeed_, _not dead_, _but it is not the potent factor it once was_, _and +to what extent Governments are justified in taxing or restricting in any +way the export or the import of goods will not again become a living +question in this country until the impending Tariff Reform becomes law_. +_There have been those who_, _reading the proofs of this book_, _have +variously found in it arguments for_, _and others arguments against_, +_Protection_; _but_, _as a sheer matter of fact_, _there are in these +pages no studied arguments either way_, _and facts are here presented +just as they are retrieved from half-forgotten records_, _with no other +ulterior object than that of entertainment_. _But if these pages also +serve to show with what little wisdom __we are_, _and generally have +been_, _governed_, _they may not be without their uses_. _England_, _it +may surely be gathered_, _here and elsewhere_, _is what she is by sheer +force of dogged middle-class character_, _and in spite of her statesmen +and lawgivers_. + + _CHARLES G. HARPER_ + +_PETERSHAM_, _SURREY_, + _July_ 1909. + + + + +CONTENTS + + PAGE +INTRODUCTORY 1 + CHAPTER I +THE “OWLERS” OF ROMNEY MARSH, AND THE ANCIENT EXPORT 12 +SMUGGLING OF WOOL + CHAPTER II +GROWTH OF TEA AND TOBACCO SMUGGLING IN THE EIGHTEENTH 24 +CENTURY—REPRESSIVE LAWS A FAILURE + CHAPTER III +TERRORISING BANDS OF SMUGGLERS—THE HAWKHURST GANG—ORGANISED 39 +ATTACK ON GOUDHURST—“THE SMUGGLERS’ SONG” + CHAPTER IV +THE “MURDERS BY SMUGGLERS” IN HAMPSHIRE 47 + CHAPTER V +THE “MURDERS BY SMUGGLERS” _continued_—TRIAL AND EXECUTION 60 +OF THE MURDERERS—FURTHER CRIMES BY THE HAWKHURST GANG + CHAPTER VI +OUTRAGE AT HASTINGS BY THE RUXLEY GANG—BATTLE ON THE 78 +WHITSTABLE-CANTERBURY ROAD—CHURCH-TOWERS AS SMUGGLERS’ +CELLARS—THE DRUMMER OF HERSTMONCEUX—EPITAPH AT +TANDRIDGE—DEPLORABLE AFFAIR AT HASTINGS—THE INCIDENT OF “THE +FOUR BROTHERS” + CHAPTER VII +FATAL AFFRAYS AND DARING ENCOUNTERS AT RYE, DYMCHURCH, 94 +EASTBOURNE, BO-PEEP, AND FAIRLIGHT—THE SMUGGLERS’ ROUTE FROM +SHOREHAM AND WORTHING INTO SURREY—THE MILLER’S TOMB—LANGSTON +HARBOUR—BEDHAMPTON MILL + CHAPTER VIII +EAST COAST SMUGGLING—OUTRAGE AT BECCLES—A COLCHESTER 111 +RAID—CANVEY ISLAND—BRADWELL QUAY—THE EAST ANGLIAN “CART +GAPS”—A BLAKENEY STORY—TRAGICAL EPITAPH AT HUSTANTON—THE +PEDDAR’S WAY + CHAPTER IX +THE DORSET AND DEVON COASTS—EPITAPHS AT KINSON AND WYKE—THE 119 +“WILTSHIRE MOON-RAKERS”—EPITAPH AT BRANSCOMBE—THE WARREN AND +“MOUNT PLEASANT” INN + CHAPTER X +CORNWALL IN SMUGGLING STORY—CRUEL COPPINGER—HAWKER’S 129 +SKETCH—THE FOWEY SMUGGLERS—TOM POTTER, OF POLPERRO—THE +DEVILS OF TALLAND—SMUGGLERS’ EPITAPHS—CAVE AT WENDRON—ST. +IVES + CHAPTER XI +TESTIMONY TO THE QUALITIES OF THE SEAFARING SMUGGLERS—ADAM 151 +SMITH ON SMUGGLING—A CLERICAL COUNTERBLAST—BIOGRAPHICAL +SKETCHES OF SMUGGLERS—ROBERT JOHNSON, HARRY PAULET—WILLIAM +GIBSON, A CONVERTED SMUGGLER + CHAPTER XII +THE CARTER FAMILY, OF PRUSSIA COVE 165 + CHAPTER XIII +JACK RATTENBURY 183 + CHAPTER XIV +THE WHISKY SMUGGLERS 201 + CHAPTER XV +SOME SMUGGLERS’ TRICKS AND EVASIONS—MODERN 228 +TOBACCO-SMUGGLING—SILKS AND LACE—A DOG DETECTIVE—LEGHORN +HATS—FOREIGN WATCHES + CHAPTER XVI +COAST BLOCKADE—THE PREVENTIVE WATER-GUARD AND THE 239 +COASTGUARD—OFFICIAL RETURN OF SEIZURES—ESTIMATED LOSS TO THE +REVENUE IN 1831—THE SHAM SMUGGLER OF THE SEASIDE—THE MODERN +COASTGUARD +INDEX 249 + +LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS + +“The Gentlemen go by” _Frontispiece_. + PAGE +The Owlers 12 +The Owlers chase the Customs Officers into Rye 16 +Goudhurst Church 40 +“The Cautious turned their Faces away while the 46 +Freetraders passed” +Breaking open the Custom-house at Poole. _From an 48 +old Print_ +The “Red Lion,” Rake 54 +Sufferings of Daniel Chater. _From an old Print_ 56 +Murder of Hawkins at the “Dog and Partridge.” 64 +_From an old Print_ +The “Dog and Partridge,” Slindon Common 66 +“For our Parson” 76 +The Chop-backs 78 +The Drummer of Herstmonceux 82 +Tandridge Church 84 +Tombstone at Tandridge 86 +“Run the Rascal through!” 92 +Barham meets the Smugglers 96 +A Landing at Bo-Peep 98 +Smugglers’ Tracks near Ewhurst 102 +The Miller’s Tomb 104 +Langston Harbour 106 +Bedhampton Mill 110 +The “Green Man,” Bradwell Quay 112 +Kitchen of the “Green Man” 114 +“The Light of other Days” 136 +The Devils of Talland 144 +Escape of Johnson 156 +Johnson putting off from Brighton Beach 158 +“Oft from yon bat-haunted tow’r” 168 +Prussia Cove 170 +In a French Prison 174 +Jack Rattenbury. _From an old Print_ 184 +Smugglers hiding Goods in a Tomb 214 +Dragoons dispersing Smugglers 222 +Smugglers attacked. _From a mezzo-tint after Sir 228 +Francis Bourgeois_ +Smugglers defeated. _From a mezzotint after Sir 234 +Francis Bourgeois_ + + + + +INTRODUCTORY + + +Customs dues and embargoes on imports and exports are things of +immemorial antiquity, the inevitable accompaniments of civilisation and +luxury; and the smugglers, who paid no dues and disregarded all +prohibitions, are therefore of necessity equally ancient. Carthage, the +chief commercial community of the ancient world, was probably as greatly +troubled by the questions of customs tariffs and smuggling as was the +England of George the Third. Without civilisation, and the consequent +demand for the products of other lands, the smuggler’s trade cannot +exist. In that highly organised condition of so-styled civilisation +which produces wars and race-hatreds and hostile tariffs and swollen +taxation, the smuggler becomes an important person, a hateful figure to +governments, but not infrequently a beneficent being to the +ill-provided—in all nations the most numerous class—to whom he brought, +at a reasonable price, and with much daring and personal risk, those +comforts which, when they had paid toll to the Chancellor of the +Exchequer, were all but unattainable. + +The chief defence, on the score of morals, set up by those few smugglers +who ever were at pains to prove that smuggling could be no crime, was +that customs duties were originally imposed in the time of Charles the +Second to provide funds for the protection of our coasts from the +Algerine and Barbary pirates who then occasionally adventured thus far +from their piratical lurks in the Mediterranean and ravaged the more +remote villages of our seaboard. When these dangers ceased, contended +these smugglers on their defence, the customs dues should automatically +have been taken off; but they were, on the contrary, greatly increased. + +This view, or excuse, or defence—call it how we will—was, however, +entirely without historical foundation. It is true, indeed, that some +ports had been taxed, and that customs dues had been imposed for this +purpose, but customs charges were immemorially older than the seventeenth +century. There were probably such imposts in that lengthy era when +Britain was a Roman colony, and we certainly hear of customs charges +being levied in the reign of Ethelred, when a toll of one halfpenny was +charged upon every small boat arriving at Billingsgate, and one penny +upon larger boats, with sails. + +These pages will show that not only import, but also export smuggling was +long continued in England, and not only so, but that the export +smuggling, notably that of wool, was for centuries the most important, if +not the only, kind. The prohibition of sending wool out of the kingdom +was, of course, introduced with the object of fostering the cloth +manufacture; but there are always two sides to any question, and in this +case the embargo upon wool soon taught the cloth-workers that, in the +matter of prices, they had the wool-growers at their mercy. By law they +could not sell to foreign customers, or (later) only upon paying heavy +dues; and the cloth-workers could therefore practically dictate their own +terms. In this pitiful resort—an example of the disastrous effect of +government interference with trade—there was nothing left but to set the +law at defiance, which the wool-growers and their allies, the “owlers,” +accordingly did, risking life and limb in the wholesale exportation of +wool. It is the duty of every citizen to oppose bad laws, but this +opposition to ill-conceived enactments creates a furtive class of men, +very Ishmaelites, who, with their liberty, and even their lives, forfeit, +are rendered capable, in extremity, of any and every enormity. Hence +arose those reckless bands of smugglers who in the middle of the +eighteenth century became highly organised and all-powerful in Kent, +Sussex, and Hampshire, and, realising their power, developed into +criminals of the most ferocious type. They were, properly regarded, the +products of bad government, the creatures brought into existence by a +vicious system that took its origin in the coming of William the Third, +the “Deliverer,” as history, tongue in cheek, styles him. + +The growth of customs dues in the last years of the seventeenth century, +and so onward, in a vicious progression until the opening years of the +nineteenth, was not in any way owing to consideration for home traders, +or to a desire for the protection of British industries. They grew +exactly in proportion as the needs of the Government for revenue +increased; and were the direct results of that long-continued policy of +foreign alliances and aggressive interference in continental +politics—that “spirited foreign policy” advocated even in our own +times—which was introduced with the coming of William the Third. We did +well to depose James the Second, but we might have done better than bring +over his son-in-law and make him king; and we might, still more, have +done better than raise the Elector of Hanover to the status of British +sovereign, as George the First. Then we should probably have avoided +foreign entanglements, at any rate, until that later era when increased +intercourse between the nations rendered international politics +inevitable. + +Foreign wars, and the heavy duties levied to pay for them, brought about +the enormous growth of smuggling, and directly caused all the miseries +and the blood-stained incidents that make the story of the smugglers so +“romantic.” Glory is very fine, and stirs the pulses in reading the +pages of history, but it is a commodity for which victorious nations, no +less than the defeated, are called upon to pay in blood, tears, and +privation. + +With the great peace that, in 1815, succeeded the long and harassing +period of continual war, the people naturally looked forward towards a +time when the excessively heavy duties would be reduced, and many +articles altogether relieved from taxation. As a matter of fact, some of +these duties scarce paid the cost of their collection, and simply helped +to keep in office a large and increasing horde of officials. But the +price of glory continues to be paid, long after the laurels have faded; +and not for many years to come were those imposts reduced. + +Sydney Smith, writing in 1820 on the subject of American desire for a +large navy, even then very manifest, warned the people of the United +States of the nemesis awaiting such indulgence. “We can inform +Jonathan,” he said, “what are the inevitable consequences of being too +fond of glory: Taxes upon every article which enters into the mouth, or +covers the back, or is placed under the foot; taxes upon everything which +it is pleasant to see, hear, feel, smell, or taste; taxes upon warmth, +light, and locomotion; taxes on everything on earth, and the waters under +the earth; on everything that comes from abroad, or is grown at home; +taxes on the raw material, taxes on every fresh value that is added to it +by the industry of man; taxes on the sauce which pampers man’s appetite +and the drug that restores him to health; on the ermine which decorates +the judge and the rope which hangs the criminal; on the poor man’s salt +and the rich man’s spice; on the brass nails of the coffin and the +ribands of the bride; at bed or board, couchant or levant, we must pay. +The schoolboy whips his taxed top; the beardless youth manages his taxed +horse with a taxed bridle on a taxed road; and the dying Englishman, +pouring his medicine, which has paid seven per cent., into a spoon that +has paid fifteen per cent., flings himself back upon his chintz bed which +has paid twenty-two per cent., makes his will on an eight-pound stamp, +and expires in the arms of an apothecary who has paid a licence of a +hundred pounds for the privilege of putting him to death. His whole +property is then immediately taxed from two to ten per cent. Besides the +probate, large fees are demanded for burying him in the chancel; his +virtues are handed down to posterity on taxed marble; and he is then +gathered to his fathers—to be taxed no more.” + +The real cost of military glory was aptly shown by a caricaturist of this +period, who illustrated the general rise of prices consequent upon war in +the following incident of an old country-woman buying a halfpenny candle +at a chandler’s shop: + +“Price has gone up,” said the shopkeeper curtly, when she tendered the +money. + +“What’s that for, then?” asked the old woman. + +“On account of the war, ma’am.” + +“Od rot ’em! do they fight by candlelight?” she not unnaturally asked. + +Housekeepers of the present day may well enter—although somewhat +ruefully—into the humour of this simple story, for in the great and +continued rise of every commodity since the great Boer War, it is most +poignantly illustrated for us. In short, the people who pay for the +glory see nothing of it, and derive nothing from it. + +How entirely true were those witty phrases of Sydney Smith we may easily +guess from the mere rough statement that there were, in 1787, no fewer +than 1,425 articles liable to duty (very many of them taxed at several +times their market value), bringing in £6,000,000 a year. + +In 1797 the customs laws filled six large folio volumes. The total +number of Customs Acts prior to the accession of George the Third was +800, but no fewer than 1,300 were added between the years 1760 and 1813, +and newer Acts, partly repealing and partly adding to older enactments, +were continually being added to this vast mass of chaotic legislation +down to the middle of the Victorian era, until even experts were +frequently baffled as to the definite legal position of many given +articles. Finally—it is typical of our English amateur way of doing +things—in 1876, when so-called “Free Trade” had come in, and few articles +remained customable, the customs laws were consolidated. + +Many years before, at one swoop, Sir Robert Peel had removed the duties +from four hundred different dutiable articles, leaving, however, many +hundreds of others more or less heavily assessed. + +In consequence of this relief from taxation, smuggling rapidly decreased, +and the Commissioners of Customs were enabled to report: “With the +reduction of duties, and the removal of all needless and vexatious +restrictions, smuggling has greatly diminished, and the public sentiment +with regard to it has undergone a very considerable change. The smuggler +is no longer an object of general sympathy, as a hero of romance; and +people are beginning to awaken to a perception of the fact that his +offence is not only a fraud on the revenue, but a robbery of the fair +trader. Smuggling is now almost entirely confined to tobacco, spirits, +and watches.” + +No fewer than four hundred and fifty other dutiable articles were struck +off the list in 1845, and the Cobdenite era of Free Trade, to which, it +was expected, all other nations would speedily be converted, had opened. + +“Free Trade,” we are told, “killed smuggling.” It naturally killed +smuggling so far as duty-free articles were concerned; but this +all-embracing term of “Free Trade” is altogether a mockery and a +delusion. There has never been—there is not now—complete Free Trade in +this so-called free-trade country. Wines and spirits, tobacco, tea and +coffee, cocoa and sugar, are not they in the forefront of the articles +that render regularly to the Chancellor of the Exchequer? There have +been, indeed, throughout all the years of the Free Trade era, some forty +articles scheduled for paying customs duty on import into the United +Kingdom. They help the revenue to the extent of about £27,000,000 per +annum. + +The romance of smuggling has very largely engaged the attention of every +description of writers, but we do not hear so much of its commercial +aspects, although it must be evident that for men to dare so greatly as +the smugglers did with winds and waves and with the customs’ forces, the +possible gains must have been great. Time and again a cargo of tea or of +spirits would be seized, and yet the smugglers be prepared with other +ventures, knowing, as they did, that one entirely successful run would +pay for perhaps two failures. When tea could be purchased in Holland at +sevenpence a pound, and sold in England at prices ranging from 3_s._ +6_d._ to 5_s._, and when tobacco, purchased at the same price, sold at +2_s._ 6_d._, it is evident that great possibilities existed for the +enterprising free-trader. + +As regards spirits, if we take brandy as an example, we find almost equal +profits; for excellent cognac was shipped from Roscoff, in Brittany, from +Cherbourg, Dieppe, and other French ports in tubs of four gallons each, +which cost in France £1 a tub, and sold in England at £4. One of the +ordinary smuggling luggers, generally built especially for this traffic, +on racing lines, would hold eighty tubs. + +On such a cargo being brought, according to preconcerted plan, within +easy distance off-shore, generally at night, a lantern or other signal +shown from cliff or beach by confederates on land would indicate the +precise spot where the goods were most safely to be beached; and there +would be assembled a sufficient company of labourers engaged for the job. +A cargo of eighty tubs required forty men, who carried two each, slung by +ropes over chest and back. According to circumstances, they marched in +company on foot, inland; or, if the distance were great, they went on +horseback, each man with a led horse, carrying three or four tubs in +addition. These labourers, although not finally interested in the safe +running of the goods, and not paid on any other basis than being hired +for the heavy job of carrying considerable weights throughout the night, +were quite ready and willing to fight any opponents that might be met, as +innumerable accounts of savage encounters tell us. Besides these +carriers, there were often, in case of opposition to the landing being +anticipated, numerous “batsmen,” armed with heavy clubs, to protect the +goods. + +The pay of a labourer or carrier varied widely, of course, in different +places, at different times, and according to circumstances. It ranged +from five shillings to half a sovereign a night, and generally included +also a present of a package of tea or a tub of brandy for so many +successful runs. It is recorded that the labourers engaged for riding +horseback, each with a led horse, from Sandwich, Deal, Dover, Folkestone, +or Romney, to Canterbury, a distance of some fifteen miles, were paid +seven shillings a night. The horses cost the smugglers nothing, for they +were commandeered, as a general rule, from the neighbouring farmers, who +did not usually offer any objection, for it was not often that the gangs +forgot to leave a tub in payment. The method employed in thus +requisitioning horses was quite simple. An unsigned note would be handed +to a farmer stating that his horses were wanted, for some purpose +unnamed, on a certain night; and that he was desired to leave his stables +unlocked for those who would come and fetch them. If he did not comply +with this demand he very soon had cause to regret it in the mysterious +disasters that would shortly afterwards overtake him: his outbuildings +being destroyed by fire, his farming implements smashed, or his cattle +mutilated. + +The farmers, indeed, were somewhat seriously embarrassed by the +prevalence of smuggling. On the one hand, they had to lend their horses +for the smugglers’ purposes, and on the other they discovered that the +demand for carriers of tubs and other goods shortened the supply of +labour available for agricultural purposes, and sent up the rate of +wages. A labourer in the pay of smugglers would often be out three +nights in the week, and, with the money he received and with additional +payment in kind, was in a very comfortable position. + + + + +CHAPTER I + + + THE “OWLERS” OF ROMNEY MARSH, AND THE ANCIENT EXPORT SMUGGLING OF WOOL + +THE earliest conflicts of interests between smugglers and the Government +were concerned with the export of goods, and not with imports. We are +accustomed to think only of the import smuggler, who brought from across +Channel, or from more distant shores, the spirits, wines, tea, coffee, +silks, laces, and tobacco that had never yielded to the revenue of the +country; but before him in point of time, if not also in importance, was +the “owler” who, defying all prohibitions and penalties, even to those of +bodily mutilation and death, sold wool out of England and secretly +shipped it at night from the shores of Kent and Sussex. + +English wool had from a very early date been greatly in demand on the +Continent. The England of those distant times was a purely agricultural +country, innocent of arts, industries, and manufactures, except of the +most primitive description. The manufacturers then exercised their +skilled trades largely in France and the Low Countries; and, in especial, +the cloth-weaving industries were practised in Flanders. + + [Picture: The Owlers] + +So early as the reign of Edward the First the illegal exportation of wool +engaged the attention of the authorities, and an export duty of £3 a bag +(in modern money) was imposed, soon after 1276. This was in 1298 +increased to £6 a bag, then lowered, and then again raised. English wool +was then worth 1_s._ 6_d._ a pound. + +In the reign of Edward the Third a strenuous attempt was made to +introduce the weaving industries into England, and every inducement was +offered the Flemish weavers to settle here and to bring their art with +them. In support of this policy, the export of wool was, in various +years, subjected to further restrictions, and at one time entirely +forbidden. The royal solicitude for the newly cradled English weaving +industries also in 1337 forbade the wearing of clothing made with cloth +woven out of the country; but it is hardly necessary to add that edicts +of this stringency were constantly broken; and in 1341 Winchelsea, +Chichester, and thirteen other ports were named, whence wool might be +exported, on payment of a duty of 50_s._ a sack of twenty-six +stone—_i.e._ 364 lb. + +The interferences with the sale and export of wool continued, and the +duty was constantly being raised or lowered, according to the supposed +needs of the time; but nearly always with unforeseen and disastrous +effects. The wool staple was removed to the then English possession of +Calais in 1363, and the export of it absolutely forbidden elsewhere. The +natural result, in spite of the great amount of smuggling carried on, was +that in a long series of years the value of wool steadily fell; the +cloth-makers taking advantage of the accumulation of stocks on the +growers’ hands to depress the price. In 1390 the growers had from three +to five seasons’ crops on hand, and the state of the industry had become +such that in the following year permission to export generally, on +payment of duty, was conceded. This duty tended to become gradually +heavier, and, as it increased, so proportionably did the “owling” trade. + +The price of wool therefore declined again, and in 1454 it was recorded +as being not more than two-thirds of what it had been a hundred and ten +years earlier. The wool-growers, on the brink of ruin, petitioned that +wool, according to its various grades, might not be sold under certain +fixed prices; which were accordingly fixed. + +But to follow, _seriatim_, the movements in prices and the complete +reversals of Government policy regarding the export, would be wearisome. +We will, therefore, pass on to the Restoration of the monarchy, in 1660, +when the export of wool was again entirely forbidden. Smuggling of it +was in 1662 again, by the reactionary laws of the period, made a felony, +punishable with death; yet the active smugglers, the rank and file of the +owling trade, who performed the hard manual labour for wages, at the +instigation of those financially interested, continued to risk their +necks for twelvepence a day. The low price their services commanded is +alone sufficient to show us that labour, in spite of the risks, was +plentiful. Not only Kent and Sussex, but Essex, and Ireland as well, +largely entered into this secret “stealing of wool out of the country,” +as the phrase ran; and “these caterpillars” had so many evasions, and +commanded so many combinations and interests among those officials whose +business it was to detect and punish, that few dared interfere: hence the +readiness of the labourers to “risk their necks,” the risk being, under +the circumstances, small. + +Indeed, readers of the adventures of these owling desperadoes and of the +customs officers who hunted them will, perhaps, come to the conclusion +that the risks on either side were pretty evenly apportioned, and they +will see that the hunters not seldom became the hunted. + +The experiences of one W. Carter, who appears to have been in authority +over the customs staff in the Romney Marsh district, towards the close of +the seventeenth century, were at times singularly vivid. His particular +“hour of crowded life” came in 1688, while he was engaged in an attempt +to arrest a body of owlers who were shipping wool into some French +shallops between Folkestone and New Romney. + +Having procured the necessary warrants, he repaired to Romney, where he +seized eight or ten men who were carrying the wool on their horses’ backs +to be shipped, and desired the Mayor of Romney to commit them, but, +greatly to the surprise of this zealous officer, who doubtless imagined +he had at last laid some of these desperate fellows securely by the +heels, the Mayor of Romney consented to the prisoners being admitted to +bail. Mr. Carter, to have been so ingenuously surprised, must have been +a singularly simple official, or quite new to the business; for what +Mayor of Romney in those days, when every one on the Marsh smuggled, or +was interested financially in the success of smuggling, would dare not +deal leniently with these fellows! Nay, it was even abundantly probable +that the Mayor himself was financially committed in these ventures, and +perhaps even among the employers of Mr. Carter’s captives. + +Romney was no safe abiding-place for Carter and his underlings when these +men were enlarged; and they accordingly retired upon Lydd. But if they +had fondly expected peace and shelter there they were woefully mistaken, +for a Marshland cry of vengeance was raised, and a howling mob of owlers, +ululating more savagely than those melancholy birds from whom they took +their name, violently attacked them in that little town, under cover of +night. The son of the Mayor of Lydd, well disposed to these sadly +persecuted revenue men, advised them to further retire upon Rye, which +they did the next morning, December 13th, pursued hotly across the +dyke-intersected marshes, as far as Camber Point, by fifty furious men. + + [Picture: The Owlers chase the Customs Officers into Rye] + +At Guilford Ferry the pursuers were so close upon their heels that they +had to hurriedly dismount and tumble into some boats belonging to ships +lying near, leaving their horses behind; and so they came safe, but +breathless, into Rye town. + +At this period Calais—then lost to England—alone imported within two +years 40,000 packs of wool from Kent and Sussex; and the Romney Marsh men +not only sold their own wool in their illicit manner, but bought other +from up-country, ten or twenty miles inland, and impudently shipped it +off. + +In 1698, the severe laws of some thirty years earlier having been thus +brought into contempt, milder penal enactments were introduced, but more +stringent conditions than ever were imposed upon the collection and +export of this greatly vexed commodity, and the civil deterrents of +process and fine, aimed at the big men in the trade, were strengthened. +A law was enacted (9 & 10 William the Third, c. 40, ss. 2 and 3) by which +no person living within fifteen miles of the sea in the counties of Kent +and Sussex should buy any wool before he became responsible in a legal +bond, with sureties, that none of the wool he should buy should be sold +by him to any persons within fifteen miles of the sea; and growers of +wool in those counties, within ten miles of the coast, were obliged, +within three days of shearing, to account for the number of fleeces +shorn, and to state where they were stored. + +The success of this new law was not at first very marked, for the means +of enforcing it had not been provided. To enact repressive edicts, and +not to provide the means of their being respected, was as unsatisfactory +as fighting the wind. The Government, viewing England as a whole, +appointed under the new Act seventeen surveyors for nineteen counties, +with 299 riding-officers: a force barely sufficient for Kent and Sussex +alone. It cost £20,000 a year, and never earned its keep. + +Henry Baker, supervisor for Kent and Sussex, writing on April 25th, 1699, +to his official chiefs, stated that there would be shorn in Romney Marsh, +quite apart from the adjacent levels of Pett, Camber, Guilford, and Dunge +Marsh, about 160,000 sheep, whose fleeces would amount to some three +thousand packs of wool, “the greatest part whereof will immediately be +sent off hot into France—it being so designed, preparations in great +measure being already made for that purpose.” + +In fact, the new law at first did nothing more than to give the owlers +some extra trouble and expense in cartage of their packs; for, in order +to legally evade the extra disabilities it imposed, it was only necessary +to cart them fifteen miles inland and make fictitious sale and re-sale of +them there; thence shipping them as they pleased. + +By this time the exportation of wool had become not only a kingly +concern—it had aroused the keen interest of the nation at large, fast +becoming an industrial and cloth-weaving nation. For two centuries and +more past the cloth-workers had been growing numerous, wealthy, and +powerful, and they meant, as far as it was possible for them to do, to +starve the continental looms out of the trade, for sheer lack of +material. No one cared in the least about the actual grower of the wool, +whether he made a loss or a profit on his business. It is obvious that +if export of it could have been wholly stopped, the cloth-workers, in the +forced absence of foreign buyers, would have held the unfortunate growers +in the hollow of their hands, and would have been able to dictate the +price of wool. + +It is the inalienable right of every human being to fight against unjust +laws; only we must be sure they are unjust. Perhaps the dividing-line, +when self-interest is involved, is not easily to be fixed. But there can +be no doubt that the wool-growers were labouring under injustice, and +that they were entirely justified in setting those laws at naught which +menaced their existence. + +However, by December 1703, Mr. Baker was able to give his superiors a +more favourable report. He believed the neck of the owling trade to have +been broken and the spirit of the owlers themselves to have been crushed, +particularly in Romney Marsh. There were not, at that time, he observed, +“many visible signs” of any quantities of wool being exported: which +seems to us rather to point to the perfected organisation of the owling +trade than to its being crushed out of existence. + +“But for fine goods,” continued the supervisor, “as they call them +(_viz._ silks, lace, etc.), I am well assured that the trade goes on +through both counties, though not in such vast quantities as have been +formerly brought in—I mean in those days when (as a gentleman of estate +in one of the counties has within this twelve months told me) he has been +att once, besides at other times, at the loading of a wagon with silks, +laces, etc., till six oxen could hardly move it out of the place. I doe +not think that the trade is now so carried on as ’twas then.” + +Things being so promising in the purview of this simple person, it seemed +well to him to suggest to the Commissioners of the Board of Customs that +a reduction of the annual charge of £4,500 for the preventive service +along the coasts of Kent and Sussex might be effected. At that time +there were fifty preventive officers patrolling over two hundred miles of +seaboard, each in receipt of £60 per annum, and each provided with a +servant and a horse, to help in night duty, at an estimated annual cost +of £30 for each officer. + +We may here legitimately pause in surprise at the small pay for which +these men were ready to endure the dangers and discomforts of such a +service; very real perils and most unmistakable disagreeables, in midst +of an almost openly hostile country-side. + +Mr. Baker, sanguine man that he was, proposed to abolish the annual +allowance to each of these hard-worked men for servant and horse, thus +saving £1,500 a year, and to substitute for them patrols of the Dragoon +regiments at that time stationed in Kent. These regiments had been +originally placed there in 1698 to overawe the owlers and other +smugglers, the soldiers being paid twopence extra a day (which certainly +did not err upon the side of extravagance) and the officers in +proportion: the annual cost on that head amounting to £200 per annum. +This military stiffening of the civil force employed to prevent +clandestine export and import appears to have been discontinued in 1701, +after about two years’ experiment. + +These revived patrols, at a cost of £200, the supervisor calculated, +would more efficiently and economically undertake the work hitherto +performed by the preventive officers’ horses and men, still leaving a +saving of £1,300 a year. With this force, and a guard of cruisers +offshore, he was quite convinced that the smuggling of these parts would +still be kept under. + +But alas for these calculations! The economy thus effected on this +scheme, approved of and put into being, was altogether illusory. The +owling trade, of which the supervisor had supposed the neck to be broken, +flourished more impudently than before. The Dragoons formed a most +inefficient patrol, and worked ill with the revenue officers, and, in +short, the Revenue lost annually many more thousands of pounds sterling +than it saved hundreds. When sheriffs and under-sheriffs could be, and +were, continually bribed, it is not to be supposed that Dragoons, +thoroughly disliking such an inglorious service as that of chasing +smugglers along muddy lanes and across country intricately criss-crossed +with broad dykes rarely to be jumped, would be superior to secret +advances that gave them much more than their miserable twopence a day. + +Transportation for wool-smugglers who did not pay the fines awarded +against them was enacted in 1717; ineffectually, for in 1720 it was found +necessary to issue a proclamation, enforcing the law; and in five +successive years from 1731 the cloth-workers are found petitioning for +greater vigilance against the continued clandestine exportation, alleging +a great decay in the woollen manufactures owing to this illegal export; +150,000 packs being shipped yearly. “It is feared,” said these +petitioners, fighting for their own hand, regardless, of course, of other +interests, “that some gentlemen of no mean rank, whose estates border on +the sea-coast, are too much influenced by a near, but false, prospect of +gain”: to which the gentlemen in question, being generally brought up on +the dead classic languages, might most fairly have replied, had they +cared to do so, with the easy Latinity of _Tu quoque_! + +This renewed daring and enterprise of the Sussex smugglers led to many +encounters with the customs officers. Among these was the desperate +engagement between sixty armed smugglers and customs men at Ferring, on +June 21st, 1720, when William Goldsmith, of the Customs, had his horse +shot under him. + +A humorous touch, so far at least as the modern reader of these things is +concerned, is found in the Treasury warrant issued about this time, for +the sum of £200, for supplying a regiment with new boots and stockings; +their usual allowance of these indispensable articles having been “worn +out in the pursuit of smugglers.” + +In spite of all attempts to suppress these illegal activities, it had to +be acknowledged, in the preamble of an Act passed in 1739, that the +export of wool was “notoriously continued.” + +The old-established owling trade of Romney Marsh at length, after many +centuries, gave place to the clandestine import of silks, tea, spirits, +and tobacco; but it was only by slow and insensible degrees that the +owlers’ occupation dwindled away, in the lessening foreign demand for +English wool. The last was not heard of this more than +five-centuries-old question of the export of wool, that had so severely +exercised the minds of some twenty generations, and had baffled the +lawgivers in all that space of time, until the concluding year of the +final wars with France at the beginning of the nineteenth century. + +Many other articles were at the same time forbidden to be exported; among +them Fuller’s-earth, used in the manufacture of cloth, and so, of course, +subject to the same interdict as wool. A comparatively late Exchequer +trial for the offence of exporting Fuller’s-earth was that of one Edmund +Warren, in 1693. Fortunately for the defendant, he was able to show that +what he had exported was not Fuller’s-earth at all, but potter’s clay. + + + + +CHAPTER II + + + GROWTH OF TEA AND TOBACCO SMUGGLING IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY—REPRESSIVE + LAWS A FAILURE + +SIDE by side with the export smuggling of wool, the import smuggling of +tobacco and tea grew and throve amazingly in later ages. Every one, +knowingly or unsuspectingly, smoked tobacco and drank tea that had paid +no duty. + +“Great Anna” herself, who was among the earliest to yield to the refining +influence of tea— + + Great Anna, whom three realms obey, + Doth sometimes counsel take, and sometimes tay— + +in all probability often drank tea which had contributed nothing to the +revenue. Between them tea and tobacco, in the illegal landing of the +goods, found employment for hundreds of hardy seafaring men and stalwart +landsmen, and led to much violence and bloodshed, beside which the +long-drawn annals of the owlers seem almost barren of incident. + +Early in the eighteenth century, when continental wars of vast magnitude +were in progress, the list of dutiable articles began to grow quickly, +and concurrently with the growth of this list the already existing tariff +was continually increased. The smugglers’ trade grew with these growths, +and for the first time became a highly organised and widely distributed +trade, involving every class. The time had come at last when every +necessary of daily use was taxed heavily, often far above its ordinary +trading value; and an absurd, and indeed desperate, condition of affairs +had been reached, in which people of all ranks were more or less faced +with the degrading dilemma of being unable to afford many articles +generally consumed by persons of their station in life, or of procuring +them of the smugglers—the “free traders,” as they rightly styled +themselves—often at a mere one-third of the cost to which they would have +been put had their illicit purchasers paid duty. + +The Government was, as we now perceive, in the mental perspective +afforded by lapse of time, in the clearly indefensible position of +heavily taxing the needs of the country, and of making certain practices +illegal that tended to supply those needs at much lower rates than those +thus artificially created, and yet of being unable to provide adequate +means by which these generally detested laws could be enforced. It was, +and is, no defence to hold that the revenues thus hoped for were a +sufficient excuse. To create an artificial restraint of trade, to +elevate trading in spite of restraint into a crime, and yet not to +provide an overmastering force that shall secure obedience, if not in one +sense respect, for those unnatural laws, was in itself a course of action +that any impartial historian might well hold to be in itself criminal; +for it led to continual disturbances throughout the country, with +appalling violence, and great loss of life, in conflict, or in the darker +way of secret murder. + +But no historian would, on weighing the evidence available, feel +altogether sure of so sweeping an indictment of the eighteenth-century +governance of England. It was corrupt, it was self-seeking, it had no +breadth of view; but the times were well calculated to test the most +Heaven-sent statesmanship. The country, as were all other countries, was +governed for the classes; and governed, as one would conduct a business, +for revenue; whether the revenue was to be applied in conducting foreign +wars, or to find its way plentifully into the pockets of placemen, does +not greatly matter. This misgovernment was a characteristic failing of +the age; and it must, moreover, be recognised that the historian, with +his comprehensive outlook upon the past, spread out, so to speak, +map-like to his gaze, has the advantage of seeing these things as a +whole, and of criticising them as such; while the givers and +administrators of laws were under the obvious disadvantages of each +planning and working for what they considered to be the needs of their +own particular period, with those of the future unknown, and perhaps +uncared for. That there were some few among those in authority who +wrought according to their lights, however feeble might be their +illumination, must be conceded even to that age. + +At the opening of this era, when Marlborough’s great victories were yet +fresh, and when the cost of them and of other military glories was +wearing the country threadbare, the most remarkable series of repressive +Acts, directed against smuggling, began. Vessels of very small tonnage +and light draught, being found peculiarly useful to smugglers, the use of +such, even in legalised importing, was strictly forbidden, and no craft +of a lesser burthen than fifteen tons was permitted. This provision, it +was fondly conceived, would strike a blow at smuggling, by rendering it +impossible to slip up narrow and shallow waterways; but this pious +expectation was doomed to disappointment, and the limit was accordingly +raised to thirty tons; and again, in 1721, to forty tons. At the same +time, the severest restrictions were imposed upon boats, in order to cope +with the ten, or even twelve and fourteen-oared galleys, rowed by +determined “free-traders.” + +To quote the text of one among these drastic ordinances: + + “Any boat built to row with more than four oars, found upon land or + water within the counties of Middlesex, Surrey, Kent, or Sussex, or + in the river Thames, or within the limits of the ports of London, + Sandwich, or Ipswich, or any boat rowing with more than six oars + found either upon land or water, in any other port, or within two + leagues of the coast of Great Britain, shall be forfeited, and every + person using or rowing in such boat shall forfeit £40.” + +These prohibitions were, in 1779, in respect of boats to row with more +than six oars, extended to all other English counties; the port of +Bristol only excepted. + +As for smuggling craft captured with smuggled goods the way of the +revenue authorities with such was drastic. They were sawn in three +pieces, and then thoroughly broken up. + +The futility of these extraordinary steps is emphasised by the report of +the Commissioners of Customs to the Treasury in 1733, that immense +smuggling operations were being conducted in Kent, Sussex, Essex, and +Suffolk. In twelve months, this report declared, 54,000 lb. of tea and +123,000 gallons of brandy had been seized, and still, in spite of these +tremendous losses, the spirit of the smugglers was unbroken, and +smuggling was increasing. An additional force of 106 Dragoons was asked +for, to stiffen that of 185 already patrolling those coasts. + +It was clearly required, with the utmost urgency, for such a mere handful +of troops spread over this extended seaboard could scarce be considered a +sufficient backing for the civil force, in view of the determined +encounters continually taking place, in which the recklessness and daring +of the smugglers knew no bounds. Thus, in June 1733, the officers of +customs at Newhaven, attempting to seize ten horses laden with tea, at +Cuckmere, were opposed by about thirty men, armed with pistols and +blunderbusses, who fired on the officers, took them prisoners, and kept +them under guard until the goods were safely carried off. + +In August of the same year the riding-officers, observing upwards of +twenty smugglers at Greenhay, most of them on horseback, pluckily essayed +to do their duty and seize the goods, but the smugglers fell furiously +upon them, and with clubs knocked one off his horse, severely wounded +him, and confined him for an hour, while the run was completed. Of his +companions no more is heard. They probably—to phrase it delicately—went +for assistance. + +In July 1735, customs officers of the port of Arundel, watching the +coast, expecting goods to be run from a hovering smuggler craft, were +discovered by a gang of more than twenty armed smugglers, anxiously +waiting for the landing, and not disposed for an all-night trial of +endurance in that waiting game. They accordingly seized the officers and +confined them until some boatloads of contraband had been landed and +conveyed away on horseback. In the same month, at Kingston-by-the-Sea, +between Brighton and Shoreham, some officers, primed with information of +a forthcoming run of brandy, and seeking it, found as well ten smugglers +with pistols. Although the smugglers were bold and menacing, the customs +men on this occasion had the better of it, for they seized and duly +impounded the brandy. + +A more complicated affair took place on December 6th of the same year, +when some customs officers of Newhaven met a large, well-armed gang of +smugglers, who surrounded them and held them prisoners for an hour and a +half. The same gang then fell in with another party, consisting of three +riding-officers and six Dragoons, and were bold enough to attack them. +Foolish enough, we must also add; for they got the worst of the +encounter, and, fleeing in disorder, were pursued; five—armed with +pistols, swords, and cutlasses, and provided with twelve horses—being +captured. + +A fatal encounter took place at Bulverhythe, between Hastings and +Bexhill, in March 1737. It is best read of in the anonymous letter +written to the Commissioners of Customs by a person who, for fear of the +smuggling gangs, was afraid to disclose his real name, and subscribed +himself “Goring.” The letter—whose cold-blooded informing, the work +evidently of an educated, but cruel-minded person, is calculated to make +any reader of generous instincts shiver—is to be found among the customs +correspondence, in the Treasury Papers. + + “May it please [your] Honours,—It is not unknown to your Lordships of + the late battle between the Smuglers and Officers at Bulverhide; and + in relation to that Business, if your Honours but please to advise in + the News Papers, that this is expected off, I will send a List of the + names of the Persons that were at that Business, and the places’ + names where they are usually and mostly resident. Cat (Morten’s man) + fired first, Morten was the second that fired; the soldiers fired and + killed Collison, wounded Pigon, who is since dead; William Weston was + wounded, but like to recover. Young Mr. Bowra was not there, but his + men and horses were; from your Honours’ + + “Dutifull and Most faithfull servant, + + “GORING. + + “There was no foreign persons at this Business, but all were Sussex + men, and may easily be spoke with. + + “This [is] the seventh time Morten’s people have workt this winter, + and have not lost anything but one half-hundred [of tea] they gave to + a Dragoon and one officer they met with the first of this winter; and + the Hoo company have lost no goods, although they constantly work, + and at home too, since they lost the seventy hundred-weight. When + once the Smuglers are drove from home they will soon all be taken. + Note, that some say it was Gurr that fired first. You must well + secure Cat, or else your Honours will soon lose the man; the best way + will be to send for him up to London, for he knows the whole Company, + and hath been Morten’s servant two years. There were several young + Chaps with the Smuglers, whom, when taken, will soon discover the + whole Company. The number was twenty-six men. Mack’s horses, + Morten’s, and Hoak’s, were killed, and they lost not half their + goods. They have sent for more goods, and twenty-nine horses set out + from Groombridge this day, about four in the afternoon, and all the + men well armed with long guns. + + “And if I hear this is received, I will send your Honours the Places + names where your Honours will intercep the Smuglers as they go to + Market with their Goods, but it must be done by Soldiers, for they go + stronger now than ever. And as for Mr. Gabriel Tompkin, Supervisor + of Dartford, there can be good reason given that Jacob Walter brought + him Goods for three years last past, and it is likewise no dispute of + that matter amongst allmost all the Smuglers. The Bruces and Jacob + fought about that matter and parted Company’s, and Mr. Tompkin was + allway, as most people know, a villain when a Smugler and likewise + Officer. He never was concern’d with any Body but Jacob, and now + Jacob has certainly done with Smugling. I shall not trouble your + Honours with any more Letters if I do not hear from this, and I do + assure your Honours what I now write is truth. + + “There are some Smuglers with a good sum of money, and they may pay + for taking; as Thomas Darby, Edward King, John Mackdanie, and others + that are rich. + + “The Hoo Company might have been all ruined when they lost their + goods; the Officers and Soldiers knew them all, but they were not + prosecuted, as [they] was not at Groombridge, when some time since a + Custom House Officer took some Tea and Arms too in Bowra’s house at + Groombridge. + + “The first of this Winter, the Groombridge Smuglers were forced to + carry their goods allmost all up to Rushmore Hill and Cester Mark, + which some they do now, but Tea sells quick in London now, and Chaps + from London come down to Groombridge allmost every day, as they used + to do last Winter. When once they come to be drove from home, they + will be put to great inconveniences, when they are from their friends + and will lose more Goods than they do now, and be at more Charges. + Do but take up some of the Servants, they will soon rout the Masters, + for the Servants are all poor. + + “Young Bowra’s House cost £500 building, and he will pay for looking + up. + + “Morten and Bowra sold, last Winter, some-ways, about 3,000 [lb.] + weight a week.” + +We hear nothing further of “Goring,” and there is nothing to show who was +the person whose cold malignance appears horribly in every line of his +communication. Any action that may have been officially taken upon it is +also hidden from us. But we may at least gather from it that the +master-men, the employers of the actual smugglers of the goods, were in a +considerable way of business, and already making very large profits. We +see, too, that the smuggling industry was even then well on towards being +a powerful organisation. + +Still sterner legislative methods were, accordingly, in the opinion of +the authorities, called for, and the Act of Indemnity of 1736 was the +first result. This was a peculiarly mean and despicable measure, even +for a Revenue Act. There is this excuse—although a small one—for it; +that the Government was increasingly pressed for money, and that the +enormous leakage of customs dues might possibly in some degree be +lessened by stern and not very high-minded laws. By this Act it was +provided that smugglers who desired (whether on trial or not) to obtain a +free pardon for past offences, might do so by fully disclosing them; at +the same time giving the names of their fellows. The especial iniquity +of this lamentable example of frantic legislation, striking as it did at +the very foundations of character in the creation of the informer and the +sneak, is a sad instance of the moral obliquity to which a Government +under stress of circumstances can descend. + +The Act further proceeded to deal with backsliders who, having purged +themselves as above, again resumed their evil courses, and it made the +ways of transgressors very hard indeed; for, when captured, they were +charged with not only their present offence, but also with that for which +they had compounded with the Dev— that is to say, with the law. And, +being so charged, and duly convicted, their case was desperate; for if +the previous offence had carried with it, on conviction, a sentence of +transportation (as many smuggling offences did: among them the carrying +of firearms by three, or more men, while engaged in smuggling goods), the +second brought a sentence of death. + +With regard to the position of the pardoned smuggler who had earned his +pardon by thus peaching on his fellows, it is not too much to +say—certainly so far as the more ferocious smuggling gangs of Kent and +Sussex were concerned—that by so doing he had already earned his capital +sentence; for the temper of these men was such, and the risks they were +made to run by these ferocious Acts were so great, that they would +not—and, in a way of looking at these things, could not—suffer an +informer to live. + +Thus, even the additional inducements offered to informers by +statute—including a reward of £50 each for the discovery and conviction +of two or more accomplices—very generally failed to obtain results. + +Many other items of unexampled severity were included in this Act, and in +the yet more drastic measures of 1745 and the following year. By these +it was provided that persons found loitering within five miles of the +sea-coast, or any navigable river, might be considered suspicious +persons; and they ran the risk of being taken before a magistrate, who +was empowered, on any such person being unable to give a satisfactory +account of himself, to commit him to the House of Correction, there to be +whipped and kept at hard labour for any period not exceeding one month. + +In 1746, assembling to run contraband goods was made a crime punishable +with death as a felon, and counties were made liable for revenue losses. +Smuggled goods seized and afterwards rescued entailed a fine of £200 upon +the county; a revenue officer beaten by smugglers cost the county £40; or +if killed, £100; with the provision that the county should be exempt if +the offenders were convicted within six months. + +As regards the offenders themselves, if they failed to surrender within +forty days and were afterwards captured, the person who captured them was +entitled to a reward of £500. + +Dr. Johnson’s definition of a smuggler appears on the title-page of the +present volume. It is not a flattering testimonial to character; but, on +the other hand, his opinion of a Commissioner of Excise—and such were the +sworn enemies of smugglers—was much more unfavourable. Such an one was +bracketed by the doctor with a political pamphleteer, or what he termed +“a scribbler for a party,” as one of “the two lowest of human beings.” +Without the context in which these judgments are now placed, it would be +more than a little difficult to trace their reasoning, which sounds as +little sensible as it would be to declare at one and the same time a +burglar to be a dangerous pest and a policeman a useless ornament. But +if smugglers can be proved from these pages wicked and reckless men, so +undoubtedly shall we find the Commissioners of Excise and Customs, in +their several spheres, appealing to the basest of human instincts, and +thus abundantly worthy of Johnson’s censure. + +The shifts and expedients of the Commissioners of Customs for the +suppression of smuggling were many and ingenious, and none was more +calculated to perform the maximum of service to the Revenue with the +minimum of cost than the commissioning of privateers, authorised to +search for, to chase, and to capture if possible any smuggling craft. +“Minimum of cost” is indeed not the right expression for use here, for +the cost and risks to the customs establishment were _nil_. It should be +said here that, although the Acts of Parliament directed against +smuggling were of the utmost stringency, they were not always applied +with all the severity possible to be used; and, on the other hand, +customs officers and the commanders of revenue cutters were well advised +to guard against any excess of zeal in carrying out their instructions. +To chase and capture a vessel that every one knew perfectly well to be a +smuggler, and then to find no contraband aboard, because, as a matter of +fact, it had been carefully sunk at some point where it could easily be +recovered at leisure, was not only not the way to promotion as a zealous +officer; but was, on the contrary, in the absence of proof that +contraband had been carried, a certain way to official disfavour. And it +was also, as many officers found to their cost, the way into actions at +law, with resultant heavy damages not infrequently awarded against them. +It was, indeed, a scandal that these public servants, who assuredly +rarely ever brought to, or overhauled, a vessel without reasonable and +probable cause, should have been subject to such contingencies, without +remedy of any kind. + +The happy idea of licensing private adventurers to build and equip +vessels to make private war upon smuggling craft, and to capture them and +their cargoes, was an extension of the original plan of issuing letters +of marque to owners of vessels for the purpose of inflicting loss upon an +enemy’s commerce; but persons intending to engage upon this private +warfare against smuggling had, in the first instance, to give security to +the Commissioners of a diligence in the cause thus undertaken, and to +enter into business details respecting the cargoes captured. It was, +however, not infrequently found, in practice, that these privateers very +often took to smuggling on their own account, and that, under the +protective cloak of their ostensible affairs, they did a very excellent +business; while, to complete this picture of failure, those privateers +that really did keep to their licensed trade generally contrived to lose +money and to land their owners into bankruptcy. + + + + +CHAPTER III + + + TERRORISING BANDS OF SMUGGLERS—THE HAWKHURST GANG—ORGANISED ATTACK ON + GOUDHURST—THE “SMUGGLERS’ SONG” + +BUT the smugglers of Kent and Sussex were by far the most formidable of +all the “free-traders” in England, and were not easily to be suppressed. +Smuggling, export and import, off those coasts was naturally heavier than +elsewhere, for there the Channel was narrower, and runs more easily +effected. The interests involved were consequently much greater, and the +organisation of the smugglers, from the master-men to the labourers, more +nearly perfect. To interfere with any of the several confederacies into +which these men were banded for the furtherance of their illicit trade +was therefore a matter of considerable danger, and, well knowing the +terror into which they had thrown the country-side, they presumed upon +it, to extend their activities into other, and even less reputable, +doings. The intervals between carrying tubs, and otherwise working for +the master-smugglers became filled, towards the middle of the eighteenth +century, with acts of highway robbery and house-breaking, and, in the +home counties, at any rate, smuggling proved often to be only the first +step in a career of crime. + +Among these powerful and terrorising confederacies, the Hawkhurst gang +was pre-eminent. The constitution of it was, necessarily, a matter of +inexact information, for the officers and the rank and file of such +societies are mentioned by no minute-books or reports. But one of its +principals was, without question, Arthur Gray, or Grey, who was one of +those “Sea Cocks” after whom Seacox Heath, near Hawkhurst, in Kent, is +supposed to be named. He was a man who did things on, for those times, a +grand scale, and was said to be worth £10,000. He had built on that then +lonely ridge of ground, overlooking at a great height the Weald of Kent, +large store houses—a kind of illicit “bonded warehouses”—for smuggled +goods, and made the spot a distributing centre. That all these facts +should have been contemporaneously known, and Gray’s store not have been +raided by the Revenue, points to an almost inconceivable state of +lawlessness. The buildings were in after years known as “Gray’s Folly”; +but it was left for modern times to treat the spot in a truly sportive +way: when Lord Goschen, who built the modern mansion of Seacox Heath on +the site of the smuggler’s place of business, became Chancellor of the +Exchequer. If the unquiet ghosts of the old smugglers ever revisit their +old haunts, how weird must have been the ironic laughter of Gray at +finding this the home of the chief financial functionary of the +Government! + + [Picture: Goudhurst Church] + +In December 1744 the gang were responsible for the impudent abduction of +a customs officer and three men who had attempted to seize a run of goods +at Shoreham. They wounded the officer and carried the four off to +Hawkhurst, where they tied two of them, who had formerly been smugglers +and had ratted to the customs service, to trees, whipped them almost to +death, and then took them down to the coast again and shipped them to +France. A reward of £50 was offered, but never claimed. + +To exhume yet another incident from the forgotten doings of the time: In +March 1745 a band of twelve or fourteen smugglers assaulted three +custom-house officers whom they found in an alehouse at Grinstead Green, +wounded them in a barbarous manner, and robbed them of their watches and +money. + +In the same year a gang entered a farmhouse near Sheerness, in Sheppey, +and stole a great quantity of wool, valued at £1,500. A week later £300 +worth of wool, which may or may not have been a portion of that stolen, +was seized upon a vessel engaged in smuggling it from Sheerness, and +eight men were secured. + +The long immunity of the Hawkhurst Gang from serious interference +inevitably led to its operations being extended in every direction, and +the law-abiding populace of Kent and Sussex eventually found themselves +dominated by a great number of fearless marauders, whose will for a time +was a greater law than the law of the land. None could take legal action +against them without going hourly in personal danger, or in fear of +house, crops, wheat-stacks, hay-ricks, or stock being burnt or otherwise +injured. + +The village of Goudhurst, a picturesque spot situated upon a hill on the +borders of Kent and Sussex, was the first place to resent this ignoble +subserviency. The villagers and the farmers round about were wearied of +having their horses commandeered by mysterious strangers for the carrying +of contraband goods that did not concern them, and were determined no +longer to have their houses raided with violence for money or anything +else that took the fancy of these fellows. + +They had at last found themselves faced with the alternatives, almost +incredible in a civilised country, of either deserting their houses and +leaving their property at the mercy of these marauders, or of uniting to +oppose by force their lawless inroads. The second alternative was +chosen; a paper expressive of their abhorrence of the conduct of the +smugglers, and of the determination to oppose them was drawn up and +subscribed to by a considerable number of persons, who assumed the style +of the “Goudhurst Band of Militia.” At their head was a young man named +Sturt, who had recently been a soldier. He it was who had persuaded the +villagers to be men, and make some spirited resistance. + +News of this unexpected stand on the part of these hitherto meek-spirited +people soon reached the ears of the dreaded Hawkhurst Gang, who contrived +to waylay one of the “Militia,” and, by means of torture and +imprisonment, extorted from him a full disclosure of the plans and +intentions of his colleagues. They swore the man not to take up arms +against them, and then let him go; telling him to inform the Goudhurst +people that they would, on a certain day named, attack the place, murder +every one in it, and then burn it to the ground. + +Sturt, on receiving this impudent message, assembled his “Militia,” and, +pointing out to them the danger of the situation, employed them in +earnest preparations. While some were sent to collect firearms, others +were set to casting bullets and making cartridges, and to providing +defences. + +Punctually at the time appointed (a piece of very bad policy on their +part, by which they would appear to have been fools as well as rogues) +the gang appeared, headed by Thomas Kingsmill, and fired a volley into +the village, over the entrenchments made. The embattled villagers +replied, some from the houses and roof-tops, and others from the leads of +the church-tower; when George Kingsmill, brother of the leading spirit in +the attack, was shot dead. He is alluded to in contemporary accounts as +the person who had killed a man at Hurst Green, a few miles distant. + +In the firing that for some time continued two others of the smugglers, +one Barnet Wollit and a man whose name is not mentioned, were killed and +several wounded. The rest then fled, pursued by the valorous “Militia,” +who took a few prisoners, afterwards handed over by them to the law, and +executed. + +Surprisingly little is heard of this—as we, in these more equable times, +are prone to think it—extraordinary incident. A stray paragraph or so in +the chronicles of the time is met with, and that is all. It was only one +of the usual lawless doings of the age. + +But to-day the stranger in the village may chance, if he inquires a +little into the history of the place, to hear wild and whirling accounts +of this famous event; and, if he be at all enterprising, will find in the +parish registers of burials this one piece of documentary evidence toward +the execution done that day: + + “1747, Ap. 20, George Kingsmill, Dux sclerum glande plumbeo emisso, + cecidit.” + +All these things, moreover, are duly enshrined, amid much fiction, in the +pages of G. P. R. James’s novel, “The Smuggler.” + +And still the story of outrage continued. On August 14th, 1747, a band +of twenty swaggering smugglers rode, well-armed and reckless, into Rye +and halted at the “Red Lion” inn, where they remained drinking until they +grew rowdy and violent. + +Coming into the street again, they discharged their pistols at random, +and, as the old account of these things concludes, “observing James +Marshall, a young man, too curious of their behaviour, carried him off, +and he has not since been heard of.” + +History tells us nothing of the fate of that unfortunate young man; but, +from other accounts of the bloodthirsty characters of these Kentish and +Sussex malefactors, we imagine the very worst. + +Others, contemporary with them—if, indeed, they were not the same men, as +seems abundantly possible—captured two revenue officers near Seaford, +and, securely pinning them down to the beach at low-water mark, so that +they could not move, left them there, so that, when the tide rose, they +were drowned. + +Again, on September 14th of this same year, 1747, a smuggler named +Austin, violently resisting arrest, shot a sergeant dead with a +blunderbuss at Maidstone. + +In “The Smugglers’ Song” Mr. Rudyard Kipling has vividly reconstructed +those old times of dread, when, night and day, the numerous and +well-armed bodies of smugglers openly traversed the country, terrorising +every one. To look too curiously at these high-handed ruffians was, as +we have already seen, an offence, and the most cautious among the rustics +made quite sure of not incurring their high displeasure—and incidentally +of not being called upon by the revenue authorities as witnesses to the +identity of any among their number—by turning their faces the other way +when the free-traders passed. Mothers, too, were careful to bid their +little ones on the Marshland roads, or in the very streets of New Romney, +to turn their faces to the hedge-side, or to the wall, “when the +gentlemen went by.” And— + + If you wake at midnight, and hear a horse’s feet, + Don’t go drawing back the blind, or looking in the street; + Them that ask no questions isn’t told a lie, + Watch the wall, my darling, while the gentlemen go by. + + Five and twenty ponies + Trotting through the dark— + Brandy for the parson; + ’Baccy for the clerk; + Laces for a lady; letters for a spy, + + And watch the wall, my darling, while the gentlemen go by. + + [Picture: The cautious turned their faces away] + + + + +CHAPTER IV + + + THE “MURDERS BY SMUGGLERS” IN HAMPSHIRE + +THE most outstanding chapter in the whole history of smuggling is that of +the cold-blooded “Murders by Smugglers” which stained the annals of the +southern counties in the mid-eighteenth century with peculiarly revolting +deeds that have in them nothing of romance; nothing but a long-drawn +story of villainy and fiendish cruelty. It is a story that long made +dwellers in solitary situations shiver with apprehension, especially if +they owned relatives connected in any way with the hated customs +officers. + +This grim chapter of horrors, upon which the historian can dwell only +with loathing, and with pity for himself in being brought to the telling +of it, was the direct outcome of the lawless and almost unchecked doings +of the Hawkhurst Gang, whose daring grew continually with their +long-continued success in terrorising the countryside. + +The beginnings of this affair are found in an expedition entered upon by +a number of the gang in September 1747, in Guernsey, where they purchased +a considerable quantity of tea, for smuggling into this country. +Unfortunately for their enterprise, they fell in with a revenue cutter, +commanded by one Captain Johnson, who pursued and captured their vessel, +took it into the port of Poole, and lodged the tea in the custom-house +there. + +The smugglers were equally incensed and dismayed at this disaster, the +loss being a very heavy one; and they resolved, rather than submit to it, +to go in an armed force and recover the goods. Accordingly a mounted +body of them, to the number of sixty, well provided with firearms and +other weapons, assembled in what is described as “Charlton Forest,” +probably Chalton Downs, between Petersfield and Poole, and thence +proceeded on their desperate errand. Thirty of them, it was agreed, +should go to the attack, while the other thirty should take up positions +as scouts along the various roads, to watch for riding-officers, or for +any military force, and so alarm, or actively assist, if needs were, the +attacking party. + +It was in the midnight between October 6th and 7th that this advance +party reached Poole, broke open the custom-house on the quay, and removed +all the captured tea—thirty-seven hundredweight, valued at £500—except +one bag of about five pounds weight. They returned in the morning, in +leisurely fashion, through Fordingbridge; the affair apparently so public +that hundreds of people were assembled in the streets of that little town +to see these daring fellows pass. + + [Picture: . . breaking open the Customs House at Poole] + +Among these spectators was one Daniel Chater, a shoemaker, who recognised +among this cavalcade of smugglers a certain John Diamond, with whom he +had formerly worked in the harvest field. Diamond shook hands with him +as he passed, and threw him a bag of tea. + +It was not long before a proclamation was issued offering rewards for the +identification or apprehension of any persons concerned in this impudent +raid, and Diamond was in the meanwhile arrested on suspicion at +Chichester. Chater, who seems to have been a foolish, gossiping fellow, +saying he knew Diamond and saw him go by with the gang, became an object +of considerable interest to his neighbours at Fordingbridge, who, having +seen that present of a bag of tea—a very considerable present as the +price of tea then ran—no doubt thought he knew more of the affair than he +cared to tell. At any rate, these things came to the knowledge of the +Collector of Customs at Southampton, and the upshot of several interviews +and some correspondence with him was that Chater agreed to go in company +with one William Galley, an officer of excise, to Major Battin, a Justice +of the Peace and a Commissioner of Customs at Chichester, to be examined +as to his readiness and ability to identify Diamond, whose punishment, on +conviction, would be, under the savage laws of that time, death. + +Chater, in short, had offered himself as that detestable thing, a hired +informer: a creature all right-minded men abhor, and whom the smugglers +of that age visited, whenever found, with persecution and often with the +same extremity to which the law doomed themselves. + +The ill-fated pair set out on Sunday, February 14th, on horseback, and, +calling on their way at Havant, were directed by a friend of Chater’s at +that place to go by way of Stanstead, near Rowlands Castle. They soon, +however, missed their way, and calling at Leigh, at the “New Inn,” to +refresh and to inquire the road, met there three men, George and Thomas +Austin, and their brother-in-law, one Mr. Jenkes, who accompanied them to +Rowlands Castle, where they all drew rein at the “White Hart” +public-house, kept by a Mrs. Elizabeth Payne, a widow, who had two sons +in the village, blacksmiths, and both reputed smugglers. + +Some rum was called for, and was being drank, when Mrs. Payne, taking +George Austin aside, told him she was afraid these two strangers were +after no good; they had come, she suspected, with intent to do some +injury to the smugglers. Such was the state of the rural districts in +those times that the appearance of two strangers was of itself a cause +for distrust; but when, in addition, there was the damning fact that one +of them wore the uniform of a riding-officer of excise, suspicion became +almost a certainty. + +But to her remarks George Austin replied she need not be alarmed, the +strangers were only carrying a letter to Major Battin, on some ordinary +official business. + +This explanation, however, served only to increase her suspicions, for +what more likely than that this business with a man who was, among other +things, a highly placed customs official, was connected in some way with +these recent notorious happenings? + +To make sure, Mrs. Payne sent privately one of her sons, who was then in +the house, for William Jackson and William Carter, two men deeply +involved with smuggling, who lived near at hand. In the meanwhile Chater +and Galley wanted to be gone upon their journey, and asked for their +horses. Mrs. Payne, to keep them until Jackson and Carter should arrive, +told them the man who had the key of the stables was gone for a while, +but would return presently. + +As the unsuspecting men waited, gossiping and drinking, the two smugglers +entered. Mrs. Payne drew them aside and whispered her suspicions; at the +same time advising Mr. George Austin to go away, as she respected him, +and was unwilling that any harm should come to him. + +It is thus sufficiently clear that, even at this early stage, some very +serious mischief was contemplated. + +Mr. George Austin, being a prudent, if certainly not also an honest, man, +did as he was advised. Thomas Austin, his brother, who does not appear +to have in the same degree commanded the landlady’s respect, was not +warned, and remained, together with his brother-in-law. To have won the +reader’s respect also, she should, at the very least of it, have warned +them as well. But as this was obviously not a school of morals, we will +not labour the point, and will bid Mr. George Austin, with much relief, +“goodbye.” + +Mrs. Payne’s other son then entered, bringing with him four more +smugglers: William Steel, Samuel Downer, _alias_ Samuel Howard, _alias_ +“Little Sam,” Edmund Richards, and Henry Sheerman, _alias_ “Little +Harry.” + +After a while Jackson took Chater aside into the yard, and asked him +after Diamond; whereupon the simple-minded man let fall the object of his +and his companion’s journey. + +While they were talking, Galley, suspecting Chater would be in some way +indiscreet, came out and asked him to rejoin them; whereupon Jackson, +with a horrible oath, struck him a violent blow in the face, knocking him +down. + +Galley then rushed into the house, Jackson following him. “I am a King’s +officer,” exclaimed the unfortunate Galley, “and cannot put up with such +treatment.” + +“You a King’s officer!” replied Jackson, “I’ll make a King’s officer of +you; and for a quartern of gin I’ll serve you so again!” + +The others interposed, one of the Paynes exclaiming, “Don’t be such a +fool; do you know what you are doing?” + +Galley and Chater grew very uneasy, and again wanted to be going; but the +company present, including Jackson, pressed them to stay, Jackson +declaring he was sorry for what had passed. The entire party then sat +down to more drink, until Galley and Chater were overcome by drunkenness +and were sent to sleep in an adjoining room. Thomas Austin and Mr. +Jenkes were by this time also hopelessly drunk; but as they had no +concern with the smugglers, nor the smugglers with them, they drop out of +this narrative. + +When Galley and Chater lay in their drunken sleep the compromising +letters in their pockets were found and read, and the men present formed +themselves into a kind of committee to decide what should be done with +their enemies, as they thought them. John Race and Richard Kelly then +came in, and Jackson and Carter told them they had got the old rogue, the +shoemaker of Fordingbridge, who was going to give an information against +John Diamond the shepherd, then in custody at Chichester. + +They then consulted what was best to be done to their two prisoners, when +William Steel proposed to take them both to a well, a little way from the +house, and to murder them and throw them in. Less ferocious proposals +were made—to send them over to France; but when it became obvious that +they would return and give the evidence after all, the thoughts of the +seven men present reverted to murder. At this juncture the wives of +Jackson and Carter, who had entered the house, cried, “Hang the dogs, for +they came here to hang us!” + +Another proposition that was made—to imprison the two in some safe place +until they knew what would be Diamond’s fate, and for each of the +smugglers to subscribe threepence a week for their keep—was immediately +scouted; and instantly the brutal fury of these ruffians was aroused by +Jackson, who, going into the room where the unfortunate men were lying, +spurred them on their foreheads with the heavy spurs of his riding-boots, +and, having thus effectually wakened them, whipped them into the kitchen +of the inn until they were streaming with blood. Then, taking them +outside, the gang lifted them on to a horse, one behind the other, and, +tying their hands and legs together, lashed them with heavy whips along +the road, crying, “Whip them, cut them, slash them, damn them!” one of +their number, Edmund Richards, with cocked pistol in hand, swearing he +would shoot any person through the head who should mention anything of +what he saw or heard. + +From Rowlands Castle, past Wood Ashes, Goodthorpe Deane, and to Lady Holt +Park, this scourging was continued through the night, until the wretched +men were three parts dead. At two o’clock in the morning this gruesome +procession reached the Portsmouth Road at Rake, where the foremost +members of the party halted at what was then the “Red Lion” inn, long +since that time retired into private life, and now a humble cottage. It +was kept in those days by one Scardefield, who was no stranger to their +kind, nor unused to the purchase and storing of smuggled spirits. Here +they knocked and rattled at the door until Scardefield was obliged to get +out of bed and open to them. Galley, still alive, was thrust into an +outhouse, while the band, having roused the landlord and procured drink, +caroused in the parlour of the inn. Chater they carried in with them; +and when Scardefield stood horrified at seeing so ghastly a figure of a +man, all bruised and broken, and spattered with blood, they told him a +specious tale of an engagement they had had with the King’s officers: +that here was a comrade, wounded, and another, dead or dying, in his +brew-house. + + [Picture: The “Red Lion,” Rake] + +Chater they presently carried to an outhouse of the cottage of a man +named Mills, not far off, and then returned for more drink and discussion +of what was to be done with Galley, whom they decided to bury in Harting +Combe. So, while it was yet dark, they carried him down from the ridge +on which Rake stands, into the valley, and, digging a grave in a +fox-earth by the light of a lantern, shovelled the dirt over him, without +inquiring too closely whether their victim were alive or dead. That he +was not dead at that time became evident when his body was discovered +eight months later, hands raised to his face, as though to prevent the +earth from suffocating him. + +The whole of the next day this evil company sat drinking in the “Red +Lion.” Richard Mills, son of the man in whose turf-shed Chater lay +chained by the leg, passing by, they hailed him and told him of what they +had done; whereupon he said he would, if he had had the doing of it, have +flung the man down Harting Combe headlong and broken his neck. + +On this Monday night they all returned home, lest their continued absence +might be remarked by the neighbours; agreeing to meet again at Rake on +the Wednesday evening, to consider how they might best put an end to +Chater. + +When Wednesday night had come this council of murderers, reinforced by +others, and numbering in all fourteen, assembled accordingly. Dropping +into the “Red Lion” one by one, it was late at night before they had all +gathered. + +They decided, after some argument, to dispatch him forthwith, and, going +down to the turf-shed where he had lain all this while, suffering agonies +from the cruel usage to which he had been subjected, they unchained him. +Richard Mills at first had proposed to finish him there. “Let us,” said +he, “load a gun with two or three bullets, lay it upon a stand with the +muzzle of the piece levelled at his head, and, after having tied a long +string to the trigger, we will all go off to the butt-end, and, each of +us taking hold of the string, pull it all together; thus we shall be all +equally guilty of his death, and it will be impossible for any one of us +to charge the rest with his murder, without accusing himself of the same +crime; and none can pretend to lessen or to mitigate his guilt by saying +he was only an accessory, since all will be principals.” + + [Picture: Chater being kicked and cut] + +Thus Richard Mills, according to the story of these things told in horrid +detail (together with a full report of the subsequent trial) by the +author of the contemporary “Genuine History.” The phraseology of the +man’s coldly logical proposals is, of course, that of the author himself; +since it is not possible that a Sussex rustic of over a hundred and sixty +years ago would have spoken in literary English. + +Mills’s proposition was not accepted. It seemed to the others too +merciful and expeditious a method of putting an end to Chater’s misery. +They had grown as epicurean in torture as the mediæval hell-hounds who +racked and pinched and burnt for Church and State. They were resolved he +should suffer as much and as long as they could eke out his life, as a +warning to all other informers. + +The proposal that found most favour was that they should take him to +Harris’s Well, in Lady Holt Park, and throw him in. + +Tapner, one of the recruits to the gang, thereupon inaugurated the new +series of torments by pulling out a large clasp-knife, and, with a +fearful oath, exclaiming, “Down on your knees and go to prayers, for with +this knife I will be your butcher.” + +Chater, expecting every moment to be his last, knelt down as he was +ordered, and, while he was thus praying, Cobby kicked him from behind, +while Tapner in front slashed his face. + +The elder Mills, owner of the turf-shed, at this grew alarmed for his own +safety. “Take him away,” he said, “and do not murder him here. Do it +somewhere else.” + +They then mounted him on a horse and set out for Lady Holt Park; Tapner, +more cruel, if possible, than the rest, slashing him with his knife, and +whipping him with his whip, all the way. + +It was dead of night by the time they had come to the Park, where there +was a deep dry well. A wooden fence stretched across the track leading +to it, and over this, although it was in places broken and could easily +have been crawled through, they made their victim climb. Tapner then +pulled a rope out of his pocket and tied it round Chater’s neck, and so +pushed him over the opening of the well, where he hung, slowly +strangling. + +But by this time they were anxious to get home, and could afford no more +time for these luxuries of cruelty, so they dropped him to the bottom of +the well, imagining he would be quite killed by the fall. Unfortunately +for Chater, he was remarkably tenacious of life, and was heard groaning +there, where he had fallen. + +They dared not leave him thus, lest any one passing should hear his +cries, and went and roused a gardener, one William Combleach, who lived a +little way off, and borrowed a ladder, telling him one of their +companions had fallen into Harris’s Well. With this ladder they intended +to descend the well and finally dispatch Chater; but, seeing they could +not manage to lower the ladder, they were reduced to finding some huge +stones and two great gateposts, which they then flung down, and so ended +the unhappy man’s martyrdom. + +The problem that next faced the murderers was, how to dispose of the two +horses their victims had been riding. It was first proposed to put them +aboard the next smuggling vessel returning to France, but that idea was +abandoned, on account of the risk of discovery. It was finally decided +to slaughter them and remove their skins, and this was accordingly done +to the grey that Galley had ridden, and his hide cut up into small pieces +and buried; but, when they came to look for the bay that Chater had used, +they could not find him. + + + + +CHAPTER V + + + THE “MURDERS BY SMUGGLERS” _continued_—TRIAL AND EXECUTION OF THE + MURDERERS—FURTHER CRIMES BY THE HAWKHURST GANG + +EVEN in those times two men, and especially men who had set out upon +official business, could not disappear so utterly as Chater and Galley +had done without comment being aroused, and presently the whole country +was ringing with the news of this mysterious disappearance. The +condition of the country can at once be guessed when it is stated that no +one doubted the hands of the smugglers in this business. The only +question was, in what manner had they spirited these two men away? Some +thought they had been carried over to France, while others thought, +shrewdly enough, they had been murdered. + +But no tidings nor any trace of either Galley or Chater came to satisfy +public curiosity, or to allay official apprehensions, until some seven +months later, when an anonymous letter sent to “a person of distinction,” +and probably inspired by the hope of ultimately earning the large reward +offered by the Government for information, hinted that “the body of one +of the unfortunate men mentioned in his Majesty’s proclamation was buried +in the sands in a certain place near Rake.” And, sure enough, when +search was made, the body of Galley was found “standing almost upright, +with his hands covering his eyes.” + +Another letter followed upon this discovery, implicating William Steel in +these doings, and he was immediately arrested. To save himself, the +prisoner turned King’s evidence, and revealed the whole dreadful story. +John Race, among the others concerned, voluntarily surrendered, and was +also admitted as evidence. + +One after another, seven of the murderers were arrested in different +parts of the counties of Hants and Surrey, and were committed to the +gaols of Horsham and Newgate, afterwards being sent to Chichester, where +a special Assize was held for the purpose of overawing the smugglers of +the district, and of impressing them with the majesty and the power of +the law, which, it was desired to show them, would eventually overtake +all evil-doers. + +We need not enter into the details of that trial, held on January 18th, +1749, and reported with painful elaboration by the author of the “Genuine +History,” together with the sermon preached in Chichester Cathedral by +Dean Ashburnham, who held forth in the obvious and conventional way of +comfortably beneficed clergy, then and now. + +Let it be sufficient to say that all were found guilty, and all sentenced +to be hanged on the following day. + +Six of them were duly executed, William Jackson, the seventh, dying in +gaol. He had been for a considerable time in ill health. He was a Roman +Catholic and the greatest villain of the gang, and, like all such, +steeped in superstition. Carefully sewed up in a linen purse in his +waistcoat pocket was found an amulet in French, which, translated, ran as +follows: + + Ye three Holy Kings, + Gaspar, Melchior, Balthasar, + Pray for us now, and in the hour of death. + + These papers have touched the three heads of the Holy Kings at + Cologne. + + They are to preserve travellers from accidents on the road, + headaches, falling sickness, fevers, witchcraft, all kinds of + mischief, and sudden death. + +His body was thrown into a pit on the Broyle, at Chichester, together +with those of Richard Mills, the elder, and younger. The body of William +Carter was hanged in chains upon the Portsmouth road, near Rake; that of +Benjamin Tapner on Rook’s Hill, near Chichester, and those of John Cobby +and John Hammond upon the sea-coast near Selsea Bill, so that they might +be seen for great distances by any contrabandists engaged in running +goods. + +Another accomplice, Henry Shurman, or Sheerman, _alias_ “Little Harry,” +was indicted and tried at East Grinstead, and, being sentenced to death, +was conveyed to Horsham Gaol by a strong guard of soldiers and hanged at +Rake, and afterwards gibbeted. + +In January 1749, a brutal murder was committed at the “Dog and Partridge” +inn, on Slindon Common, near Arundel, where Richard Hawkins was whipped +and kicked to death on suspicion of being concerned in stealing two bags +of tea, belonging to one Jerry Curtis. Hawkins was enticed away from his +work at Walberton, on some specious pretext, by Curtis and John Mills, +known as “Smoker,” and went on horseback behind Mills to the “Dog and +Partridge,” where they joined a man named Robb: all these men being +well-known smugglers in that district. Having safely got Hawkins thus +far, they informed him that he was their prisoner, and proceeded to put +him under examination in the parlour of the inn. There were also present +Thomas Winter (afterwards a witness for the prosecution), and James +Reynolds, the innkeeper. + +Hawkins denied having stolen the tea, and said he knew nothing of the +matter, whereupon Curtis replied, “Damn you; you do know, and if you do +not confess I will whip you till you do; for, damn you, I have whipped +many a rogue and washed my hands in his blood.” + +Reynolds said, “Dick, you had better confess; it will be better for you.” +But his answer still was, “I know nothing of it.” + +Reynolds then went out, and Mills and Robb thereupon beat and kicked +Hawkins so ferociously that he cried out that the Cockrels, his +father-in-law, and brother-in-law, who kept an inn at Yapton, were +concerned in it. Curtis and Mills then took their horses and said they +would go and fetch them. Going to the younger Cockrel, Mills entered the +house first and called for some ale. Then Curtis came in and demanded +his two bags of tea, which he said Hawkins had accused him of having. +Cockrel denied having them, and then Curtis beat him with an oak stick +until he was tired. Curtis and Mills then forcibly took him to where his +father was, at Walberton, and thence, with his father, behind them on +their horses, towards Slindon. + +Meanwhile, at the “Dog and Partridge,” Robb and Winter placed the +terribly injured man, Hawkins, in a chair by the fire, where he died. + +Robb and Winter then took their own horses and rode out towards Yapton, +meeting Curtis and Mills on the way, each with a man behind him. The +men, who were the Cockrels, were told to get off, which they did, and the +four others held a whispered conversation, when Winter told them that +Hawkins was dead, and desired them to do no more mischief. + +“By God!” exclaimed Curtis, “we will go through it now.” Winter again +urged them to be content with what had already been done; and Curtis then +bade the two Cockrels return home. + +Then they all four rode back to the “Dog and Partridge,” where Reynolds +was in despair, saying to Curtis, “You have ruined me.” + + [Picture: The whipping of Richard Rowland] + +Curtis replied that he would make him amends; and they all then consulted +how to dispose of the body. The first proposition was to bury it in a +park close at hand, and to give out that the smugglers had deported +Hawkins to France. But Reynolds objected. The spot, he said, was too +near, and would soon be found. In the end, they laid the body on a horse +and carried it to Parham Park, twelve miles away, where they tied large +stones to it, and sunk it in a pond. + +This crime was in due course discovered, and a proclamation issued, +offering a pardon to any one, not himself concerned in the murder, nor in +the breaking open of the custom-house at Poole, who should give +information that would lead to the capture and conviction of the +offenders. + +William Pring, an outlawed smuggler, who had heard some gossip of this +affair among his smuggling acquaintance, and was apparently wishful of +beginning a new life, determined to make a bid for his pardon for past +offences, and, we are told, “applied to a great man in power,” informing +him that he knew Mills, and that if he could be assured of his pardon he +would endeavour to take him, for he was pretty certain to find him either +at Bristol or Bath, whither he knew he was gone, to sell some run goods. + +Being assured of his pardon, he set out accordingly, and found not only +Mills, but two brothers, Lawrence and Thomas Kemp, themselves smugglers +and highway robbers, and wanted for various offences; Thomas Kemp being +additionally in request for having broken out of Newgate. + +The informer, Pring, artfully talking matters over with these three, and +observing that the cases of all of them were desperate, offered the +advice that they should all accompany him towards London, to his house at +Beckenham, where they would decide upon some plan for taking to highway +robbery and house-breaking, in the same manner as Gregory’s Gang {66} +used to do. + +This they all heartily agreed to, and confidentially, on the journey up +to Beckenham, spoke and bragged of their various crimes. + +Arrived at Beckenham, Pring made a plausible excuse to leave them awhile +at his house, while he fetched his mare, in exchange for the very +indifferent horse he had ridden. It would never do, he said, when on +their highway business, for one of the company to be badly horsed. + +He left the house and rode hurriedly to Horsham, whence he returned with +eight or nine mounted officers of excise. They arrived at midnight, and +found his three guests sitting down to supper. + +The two Kemps were easily secured, and tied by the arms; but Mills would +not so readily submit, and was slashed with a sword before he would give +in. + + [Picture: The “Dog and Partridge,” Slindon Common] + +John Mills was a son of Richard Mills, and a brother of Richard Mills the +younger, executed at Chichester for the murder of Chater and Galley, as +already detailed, and he also had taken part in that business. Brought +to trial at East Grinstead, he said he had indeed been a very wicked +liver, but he bitterly complained of such of the witnesses against him as +had been smugglers and had turned King’s evidence. They had, he +declared, acted contrary from the solemn oaths and engagements they had +made and sworn to among themselves, and he therefore wished they might +all come to the same end, and be hanged like him and damned afterwards. + +He was found guilty and duly sentenced to death, and was hanged and +afterwards hung in chains on a gibbet erected for the purpose on Slindon +Common, near the “Dog and Partridge.” + +Curtis, an active partner in the same murder, fled the country, and was +said to have enlisted in the Irish Brigade of the French Army. Robb was +not taken, and Reynolds was acquitted of the murder. He and his wife +were tried at the next Assizes, as accessories after the fact. + +The “Dog and Partridge” has long ceased to be an inn, but the house +survives, a good deal altered, as a cottage. In the garden may be seen a +very capacious cellar, excavated out of the soil and sandstone, and very +much larger than a small country inn could have ever required for +ordinary business purposes. It is known as the “Smugglers’ Cellar.” + +At the same sessions at which these bloodstained scoundrels were +convicted a further body of five men, Lawrence and Thomas Kemp, John +Brown, Robert Fuller, and Richard Savage, were all tried on charges of +highway robbery, of housebreaking, and of stealing goods from a wagon. +They were all members of the notorious Hawkhurst Gang, and had been +smugglers for many years. All were found guilty and sentenced to death, +except Savage, who was awarded transportation for life. The rest were +executed at Horsham on April 1st, 1749. One of them had at least once +already come near to being capitally convicted, but had been rescued from +Newgate by a party of fellow-smugglers before justice could complete her +processes. + +These rescuers were in their turn arrested on other charges, and brought +to trial at Rochester Assizes, with other malefactors, in March 1750. +They were four notorious smugglers, Stephen Diprose, James Bartlett, +Thomas Potter, and William Priggs, who were all executed on Penenden +Heath, on March 30th. + +Bartlett, pressed to declare, after sentence, if he had been concerned in +any murders, particularly in that of Mr. Castle, an excise officer who +had been shot on Selhurst Common by a gang of smugglers, would not give a +positive answer, and it was therefore supposed he was concerned in it. + +Potter described some of the doings of the gang, and told how, fully +armed, they would roam the country districts at night, disguised, with +blackened faces, and appear at lonely houses, where they would seize and +bind the people they found, and then proceed to plunder at their leisure. + +In the short interval that in those days was allowed between sentence and +execution Potter was very communicative, and disclosed a long career of +crime; but he declared that murder had never been committed by him. He +had, it was true, proposed to murder the turnkey at Newgate at the time +when he and his companions rescued their friends languishing in that +doleful hold: but it had not, after all, been found necessary. + +This, it will be conceded, was sufficiently frank and open. The official +account of that rescue was that Thomas Potter and three other smugglers +came into the press-yard at Newgate to visit two prisoners, Thomas Kemp +and William Grey, also of the Hawkhurst Gang, when they agreed at all +hazards to assist in getting them out. Accordingly the time was fixed +(Kemp having no irons, and Grey having his so managed as to be able to +let them fall off when he pleased), and Potter and the other three went +again to the press-yard and rang the bell for the turnkey to come and let +them in. When he came and unlocked the door Potter immediately knocked +him down with a horse-pistol, and cut him terribly; and Kemp and Grey +made their escape, while Potter and his companions got clear away without +being discovered. Three other prisoners at the same time broke loose, +but were immediately recaptured, having irons on. + +All these men were, in fact, originally smugglers, and had, from being +marked down as criminals for that offence, and from being “wanted” by the +law, found themselves obliged to keep in hiding from their homes. In +default of being able to take part in other runs of smuggled goods, and +finding themselves unable to get employment, they were driven to other, +and more serious, crimes. + +On April 4th of the same year four other members of the terrible +Hawkhurst Gang—Kingsmill, Fairall, Perrin, and Glover by name—were +together brought to trial at the Old Bailey, charged with being concerned +in the Poole affair, the breaking open of the custom-house, and the +stealing of goods therefrom. They had been betrayed to the Government by +the same two ex-smugglers who had turned King’s evidence at the +Chichester trial, and their evidence again secured a conviction. Glover, +recommended by the jury to the royal mercy, was eventually pardoned; but +the remaining three were hanged. Fairall behaved most insolently at the +trial, and even threatened one of the witnesses. Glover displayed +penitence; and Kingsmill and Perrin insisted that they had not been +guilty of any robbery, because the goods they had taken were their own. + +Kingsmill had been leader in the ferocious attack on Goudhurst in April +1747, and was an extremely dangerous ruffian, ready for any extremity. + +Fairall was proved to be a particularly desperate fellow. Two years +earlier he had been apprehended, as a smuggler, in Sussex, and, being +brought before Mr. Butler, a magistrate, at Lewes, was remitted by him +for trial in London. + +Brought under escort overnight to the New Prison in the Borough, Fairall +found means to make a dash from the custody of his guards, and, leaping +upon a horse that was standing in Blackman Street, rode away and escaped, +within sight of numerous people. + +Returning to the gang, who were reasonably surprised at his safe return +from the jaws of death, he was filled with an unreasoning hatred of Mr. +Butler, the justice who, in the ordinary course of his duty, had +committed him. He proposed a complete and terrible revenge: firstly, by +destroying all the deer in his park, and all his trees, which was readily +agreed to by the gang; and then, since those measures were not extreme +enough for them, the idea was discussed of setting fire to his house and +burning him alive in it. Some of the conspirators, however, thought this +too extreme a step, and they parted without coming to any decision. +Fairall, Kingsmill, and others, however, determined not to be baulked, +then each procured a brace of pistols, and waited for the magistrate, +near his own park wall, to shoot him when he returned home that night +from a journey to Horsham. + +Fortunately for him, some accident kept him from returning, and the party +of would-be assassins, tired of waiting, at last said to one another, +“Damn him, he will not come home to-night! Let us be gone about our +business.” They then dispersed, swearing they would watch for a month +together, but they would have him; and that they would make an example of +all who should dare to obstruct them. + +Perrin’s body was directed to be given to his friends, instead of being +hanged in chains, and he was pitying the misfortunes of his two +companions, who were not only, like himself, to be hanged, but whose +bodies were afterwards to be gibbeted, when Fairall said, “_We_ shall be +hanging up in the sweet air when _you_ are rotting in your grave.” + +Fairall kept a bold front to the very last. The night before the +execution, he smoked continually with his friends, until ordered by the +warder to go to his cell; when he exclaimed, “Why in such a hurry? +Cannot you let me stay a little longer with my friends? I shall not be +able to drink with them to-morrow night.” + +But perhaps there was more self-pity in those apparently careless words +and in that indifferent demeanour than those thought who heard them. + +Kingsmill was but twenty-eight years of age, and Fairall twenty-five, at +the time of their execution, which took place at Tyburn on April 26th, +1749. Fairall’s body was hanged in chains on Horsenden Green, and that +of Kingsmill on Goudhurst Gore, appropriately near the frighted village +whose inhabitants he had promised the vengeance of himself and his +reckless band. + +When G. P. R. James wrote his romance, “The Smuggler,” about the middle +of the nineteenth century, reminiscences of the smuggling age were yet +fresh, and many an one who had passed his youth and middle age in the art +was still in a hale and hearty eld, ready to tell wonderful stories of +bygone years. James therefore heard at first hand all the ins and outs +of this shy business; and although his story deals with the exploits of +the Ransley Gang (whom he styles “Ramley”) of a much earlier period, the +circumstances of smuggling, and the conditions prevailing in Kent and +Sussex, remained much the same in the experiences of the elderly +ex-smugglers he met. What he has to say is therefore of more than common +value. + +Scarcely any one of the maritime counties, he tells us, was without its +gang of smugglers; for if France was not opposite, Holland was not far +off; and if brandy was not the object, nor silk, nor wine, yet tea and +cinnamon, and hollands, and various East India goods, were duly estimated +by the British public, especially when they could be obtained without the +payment of custom-house dues. + +As there are land-sharks and water-sharks, so there were land-smugglers +and water-smugglers. The latter brought the objects of their commerce +either from foreign countries or from foreign vessels, and landed them on +the coast—and a bold, daring, reckless body of men they were; the former, +in gangs, consisting frequently of many hundreds, generally well-mounted +and armed, conveyed the commodities so landed into the interior and +distributed them to others, who retailed them as occasion required. Nor +were these gentry one whit less fearless, enterprising, and lawless than +their brethren of the sea. + +The ramifications of this vast and magnificent league extended themselves +to almost every class of society. Each tradesman smuggled, or dealt in +smuggled goods; each public-house was supported by smugglers, and gave +them in return every facility possible; each country gentleman on the +coast dabbled a little in the interesting traffic; almost every +magistrate shared in the proceeds, or partook of the commodities. +Scarcely a house but had its place of concealment, which would +accommodate either kegs or bales, or human beings, as the case might be; +and many streets in seaport towns had private passages from one house to +another, so that the gentleman inquired for by the officers at No. 1 was +often walking quietly out of No. 20, while they were searching for him in +vain. The back of one street had always excellent means of communication +with the front of another, and the gardens gave exit to the country with +as little delay as possible. + +Of all counties, however, the most favoured by nature and art for the +very pleasant and exciting sport of smuggling was the county of Kent. +Its geographical position, its local features, its variety of coast, all +afforded it the greatest advantages, and the daring character of the +natives on the shores of the Channel was sure to turn those advantages to +the purposes in question. Sussex, indeed, was not without its share of +facilities, nor did the Sussex men fail to improve them; but they were so +much farther off from the opposite coast that the chief commerce—the +regular trade—was not in any degree at Hastings, Rye, or Winchelsea to be +compared with that carried on from the North Foreland to Romney Hoy. At +one time the fine level of the Marsh, a dark night, and a fair wind, +afforded a delightful opportunity for landing a cargo and carrying it +rapidly into the interior; at another, Sandwich Flats and Pevensey Bay +presented harbours of refuge and places of repose for kegs innumerable +and bales of great value; at another, the cliffs round Folkestone and +near the South Foreland saw spirits travelling up by paths which seemed +inaccessible to mortal foot; and at another, the wild and broken ground +at the back of Sandgate was traversed by long trains of horses, escorting +or carrying every description of contraband articles. + +The interior of the county was not less favourable to the traffic than +the coast: large masses of wood, numerous gentlemen’s parks, hills and +dales tossed about in wild confusion; roads such as nothing but horses +could travel, or men on foot, often constructed with felled trees or +broad stones laid side by side; wide tracts of ground, partly copse and +partly moor, called in that county “minnises,” and a long extent of the +Weald of Kent, through which no highway existed, and where such a thing +as coach or carriage was never seen, offered the land-smugglers +opportunities of carrying on their transactions with a degree of secrecy +and safety no other county afforded. Their numbers, too, were so great, +their boldness and violence so notorious, their powers of injuring or +annoying so various, that even those who took no part in their operations +were glad to connive at their proceedings, and at times to aid in +concealing their persons or their goods. Not a park, not a wood, not a +barn, that did not at some period afford them a refuge when pursued, or +become a depository for their commodities, and many a man, on visiting +his stables or his cart-shed early in the morning, found it tenanted by +anything but horses or wagons. The churchyards were frequently crowded +at night by other spirits than those of the dead, and not even the church +was exempted from such visitations. + +None of the people of the county took notice of, or opposed these +proceedings. The peasantry laughed at, or aided, and very often got a +good day’s work, or, at all events, a jug of genuine hollands, from the +friendly smugglers; the clerk and the sexton willingly aided and abetted, +and opened the door of vault, or vestry, or church for the reception of +the passing goods; the clergyman shut his eyes if he saw tubs or jars in +his way; and it is remarkable what good brandy-punch was generally to be +found at the house of the village pastor. The magistrates of the county, +when called upon to aid in pursuit of the smugglers, looked grave and +swore in constables very slowly, dispatched servants on horseback to see +what was going on, and ordered the steward or the butler to “send the +sheep to the wood”: an intimation not lost upon those for whom it was +intended. The magistrates and officers of seaport towns were in general +so deeply implicated in the trade themselves that smuggling had a fairer +chance than the law, in any case that came before them; and never was a +more hopeless enterprise undertaken, in ordinary circumstances, than that +of convicting a smuggler, unless captured _in flagrante delicto_. + + [Picture: “For our Parson”] + + + + +CHAPTER VI + + + OUTRAGE AT HASTINGS BY THE RUXLEY GANG—BATTLE ON THE + WHITSTABLE-CANTERBURY ROAD—CHURCH-TOWERS AS SMUGGLERS’ CELLARS—THE + DRUMMER OF HERSTMONCEUX—EPITAPH AT TANDRIDGE—DEPLORABLE AFFAIR AT + HASTINGS—THE INCIDENT OF “THE FOUR BROTHERS” + +SUSSEX was again the scene of a barbarous incident, in 1768; and on this +occasion seafaring men were the malefactors. + +It is still an article of faith with the writers of guide-books who do +not make their own inquiries, and thus perpetuate obsolete things, that +to call a Hastings fisherman a “Chop-back” will rouse him to fury. But +when a modern visitor, primed with such romance as this, timidly +approaches one of these broad-shouldered and amply-paunched fisherfolk +and suggests “Chop-backs” as a subject of inquiry, I give you my word +they only look upon you with a puzzled expression, and don’t understand +in the least your meaning. + +But in an earlier generation this was a term of great offence to the +Hastingers. It arose, according to tradition, from the supposed descent +of these fisherfolk from the Norse rovers who used the axe, and cleaved +their enemies with them from skull to chine. But the true facts of the +case are laid to the account of some of the notorious Ruxley Gang, who in +1768 boarded a Dutch hoy, the _Three Sisters_, in mid-channel, on +pretence of trading, and chopped the master, Peter Bootes, down the back +with a hatchet. This horrid deed might never have come to light had not +these ruffians betrayed themselves by bragging to one another of their +cleverness, and dwelling upon the way in which the Dutchman wriggled when +they had slashed him on the backbone. + + [Picture: The Chop-Backs] + +The Government in November of that year sent a detachment of two hundred +Inniskilling Dragoons to Hastings, to arrest the men implicated, and a +man-o’-war and cutter lay off shore to receive them when they had been +taken prisoners. The soldiers had strict orders to keep their mission +secret, but the day after their arrival they were called out to arrest +rioters who had violently assaulted the Mayor, whom they suspected of +laying information against the murderers. The secret of the reason for +the soldiers’ coming had evidently in some manner leaked out. Several +arrests of rioters were made, and the men implicated in the outrage on +the Dutch boat were duly taken into custody. + +The whole affair was so closely interwoven with smuggling that it was by +many suspected that the men who had been seized were held for that +offence as well; and persons in the higher walks of the smuggling +business, namely, those who financed it, and those others who largely +purchased the goods, grew seriously alarmed for their own liberty. In +the panic that thus laid hold of the town a well-to-do shopkeeper +absconded altogether. + +Thirteen men were indicted in the Admiralty Court on October 30th, 1769, +for piracy and murder on the high seas; namely, Thomas Phillips, elder +and younger, William and George Phillips, Mark Chatfield, Robert Webb, +Thomas and Samuel Ailsbury, James and Richard Hyde, William Geary, +_alias_ Justice, _alias_ George Wood, Thomas Knight, and William Wenham, +and were capitally convicted. Of these, four, Thomas Ailsbury, William +Geary, William Wenham, and Richard Hyde, were hanged at Execution Dock, +November 27th. + +The next most outstanding incident, a bloody affray which occurred on +February 26th, 1780, belongs to Kent. + +As Mr. Joseph Nicholson, supervisor of excise, was removing to Canterbury +a large seizure of geneva he had made at Whitstable, a numerous body of +smugglers followed him and his escort of a corporal and eight troopers of +the 4th Dragoons. Fifty of the smugglers had firearms, and, coming up +with the escort, opened fire without warning or demanding their goods. +Two Dragoons were killed on the spot, and two others dangerously wounded. +The smugglers then loaded up the goods and disappeared. A reward of £100 +was at once offered by the Commissioners of Excise, with a pardon, for +informers; and Lieutenant-Colonel Hugonin, of the 4th Dragoons, offered +another £50. John Knight, of Whitstable, was shortly afterwards +arrested, on information received, and was tried and convicted at +Maidstone Assizes. He was hanged on Penenden Heath and his body +afterwards gibbeted on Borstal Hill, the spot where the attack had been +made. + +The south held unquestioned pre-eminence, as long as smuggling activities +lasted, and the records of bloodshed and hard-fought encounters are +fullest along the coasts of Kent and Sussex. Sometimes, but not often, +they are varied by a touch of humour. + +The convenience afforded by churches for the storing of smuggled goods is +a commonplace of the history of smuggling; and there is scarce a seaboard +church of which some like tale is not told, while not a few inland +church-towers and churchyards enjoy the same reputation. Asked to +account for this almost universal choice of a hiding-place by the +smugglers, a parish clerk of that age supposed, truly enough, that it was +because no one was ever likely to go near a church, except on Sundays. +This casts an instructive side-light upon the Church of England and +religion at any time from two hundred to seventy or eighty years ago. + +But a tale of more than common humour was told of the old church at Hove, +near Brighton, many years ago. It seems that this ancient building had +been greatly injured by fire in the middle of the seventeenth century, +but that the population was so small and so little disposed to increase +that a mere patching up of the ruins was sufficient for local needs. +Moreover, the spiritual needs of the place were considered to be so small +that Hove and Preston parishes were ecclesiastically united, and were +served by one clergyman, who conducted service at each parish church on +alternate Sundays. At a later period, indeed, Hove church was used only +once in six weeks. + +But in the alternate Sunday period the smugglers of this then lonely +shore found the half-ruined church of Hove peculiarly useful for their +trade; hence the following story. + +One “Hove Sunday” the vicar, duly robed, appeared here to take the duty, +and found, greatly to his surprise, that no bell was ringing to call the +faithful to worship. “Why is the bell not ringing?” demanded the vicar. + +“Preston Sunday, sir,” returned the sexton shortly. + +“No, no,” replied the vicar. + +“Indeed, then, sir, ’tis.” + +But the vicar was not to be argued out of his own plain conviction that +he had taken Preston last Sunday, and desired the sexton to start the +bell-ringing at once. + +“’Taint no good, then, sir,” said the sexton, beaten back into his last +ditch of defence; “you can’t preach to-day.” + + [Picture: The Drummer of Herstmonceux] + +“_Can’t_, fellow?” angrily responded the vicar; “what do you mean by +‘can’t’?” + +“Well, then, sir,” said the sexton, “if you must know, the church is full +of tubs, and the pulpit’s full of tea.” + +An especially impudent smuggling incident was reported from Hove on +Sunday, October 16th, 1819, in the following words: + +“A suspected smuggling boat being seen off Hove by some of the +custom-house officers, they, with two of the crew of the _Hound_ revenue +cutter, gave chase in a galley. On coming up with the boat their +suspicions were confirmed, and they at once boarded her; but while intent +on securing their prize, nine of the smugglers leapt into the _Hound’s_ +galley and escaped. Landing at Hove, seven of them got away at once, two +being taken prisoners by some officers who were waiting for them. Upon +this a large company of smugglers assembled, at once commenced a +desperate attack upon the officers, and, having overpowered them, +assaulted them with stones and large sticks, knocked them down, and cut +the belts of the chief officer’s arms, which they took away, and thereby +enabled the two prisoners to escape.” + +A reward of £200 was offered, but without result. The cargo of the +smugglers consisted of 225 tubs of gin, 52 tubs of brandy, and one bag of +tobacco. + +Many of the ghost-stories of a hundred years and more ago originated in +the smugglers’ midnight escapades. It was, of course, entirely to their +advantage that superstitious people who heard unaccountable sounds and +saw indescribable sights should go off with the notion that supernatural +beings were about, and resolve thenceforward to go those haunted ways no +more. The mysterious “ghostly drummer” of Herstmonceux, who was often +heard and seen by terrified rustics whose way led them past the ruined +castle at night, was a confederate of the Hastings and Eastbourne +smugglers, to whom those roofless walls and the hoary tombs of the +adjoining churchyard were valuable storehouses. Rubbed with a little +phosphorus, and parading those spots once in a way with his drum, they +soon became shunned. The tombstones in Herstmonceux churchyard, mostly +of the kind known as “altar-tombs,” had slabs which the smugglers easily +made to turn on swivels; and from them issued at times spirits indeed, +but not such as would frighten many men. The haunted character of +Herstmonceux ceased with the establishment of the coastguard in 1831, and +the drummer was heard to drum no more. + +The churchyards of the Sussex coast and its neighbourhood still bear +witness to the fatal affrays between excisemen and smugglers that marked +those times; and even far inland may be found epitaphs on those who fell, +breathing curses and Divine vengeance on the persons who brought them to +an untimely end. Thus at Tandridge, Surrey, near Godstone, may be seen a +tall tombstone beside the south porch of the church, to one Thomas +Todman, aged thirty-one years, who was shot dead in a smuggling affray in +1781. Here follow the lamentable verses, oddities of grammar, spelling, +and punctuation duly preserved: + + Thou Shall do no Murder, nor Shalt thou Steal + are the Commands Jehovah did Reveal + but thou O Wretch, Without fear or dread + of Thy Tremendous Maker Shot me dead + Amidst my strength my sins forgive + As I through Boundless Mercy + hope to live. + +The prudery of some conscientious objector to the word “wretch” has +caused it to be almost obliterated. + + [Picture: Tandridge church] + +At Patcham, near Brighton, the weatherworn epitaph on the north side of +the church to Daniel Scales may still with difficulty be deciphered: + + Sacred to the memory of DANIEL SCALES + who was unfortunately shot on Thursday evening, + November 7th 1796 + + Alas! swift flew the fatal lead, + Which piercèd through the young man’s head + He instant fell, resigned his breath, + And closed his languid eyes in death. + All you who do this stone draw near, + Oh! pray let fall the pitying tear. + From this sad instance may we all, + Prepare to meet Jehovah’s call. + +Daniel Scales was one of a desperate smuggling gang, who had had many +narrow escapes, but was at last shot through the head. + +Again, at Westfield, Sussex, not far from Rye, may be found an old stone, +rapidly going to decay, bearing some lines to the memory of a smuggler +named Moon: + + “In Memory of John Moon, who was deprived of life by a base man, on + the 20th of June 1809, in the 28th year of his age. + + ’Tis mine to-day to moulder in the earth. . . .” + +The rest is not now readable. + +Among the many tragical incidents of the smuggling era was the affray +aboard a fishing-smack off Hastings in March 1821, in which a fisherman +named Joseph Swain, supposed by the blockading officers of the preventive +force to be a smuggler, was killed. Fishing-boats and their crews were, +as a matter of course, searched by these officials; but the boat boarded +by them on this occasion belonged to Swain, who denied having any +contraband goods aboard and refused to permit the search. So strenuous a +refusal as Swain offered would seem, in those times, of itself sufficient +evidence of the presence of smuggled articles, and the boarders +persisted. A sailor among them, George England by name, pressed forward +to the attack, and Swain seized his cutlass and tore it out of his hand; +whereupon England drew a pistol and fired at Swain, who instantly fell +dead. + +An epitaph in the churchyard of All Saints, Hastings, bears witness to +this incident: + + [Picture: Tombstone at Tandridge] + + This Stone + Sacred to the memory of + JOSEPH SWAIN, Fisherman + was erected at the expence of + the members of the friendly + Society of Hastings + + in commiseration of his cruel and + untimely death and as a record of + the public indignation at the need- + lefs and sanguinary violence of + which he was the unoffending Victim + He was shot by Geo. England, one + of the Sailors employ’d in the Coast + blockade service in open day on the + 13th March 1821 and almost instantly + expir’d, in the twenty ninth Year of + his age, leaving a Widow and five + small children to lament his lofs. + +England was subsequently put on his trial for wilful murder at Horsham, +and was sentenced to death, but afterwards pardoned. + +In short, in one way and another, much good blood and a great quantity of +the most excellent spirits were spilt and let run to waste, along the +coasts. + +The affair of the _Badger_ revenue cutter and the _Vre Brodiers_, or +_Four Brothers_, smuggling lugger was the next exciting event. It +happened on January 13th, 1823, and attracted a great deal of attention +at the time, not only on account of the severe encounter at sea, but from +the subsequent trial of the crew of the smuggler. The _Four Brothers_ +was a Folkestone boat, and her crew of twenty-six were chiefly Folkestone +men. She was a considerable vessel, having once been a French privateer, +and was, as a privateer had need to be, a smart, easily handled craft, +capable of giving the go-by to most other vessels. She carried four +six-pound carronades. In constant commission, her crew pouched a pound a +week wages, with an additional ten guineas for each successful run. + +On January 12th, of this momentous voyage, she sailed from Flushing with +over one hundred tons of leaf-tobacco aboard, snugly packed for +convenience of carriage in bales of 60 lb., and carried also a small +consignment of brandy and gin, contained in 50 half-ankers, and 13 chests +of tea—all destined for the south of Ireland. Ship and cargo were worth +some £11,000; so it is sufficiently evident that her owners were in a +considerable way of business of the contraband kind. + +At daybreak on the morning of January 13th, when off Dieppe and sailing +very slowly, in a light wind, the crew of the _Four Brothers_ found +themselves almost upon what they at first took to be French +fishing-boats, and held unsuspiciously on her course. Suddenly, however, +one of them ran a flag smartly up her halliards and fired a gun across +the bows of the _Four Brothers_, as a signal to bring her to. It was the +revenue cutter _Badger_. + +Unfortunately for the smuggler, she was carrying a newly stepped +mainmast, and under small sail only, and accordingly, in disobeying the +summons and attempting to get away, she was speedily outsailed. + +The smuggler, unable to get away, hoisted the Dutch colours and opened +the fight that took place by firing upon the _Badger_, which immediately +returned it. For two hours this exchange of shots was maintained. Early +in the encounter William Cullum, seaman, was killed aboard the _Badger_, +and Lieutenant Nazer, in command, received a shot from a musket in the +left shoulder. One man of the _Four Brothers_ was killed outright, and +nine wounded, but the fight would have continued had not the _Badger_ +sailed into the starboard quarter of the smuggler, driving her bowsprit +clean through her adversary’s mainsail. Even then the smuggler’s crew +endeavoured to fire one of her guns, but failed. + +The commander of the _Badger_ thereupon called upon the _Four Brothers_ +to surrender; or, according to his own version, the smugglers themselves +called for quarter; and the mate and some of the cutter’s men went in a +boat and received their submission, and sent them prisoners aboard the +_Badger_. The smugglers claimed that they had surrendered only on +condition that they should have their boats and personal belongings and +be allowed to go ashore; but it seems scarce likely the Lieutenant could +have promised so much. The _Four Brothers_ was then taken into Dover +Harbour and her crew sent aboard the _Severn_ man-o’-war and kept in +irons in the cockpit. Three of her wounded died there. The others, +after a short interval, were again put aboard the _Badger_ and taken up +the Thames to imprisonment on the Tower tender for a further three or +four days. Thence they were removed, all handcuffed and chained, in a +barge and committed to the King’s Bench Prison. At Bow Street, on the +following day, they were all formally committed for trial, and then +remitted to the King’s Bench Prison for eleven weeks, before the case +came on. + +On Friday, April 25th, 1823, the twenty-two prisoners were arraigned in +the High Court of Admiralty; Marinel Krans, master of the _Four +Brothers_, and his crew, nearly all of whom bore Dutch names, being +charged with wilfully and feloniously firing on the revenue cutter +_Badger_, on January 13th, 1823, on the high seas, about eight miles off +Dungeness, within the jurisdiction of the High Court of Admiralty of +England. + +Mr. Brougham, afterwards Lord Brougham, defended, the defence being that +the _Four Brothers_ was a Dutch vessel, owned at Flushing, and her crew +Dutchmen. A great deal of very hard swearing went towards this ingenious +defence, for the crew, it is hardly necessary to say, were almost all +English. At least one witness for the prosecution was afraid to appear +in consequence of threats made by prisoners’ friends, and an affidavit +was put in to that effect. It appeared, in the evidence given by the +commander of the _Badger_ and other witnesses for the prosecution, that +the prisoners all spoke excellent English at the time of the capture, and +afterwards; but they, singularly enough, understood little or none when +in court, and had to be communicated with through the agency of an +interpreter. + +In summing up, Mr. Justice Parke said the crime for which the prisoners +were tried was not murder, but was a capital offence. Two things, if +found by the jury, would suffice to acquit the prisoners. The first was +that no part of the vessel which they navigated belonged to any subject +of His Majesty; the other that one half of the crew were not His +Majesty’s subjects. For if neither of these facts existed, His Majesty’s +ship had no right to fire at their vessel. But if the jury believed that +any part of the vessel was British property, or that one half of her crew +were British subjects, then His Majesty’s ship _Badger_, under the +circumstances that had been proved, being on her duty, and having her +proper colours flying, was justified in boarding their vessel; and their +making resistance by firing at the _Badger_ was a capital offence. The +reason for the evidence respecting the distance of the vessels from the +French coast being given was that, by the law of nations, ships of war +were not, in time of peace, permitted to molest any vessel within one +league of the coast of any other power. + +The jury, after deliberating for two hours, returned a verdict of “Not +Guilty” for all the prisoners, finding that the ship and cargo were +wholly foreign property, and that more than one half the crew were +foreigners. They were, accordingly, at once liberated, and returned to +Folkestone in midst of great popular rejoicings. The _Four Brothers_ was +also released, and the commander of the _Badger_ had the mortification of +being obliged to escort her out of Dover harbour. + +Dover town was, about this time, the scene of stirring events. One +Lieutenant Lilburn, in command of a revenue cutter, had captured a +smuggler, and had placed the crew in Dover gaol. As they had not offered +armed resistance to the capture, their offence was not capital, but they +were liable to service on board a man-o’-war—a fate they were most +anxious to avoid. These imprisoned men were largely natives of +Folkestone and Sandgate, and their relatives determined to march over the +ten miles between those places and Dover, and, if possible, liberate +them. When they arrived in Dover, and their intention became known, a +crowd of fisherfolk and longshore people swarmed out of the Dover +alley-ways and reinforced them. Prominent among them were the women, +who, as ever in cases of popular tumult, proved themselves the most +violent and destructive among the mob. Nothing less than the destruction +of the gaol was decided upon, and the more active spirits, leaving others +to batter in the walls, doors, and windows, climbed upon the roof, and +from that vantage-point showered bricks and tiles upon the Mayor and the +soldiers who had been called out. The Mayor, beset with tooth and claw +by screeching women, who tore the Riot Act out of his hand, fled, and +Lieutenant Lilburn exhorted the officer in charge of the military to fire +upon the crowd, but he declined; and meanwhile the tradespeople and +respectable inhabitants busied themselves in barricading their shops and +houses. + + [Picture: “Run the Rascals through!”] + +The prisoners were triumphantly liberated, taken to a blacksmith’s, where +their irons were knocked off, and then driven off in post chaises to +Folkestone, whence they dispersed to their several hiding-places. + +Romney was, about this time, the scene of another desperate affair, when +an attempted seizure of contraband brought all the smugglers’ friends and +relations out, in violent contest with the excise and a small party of +marines in command of which was one Lieutenant Peat. A magistrate was +sent for, who, amid a shower of stones, read the Riot Act. The +Lieutenant hesitated to resort to extreme force, but one of the smugglers +was eventually killed by him, in response to the magistrate’s order, in +respect of one of the most violent of the crowd: Secure your prisoner, +sir. Run the rascal through! + + + + +CHAPTER VII + + + FATAL AFFRAYS AND DARING ENCOUNTERS AT RYE, DYMCHURCH, EASTBOURNE, + BO-PEEP, AND FAIRLIGHT—THE SMUGGLERS’ ROUTE FROM SHOREHAM AND WORTHING + INTO SURREY—THE MILLER’S TOMB-LANGSTON HARBOUR—BEDHAMPTON MILL + +THE ’twenties of the nineteenth century formed a period especially rich +in smuggling incidents, or perhaps seem so to do, because, with the +growth of country newspapers, they were more fully reported, instead of +being left merely the subject of local legend. + +A desperate affray took place in Rye Harbour so late as May 1826, when a +ten-oared smuggling galley, chased by a revenue guard-boat, ran ashore. +The smugglers, abandoning their oars, opened fire upon the guard, but the +blockade-men from the watch-house at Camber then arrived upon the scene +and seized one of the smugglers; whereupon a gang of not fewer than two +hundred armed smugglers, who had until that moment been acting as a +concealed reserve, rushed violently from behind the sandhills, and +commenced firing on the blockade-men, killing one and wounding another. +They were, however, ultimately driven off, with the capture of their +galley, but managed to carry off their wounded. + +On another occasion, four or five smugglers were drowned whilst swimming +the Military Canal, with tubs slung on their backs, at a point on Pett +Level called “Pett Horse-race.” They had, in the dark, missed the spot +where it was fordable. Romney Marsh, and the wide-spreading levels of +Pett, Camber, Guilford, and Dunge Marsh had—as we have already seen, in +the account of the owlers given in earlier pages—ever been the smugglers’ +Alsatia. + +The Rev. Richard Harris Barham, author of the “Ingoldsby Legends,” has +placed upon record some of his meetings with smugglers in “this recondite +region,” as he was pleased to style it; and his son, in the life he wrote +of his father, adds to them. Barham, ordained in 1813, and given the +curacy of Westwell, near Ashford, had not long to wait before being +brought into touch with the lawless doings here. One of the desperate +smugglers of the Marsh had been shot through the body in an encounter +with the riding-officers, and fatally wounded. As he lay dying, Barham +was brought to convey to him the last consolations of religion, and was +startled when the smuggler declared there was no crime of which he had +not been guilty. + +“Murder is not to be reckoned among them, I hope,” exclaimed the not +easily shocked clergyman. + +“Too many of them!” was the startling response of the dying man. + +In 1817 Barham was collated by the Archbishop of Canterbury to the +adjoining livings of Warehorne and Snargate, the first-named situated on +the verge of the marsh; the second situated, moist and forbidding, in the +marsh itself. The winding road between these two villages crossed the +then newly made Royal Military Canal by a bridge. Often, as the +clergyman was returning, late at night, to his comfortable parsonage at +Warehorne, he was met and stopped by some mysterious horsemen; but when +he mentioned his name he was invariably allowed to proceed, and, as he +did so, a long and silent company of mounted smugglers defiled past, each +man with his led horse laden with tubs. The grey tower of Snargate +church he frequently found, by the aroma of tobacco it often exhaled, +instead of its customary and natural mustiness, to have been recently +used as a store for smuggled bales of that highly taxed article. + +The _Cinque Ports Herald_ of 1826 records the landing on a night in May, +or in the early hours of the morning, of a considerable cargo of +contraband hereabouts: + + “A large party of smugglers had assembled in the neighbourhood of + Dymchurch, and a boat laden (as is supposed) with tubs of spirits, + being observed to approach the shore nearly opposite to Dymchurch, + the smugglers instantly commenced cheering, and rushed upon the + coast, threatening defiance to the sentinels of the blockade; who, + perceiving such an overwhelming force, gave the alarm, when a party + of marines, coming to their assistance, a general firing took place. + The smugglers retreated into the marshes, followed by the + blockade-men, and, from their knowledge of the ground, were indebted + for their ultimate escape. We regret to state two of the blockade + seamen were wounded; one severely in the arm, which must cause + amputation, and the other in the face, by slug shots. There can be + no doubt but that some of the smugglers must have been wounded, if + not killed. One of their muskets was picked up loaded—abandoned, no + doubt, by the bearer of it, on account of wounds. The boat, with her + cargo, was obliged to put to sea again, without effecting a landing, + and, notwithstanding the vigilance of Lieutenants Westbrook, Mudge, + and McLeod, who were afloat in their galleys on the spot, from the + darkness of the night, effected its escape. We have also heard that + a run of five hundred tubs took place on the Sussex coast last week, + not far from Hastings, the smugglers losing only eleven tubs. This + was also effected by force, and with such a superiority in number + that they completely overpowered the blockade force.” + + [Picture: Barham meets the Smugglers] + +The _Brighton Gazette_, of a few days later, contained the following: + + “We have been favoured with some particulars of another recent + attempt to work contraband goods a few miles eastward of Eastbourne, + when it appears the coast blockade succeeded in taking a large boat + and upwards of two hundred tubs. We are sorry to add much mischief + has occurred, as on the following morning blood was observed near the + spot. Two men, it is said, belonging to the boat are taken + prisoners, and two of the blockade are reported to be much bruised + and beaten, and it is also suspected some of the smugglers are + seriously, if not mortally, wounded. The blockade in this instance + behaved in the most humane manner, having received a regular volley + from their opponents before their officers gave directions for them + to fire. We have just heard that five smugglers were killed in the + affray.” + +On a Sunday night towards the end of July 1826, during a run of smuggled +goods at Dover, the smugglers shot dead a seaman of the preventive force +named Morgan, for which no one was ever convicted. + +A determined and blood-stained struggle took place at Bo-Peep at midnight +of January 3rd, 1828. Bo-Peep was the name of a desolate spot situated +midway between Hastings and Bexhill. The place is the same as that +westernmost extension of St. Leonards now known by the eminently +respectable—not to say imposing—name of “West Marina”; but in those times +it was a shore, not indeed lonely (better for its reputation had it been +so) but marked by an evil-looking inn, to which were attached still more +evil-looking “Pleasure Gardens.” If throats were not, in fact, commonly +cut in those times at Bo-Beep, the inn and its deplorable “Pleasure +Gardens” certainly looked no fit, or safe, resort for any innocent young +man with a pocketful of money jingling as he walked. + + [Picture: A Landing at Bo-Peep] + +On this occasion a lugger came in view off shore, when a party of +smugglers armed, as usual, with “bats,” _i.e._ stout ash-poles, some six +feet in length, rushed to the beach, landed the cargo, and made off with +it, by various means, inland a distance of some three miles to Sidley +Green. Here the coast blockade-men, some forty in number, came up with +them. + +The smugglers drew up in regular line-formation, and a desperate fight +resulted. The smugglers fought with such determination and courage that +the blockade-men were repulsed and one, Quartermaster Collins, killed. +In the first volley fired by the blockade an old smuggler named Smithurst +was killed; his body was found next morning, with his “bat” still grasped +in his hands, the stout staff almost hacked to pieces by the cutlasses +and bayonets of the blockade-men. + +At the Spring Assizes held at Horsham, Spencer Whiteman, of Udimore, +Thomas Miller, Henry Miller, John Spray, Edward Shoesmith, William +Bennett, John Ford, and Stephen Stubberfield were indicted for +assembling, armed, for purposes of smuggling, and were removed for trial +to the Old Bailey, where, on April 10th, they all pleaded guilty; as did +Whiteman, Thomas Miller, Spray, Bennett, and Ford, together with Thomas +Maynard and William Plumb, for a like offence on January 23rd, 1828, at +Eastbourne. Sentence of death was passed on all, but was commuted to +transportation. With three exceptions, they were young men, under thirty +years of age. + +Again, in broad daylight, in 1828, a lugger landed a heavy cargo of kegs +on the open beach at Bo-Peep. No fewer than three hundred rustic +labourers, who had been hired by the job, in the usual course, by the +smugglers bold, assembled on the beach, and formed up two lines of guards +while the landing of the tubs, and their loading into carts, on horses, +or on men’s shoulders, was proceeding. If the preventive officers knew +anything of what was toward that busy day they did not, at any rate, +interfere; and small blame to them for the very elementary discretion +they displayed. They had, as already shown, been too seriously mauled at +an earlier date for them to push matters again to extremity. + +On January 3rd, 1831, in Fairlight Glen, two miles east of Hastings, two +smugglers, William Cruttenden and Joseph Harrod, were shot dead, and on +February 22nd, 1832, at Worthing, when between two and three hundred +smugglers had assembled on the beach, William Cowardson was shot dead, +and several others were carried away wounded. + +Still the tale was continued, for during a landing on January 23rd, 1833, +at Eastbourne, the smugglers, who had assembled in large numbers, killed +George Pett, chief boatman of the local preventive station, and ran their +cargo safely. Several of both sides were wounded on this occasion, but +no one among the smugglers was ever arrested. + +The last fatal happening in this way along the Sussex coast appears to +have been in the marshes at Camber Castle, on April 1st, 1838, when a +poor fiddler of Winchelsea, named Thomas Monk, was shot in the course of +a dispute over run goods, by the coastguard. + +But we may quite easily have a surfeit of these brutal affrays, and it is +better to dwell on a lighter note, to contemplate the audacity, and to +admire the ingenuity and the resource often displayed by the smugglers in +concealing their movements. + +To especially single out any particular line of coast for pre-eminence in +smuggling would be impossible. When every one smuggled, and every one +else—owing to that well-understood human foible of buying in the cheapest +market—supported smuggling by purchasing smuggled goods, every foreshore +that did not actually present physical difficulties, or that was not +exceptionally under excise and customs surveillance, was a free port, in +a very special signification. The thickly peopled coast-line of Kent, +Sussex, and Hampshire of our own time was then sparsely populated, and +those shores that are now but thinly settled were in that age the merest +aching wildernesses, where not only towns, but even villages and hamlets, +were few and far apart. A coast-line such as that at Brighton would seem +to us to present certain obvious difficulties to the smuggler, but close +at hand was the low-lying land of Shoreham, with its lagoon-like harbour, +a very shy, secretive kind of place, to this day; while away to Worthing, +and beyond it, stretched a waste of shingle-beach, running up to solitary +pasture-lands that reached to the foot of the noble rampart of the South +Downs. On these shores the free-traders landed their illegal imports +with little interference, and their shore-going allies received the goods +and took them inland, to London or to their intermediate storehouses in +the country-side, very much at their leisure. Avoiding the +much-travelled high-roads, and traversing the chalk-downs by unfrequented +bridle-tracks, they went across the level Weald and past the Surrey +border into that still lonely district running east and west for many +miles, on the line of Leith Hill, Ewhurst, and Hindhead. There, along +those wooded heights, whose solitary ways still astonish, with their +remote aspect, the Londoner who by any chance comes to them, although but +from thirty to thirty-five miles from the Bank of England in the City of +London, you may still track, amid the pine-trees on the shoulders of the +gorsy hills, or among the oaks that grow so luxuriantly in the Wealden +clay, the “soft roads,” as the country folk call them, along which the +smugglers, unmolested, carried their merchandise. On Ewhurst Hill stands +a windmill, to which in those times the smugglers’ ways converged; and +near by, boldly perched on a height, along the sylvan road that leads +from Shere to Ewhurst village, stood the “Windmill,” once the “New” inn, +which had a double roof, utilised as a storehouse for clandestine kegs. +A “Windmill” inn stands on the spot to-day, but it is a new building, the +old house having unfortunately been burned down some two years since. +Surveying the country from this spot, you have, on the one hand, almost +precipitous hill-peaks, gorsy to their summits, and on the other a lovely +dale, deeply embosomed in woods. The sub-soil here is a soft yellow +sandstone, streaked with white sand, breaking out along the often hollow +paths into miniature cliffs, in which the smugglers and their allies were +not slow to scoop caverns and store part of their stock. We have already +learnt how terrible these men could be to those who informed against them +or made away with any of their property, and by direct consequence the +goods thus stored were generally safe, either from the authorities or +from the rustics, who had a very wholesome and well-founded dread of the +smuggling bands. But they had a way of their own of letting these justly +dreaded folk see that their stores were evident to some, and that silence +was supposed to have a certain market value. Their way was just a +delicate hint, which consisted in marking a tub or two with a chalk +cross; and, sure enough, when the stock was removed, those chalk-marked +tubs were left behind, with possibly, if the country-folk had been modest +and the smugglers were generous, a few others to keep them company. + + [Picture: Smuggler’s tracks near Ewhurst] + +An old brick-and-tile-hung farm, down below Ewhurst Hill, older than it +looks, known as Barhatch, was in those times in possession of the Ticknor +family; and still, in what was the old living-room, may be seen the +inglenook, with its iron crane, marked “John Ticknor, 1755.” The +Barhatch woods were often used by smugglers, and the Ticknors never had +any occasion to purchase spirits, because, at not infrequent intervals, +when the household arose, and the front door was opened in the morning, a +keg would be found deposited on the steps: a complimentary keg, for the +use of the Ticknor property and the discretion of the Ticknor tongue. + +One of the choicest landing-places along the Sussex coast must +undoubtedly have been just westward of Worthing, by Goring, where the +shore is yet secluded, and is even now not readily come at by good roads. +In a line with it is Highdown Hill, a rounded hump of the Downs, rising +to a height of two hundred and ninety-nine feet, two miles inland; a spot +famed in all guidebook lore of this neighbourhood as the site of the +“Miller’s Tomb.” This miller, whose real business of grinding corn seems +to have been supplemented by participation in the stern joys of illegal +importation, was one John Olliver. His mill was situated on this +hill-top: a very remote spot, even now, arrived at only along lanes in +which mud and water plentifully await the explorer’s cautious foot, and +where brambles and intrudant twigs, currycomb his whiskers, if he have +such. + + [Picture: The Miller’s Tomb] + +John Olliver, miller, was an eighteenth-century eccentric, whose morbid +fancy for having his coffin made early in life, and wheeled under his bed +every night, was not satisfied until he had also built himself a tomb on +the hill-top, on a twelve-foot square plot of ground granted him by the +landowner, one W. W. Richardson, in 1766: a tomb on which he could with +satisfaction look every day. Yet he was not the dull, dispirited man one +might for these things suppose; and Pennant, in his _Tour in Sussex_, is +found saying, “I am told he is a stout, active, cheerful man.” And then +comes this significant passage. “Besides his proper trade he carries on +a very considerable one in smuggled goods.” Let us pause a moment to +reflect upon the impudent public manner in which John Olliver must have +carried on his smuggling activities. To this impudence he added also +figures on his house-top, representing a miller filling a sack and a +smuggler chased by an exciseman with a drawn sword; after the exciseman +coming a woman with a broom, belabouring him about the head. The tomb +the miller had built for eventual occupation by his body was in the +meanwhile generally occupied by spirits—not the spirits of the dead, but +such _eaux de vie_ as hollands and cognac; and he himself was not laid +here for many years, for he lived to be eighty-four years of age, and +died in 1793. He had long been widely known as an eccentric, and +thousands came to his funeral on the unconsecrated spot. Here the tomb, +of the altar-tomb type, stands to this day, kept in excellent repair, and +the lengthy inscriptions repainted; at whose costs and charges I know +not. A small grove of trees almost entirely encircles it. At one end is +a gruesome little sculpture representing Death, as a skeleton, laying a +hand upon an affrighted person, and asking him, “Whither away so fast?” +and at the other end are the following lines: + + Why fhould my fancy anyone offend + Whofe good or ill does not on it depend + (A generous gift) on which my Tomb doth ftand + This is the only fpot that I have chofe + Wherein to take my lafting long repofe + Here in the drift my body lieth down + You’ll fay it is not confecrated ground, + I grant ye fame; but where shall we e’er find + The fpot that e’er can purify the mind? + Nor to the body any luftre give. + This more depends on what a life we live + For when ye trumpet fhall begin to found + ’Twill not avail where’er ye Body’s found. + Blefsed are they and all who in the Lord the Saviour die + Their bodief wait Redemption day, + And fleep in peace where’er they lay. + +On the upper slab are a number of texts and highly moral reflections. + +As for the Selsey Peninsula, and the district of flat lands and oozy +creeks south of Chichester and on to Portsmouth, Nature would seem almost +to have constructed the entire surroundings with the especial objects of +securing the smugglers and confounding the customs. Here Sussex merges +into Hampshire. + + [Picture: Langston Harbour] + +Among the many smuggling nooks along the Hampshire coast, Langston +Harbour was prominent, forming, as it does, an almost landlocked lagoon, +with creeks ramifying toward Portsea Island on one side and Hayling +Island on the other. There still stands on a quay by the waterside at +Langston the old “Royal Oak” inn, which was a favourite gathering-place +of the “free-traders” of these parts, neighboured by a ruined windmill of +romantic aspect, to which no stories particularly attach, but whose +lowering, secretive appearance aptly accentuates the queer reputation of +the spot. + +The reputation of Langston Harbour was such that an ancient disused brig, +the _Griper_, was permanently stationed here, with the coastguard housed +aboard, to keep watch upon the very questionable goings and comings of +the sailor-folk and fishermen of the locality. And not only these watery +folk needed watching, but also the people of Havant and the +oyster-fishers of Emsworth. Here, too, just outside Havant, at the +village of Bedhampton, upon the very margin of the mud, stands an +eighteenth-century mill. It would have been profitable for the +coastguard to keep an eye upon this huge old corn-milling establishment, +if the legends be at all true that are told of it. A little stream, +issuant from the Forest of Bere, at this point runs briskly into the +creek, after having been penned up and made to form a mill-leat. It runs +firstly, moat-like, in front of a charming old house, formerly the +miller’s residence, and then to the great waterwheel, and the mill +itself, a tall, four-square building of red brick, not at all beautiful, +but with a certain air of reserve all the more apparent, of course, +because it is now deserted, bolted, and barred: steam flour-mills of more +modern construction having, it may be supposed, successfully competed +with its antiquated ways. But at no time, if we are to believe local +legend, did Bedhampton Mill depend greatly upon its milling for +prosperity. It was rather a smugglers’ storehouse, and the grinding of +corn was, if not altogether an affectation, something of a by-product. +You may readily understand the working of the contraband business, under +these specious pretences, beneath the very noses of coastguard and +excise; how goods brought up the creek and stored in this capacious hold +could, without suspicion incurred, be taken out of store, loaded in among +the flour-sacks in the miller’s wagons, and delivered wherever desired. +Of course, that being the mill’s staple business, it is quite readily +understood that when the business of smuggling declined such milling as +went forward here did by no means suffice to keep the great building +going. + +The house, which appears now to be let as a country residence for the +summer to persons who neither know nor care anything about the story of +the place, has an odd inscription on its gable: + + The gift of Mr. George + Judge at Stubbington + Farm at Portsea Hard, in + Memory of his very good Friend, + Mr. George Champ, + Senr. 1742. + +That sporadic cases of smuggling long continued in these districts, as +elsewhere, after the smuggling era was really ended, we may see from one +of the annual reports issued by the Commissioners of Customs. The +following incident occurred in 1873, and is thus officially described: + +“On the top of a bank rising directly from highwater-mark in one of the +muddy creeks of Southampton Water stands a wooden hut commanding a full +view of it, and surrounded by an ill-cultivated garden. There are houses +near, but the hut does not belong to them, and appears to have been built +for no obvious purpose. An old smuggler was traced to this hut, and from +that time, for nearly two months, the place was watched with great +precaution, until at midnight, on May 28th, two men employed by us being +on watch, a boat was observed coming from a small vessel about a mile +from the shore. The boat, containing four men, stopped opposite the hut, +landed one man and some bags, while the remainder of the crew took her +some two hundred yards off, hauled her up, and then proceeded to the hut. +One of our men was instantly despatched for assistance, while the other +remained, watching. On his return with three policemen, the whole party +went to the hut, where they found two men on watch outside and four +inside, asleep. A horse and cart were also found in waiting, the cart +having a false bottom. The six men were secured and sent to the +police-station; a boat was then procured, the vessel whence the men had +come was boarded, and found to be laden with tobacco and spirits. The +result was that the vessel, a smack of about fifteen tons, with +eighty-five bales of leaf-tobacco, six boxes of Cavendish, with some +cigars and spirits, was seized, and four of the persons concerned in the +transaction convicted of the offence.” + + [Picture: Bedhampton Mill] + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + + + EAST COAST SMUGGLING—OUTRAGE AT BECCLES—A COLCHESTER RAID—CANVEY + ISLAND—BRADWELL QUAY—THE EAST ANGLIAN “CART GAPS”—A BLAKENEY + STORY—TRAGICAL EPITAPH AT HUNSTANTON—THE PEDDAR’S WAY + +THE doings of the Kentish and Sussex gangs entirely overshadow the annals +of smuggling in other counties; and altogether, to the general reader, +those two seaboards and the coasts of Devon and Cornwall stand out as +typical scenes. But no part of our shores was immune; although the +longer sea-passages to be made elsewhere of course stood greatly in the +way of the “free-traders” of those less favoured regions. After Kent and +Sussex, the east coast was probably the most favourable for smuggling. +The distance across the North Sea might be greater and the passage often +rough, but the low muddy shores and ramifying creeks of Essex and the +sandy coastwise warrens of Suffolk, Norfolk, and Lincolnshire, very +sparsely inhabited, offered their own peculiar facilities for the shy and +secretive trade. + +Nor did the East Anglian smugglers display much less ferocity when their +interests were threatened, or their goods seized, than was shown by the +yokels of those other counties. The stolid, ox-like rustics of the +country-side there, as along the margin of the English Channel, were +roused to almost incredible acts of brutality which do not seem to have +been repeated in the West. + +We do not find the hardy seafaring smugglers often behaving with the +cold-blooded cruelty displayed, as a usual phenomenon, by the generally +unemotional men of ploughed fields and rustic communities who took up the +running and carried the goods inland from the water’s edge whither those +sea-dogs had brought them. In the being of the men who dared tempestuous +winds and waves there existed, as a rule, a more sportsmanlike and +generous spirit. Something of the traditional heartiness inseparable +from sea-life impelled them to give and take without the black blood that +seethed evilly in the veins of the landsmen. The seamen, it seemed, +realised that smuggling was a risk; something in the nature of any game +of skill, into which they entered, with the various officers of the law +naturally opposed to them; and when either side won, that was incidental +to the game, and no enmity followed as the matter of course it was with +their shore-going partners. + +Perhaps these considerations, as greatly as the difference in racial +characters, show us why the land-smugglers of the Home Counties should +have been so criminal, while from the Devon and Cornish contrabandists we +hear mostly of humorous passages. + + [Picture: The “Green Man,” Bradwell Quay] + +At Beccles, in Suffolk, for example, we find the record, in 1744, of an +incident that smacks rather of the Hawkhurst type of outrage. Smugglers +there pulled a man out of bed, whipped him, tied him naked on a horse, +and rode away with their prisoner, who was never again heard of, although +a reward of £50 was offered. + +Colchester was the scene, on April 16th, 1847, of as bold an act as the +breaking open of the custom-house at Poole. At two o’clock in the +morning two men arrived at the quay at Hythe, by Colchester, and, with +the story that they were revenue officers come to lodge a seizure of +captured goods, asked to be shown the way to the custom-house. They had +no sooner been shown it than there followed thirty smugglers, well armed +with blunderbusses and pistols, who, with a heavy blacksmith’s hammer and +a crowbar, broke open the warehouse, in which a large quantity of +dutiable goods was stored. They were not molested in their raid, and +went off with sixty oil-bags, containing 1514 lb. of tea that had been +seized near Woodbridge Haven. No one dared interfere with them, and by +six o’clock that morning they had proceeded as far as Hadleigh, from +which point all trace of them was lost. + +Canvey Island, in the estuary of the Thames, off Benfleet, with its +quaint old Dutch houses, relics of the seventeenth and eighteenth-century +Hollanders who settled there and carried on a more than questionable +business, was reputedly a nest of smugglers. The “Lobster Smack,” a +quaint old weatherboarded inn built just within the old earthen sea-wall +for which those Dutchmen were responsible, and standing somewhat below +the level of high water, has legends of smuggling that naturally do not +lose by age or repetition. + +The Blackwater estuary, running up from the Essex coast to Maldon, +offered peculiar facilities for smuggling; and that, perhaps, is why a +coastguard vessel is still stationed at Stansgate, half way along its +length, opposite Osea Island. At the mouth of the Blackwater there +branch other creeks and estuaries leading past Mersea Island to +Colchester; and here, looking out upon a melancholy sea, and greatly +resembling a barn, stands the ancient chapel of St. Peter-upon-the-Wall, +situated in one of the most lonely spots conceivable, on what were, ages +ago, the ramparts of the Roman station of _Othona_. It has long been +used as a barn, and was in smuggling times a frequent rendezvous of the +night-birds who waged ceaseless war with the Customs. + +Two miles onward, along sea and river-bank, Bradwell Quay is reached, +where the “Green Man” inn in these times turns a hospitable face to the +wayfarer, but was in the “once upon a time” apt to distrust the casual +stranger, for it was a house “ower sib” with the free-traders, and Pewit +Island, just off the quay, a desolate islet almost awash, formed an +admirable emergency store. The old stone-floored kitchen of the “Green +Man,” nowadays a cool and refreshing place in which to take a modest +quencher on a summer’s day, still remains very much what it was of old; +and the quaint fireplace round which the sly longshore men of these Essex +creeks foregathered on those winter nights when work was before them +keeps its old-time pot-racks and hooks. + + [Picture: Kitchen of the “Green Man”] + +Among the very numerous accounts of smuggling affrays we may exhume from +the musty files of old newspapers, we read of the desperate encounter in +which Mr. Toby, Supervisor of Excise, lost an eye in contending with a +gang of smugglers at Caister, near Yarmouth, in April 1816; which +shows—if we had occasion to show—that the East Anglian could on occasion +be as ferocious as the rustics of the south. + +The shores of East Anglia we have already noted to be largely composed of +wide-spreading sandy flats, in whose wastes the tracks of wild birds and +animals—to say nothing of the deeply indented footmarks of heavily-laden +men—are easily distinguished; and the chief problem of the free-traders +of those parts was therefore often how to cover up the tracks they left +so numerously in their passage across to the hard roads. In this resort +the shepherds were their mainstay, and for the usual consideration, +_i.e._ a keg of the “right stuff,” would presently, after the gang had +passed, come driving their flocks along in the sandy trail they had left: +completely obliterating all evidences of a run of contraband goods having +been successfully brought off. + +Blakeney, on the Norfolk coast, is associated with one of the best, and +most convincing, tales ever told of smuggling. This coast is rich in +what are known as “cart gaps”: dips in the low cliffs, where horses and +carts may readily gain access to the sea. These places were, of course, +especially well watched by the preventive men, who often made a rich haul +out of the innocent-looking farm-carts, laden with seaweed for manure, +that were often to be observed being driven landwards at untimeous hours +of night and early morn. Beneath the seaweed were, of course, numerous +kegs. Sometimes the preventive men confiscated horses and carts, as well +as their loads, and all were put up for sale. On one of these painful +occasions the local custom-house officer, who knew a great deal more of +the sea and its ways than he did of horses, was completely taken in by a +farmer-confederate of the smugglers whose horses had been seized. The +farmer went to make an offer for the animals, and was taken to see them. +The season of the year was the spring, when, as the poet observes, “a +young man’s fancy lightly turns to thoughts of love”—and when horses shed +their coats. Up went the farmer to the nearest horse, and easily, of +course, pulled out a handful of hair. “Why,” said he, in the East +Anglian way, “th’ poor brute hey gotten t’ mange, and all tudderuns ’ull +ketch it, of yow baint keerful.” And then he examined “tudderuns,” and +behold! each _had_ caught it: and so he bought the lot for five pounds. +That same night every horse was back in its own stable. + +Searching in graveyards is not perhaps the most exhilarating of pastimes +or employments, but it, at any rate, is likely to bring, on occasion, +curious local history to light. Not infrequently, in the old churchyards +of seaboard parishes, epitaphs bearing upon the story of smuggling may be +found. + +Among these often quaint and curious, as well as tragical, relics, that +in Hunstanton churchyard, on the coast of Norfolk, is pre-eminent, both +for its grotesquely ungrammatical character and for the history that +attaches to the affair: + + In Memory of William Webb, late of the 15th Lt. D’ns, + who was shot from his Horse by a party of Smugglers + on the 26 of Sepr. 1784. + + I am not dead, but sleepeth here, + And when the Trumpet Sound I will appear. + Four balls thro’ me Pearced there way: + Hard it was. I’d no time to pray + + This stone that here you Do see + My Comerades erected for the sake of me. + +Two smugglers, William Kemble and Andrew Gunton, were arraigned for the +murder of this dragoon and an excise officer. The jury, much to the +surprise of every one, for the guilt of the prisoners was undoubted, +brought in a verdict of “Not guilty”; whereupon Mr. Murphy, counsel for +the prosecution, moved for a new trial, observing that if a Norfolk jury +were determined not to convict persons guilty of the most obvious crimes, +simply because, as smugglers, they commanded the sympathy of the country +people, there was an end of all justice. + +A second jury was forthwith empanelled and the evidence repeated, and +after three hours’ deliberation the prisoners were again found “Not +guilty,” and were, in accordance with that finding, acquitted and +liberated. + +It is abundantly possible that the foregoing incident had some connection +with that locally favourite smugglers’ route from the Norfolk coast +inland, the Peddar’s Way, which runs a long and lonely course from Holme, +near Hunstanton, right through Norfolk into Suffolk, and is for the +greater part of its length a broad, grassy track, romantically lined and +overhung with fine trees. Such ancient ways, including the many old +drove-roads in the north, never turnpiked, made capital soft going, and, +rarely touching villages or hamlets, were of a highly desirable, +secretive nature. The origin of the Peddar’s, or Padder’s, Way is still +in dispute among antiquaries, some seeing in it a Roman road, others +conceiving it to be a prehistoric track; but the broad, straight +character of it seems to point to this long route having been Romanised. +Its great age is evident on many accounts, not least among them being +that the little town of Watton, near but not on it, is named from this +prehistoric road, “Way-town,” while that county division, the hundred, is +the Hundred of Wayland. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + + + THE DORSET AND DEVON COASTS—EPITAPHS AT KINSON AND WYKE—THE “WILTSHIRE + MOON-RAKERS”—EPITAPH AT BRANSCOMBE—THE WARREN AND “MOUNT PLEASANT” INN + +NOT so much smuggling incident as might be expected is found along the +coasts of Dorset and Devon, but that is less on account of any lack of +smuggling encounters in those parts than because less careful record has +been kept of them. An early epitaph on a smuggler, to be seen in the +churchyard of Kinson, just within the Dorset boundary, in an +out-of-the-way situation at the back of Bournemouth, in a district +formerly of almost trackless heaths, will sufficiently show that +smuggling was active here: + + To the memory of Robert Trotman, late of Rowd, in + the county of Wilts, who was barbarously murdered + on the shore near Poole, the 24th March, 1765. + + A little tea, one leaf I did not steal, + For guiltless bloodshed I to God appeal; + Put tea in one scale, human blood in t’other + And think what ’tis to slay a harmless brother. + +This man was shot in an encounter with the revenue officers. He was one +of a gang that used the church here as a hiding-place. The upper stage +of the tower and an old altar-tomb were the favourite receptacles for +their “free-trade” merchandise. + +Trotman, it will be observed, was of Rowd, or Rowde, in Wiltshire, two +miles from Devizes, and was thus one of the “Wiltshire Moonrakers,” whose +descriptive title is due to smuggling history. Among the nicknames +conferred upon the natives of our various shires and counties none is +complimentary. They figure forth undesirable physical attributes, as +when the Lincolnshire folk, dwellers among the fens, are styled +“Yellow-bellies,” _i.e._ frogs; or stupidity, _e.g._ “Silly Suffolk”; or +humbug—for example, “Devonshire Crawlers.” “Wiltshire Moonrakers” is +generally considered to be a term of contempt for Wilts rustic stupidity; +but, rightly considered, it is nothing of the kind. It all depends how +you take the story which gave rise to it. The usual version tells us how +a party of travellers, crossing a bridge in Wiltshire by night when the +harvest moon was shining, observed a group of rustics raking in the +stream, in which the great yellow disc of the moon was reflected. The +travellers had the curiosity to ask them what it was they raked for in +such a place and at so untimeous an hour; and were told they were trying +to get “that cheese”—the moon—out of the water. The travellers went on +their way amused with the simplicity of these “naturals,” and spread the +story far and wide. + +But these apparently idiotic clod-hoppers were wiser in their generation +than commonly supposed, and were, in fact, smugglers surprised in the act +of raking up a number of spirit-kegs that had been sunk in the bed of the +stream until the arrival of a convenient season when they could with +safety be removed. The travellers, properly considered, were really +revenue officers, scouring the neighbourhood. This version of the story +fairly throws the accusation of innocence and dunderheadedness back upon +them, and clears the Wiltshire rural character from contempt. It should, +however, be said that the first version of the story is generally told at +the expense of the villagers of Bishop’s Cannings, near Devizes, who have +long writhed under a load of ancient satirical narratives, reflecting +upon a lack of common sense alleged to be their chief characteristic. + +Many of the western smuggling stories are of a humorous cast, rather than +of the dreadful blood-boltered kind that disgraces the history of the +home counties. Here is a case in point. On the evening of Sunday, July +10th, 1825, as two preventive men were on the look-out for smugglers, +near Lulworth in Dorset, the smugglers, to the number of sixty or +seventy, curiously enough, found them instead, and immediately taking +away their swords and pistols, carried them to the edge of the cliff and +placed them with their heads hanging over the precipice; with the +comfortable assurance that if they made the least noise, or gave alarm, +they should be immediately thrown over. In the interval a smuggling +vessel landed a “crop” of one hundred casks, which the shore-gang placed +on their horses and triumphantly carried away. The prisoners were then +removed from their perilous position, and taken into an adjoining field, +where they were bound hand and foot, and left overnight. They were found +the next morning by their comrades, searching for them. + +There are several points in this true tale that suggest it to have been +the original whence Mr. Thomas Hardy obtained the chief motive of his +short story, _The Distracted Preacher_. + +We do not find consecutive accounts of smuggling on this wild coast of +Dorset; but when the veil is occasionally lifted and we obtain a passing +glimpse, it is a picturesque scene that is disclosed. Thus, a furious +encounter took place under St. Aldhelm’s Head, in 1827, between an armed +band of some seventy or eighty smugglers and the local preventive men, +who numbered only ten, but gave a good account of themselves, two +smugglers being reported killed on the spot, and many others wounded, +while some of the preventive force, during the progress of the fight, +quietly slipped to where the smugglers’ boats had been left and made off +with the goods stored in them. + +“The smugglers are armed,” says a report of this affair, “with swingels, +like flails, with which they can knock people’s brains out”; and proceeds +to say that weapons of this kind, often delivering blows from unexpected +quarters, are extremely difficult to fight against. + +The captain of this gang was a man named Lucas, who kept an inn called +the “Ship,” at Woolbridge; and, information being laid, Captain Jackson, +the local inspector of customs, went with an assistant and a police +officer from London to his house at two o’clock in the morning and roused +him. + +“Who’s there?” asked Lucas. + +“Only I, Mrs. Smith’s little girl. I want a drop of brandy for mother,” +returned the inspector, in a piping voice. + +“Very well, my dear,” said the landlord, and opened the door; to find +himself in the grasp of the police-officer. Henry Fooks, of Knowle, and +three others of the gang, were then arrested; and the whole five +committed to Dorchester gaol. + +The wild coast of Dorset, if we except Poole Harbour and the cliffs of +Purbeck, yields little to the inquirer in this sort, although there can +be no doubt of smuggling having been in full operation here. Jack +Rattenbury, whose story is told on another page, could doubtless have +rubricated this shore of many cliffs and remote hamlets with striking +instances; and not a cliff-top but must have frequently exhibited lights +to “flash the lugger off,” what time the preventive men were on the +prowl; and no lonely strand but must have witnessed the smugglers, when +the coast was again clear, rowing out and “creeping for the crop” that +had been sunk and buoyed, or “put in the collar,” as the saying went. + +A relic of these for the most part unrecorded and forgotten incidents is +found in the epitaph at Wyke, near Weymouth, on one William Lewis: + + Sacred to the memory + of + WILLIAM LEWIS, + + who was killed by a shot + from the _Pigmy_ Schooner + 21st April 1822, aged 53 years. + + * * * * * + + Of life bereft (by fell design), + I mingle with my fellow clay, + On God’s protection I recline + To save me on the Judgment-day. + There shall each blood-stain’d soul appear, + Repent, all, ere it be too late, + Or Else a dreadful doom you’ll hear, + For God will sure avenge my fate. + + * * * * * + + This Stone is Erected by his Wife + as the last mark of respect to an + Affectionate Husband. + +The inscription is surmounted by a representation, carved in low relief, +of the _Pigmy_ schooner chasing the smuggling vessel. + +Old folk, now gone from the scene of their reminiscences, used to tell of +this tragedy, and of the landing of the body of the unfortunate Lewis on +the rocks of Sandsfoot Castle, where the ragged, roofless walls of that +old seaward fortress impend over the waves, and the great bulk of +Portland isle glooms in mid distance upon the bay. They tell, too, how +the inscription was long kept gilded by his relatives; but the last trace +of it has long since vanished. + +Many miles intervene, and another county must be entered, before another +tragical epitaph bearing upon smuggling is found. If you go to Seaton, +in South Devon, and walk inland from the modern developments of that now +rapidly growing town to the old church, you may see there a tablet +recording the sad fate of William Henry Paulson, midshipman of H.M.S. +_Queen Charlotte_, and eight seamen, who all perished in a gale of wind +off Sidmouth, while cruising in a galley after smugglers, in the year +1816. + +A few miles westward, through Beer to Branscombe, the country is of a +very wild and lonely kind. In the weird, eerie churchyard of Branscombe, +in which astonishing epitaphs of all kinds abound, is a variant upon the +smugglers’ violent ends, in the inscription to one “Mr. John Harley, +Custom House Officer of this parish.” It proceeds to narrate how, “as he +was endeavouring to extinguish some Fire made between Beer and Seaton as +a signal to a Smuggling Boat then off at sea, he fell by some means or +other from the top of the cliff to the bottom, by which he was +unfortunately killed. This unhappy accident happened the 9th day of +August in the year of our Lord 1755, _ætatis suæ_ 45. He was an active +and diligent officer and very inoffensive in his life and conversation.” + +So here was another martyr to the conditions created by bad government. + +The estuary of the Exe, between Exmouth and Starcross, was for many years +greatly favoured by smugglers, for, as may readily be perceived to this +day, there lay in the two-miles-broad channel, where sea and river +mingle, a wide, wild stretch of sand, almost awash at high water, heaped +up in towans overgrown with tussocks of coarse, sour grasses, or sinking +into hollows full of brackish water: pleasant in daytime, but a dangerous +place at night. Here, in this islanded waste, there were no roads nor +tracks at all, and few were those who ever came to disturb the curlews or +the seabirds that nested, unafraid. In these twentieth-century times of +ours the Warren—for such is the name of this curiously amphibious +place—has become a place of picnic parties on summer afternoons, largely +by favour of the Great Western Railway having provided, midway between +the stations of Starcross and Dawlish, a little platform called the +“Warren Halt.” But in those times before railways, when the Warren was +not easily come at, the smugglers found it a highly convenient place for +their business. Beside it, under the lee of Langston Point, there is a +sheltered strand, and, at such times when it was considered quite safe, +the sturdy free-traders quietly ran their boats ashore here, on the +yellow sands, and conveyed their contents to the “Mount Pleasant” inn, +which is an unassuming—and was in those times a still more +unassuming—house, perched picturesquely on the crest of a red sandstone +bluff which rises inland, sheer from the marshy meadows. It was a very +convenient receiving-house and signal-station for all of this trade, for +it owned caverns hollowed out of the red sandstone in places inaccessible +to the authorities, and from its isolated height, overlooking the flats, +could easily communicate encouragement or warning to friends anxiously +riding at anchor out at sea. The lights that flashed on dark and +tempestuous nights from its high-hung rustic balcony were significant. +The only man who could have told much of the smugglers’ secrets here was +the unfortunate Lieutenant Palk, who lay wait one such night upon the +Warren. But dead men tell no tales; and that ill-starred officer was +found in the morning, drowned, face downwards, in a shallow pool, whether +by accident or design there was nothing to show. As already remarked, +the Warren was a dangerous place to wander in after dark. + +It is quite vain nowadays to seek for the smugglers’ caves at Mount +Pleasant. They were long ago filled up. + +In these times the holiday-maker, searching for shells, is the only +feature of the sands that fringe the seaward edge of the Warren. It is a +fruitful hunting-ground for such, especially after rough weather. But +the day following a storm was, in those times, the opportunity of the +local revenue men, who, forming a strong party, were used to take boat +and pull down here and thoroughly search the foreshore; for at such times +any spirit-tubs that might have been sunk out at sea and carefully buoyed +by the smugglers, awaiting a favourable time for landing, were apt to +break loose and drift in-shore. There was always, at such times, a +sporting chance of a good haul. But, on the other hand, some of the many +tubs that had been sunk months before, and lost, would on these occasions +come to hand, and they were worth just nothing at all: long immersion in +salt water having spoiled their contents, with the result that what had +been right good hollands or cognac had become a peculiarly ill-savoured +liquid, which smelt to heaven when it was broached. The revenue people +called this abominable stuff, which, as Shakespeare might say, had +“suffered a sea-change into something new and strange,” by the +appropriate name of “stinkibus.” + + + + +CHAPTER X + + + CORNWALL IN SMUGGLING STORY—CRUEL COPPINGER—HAWKER’S SKETCH—THE FOWEY + SMUGGLERS—TOM POTTER, OF POLPERRO—THE DEVILS OF TALLAND—SMUGGLERS’ + EPITAPHS—CAVE AT WENDRON—ST. IVES + +CORNWALL is the region of romance: the last corner of England in which +legend and imagination had full play, while matter-of-fact already sat +enthroned over the rest of the land. At a time when newspapers almost +everywhere had already long been busily recording facts, legends were +still in the making throughout this westernmost part of the island. We +may, in our innocence, style Cornwall a part of England; but the Cornish +do not think of it as such, and when they cross the Tamar into Devonshire +will still often speak of “going into England.” They are historically +correct in doing so, for this is the unconquered land of the Cornu-Welsh, +never assimilated by the Saxon kingdoms. Historically and +ethnologically, the Cornish are a people apart. + +The Coppinger legend is a case in point, illustrating the growth of wild +stories out of meagre facts. “Cruel Coppinger” is a half-satanic, +semi-viking character in the tales of North Cornwall and North Devon, of +whom no visitor is likely to remain ignorant, for not only was he a dread +figure of local folklore from about the first quarter of the nineteenth +century, but he was written up in 1866 by the Reverend R. S. Hawker, +Vicar of Morwenstow, who not only collated those floating stories, but +added very much of his own, for Hawker was a man—and a not very +scrupulous man—of imagination. Hawker’s presentment of “Cruel Coppinger” +was published in a popular magazine, and then the legend became +full-blown. + +The advent of Coppinger upon the coast at Welcombe Mouth, near where +Devon and Cornwall join, was dramatic. The story tells how a strange +vessel went to pieces on the reefs and how only one person escaped with +his life, in the midst of a howling tempest. This was the skipper, a +Dane named Coppinger. On the beach, on foot and on horseback, was a +crowd, waiting, in the usual Cornish way, for any wreck of the sea that +might be thrown up. Into the midst of them, like some sea-monster, +dashed this sole survivor, and bounded suddenly upon the crupper of a +young damsel who had ridden to the shore to see the sight. He grasped +her bridle, and, shouting in a foreign tongue, urged the doubly-laden +animal to full speed, and the horse naturally took his usual way home. +The damsel was Miss Dinah Hamlyn. The stranger descended at her father’s +door and lifted her off her saddle. He then announced himself as a Dane, +named Coppinger, and took his place at the family board and there +remained until he had secured the affections and hand of Dinah. The +father died, and Coppinger succeeded to the management and control of the +house, which thenceforward became the refuge of every lawless character +along the coast. All kinds of wild uproar and reckless revelry appalled +the neighbourhood, night and day. It was discovered that an organised +band of smugglers, wreckers, and poachers made this house their +rendezvous, and that “Cruel Coppinger” was their captain. In those times +no revenue officer durst exercise vigilance west of the Tamar, and, to +put an end at once to all such surveillance, the head of a gauger was +chopped off by one of Coppinger’s gang, on the gunwale of a boat. + +Strange vessels began to appear at regular intervals on the coast, and +signals were flashed from the headlands, to lead them into the safest +creek or cove. Amongst these, one, a full-rigged schooner, soon became +ominously conspicuous. She was for long the terror of those shores, and +her name was the _Black Prince_. Once, with Coppinger aboard, she led a +revenue cutter into an intricate channel near the Bull Rock, where, from +knowledge of the bearings, the _Black Prince_ escaped scathless, while +the King’s vessel perished with all on board. In those times, if any +landsman became obnoxious to Coppinger’s men, he was seized and carried +aboard the _Black Prince_, and obliged to save his life by enrolling +himself as one of the crew. + +Amid such practices, ill-gotten gold began to accrue to Coppinger. At +one time he had enough money to purchase a freehold farm bordering on the +sea. When the day of transfer came, he and one of his followers appeared +before the lawyer and paid the money in dollars, ducats, doubloons, and +pistoles. The lawyer objected, but Coppinger, with an oath, bade him +take that or none. + +Long impunity increased Coppinger’s daring. Over certain bridle-paths +along the fields he exercised exclusive control, and issued orders that +no man was to pass over them by night. They were known as “Coppinger’s +Tracks,” and all converged at a cliff called “Steeple Brink.” Here the +precipice fell sheer to the sea, 300 feet, with overhanging eaves a +hundred feet from the summit. Under this part was a cave, only to be +reached by a rope-ladder from above. This was “Coppinger’s Cave.” Here +sheep were tethered to the rock and fed on stolen hay and corn until +slaughtered. Kegs of brandy and hollands were piled around; chests of +tea, and iron-bound sea-chests contained the chattels and revenues of the +Coppinger royalty of the sea. + +The terror linked with Coppinger’s name throughout the north coasts of +Cornwall and Devon was so extreme that the people themselves, wild and +lawless though they were, submitted to his sway as though he had been +lord of the soil, and they his vassals. Such a household as his was, of +course, far from happy or calm. Although, when his father-in-law died, +he had insensibly acquired possession of the stock and farm, there +remained in the hands of the widow a considerable amount of money. This +he obtained from the helpless woman by instalments, and by force. He +would fasten his wife to the pillar of her oak bedstead, and call her +mother into the room, and assure her he would flog Dinah with a +cat-o’-nine-tails till her mother had transferred to him what he wanted. +This act of brutal cruelty he repeated until he had utterly exhausted the +widow’s store. + +There was but one child of Coppinger’s marriage. It was a boy, and deaf +and dumb, but mischievous and ungovernable, delighting in cruelty to +other children, animals, or birds. When he was but six years of age, he +was found one day, hugging himself with delight, and pointing down from +the brink of a cliff to the beach, where the body of a neighbour’s child +was found and it was believed that little Coppinger had flung him over. +It was a saying in the district that, as a judgment on his father’s +cruelty, the child had been born without a human soul. + +But the end arrived. Money became scarce, and more than one armed King’s +cutter was seen, day and night, hovering off the land. And at last +Coppinger, “who came with the water, went with the wind.” A wrecker, +watching the shore, saw, as the sun went down, a full-rigged vessel +standing off and on. Coppinger came to the beach, put off in a boat to +the vessel, and jumped aboard. She spread canvas, and was seen no more. +That night was one of storm, and whether the vessel rode it out or not, +none ever knew. + +It is hardly necessary to add that the Coppinger of these and other +rumbustious stories is a strictly unhistorical Coppinger; and that, in +short, they are mainly efforts of Hawker’s own imagination, built upon +very slight folklore traditions. + +Who and what, however, was the real Coppinger? Very little exact +information is available, but what we have entirely demolishes the +legendary half-man, half-monster of those remarkable exploits. + +Daniel Herbert Copinger, or Coppinger, was wrecked at Welcombe Mouth on +December 23rd, 1792, and was given shelter beneath the roof of Mr. +William Arthur, yeoman farmer, at Golden Park, Hartland, where for many +years afterwards his name might have been seen, scratched on a +window-pane: + + D. H. Coppinger, shipwrecked December 23 1792, kindly received by Mr. + Wm. Arthur. + +There is not the slightest authority for the story of his sensational +leap on to the saddle of Miss Dinah Hamlyn; but it is true enough that +the next year he married a Miss Hamlyn—her Christian name was Ann—elder +of the two daughters of Ackland Hamlyn, of Galsham, in Hartland, and in +the registers of Hartland church may be found this entry: “Daniel Herbert +Coppinger, of the King’s Royal Navy, and Ann Hamlyn mard. (by licence) 3 +Aug.” The “damsel” of the story also turns out, by the cold, calm +evidence of this entry, to have been of the mature age of forty-two. + +Mrs. Hamlyn, Coppinger’s mother-in-law, died in 1800, and was buried in +the chancel of Hartland church. It is, of course, quite possible that +his married life was stormy and that he, more or less by force, extracted +money from Mrs. Hamlyn, and he was certainly more or less involved in +smuggling. But that he, or any of his associates, chopped off the head +of an excise officer is not to be credited. Tales are told of revenue +officers searching at Galsham for contraband, and of Mrs. Coppinger +hurriedly hiding a quantity of valuable silks in the kitchen oven, while +her husband engaged their attention in permitting them to find a number +of spirit-kegs, which they presently found, much to their disgust, to be +empty; and, moreover, empty so long that scarce the ghost of even a smell +of the departed spirit could be traced. But the flurried Mrs. Coppinger +had in her haste done a disastrous thing, for the oven was in baking +trim, and the valuable silks were baked to a cinder. + +Little else is known of Coppinger, and nothing whatever of his alleged +connection with the Navy. He became bankrupt in 1802, and was then a +prisoner in the King’s Bench Prison. With him was one Richard Copinger, +said to have been a merchant in Martinique. Nothing is known of him +after this date, but rumour told how he was living apart from his wife, +at Barnstaple, and subsisting on an allowance from her. + +Mrs. Coppinger herself, in after years, resided at Barnstaple, and died +there on August 31st, 1833. She lies buried in the chancel of Hartland +church beside her mother. + +According to the Rev. S. Baring-Gould, Coppinger was not really a Dane, +but an Irishman, and had a wife at Trewhiddle near St. Austell. He, on +the same authority, is said to have done extremely well as a smuggler, +and had not only a farm at Trewhiddle, but another at Roscoff, in +Brittany. A daughter, says Mr. Baring-Gould, married a Trefusis, son of +Lord Clinton, and Coppinger gave her £40,000 as a dowry. A son married +the daughter of Sir John Murray, Bart., of Stanhope. The source of this +interesting information is not stated. It appears wildly improbable. + +Hawker very cleverly embodied the smuggling sentiment of Cornwall in a +sketch he wrote, styled “The Light of Other Days.” + +“It was full six in the evening of an autumn day when a traveller arrived +where the road ran along by a sandy beach just above high-water mark. +The stranger, who was a native of some inland town, and utterly +unacquainted with Cornwall and its ways, had reached the brink of the +tide just as a ‘landing’ was coming off. It was a scene not only to +instruct a townsman, but to dazzle and surprise. At sea, just beyond the +billows, lay the vessel, well moored with anchors at stem and stern. +Between the ship and the shore, boats, laden to the gunwale, passed to +and fro. Crowds assembled on the beach to help the cargo ashore. On one +hand a boisterous group surrounded a keg with the head knocked in, for +simplicity of access to the good cognac, into which they dipped +whatsoever vessel came first to hand; one man had filled his shoe. On +the other side they fought and wrestled, cursed and swore. Horrified at +what he saw, the stranger lost all self-command, and, oblivious of +personal danger, he began to shout, ‘What a horrible sight! Have you no +shame? Is there no magistrate at hand? Cannot any justice of the peace +be found in this fearful country?’ + +“‘No; thanks be to God,’ answered a gruff, hoarse voice. ‘None within +eight miles.’ + +“‘Well, then,’ screamed the stranger, ‘is there no clergyman hereabout? +Does no minister of the parish live among you on this coast?’ + +“‘Aye, to be sure there is,’ said the same deep voice. + +“‘Well, how far off does he live? Where is he?’ + +“‘That’s he, yonder, sir, with the lantern.’ + +“And, sure enough, there he stood on a rock, and poured, with pastoral +diligence, ‘the light of other days’ on a busy congregation.” + + [Picture: “The Light of other Days”] + +The complete, true story of smuggling along the Cornish coast will never +be told. Those who could have contributed illuminating chapters to it, +and would not, are dead, and those who now would are reduced to seeking +details and finding only scraps. But some of these scraps are not +unpalatable. + +Thus we have the story of that Vicar of Maker whose church was used as a +smugglers’ store. The Vicar was not a party to these proceedings, as may +well be judged by his inviting his rural dean to ascend to the roof of +the church-tower with him, for sake of the view: the view disclosing not +only a lovely expanse of sea and wooded foreshore, but also a heap of +twenty-three spirit-kegs, reposing in the gutters between the roofs of +nave and aisle. + +The “Fowey Gallants,” as the townsfolk of that little seaport delighted +to call themselves,—the title having descended from Elizabethan and even +earlier times, when the “Gallants” in question were, in plain speech, +nothing less than turbulent seafaring rowdies and pirates—were not behind +other Cornish folk in their smuggling enterprises. That prime authority +on this part of the Cornish coast, Jonathan Couch, historian of Polperro, +tells us of an exciting incident at Fowey, in the smuggling way. On one +occasion, the custom-house officers heard of an important run that had +taken place overnight, and accordingly sent out scouts in every direction +to locate the stuff, if possible. At Landaviddy one of these parties met +a farm-labourer whom they suspected of having taken part in the run. +They taxed him with it, and tried him all ways; without effect, until +they threatened to impress him for service in the Navy unless he revealed +the hiding-place of the cognac. His resolution broke down at that, and +he told how the kegs had been hidden in a large cave at Yellow Rock, +which the officers then instructed him to mark with a chalk cross. + +The revenue men then went off for reinforcements, and, returning, met an +armed band of smugglers, who had taken up a strong position at New Quay +Head. They were armed with sticks, cutlasses, and muskets, and had +brought a loaded gun upon the scene, which they trained upon the cave; +while a man with flaring portfire stood by and dared the officers to +remove the goods. Official prudence counselled the revenue men to retire +for further support; but when they had again returned the smugglers had +disappeared, and the kegs with them. + +Fowey’s trade in “moonshine,” _i.e._ contraband spirits, was, like that +of the Cornish coast in general, with Roscoff, in Brittany; and a regular +service was maintained for years. As late as 1832 the luggers _Eagle_, +thirty-five tons; _Rose_, eleven tons; and _Dove_, of the same burthen, +were well known in the trade. Among the smuggling craft belonging to +Polperro, the _Unity_ was said to have made upwards of five hundred +entirely successful trips. + +The story of Tom Potter is even yet told by oldsters at Polperro, who, +not themselves old enough to recollect the circumstances, have it from +their parents and grandparents. Jonathan Couch tells the story, but he +forgot the exact year. + +It seems, then, that one morning a lugger was observed by a revenue +cutter lying becalmed in Whitesand Bay. Through their glasses the +revenue men made it out to be the _Lottery_, of Polperro, well known for +her fast-sailing qualities, as well as for the hardihood of her crew. +With the springing up of the breeze, there was little doubt but that she +would put to sea, and thus add yet another opportunity to the many +already existing for sneering at the stupidity of the local preventive +force. + +Accordingly, the chief officer, with all despatch, manned two or three +boats and put off, before a breeze could spring up, making sure of an +easy capture. The smugglers, however, observed these movements of their +watchful enemies, and commenced to make preparations for resistance, +whereupon the revenue boats opened fire; but it was not until they had +approached closely that the smugglers returned their volleys, and then +the firing grew very heavy, and when within a few yards of the expected +prize, Ambrose Bowden, who pulled bow-oar in one of the attacking boats, +fell mortally wounded. + +It was plain that the Polperro men had come to a determination not to +surrender their fine craft, or the valuable cargo it carried; and the +commander of the revenue men thought it, under the circumstances, the +wisest thing to withdraw and to allow the _Lottery_ to proceed to sea, +which she did, at the earliest opportunity. But the names of those who +formed the crew were sufficiently well known to the authorities, and the +smugglers accordingly found themselves in a very difficult position; not +indeed on account of smuggling, but for the resistance they had offered +to authority, resulting in what was technically murder. They all +scattered and went into hiding, and, secreted by friends, relatives, and +sympathisers in out-of-the-way places, long baffled the efforts of the +revenue officers, aided by searching parties of dragoons, to find them. +The authorities no sooner had learnt, on reliable information, where they +lay hidden, than they were found to have been spirited away elsewhere. + +But all this skulking about, with its enforced idleness and waste of +time, grew wearisome to the skulkers, and at length one of the crew of +the _Lottery_, Roger Toms by name, more weary than his fellows of hiding, +and perhaps also thinking that his services would be handsomely rewarded, +offered himself as King’s evidence. + +According to his showing, it was a man named Tom Potter who fired the +shot that killed Bowden. The search then concentrated upon Potter. The +fury of Toms’s fellow-smugglers, and the entire population of Polperro, +against the informer, Toms, may readily be imagined. To in any way aid +these natural enemies of the people was of itself the unforgiveable sin, +and to further go and offer evidence that would result in the forfeit of +the life of one of his own comrades disclosed an even deeper depth of +infamy. + +Toms was therefore obliged to go into hiding again, and, this time, from +his old associates. It was some considerable time before they captured +him, and they did it, even then, only by stratagem. His wife, and +others, knowing the intense feeling aroused, not unnaturally supposed his +life to be in danger; but the smugglers assured her that they only wanted +to secure him and hold him prisoner until after the trial of Bowden, and +would not otherwise harm him. They added, mysteriously, that things +might go worse with Toms if he continued to hide away; for they would be +certain sooner or later to find him. The greatly alarmed woman at last +arranged that they should capture him when accompanying her across the +moors in the direction of Polruan, and they accordingly seized the +informer when in her company, on Lantock Downs. They hid him for awhile +close by, and then smuggled him, a close prisoner, over to that then +noted smugglers’ Alsatia, Guernsey, with the idea of eventually shipping +him to America. But while at Guernsey he escaped and made his way to +London. + +The evidence he gave was to the effect that, during the firing, he went +down into the cabin of the _Lottery_, and there saw Potter with a gun. +Potter said “Damn them! I have just done for one of them.” + +Potter was convicted and hanged. Toms, of course, never dared to again +return to Polperro, and was given a small post as under-turnkey at +Newgate, where he lived the remainder of his life. + +Talland, midway between Polperro and Looe, was a favourite spot with +these daring Polperro fellows. It offered better opportunities than +those given by Polperro itself for unobserved landings; for it was—and it +still is—a weird, lonely place, overhanging the sea, with a solitary +ancient church well within sound of the waves that beat heavily upon the +little sands. It was an easy matter to store kegs in the churchyard +itself, and to take them inland, or into Polperro by the country roads, +when opportunity offered, hidden in carts taking seaweed for manure to +the fields. + +At one time Talland owned a shuddery reputation in all this country-side, +and people in the farmhouses told, with many a fearful glance over their +shoulders, of the uncanny creatures that nightly haunted the churchyard. +Devils, wraiths, and fearful apparitions made the spot a kind of satanic +parliament; and we may be amply sure that these horrid stories lost no +accent or detail of terror by constant repetition in those inglenooks on +winter evenings. This is not to say that other places round about were +innocent of things supernatural; for those were times when every Cornish +glen, moor, stream, and hill had their bukkadhus, their piskies, and +gnomes of sorts, good and evil; but the infernal company that consorted +together in Talland churchyard was entirely beside these old-established +creatures. They were _hors concours_, as the French would say: they +formed a class by themselves; and, in the expressive slang of to-day, +they were “the Limit,” the _ne plus ultra_ of militant ghostdom. People +rash enough to take the church-path through Talland after night had +fallen were sure to hear and see strange semi-luminous figures; and they +bethought them then of the at once evil and beneficent reputation owned +and really enjoyed by Parson Dodge, the eccentric clergyman of Talland, +who was reputed an exorcist of the first quality. He it was who, doughty +wrestler with the most obstinate spectres, found himself greatly in +demand in a wide geographical area for the banishing of troublesome +ghosts for a long term of years to the Red Sea; but it was whispered, on +the other hand, that he kept a numerous band of diabolic familiars +believed by the simple folk of that age to resort nightly to the vicarage +for their orders, and then to do his bidding. These were the spiteful +creatures, thought the country people, who, to revenge themselves for +this servitude, lurked in the churchyard, and got even with mankind by +pinching and smacking and playing all manner of scurvy tricks upon those +who dared pass this way under cover of night. Uncle Zack Chowne even got +a black eye by favour of these inimical agencies, one exceptionally dark +night when, coming home-along this way, under the influence of spirits +not of supernatural origin, he met a posse of fiends, and, in the amiable +manner of the completely intoxicated, insisted upon their adjourning with +him to the nearest inn, “jush for shake of ole timesh.” In fact, he made +the sad mistake of taking the fiends in question for friends, and +addressed them by name: with the result that he got a sledge-hammer blow +in what the prize-fighting brotherhood used to call “the peeper.” + + [Picture: The Devils of Talland] + +If he had adopted the proper method to be observed when meeting spirits, +_i.e._ if he had stood up and “said his Nummy Dummy,” all would doubtless +have been well; this form of exorcism being in Cornwall of great repute +and never known to fail: being nothing less, indeed, than the Latin _In +Nomine Domine_ in disguise. + +But the real truth of the matter, as the readers of these lines who can +see further through a brick wall than others may readily perceive, was +that those savage spooks and mischievous, Puck-like shapes, were really +youthful local smugglers in disguise, engaged at one and the same time in +a highly profitable nocturnal business, and in taking the welcome +opportunity thus offered in an otherwise dull circle of establishing a +glorious “rag.” + +Parson Dodge himself was something more than suspected of being “ower +sib” to these at once commercial and rollicking dogs, and Talland was in +fact the scene of many a successful run that could scarce have been +successful had not this easy-going cleric amiably permitted. + +It is thus peculiarly appropriate that we find to-day in this lonely +churchyard an epitaph upon a smuggler of those times. It is a tragical +enough epitaph, its tragedy perhaps disguised at the first glance by the +grotesquely comic little cherubs carved upon the tombstone, and +representing the local high-water mark of mortuary sculpture a hundred +years or so ago. They are pursy cherubs, of oleaginous appearance and of +this-worldly, rather than of other-worldly paunch and deportment. In +general, Talland churchyard is rich in such carvings; death’s-heads of +appalling ugliness to be seen in company with middle-aged, double-chinned +angels wearing what look suspiciously like chest-protectors and pyjamas, +and they decorate, with weirdly humorous aspect, the monuments and ledger +stones, and grin familiarly from the pavement with the half-obliterated +grins of many generations back. One of them points with a claw, intended +for a hand, to an object somewhat resembling a crumpled dress-tie set up +on end, probably designed to represent an hour-glass. + +Such is the mortuary art of these lonesome parishes in far Cornwall: +naïve, uninstructed, home-made. It sufficed the simple folk for whom it +was wrought; and now that more conventional and pretentious memorials +have taken its place, to serve the turn of folk less simple, there are +those who would abolish its uncouth manifestations. But that way—with +the urbanities of the world—goes old Cornwall, never to be replaced. + +Here is the epitaph to the smuggler, one— + + ROBERT MARK; + + late of Polperro, who Unfortunately + was _shot at Sea_ the 24th day of Jany. + in the year of our Lord GOD + 1802, in the 40th Year of His AGE + + * * * * * + + In prime of Life most suddenly, + Sad tidings to relate; + Here view My utter destiny, + And pity, My sad state: + I by a shot, which Rapid flew, + Was instantly struck dead; + LORD pardon the Offender who + My precious blood did shed. + Grant Him to rest, and forgive Me, + All I have done amiss; + And that I may Rewarded be + With Everlasting Bliss. + +Robert Mark was at the helm of a boat which had been obliged to run +before a revenue cutter. It was at the point of escaping when the +cutter’s crew opened fire upon the fugitive, killing the helmsman on the +spot. Let us trust he has duly won to that everlasting bliss that not +even smugglers are denied. The mild and forgiving terms of the epitaph +are to be noted with astonishment; the usual run of sentiment to be +observed on the very considerable number of these memorials to smugglers +cut off suddenly in the plenitude of their youth and beauty, being +particularly revengeful and bloodthirsty, or at the best, bitterly +reproachful. + +Among these many epitaphs on smugglers to be met with in the churchyards +of seaboard parishes is the following, to be found in the waterside +parish of Mylor, near Falmouth. Details of the incident in which this +“Cus-toms house officer” (spelled here exactly as the old lettering on +the tombstone has it) shot and mortally wounded Thomas James appear to +have been altogether lost: + + We have not a moment we can call our own. + + * * * * * + + In Memory of Thomas James, aged 35 years, who + on the evening of the 7th Dec. 1814, on his returning + to Flushing from St. Mawes in a boat was shot by a + Cus-toms house officer and expired a few days after. + + * * * * * + + Officious zeal in luckless hour laid wait + And wilful sent the murderous ball of fate: + James to his home, which late in health he left, + Wounded returned—of life is soon bereft. + +This is quite a mild and academic example, and obviously the work of some +passionless hireling, paid for his verses. He would have written not +less affectingly for poor dog Tray. + +Prussia Cove, the most famous smuggling centre in Cornwall, finds mention +in another chapter. Little else remains to be said, authentically at any +rate. Invention, however, could readily people every cove with desperate +men and hair-raising encounters, and there could nowadays be none who +should be able to deny the truth of them. But we will leave all that to +the novelists, merely pointing out that facts continually prove +themselves at least as strange as fiction. Thus at Wendron, five miles +inland from Helston, two caves, or underground chambers, were discovered +in 1905 during some alterations and rebuildings, close to the churchyard. +Local opinion declared them to be smugglers’ hiding-holes. + +There stands in St. Ives town a ruined old mansion in one of the narrow +alley-ways. It is known as Hicks’ Court, and must have been a +considerable place, in its day. Also the owners of it must have been +uncommonly fond of good liquors, for it has a “secret” cellar, so called +no doubt because, like the “secret” drawers of bureaus, its existence was +perfectly obvious. Locally it is known as a “smugglers’ store.” + +In such a place as St. Ives, on a coast of old so notorious for +smuggling, we naturally look for much history in this sort, but research +fails to reward even the most diligent; and we have to be content with +the meagre suspicions (for they were nothing more) of the honesty of John +Knill, a famous native and resident of the town in the second half of the +eighteenth century, who was Collector of Customs in that port, and in +1767 was chosen Mayor. His action in equipping some small craft to serve +as privateers against smugglers was wilfully misconstrued; and, at any +rate, it does not seem at all fitting that he, as an official of the +customs service, should have been concerned in such private ventures. +These “privateers,” it was said locally, were themselves actively +employed in smuggling. + +He was also, according to rumour, responsible, together with one Praed, +of Trevetho, for a ship which was driven ashore in St. Ives Bay, and, +when boarded by Roger Wearne, customs officer, was found to be deserted +by captain and crew, who had been careful to remove all the ship’s +papers, so that her owners remained unknown. The vessel was found to be +full of contraband goods, including a great quantity of china, some of it +of excellent quality. Wearne conceived the brilliant idea of taking some +samples of the best for his own personal use, and filled out the baggy +breeches he was wearing with them, before he made to rejoin the boat that +had put him aboard. This uncovenanted cargo made his movements, as he +came over the side, so slow that one of his impatient boatmen smartly +whacked him with the flat of his oar, calling, “Look sharp, Wearne,” and +was dismayed when, in place of the thud that might have been expected, +there came a crash like the falling of a trayful of crockery, followed by +a cry of dismay and anguish. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + + + TESTIMONY TO THE QUALITIES OF THE SEAFARING SMUGGLERS—ADAM SMITH ON + SMUGGLING—A CLERICAL COUNTERBLAST—BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES OF + SMUGGLERS—ROBERT JOHNSON, HARRY PAULET—WILLIAM GIBSON, A CONVERTED + SMUGGLER + +CARE has already been taken to discriminate between the hardy, hearty, +and daring fellows who brought their duty-free goods across the sea and +those others who, daring also, but often cruel and criminal, handled the +goods ashore. We now come to close quarters with the seafaring +smugglers, in a few biographical sketches: premising them with some +striking testimony to their qualities as seamen. + +Captain Brenton, in his “History of the Royal Navy,” pays a very high, +but not extravagant, compliment to these daring fellows: “These men,” he +says, “are as remarkable for their skill in seamanship as for their +audacity in the hour of danger; their local knowledge has been highly +advantageous to the Navy, into which, however, they never enter, unless +sent on board ships of war as a punishment for some crime committed +against the revenue laws. They are hardy, sober, and faithful to each +other, beyond the generality of seamen; and, when shipwreck occurs, have +been known to perform deeds not exceeded in any country in the world; +probably unequalled in the annals of other maritime powers.” + +Such men as these, besides being, in the rustic opinion, very much of +heroes, engaged in an unequal warfare, against heavy odds, with a +hateful, ogreish abstraction called “the Government,” which existed only +for the purpose of taxing and suppressing the poor, for the benefit of +the rich, were regarded as benefactors; for they supplied the +downtrodden, overtaxed people with better articles, at lower prices, than +could be obtained in the legitimate way of traders who had paid excise +duties. + +There was probably a considerable basis of truth to support this view, +for there is no doubt that duty-paid goods were largely adulterated. To +adulterate his spirits, his tea, and his tobacco was the nearest road to +any considerable profit that the tradesman could then make. + +Things being of this complexion, it would have been the sheerest pedantry +to refuse to purchase the goods the free-traders supplied at such +alluringly low prices, and of such indubitably excellent quality; and to +give retail publicans and shopkeepers and private consumers their due, as +sensible folk, untroubled by supersensitive consciences, they rarely did +refuse. + +Adam Smith, in the course of his writings on political economy, nearly a +century and a half ago, stated the popular view about smuggling and the +purchase of smuggled goods: + + “To pretend to have any scruple about buying smuggled goods, though a + manifest encouragement to the violation of the revenue laws, and to + the perjury which almost always attends it, would in most countries + be regarded as one of those pedantic pieces of hypocrisy which, + instead of gaining credit with anybody, seems only to expose the + person who affects to practise it to the suspicion of being a greater + knave than most of his neighbours.” + +From even the most charitable point of view, that person who was so +eccentric as to refuse to take advantage of any favourable opportunity of +purchasing cheaply such good stuff as might be offered to him, and had +not paid toll to the Revenue, was a prig. + +Smith himself looked upon the smuggler with a great deal of sympathy, and +regarded him as “a person who, though no doubt blamable for violating the +laws of his country, is frequently incapable of violating those of +natural justice, and would have been in every respect an excellent +citizen had not the laws of his country made that a crime which nature +never meant to be so.” + +Very few, indeed, were those voices raised against the practice of +smuggling. Among them, however, was that of John Wesley, perhaps the +most influential of all, especially in the West of England. The clergy +in general might rail against the smugglers, but there were few among +them who did not enjoy the right sort of spirits which, singularly +enough, could only commonly be obtained from these shy sources; and there +was a certain malignant satisfaction to any properly constituted smuggler +in using the tower, or perhaps even the pulpit, of a parish church as +temporary spirit-cellar, and in undermining the parson’s honesty by the +present of a tub. Few were those reverend persons who repudiated this +sly suggestion of co-partnery, and those few who felt inclined so to do +were generally silenced by the worldly wisdom of their parish clerks, +who, forming as it were a connecting link between things sacred and +profane, could on occasion inform a clergyman that his most respected +churchwarden was financially interested in the success of some famous run +of goods just notoriously brought off. + +Among those few clergy who actively disapproved of these things we must +include the Rev. Robert Hardy, somewhat multitudinously beneficed in +Sussex and elsewhere in the beginning of the nineteenth century. He +published in 1818 a solemn pamphlet entitled: “Serious Cautions and +Advice to all concerned in Smuggling; setting forth the Mischiefs +attendant upon that Traffic; together with some exhortations to Patience +and Contentment under the Difficulties and Trials of Life. By Robert +Hardy, A.M., Vicar of the united parishes of Walberton and Yapton, and of +Stoughton, in Sussex; and Chaplain to H.R.H. the Prince Regent.” + +The author did not by any means blink the difficulties or dangers, but +was, it will be conceded, far too sanguine when he wrote the following +passage, in the hope of his words suppressing the trade: + +“The calamities with which the Smuggler is now perpetually visited, by +Informations and Fines, and Seizures, and Imprisonments, will, I trust, +if properly considered, prevail upon the rich to discountenance, and upon +the poor to forbear from, a traffic which, _in addition to the sin of +it_, carries in its train so many evils, and mischiefs, and sorrows.” + +His voice we may easily learn, in perusing the history of smuggling at +and after the date of his pamphlet, was as that of one crying in the +wilderness. Its sound may have pleased himself, but it was absolutely +wasted upon those who smuggled, and those who purchased smuggled goods. + +“Smugglers,” he said, “are of three descriptions: + +“1. Those who employ their capital in the trade; + +“2. Those who do the work; + +“3. Those who deal in Smuggled Articles, either as Sellers or as Buyers. + +“All these are involved _in the guilt_ of this unlawful traffic; but its +_moral injuries_ fall principally upon the _second_ class. + +“Smuggling,” he then proceeds to say, “has not been confined to the lower +orders of people; but, from what I have heard, I apprehend that it has +very generally been encouraged by their superiors, for whom no manner of +excuse, that I know of, can be offered. I was once asked by an +inhabitant of a village near the sea whether I thought there was any harm +in smuggling. Upon my replying that I not only thought there was a +_great deal of harm_ in it, but a _great deal of sin_, he exclaimed, +‘Then the Lord have mercy upon the county of Sussex, for who is there +that has not had a tub?’” + +Among the ascertained careers of notable smugglers, that of Thomas +Johnson affords some exciting episodes. This worthy, who appears to have +been born in 1772 and to have died in 1839, doubled the parts of smuggler +and pilot. He was known pretty generally as “the famous Hampshire +smuggler.” + +As a captured and convicted smuggler he was imprisoned in the New Prison +in the Borough, in 1798, but made his escape, not without suspicion of +connivance on the part of the warders. That the possession of him was +ardently desired by the authorities seems sufficiently evident by the +fact of their offering a reward of £500 for his apprehension; but he +countered this by offering his services the following year as pilot to +the British forces sent to Holland. This offer was duly accepted, and +Johnson acquitted himself so greatly to the satisfaction of Sir Ralph +Abercromby, commanding, that he was fully pardoned. + + [Picture: The Escape of Johnson] + +He then plunged into extravagant living, and finally found himself +involved in heavy debts, stated (but not altogether credibly) to have +totalled £11,000. Resuming his old occupation of smuggling, he was +sufficiently wary not to be captured again by the revenue officers; but +what they found it impossible to achieve was with little difficulty +accomplished by the bailiffs, who arrested him for debt and flung him +into the debtors’ prison of the Fleet, in 1802. Once there, the Inland +Revenue were upon him with smuggling charges, and the situation seemed so +black that he determined on again making a venture for freedom. Waiting +an exceptionally dark night, he, on November 29th, stealthily crossed the +yard and climbed the tall enclosing wall that separated the prison from +the outer world. Sitting on the summit of this wall, he let himself down +slowly by the full length of his arms, just over the place where a lamp +was bracketed out over the pathway, far beneath. He then let himself +drop so that he would fall on to the bracket, which he calculated would +admirably break the too deep drop from the summit of the wall to the +ground. Unfortunately for him, an unexpected piece of projecting +ironwork caught him and ripped up the entire length of his thigh. At +that moment the slowly approaching footsteps of the watchman were heard, +and Johnson, with agonised apprehension, saw him coming along, swinging +his lantern. There was nothing for it but to lie along the bracket, +bleeding profusely the while, until the watchman should have passed. + +He did so, and, as soon as seemed safe, dropped to the ground and crawled +to a hackney-coach, hired by his friends, that had been waiting that +night and several nights earlier, near by. + +Safely away from the neighbourhood of the prison, his friends procured +him a post-chaise and four; and thus he travelled post-haste to the +Sussex coast at Brighton. On the beach a small sailing-vessel was +waiting to convey him across Channel. He landed at Calais and thence +made for Flushing, where he was promptly flung into prison by the agents +of Napoleon, who was at that time seriously menacing our shores with +invasion from Boulogne, where his flotilla for the transport of troops +then lay. + +Johnson and others were, in the opening years of the nineteenth century, +very busily employed in smuggling gold out of the country into France. +Ever since the troubles of the Revolution in that country, and all +through the wars that had been waged with the rise of Napoleon, gold had +been dwindling. People, terrified at the unrest of the times, and +nervous of fresh troubles to come, secreted coin, and consequently the +premium on gold rose to an extraordinary height, not only on the +Continent but in England as well. A guinea would then fetch as much as +twenty-seven shillings, and was worth a good deal more on the other side +of the Channel. Patriotism was not proof against the prospects of +profits to be earned by the export of gold, and not a few otherwise +respectable banking-houses embarked in the trade. Finance has no +conscience. + + [Picture: Johnson putting off from Brighton Beach] + +It is obvious that only thoroughly dependable and responsible men could +be employed on this business, for shipments of gold varied from £20,000 +to £50,000. + +Eight and ten-oared galleys were as a rule used for the traffic; the +money slung in long leather purses around the oarsmen’s bodies. + +Napoleon is said to have offered Johnson a very large reward if he would +consent, as pilot, to aid his scheme of invasion, and we are told that +Johnson hotly refused. + +“I am a smuggler,” said he, “but a true lover of my country, and no +traitor.” + +Napoleon was no sportsman. He kept Johnson closely confined in a noisome +dungeon for nine months. How much longer he proposed to hold him does +not appear, for the smuggler, long watching a suitable opportunity, at +last broke away, and, ignorant that a pardon was awaiting him in England, +escaped to America. + +Returning from that “land of the brave and the free,” we find him in 1806 +with the fleet commanded by Lord St. Vincent, off Brest. Precisely what +services, beside the obvious one of acting as pilot, he was then +rendering our Navy cannot be said, for the materials toward a life of +this somewhat heroic and picturesque figure are very scanty. But that he +had some plan for the destruction of the French fleet seems obvious from +the correspondence of Lord St. Vincent, who, writing on August 8th, 1806, +to Viscount Howick, remarks, “The vigilance of the enemy alone prevented +Tom Johnstone [sic] from doing what he professed.” What he professed is, +unfortunately, hidden from us. + +After this mysterious incident we lose sight for a while of our evasive +hero, and may readily enough assume that he returned again to his +smuggling enterprises; for it is on record that in 1809, when the unhappy +Walcheren expedition was about to be despatched, at enormous cost, from +England to the malarial shores of Holland, he once more offered his +services as pilot, and they were again accepted, with the promise of +another pardon for lately-accrued offences. + +He duly piloted the expedition, to the entire satisfaction of the +Government, and received his pardon and a pension of £100 a year. He +fully deserved both, for he signally distinguished himself in the course +of the operations by swimming to the ramparts of a fort, with a rope, by +which in some unexplained manner a tremendous and disastrous explosion +was effected. + +He was further appointed to the command of the revenue cruiser _Fox_, at +the conclusion of the war, and thus set to prey upon his ancient allies; +who, in their turn, made things so uncomfortable for the “scurvy rat,” as +they were pleased picturesquely to style him, that he rarely dared +venture out of port. So it would appear that he did not for any great +length of time hold that command. + +But the reputation for daring and resourcefulness that he enjoyed did not +seem to be clouded by this incident, for he was approached by the +powerful friends of Napoleon, exiled at St. Helena, to aid them in a +desperate attempt to rescue the fallen Emperor. It was said that they +offered him the sum of £40,000 down, and a further very large sum, if the +attempt were successful. The patriotic hero of some years earlier seems +to have been successfully tempted. “Every man,” says the cynic, “has his +price”; and £40,000 and a generous refresher formed his. For personal +gain he was prepared to let loose once more the scourge of Europe. + +Plans were actively afoot for the construction of a submarine boat (there +is nothing new under the sun!) for the purpose of secretly conveying the +distinguished exile away, when he inconsiderately died; and thus vanished +Johnson’s dreams of wealth. + +Some years later Johnson built a submarine boat to the order of the +Spanish Government, and ran trials with it in the Thames, between London +Bridge and Blackwall. On one occasion it became entangled in a cable of +one of the vessels lying in the Pool, and for a time it seemed scarce +possible the boat could easily be freed. + +“We have but two and a half minutes to live,” said he, consulting his +watch calmly, “unless we get clear of that cable.” + +“Captain” Johnson, as he was generally styled, lived in quiet for many +years, finally dying at the age of sixty-seven, in March 1839, in the +unromantic surroundings of the Vauxhall Bridge Road. + +Another smuggler of considerable reputation, of whom, however, we know +all too little, was Harry Paulet. This person, who appears in some +manner to have become a prisoner aboard a French man-o’-war, made his +escape and took with him a bag of the enemy’s despatches, which he handed +over to the English naval authorities. + +A greater deed was that when, sailing with a cargo of smuggled brandy, he +came in view of the French fleet (we being then, as usual, at war with +France), Paulet immediately went on a new tack and carried the news of +the enemy’s whereabouts to Lord Hawke, who promised to hang him if the +news were not true. + +A somewhat interesting and curious account of the conversion of a +youthful smuggler may be found in an old volume of _The Bible Christian +Magazine_. The incident belongs to the Scilly Isles. + +William Gibson, the smuggler in question, was a bold, daring young man, +and he, with others, had crossed over to France more than once in a small +open boat, a distance of 150 miles, rowing there and back, running great +risks to bring home a cargo of brandy. + +In 1820, the time when William was at his best in these smuggling +enterprises, St. Mary’s was visited by a pious, simple-minded young +woman, Mary Ann Werry by name, the first representative of the Bible +Christian connexion to land on the island. The congregation were in the +throes of a revival, and eager for more and more preaching, but the +minister upon whom they principally relied was commercially minded, and +demanded £2 for his services. The members refused to give it. “There is +a woman here,” said they, “we will have her to preach to us”; and, being +asked, she consented, and preached from 1 Tim. iv. 8, “For bodily +exercise profiteth little; but godliness is profitable unto all things, +having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come.” + +We have the well-known ruling of Dr. Johnson upon the preaching of women, +that it in a manner resembles a dog walking on its hind-legs: it is not +done well; you only marvel that it is done at all. [N.B.—Dr. Johnson +would not have favoured, or been favoured by, modern Women’s Leagues.] +But, at any rate, Miss Werry seems to have been a notable exception. She +was eloquent and persuasive, and played upon the sensibilities of those +rugged Scillonians what tune she would. + +Tears of penitence rolled down the cheeks of many a stalwart man (to say +nothing of the hoary sinners) that day. Among the number thus affected +was William Gibson, of St. Martin’s, who from that hour became a changed +person. No longer did he refuse to render unto Cæsar (otherwise King +George) that which was Cæsar’s (or King George’s). He gave up the +contraband trade, and, forswearing his old companions’ ways, turned to +those of the righteous and the law-abiding, and became a burning and a +shining light, and, as “Brother Gibson,” a painful preacher in the Bible +Christian communion. And thus, and in lawful fishing, with some little +piloting, he continued steadfast, until his death in 1877, in his +eighty-third year. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + + + THE CARTER FAMILY, OF PRUSSIA COVE + +IN the west of Cornwall, on the south coast of the narrow neck of land +which forms the beginning of that final westerly region known as +“Penwithstart,” is situated Prussia Cove, originally named Porth Leah, or +King’s Cove. It lies just eastwardly of the low dark promontory known as +Cuddan Point, and is even at this day a secluded place, lying remote from +the dull high-road that runs between Helston, Marazion, and Penzance. In +the days of the smugglers Porth Leah, or Prussia Cove, was something more +than secluded, and those who had any business at all with the place came +to it much more easily by sea than by land. This disability was, +however, not so serious as at first sight it would seem to be, for the +inhabitants of Prussia Cove were few, and were all, without exception, +fishermen and smugglers, who were much more at home upon the sea than on +land, and desired nothing so little as good roads and easy communication +with the world. An interesting and authoritative sidelight upon the then +condition of this district of West Cornwall is afforded by _The +Gentleman’s Magazine_ of 1754, in which the entire absence of roads of +any kind is commented upon. Bridle-paths there were, worn doubtless in +the first instance by the remote original inhabitants of this region, +trodden by the Phoenician traders of hoary antiquity, and unaltered in +all the intervening ages. They then remained, says _The Gentleman’s +Magazine_, “as the Deluge left them, and dangerous to travel over.” That +time of writing was the era when these conditions were coming to an end, +for the road from Penryn to Marazion was shortly afterwards constructed, +much to the alarm and disgust of the people of West Cornwall in general, +and of those of Penzance in particular. Penzance required no roads, and +in 1760 its Corporation petitioned, but unsuccessfully, against the +extension of the turnpike road then proposed, from Marazion. That was +the time when there was but one cart in the town, and when wheeled +traffic was impossible outside it: pack-horses and the sledge-like +contrivances known as “truckamucks” being the only methods of conveying +such few goods as were required. + +Under these interesting social conditions the ancient semi-independence +of Western Cornwall remained, little impaired. Many still spoke the +older Cornish language; the majority of folk referred to Devonshire and +the country in general beyond the Tamar as “England”—the inference being, +of course, that Cornwall itself was _not_ England—and smuggling was as +usual an industry as tin and copper-mining, fishing, or farming. Indeed +the distances in Western Cornwall between sea and sea are so narrow that +any man was commonly as excellent at farming as he was at fishing, and as +expert at smuggling as at either of those more legitimate occupations. +This amphibious race, wholly Celtic, adventurous, and enthusiastic, was +not readily amenable to the restrictions upon trade imposed by that +shadowy, distant, and impersonal abstraction called “the Government,” +supported by visible forces, in the way of occasional soldiers or +infrequent revenue cruisers, wherewith to make the collectors of customs +at Penzance, Falmouth, or St. Ives, respected. + +“The coasts here swarm with smugglers,” wrote George Borlase, of +Penzance, agent to Lieut.-General Onslow, in 1750. Many letters by the +same hand, printed in the publications of the Royal Institution of +Cornwall, under the title of the “Lanisley Letters,” reiterate this +statement, the writer of them urging the establishment of a military +force at Helston, for “just on that neighbourhood lye the smugglers and +wreckers, more than about us (at Penzance), tho’ there are too many in +all parts of the country.” + +The Cornish of that time were an unregenerate race, in the fullest sense +of that term, and indulged in all the evil excesses to which the Celtic +nature, untouched by religion, and wallowing in ancient superstitions, is +prone. They drank to excess, fought brutally, and were shameless +wreckers, who did not hesitate to lure ships upon the rocks and so bring +about their destruction and incidentally their own enrichment by the +cargo and other valuables washed ashore. Murder was a not unusual +corollary of the wreckers’ fearful trade, partly because of the olden +superstition that, if you saved the life of a castaway, that person whom +you had preserved would afterwards bring about your own destruction. +Therefore it was merely the instinct of self-preservation, and not sheer +ferocity, that prompted the knocking on the head of such waifs and +strays. If, at the same time, the wrecker went over the pockets of the +deceased, or cut off his or her fingers, for the sake of any rings, that +must not, of course, be accounted mere vulgar robbery: it was simply the +frugal nature of the people, unwilling to waste anything. + +Upon these simple children of nature, imbued with many of the fearful +beliefs current among the savages of the South Sea islands, the Reverend +John Wesley descended, in 1743. They were then, he says, a people “who +neither feared God nor regarded man.” Yet, so impressionable is the +Celtic nature, so childlike and easily led for good or for evil, that his +preaching within a marvellously short space of time entirely changed the +habits of these folk. In every village and hamlet there sprang up, as by +magic, Wesleyan Methodist meeting-houses; and these and other chapels of +dissent from the Church of England are to this day the most outstanding +features of the Cornish landscape. They are, architecturally speaking, +without exception, hideous eyesores, but morally they are things of +beauty. It is one of the bitterest indictments possible to be framed +against the Church of England in the west that, in all its existence, it +has never commanded the affections, nor exercised the spiritual +influence, won by Wesley in a few short years. + + [Picture: Smugglers using Church Tower for Storage] + +It was about this period of Wesley’s first visits to Cornwall that the +Carter family of Prussia Cove were born. Their father, Francis Carter, +who was a miner, and had, in addition, a small farm at Pengersick, +traditionally came of a Shropshire family, and died in 1784. He had +eight sons and two daughters, John Carter, the “King of Prussia,” being +the eldest. Among the others, Francis, born 1745, Henry, born 1749, and +Charles, 1757, were also actively engaged in smuggling; but John, both in +respect of being the eldest, and by force of character, was chief of +them. He and his brethren were all, to outward seeming, small farmers +and fisherfolk, tilling the ungrateful land in the neighbourhood of Porth +Leah, but in reality busily employed in bringing over cargoes of spirits +from Roscoff, Cherbourg, and St. Malo. The origin of the nickname, “King +of Prussia,” borne by John Carter, is said to lie in the boyish games of +the “king of the castle” kind, of himself and his brothers, in which he +was always the “King of Prussia”—_i.e._ Frederick the Great, the popular +hero of that age. Overlooking the cove of Porth Leah, at that time still +bearing that name, he built about 1770 a large and substantial stone +house, which stood a prominent feature in the scene, until it was +demolished in 1906. This he appears to have kept partly as an inn, +licensed or unlicensed, which became known by his own nickname, the “King +of Prussia,” and in it he lived until 1807. + +“Prussia Cove” is, in fact, two coves, formed by the interposition of a +rocky ledge, at whose extremity is a rock-islet called the “Eneys”—_i.e._ +“ynys,” ancient Cornish for island. The western portion of these inlets +is “Bessie’s Cove,” which takes its name from one Bessie Burrow, who kept +an inn on the cliff-top, known as the “Kidleywink.” The easterly inlet +was the site of the “King of Prussia’s” house. Both these rocky channels +had the advantage of being tucked away by nature in recesses of the +coast, and so overhung by the low cliffs that no stranger could in the +least perceive what harboured there until he was actually come to the +cliff’s edge, and peering over them; while no passing vessel out in the +Channel could detect the presence of any craft, which could not be +located from the sea until the cove itself was approached. + +Thus snugly seated, the Carter family throve. Of John Carter, although +chief of the clan, we have few details, always excepting the one great +incident of his career; and of that the account is but meagre. It seems +that he had actually been impudent enough to construct a battery, mounted +with some small cannon, beside his house, and had the temerity to unmask +it and open fire upon the _Fairy_ revenue sloop, which one day chased a +smuggling craft into this lair, and had sent in a boat party. The boat +withdrew before this unexpected reception, and, notice having been sent +round to Penzance, a party of mounted soldiers appeared the following +morning and let loose their muskets upon the smugglers, who were still +holding the fort, but soon vacated it upon thus being taken in the rear, +retreating to the “Kidleywink.” What would next have happened had the +soldiers pursued their advantage we can only surmise; but they appear to +have been content with this demonstration, and to have returned whence +they came, while of the revenue sloop we hear no more. Nor does Carter +ever appear to have been called to account for his defiance. But if a +guess may be hazarded where information does not exist, it may be assumed +that Carter’s line of defence would be that his fort was constructed and +armed against French raids, and that he mistook the revenue vessel for a +foreign privateer. + + [Picture: Prussia Cove] + +John Carter, and indeed all his brothers with him, was highly respected, +as the following story will show. The excise officers of Penzance, +hearing on one occasion that he was away from home, descended upon the +cove with a party, and searched the place. They found a quantity of +spirits lately landed, and, securing all the kegs, carried them off to +Penzance and duly locked them up in the custom-house. The anger of the +“King of Prussia” upon his return was great; not so great, it seems, on +account of the actual loss of the goods as for the breaking of faith with +his customers it involved. The spirits had been ordered by some of the +gentlefolk around, and a good deal of them had been paid for. Should he +be disgraced by failing to keep his engagements as an honest tradesman? +Never! And so he and his set off to Penzance overnight, and, raiding the +custom-house, brought away all his tubs, from among a number of others. +When morning came, and the custom-house was unlocked, the excisemen knew +whose handiwork this had been, because Carter was such an honourable man, +and none other than himself would have been so scrupulous as to take back +only his own. Yet he was also the hero of the next incident. The +revenue officers once paid him a surprise visit, and overhauled his +outhouses, in search of contraband. The search, on this occasion, was +fruitless. But there yet remained one other shed, and this, suspiciously +enough, was locked. He refused to hand over the key, whereupon the door +was burst open, revealing only domestic articles. The broken door +remained open throughout the night, and by morning all the contents of +the shed had vanished. Carter successfully sued for the value of the +property he had “lost,” but he had removed it himself! + +We learn something of the Carter family business from the autobiography +written by Henry Carter, an account of his life from 1749 until 1795. +Much else is found in a memoir printed in _The Wesleyan Methodist +Magazine_, 1831. “Captain Harry” lived until 1829, farming in a small +way at the neighbouring hamlet of Rinsey. He had long relinquished +smuggling, having been converted in 1789, and living as a burning and a +shining light in the Wesleyan communion thereafter, preaching with +fervour and unction. He tells us, in his rough, unvarnished +autobiography {173} that he first went smuggling and fishing with his +brothers when seventeen years of age, having already worked in the mines. +At twenty-five years of age he went regularly smuggling in a ten-ton +sloop, with two men to help him; and was so successful that he soon had a +sloop, nearly twice as large, especially built for him. Successful +again, “rather beyond common,” he (or “we,” as he says) bought a cutter +of some thirty tons, and employed a crew of ten men. “I saild in her one +year, and I suppose made more safe voyages than have been ever made, +since or before, with any single person.” All this while, he tells us, +he was under conviction of sin, but went on, nevertheless, for years, +sinning and repenting. “Well, then,” he continues, “in the cource of +these few years, as we card a large trade with other vessels allso, we +gained a large sum of money, and being a speculating family, was not +satisfied with small things.” A new cutter was accordingly built, of +about sixty tons burthen, and Captain Harry took her to sea in December +1777. Putting into St. Malo, to repair a sprung bowsprit, his fine new +cutter, with its sixteen guns, was taken by the French, and himself and +his crew of thirty-six men flung into prison, difficulties having again +sprung up between England and France, and an embargo being laid upon all +English shipping in French ports. In prison he was presently joined by +his brother John; both being shortly afterwards sent on parole to +Josselin. In November 1779 they were liberated, in exchange for two +French gentlemen, prisoners of war. The family, Captain Harry remarks, +they found alive and well on their return home after this two years’ +absence, but in a low state, the “business” not having been managed well +in their enforced absence. + +It is impossible to resist the strong suspicion, in all this and other +talk in the autobiography, of buying and building newer and larger +vessels, that the Carters were financed by some wealthy and influential +person, or persons, as undoubtedly many smugglers were, the profits of +the smuggling trade, when conducted on a large scale and attended by a +run of luck, being very large and amply recouping the partners for the +incidental losses. But the loss of the fine new cutter, on her first +voyage, at St. Malo, must have been a very serious business. + +After another interval of success with the smaller cutter they had +earlier used, with spells ashore, “riding about the country getting +freights, collecting money for the company, etc., etc.,” another +fifty-ton cutter was purchased, mounting nineteen guns. That venture, +too, was highly successful, and “the company accordingly had a new lugger +built, mounting twenty guns.” Horrible to relate, Captain Harry, “being +exposed to more company and sailors of all descriptions, larned to swear +at times.” This is bad hearing. + + [Picture: In a French prison] + +Obviously in those times there was a good deal of give and take going on +between the Customs and those smugglers who smuggled on a large scale, +and the Carters’ vessels must in some unofficial way have ranked as +privateers. Hence, possibly, the considerable armament they carried. +The Customs, and the Admiralty too, were prepared to wink at smuggling +when services against the foreign foe could be invoked. Thus we find +Captain Harry, in his autobiography, narrating how the Collector of +Customs at Penzance sent him a message to the effect that the _Black +Prince_ privateer, from Dunkirk, was off the coast, near St. Ives, and +desiring him to pursue her. “It was not,” frankly says Captain Harry, “a +very agreeable business”; but, being afraid of offending the Collector, +he obeyed, and went in pursuit, with two vessels. Coming up with the +enemy, after a running fight of three or four hours, the lugger received +a shot that obliged her to bear up, in a sinking condition; and so her +consort stood by her, and the chase was of necessity abandoned. +Presently the lugger sank, fourteen of her crew of thirty-one being +drowned. + +In January 1788 he went with a cargo of contraband in a forty-five-ton +lugger to Cawsand Bay, near Plymouth, and there met with the most serious +reverse of his smuggling career, two man-o’-war’s boats boarding the +vessel and seizing it and its contents. He was so knocked about over the +head with cutlasses that he was felled to the deck, and left there for +dead. + +“I suppose I might have been there aboute a quarter of an hour, until +they had secured my people below, and after found me lying on the deck. +One of them said, ‘Here is one of the poor fellows dead.’ Another made +answer, ‘Put the man below.’ He answered again, saying, ‘What use is it +to put a dead man below?’ and so past on. Aboute this time the vessel +struck aground, the wind being about east-south-east, very hard, right on +the shore. So their I laid very quiet for near the space of two hours, +hearing their discourse as they walked by me, the night being very dark +on the 30 Jany. 1788. When some of them saw me lying there, said, ‘Here +lays one of the fellows dead,’ one of them answered as before, ‘Put him +below.’ Another said, ‘The man is dead.’ The commanding officer gave +orders for a lantern and candle to be brought, so they took up one of my +legs, as I was lying upon my belly; he let it go, and it fell as dead +down on the deck. He likewayse put his hand up under my clothes, between +my shirt and my skin, and then examined my head, saying, ‘This man is so +warm now as he was two hours back, but his head is all to atoms.’ I have +thought hundreds of times since what a miracle it was I neither sneezed, +coughed, nor drew breath that they perceived in all this time, I suppose +not less than ten or fifteen minutes. The water being ebbing, the vessel +making a great heel towards the shore, so that in the course of a very +little time after, as their two boats were made fast alongside, one of +them broke adrift. Immediately there was orders given to man the other +boat, in order to fetch her; so that when I saw them in the state of +confusion, their gard broken, I thought it was my time to make my escape; +so I crept on my belly on the deck, and got over a large raft just before +the mainmast, close by one of the men’s heels, as he was standing there +handing the trysail. When I got over the lee-side I thought I should be +able to swim on shore in a stroke or two. I took hold of the burtons of +the mast, and, as I was lifting myself over the side, I was taken with +the cramp in one of my thighs. So then I thought I should be drowned, +but still willing to risk it, so that I let myself over the side very +easily by a rope into the water, fearing my enemies would hear me, and +then let go. As I was very near the shore, I thought to swim on shore in +the course of a stroke or two, as I used to swim so well, but soon found +out my mistake. I was sinking almost like a stone, and hauling astarn in +deeper water, when I gave up all hopes of life, and began to swallow some +water. I found a rope under my breast, so that I had not lost all my +senses. I hauled upon it, and soon found one end fast to the side, just +where I went overboard, which gave me a little hope of life. So that +when I got there, could not tell which was best, to call to the +man-of-war’s men to take me in, or to stay there and die, for my life and +strength were allmoste exhausted; but whilst I was thinking of this, +touched bottom with my feet. Hope then sprung up, and I soon found +another rope, leading towards the head of the vessel in shoaler water, so +that I veered upon one and hauled upon the other that brought me under +the bowsprit, and then at times upon the send of the sea, my feete were +allmoste dry. I thought then I would soon be out of their way. Left go +the rope, but as soon as I attempted to run, fell down, and as I fell, +looking round aboute me, saw three men standing close by me. I knew they +were the man-of-war’s men seeing for the boat, so I lyed there quiet for +some little time, and then creeped upon my belly I suppose aboute the +distance of fifty yards; and as the ground was scuddy, some flat rock +mixt with channels of sand, I saw before me a channel of white sand, and +for fear to be seen creeping over it, which would take some time, not +knowing there was anything the matter with me, made the second attempt to +run, and fell in the same manner as before. My brother Charles being +there, looking out for the vessel, desired some Cawsand men to go down to +see if they could pick up any of the men, dead or alive, not expecting to +see me ever any more, allmoste sure I was ither shot or drowned. One of +them saw me fall, ran to my assistance, and, taking hold of me under the +arm, says, ‘Who are you?’ So as I thought him to be an enemy, made no +answer. He said, ‘Fear not, I am a friend; come with me.’ And by that +time, forth was two more come, which took me under both arms, and the +other pushed me in the back, and so dragged me up to the town. I suppose +it might have been about the distance of the fifth part of a mile. My +strength was allmoste exhausted; my breath, nay, my life, was allmoste +gone. They took me into a room where there were seven or eight of +Cawsand men and my brother Charles, and when he saw me, knew me by my +great coat, and cryed with joy, ‘This is my brother!’ So then they +immediately slipt off my wet clothes, and one of them pulled off his +shirt from off him and put on me, sent for a doctor, and put me to bed. +Well, then, I have thought many a time since what a wonder it was. The +bone of my nose cut right in two, nothing but a bit of skin holding it, +and two very large cuts on my head, that two or three pieces of my skull +worked out afterwards.” + +The difficulty before Captain Harry’s friends was how to hide him away, +for they were convinced that a reward would be offered for his +apprehension. He was, in the first instance, taken to the house of his +brother Charles, and stayed there six or seven days, until an +advertisement appeared in the newspapers, offering a reward of three +hundred pounds for him, within three months. He was then taken to the +house of a gentleman at Marazion, and there remained close upon three +weeks, removing thence to the mansion called Acton Castle, near Cuddan +Point, then quite newly built by one Mr. John Stackhouse. He was moved +to and fro, between Acton Castle and Marazion, and so great did his +brothers think the need of precaution that the doctor who attended to his +hurts was blindfolded on the way. And so matters progressed until +October, when he was shipped from Mount’s Bay to Leghorn, and thence, in +1789, sailed for New York. It was in New York that the Lord strove +mightily with him, and he was converted and became a member of the +Wesleyan Methodist communion. After some considerable trials, he sailed +for England, and finally reached home again in October 1790, to his +brother Charles’s house at Kenneggey. His reception was enthusiastic, +and he became in great request as a preacher in all that countryside. +But in April 1791 he tells us he was sent for “by a great man of this +neighbourhood” (probably one of those whom we have already suspected of +being sleeping-partners in the Carters’ business), and warned that three +gentlemen had been in his company one day at Helston, when one said, +looking out of window, “There goes a Methodist preacher”; whereupon +another answered, “I wonder how Harry Carter goes about so publicly, +preaching, and the law against him. I wonder he is not apprehended.” +The great man warned him that it might be a wise course to return to +America. “And,” continues Captain Harry, “as the gent was well +acquainted with our family, I dined with him, and he brought me about a +mile in my way home; so I parted with him, fully determining in my own +mind to soon see my dear friends in New York again. So I told my +brothers what the news was, and that I was meaning to take the gent’s +advice. They answered, ‘If you go to America, we never shall see you no +more. We are meaning to car on a little trade in Roscoff, in the brandy +and gin way, and if you go there you’ll be as safe there as in America; +likewayse we shal pay you for your comision, and you car on a little +business for yourself, if you please.’ So,” continues this simple soul, +“with prayer and supplication I made my request known unto God.” And as +there appeared no divine interdict upon smuggling, he accepted the agency +and went to reside at Roscoff, sending over many a consignment of ardent +liquors that were never intended to—and never did—pay tribute to the +Revenue. All went well until, in the troubles that attended the French +Revolution, he was, in company with other English, arrested and flung +into prison in 1793. And in prison he remained during that Reign of +Terror in which English prisoners were declared by the Convention to rank +with the “aristocrats” and the “suspects,” and were therefore in hourly +danger of the guillotine. This immediate terror passed when Robespierre +was executed, July 28th, 1794, but it was not until August 1795 that +Harry Carter was released. He reached home on August 22nd, and appears +ever after to have settled down to tilling a modest farm and leaving +smuggling to brothers John and Charles. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + + + JACK RATTENBURY + +WE do not expect of smugglers that they should be either literary or +devout. The doings of the Hawkhurst Gang, and of other desperate and +bloody-minded associations of free-traders, seem more in key with the +business than either the sitting at a desk, nibbling a pen and rolling a +frenzied eye, in search of a telling phrase, or the singing of Methodist +psalms. Yet we have, in the “Memoirs of a Smuggler,” published at +Sidmouth in 1837, the career of Jack Rattenbury, smuggler, of Beer, in +Devonshire, told by himself; and in the diary of Henry Carter, of Prussia +Cove, and later of Rinsey, we have learned how he found peace and walked +with the saints, after a not uneventful career in robbing the King’s +Revenue of a goodly portion of its dues as by law enacted. With the +eminent Mr. Henry Carter and his interesting brothers we have already +dealt, reserving this chapter for the still more eminent Rattenbury, +“commonly called,” as he says on his own title-page (in the manner of one +who knows his own worth), “The Rob Roy of the West.” + +We need not be so simple as to suppose that Rattenbury himself actually +wrote, with his own hand, this interesting account of his adventures. +The son of a village cobbler in South Devon, born in 1778, and taking to +a seafaring life when nine years of age, would scarce be capable, in +years of eld, of writing the conventionally “elegant” English of which +his “Autobiography” is composed. But nothing “transpires” (as the actual +writer of the book might say) as to whom Rattenbury recounted his moving +tale, or by whose hand it was really set down. Bating, however, the +conventional language, the book has the unmistakable forthright +first-hand character of a personal narrative. + +Before the future smuggler was born, as he tells us, his shoemaker, or +cobbler, father disappeared from Beer in a manner in those days not +unusual. He went on board a man-o’-war, and was never again heard of. +Whether he actually “went,” or was taken by a press-gang, we are left to +conjecture. But they were sturdy, self-reliant people in those days, and +Mrs. Rattenbury earned a livelihood in this bereavement by selling fish, +“without receiving the least assistance from the parish, or any of her +friends.” + +When Jack Rattenbury was nine years of age he was introduced to the sea +by means of his uncle’s fishing-boat, but dropped the family connection +upon being lustily rope’s-ended by the uncle, as a reward for losing the +boat’s rudder. He then went apprentice to a Brixham fisherman, but, +being the younger among several apprentices, was accordingly bullied, and +left; returning to Beer, where he found his uncle busily engaging a +privateer’s crew, war having again broken out between England and France, +and merchantmen being a likely prey. + + [Picture: Jack Rattenbury] + +So behold our bold privateer setting forth, keen for loot and +distinction; the hearts of men and boys alike beating high in hope of +such glory as might attach to capturing some defenceless trader, and in +anticipation of the prize-money to be obtained by robbing him. But see +the irony of the gods in their high heavens! After seven weeks’ +fruitless and expensive cruising at sea, they espied a likely vessel, and +bore down upon her, with the horrible result that she proved to be an +armed Frenchman of twenty-six guns, who promptly captured the privateer, +without even the pretence of a fight: the privateering crew being sent, +ironed, down below hatches aboard the Frenchman, which then set sail for +Bordeaux. There those more or less gallant souls were flung into prison, +whence Rattenbury managed to escape to an American ship lying in the +harbour. It continued to lie there, in consequence of an embargo upon +all shipping, for twelve months: an anxious time for the boy. At last, +the interdict being removed, they sailed, and Rattenbury landed at New +York. From that port he returned to France in another American ship, +landing at Havre; and at last, after a variety of transhipments, came +home again to Beer, by way of Guernsey. + +He was by this time about sixteen years of age. For six months he +remained at home engaged in fishing; but this he found a very dull +occupation after his late roving life, and, as smuggling was then very +active in the neighbourhood, and promised both profit and excitement, he +accordingly engaged in a small vessel that plied between Lyme Regis and +the Channel Islands, chiefly in the cognac-smuggling business. This +interlude likewise soon came to an end, and he then joined a small vessel +called _The Friends_, lying at Bridport. On his first voyage, in the +entirely honest business of sailing to Tenby for a cargo of culm, this +ship was unlucky enough to be captured by a French privateer; but +Rattenbury escaped by a clever ruse, off Swanage, and, swimming ashore, +secured the intervention of the _Nancy_, revenue cutter, which recaptured +_The Friends_, and brought her into Cowes that same night: a very smart +piece of work, as will be readily conceded. Those were times of quick +and surprising changes, and Rattenbury had not been again aboard _The +Friends_ more than two days when he was forcibly enlisted in the Navy, by +the press-gang. Escaping from the more or less glorious service of his +country at the end of a fortnight, he then prudently went on a long +cod-fishing cruise off Newfoundland; but on the return voyage the ship +was captured by a Spanish privateer and taken to Vigo. Escaping thence, +he again reached home, to be captured by the bright eyes of one of the +buxom maids of Beer, where he was married, April 17th, 1801, proceeding +then to live at Lyme Regis. Privateering to the west coast of Africa +then occupied his activities for a time, but that business was never a +profitable one, as far as Rattenbury was concerned, and they caught +nothing; but, on the other hand, were nearly impressed, ship and ship’s +company too, by the _Alert_, King’s cutter. Piloting, rather than +privateering, then engaged his attention, and it was while occupied in +that trade that he was again impressed and again escaped. + +He then returned to Beer, and embarked upon a series of smuggling +ventures, varied by attempts on the part of the press-gang to lay hold of +him, and by some other (and always barren) privateering voyages. +Ostensibly engaged in fishing, he landed many boat-loads of contraband at +Beer, bringing them from quiet spots on the coasts of Dorset and +Hampshire, where the goods had been hidden. Christchurch was one of +these smugglers’ warehouses, and from the creeks of that flat shore he +and his fellows brought many a load, in open boats. On one of these +occasions he fell in with the _Roebuck_ revenue tender, which chased and +fired upon him: the man who fired doing the damage to himself, for the +gun burst and blew off his arm. But Rattenbury and his companions were +captured, and their boat-load of gin was impounded. Rattenbury surely +was a very Puck among smugglers: a tricksy sprite, at once impudent and +astonishingly fortunate. He hid himself in the bottom of the enemy’s own +boat, and by some magical dexterity escaped when it touched shore: while +his companions were held prisoners. Nay, more. When night was come, he +was impudent enough, and successful enough, to go and release his +friends, and at the same time to bring away three of the captured +gin-kegs. In that same winter of 1805 he made seven trips in a new-built +smuggling vessel. Five of these were successful ventures, and two were +failures. In the spring of 1806 his crew and cargo of spirit-tubs were +captured, on returning from Alderney, by the _Duke of York_ cutter. He +was taken to Dartmouth, and, with his companions, fined and given the +alternative of imprisonment or serving aboard a man-o’-war. After a very +short experience of gaol, they chose to serve their country, chiefly +because it was much easier to desert that service than to break prison; +and they were then shipped in Dartmouth roads, whence Rattenbury escaped +from the navy tender while the officers were all drunk; coming ashore in +a fisherman’s boat, and thence making his way home by walking and riding +horseback to Brixham, and from that port by fishing-smack. + +Soon after this adventure he purchased a share in a galley, and, with +some companions, made several successful trips in the cognac-smuggling +between Beer and Alderney. At last the galley was lost in a storm, and +in rowing an open boat across Channel Rattenbury and another were +captured by the _Humber_ sloop, and taken for trial to Falmouth and +committed to Bodmin gaol, to which they were consigned in two +post-chaises, in company with two constables. Travellers were thirsty +folk in those days, and at every inn between Falmouth and Bodmin the +chaises were halted, so that the constables could refresh themselves. +Evening was come before they had reached Bodmin, and while the now +half-seas-over constables were taking another dram at the lonely wayside +inn called the “Indian Queens,” Rattenbury and his companions conspired +to escape. Behold them, then, when ordered by the constables to resume +their places, refusing, and entering into a desperate struggle with those +officers of the law. A pistol was fired, the shot passing close to +Rattenbury’s head. He and his companion then downed the constables and +escaped across the moors; where, meeting with another party of smugglers, +they were sheltered at Newquay. Next morning they travelled horseback, +in company with the host who had sheltered them, to Mevagissey, whence +they hired a boat to Budleigh Salterton, and thence walked home again to +Beer. + +Next year Rattenbury was appointed captain of a smuggling vessel called +the _Trafalgar_, and after five fortunate voyages had the misfortune to +lose her in heavy weather off Alderney. He and some associates then +bought a vessel called the _Lively_, but she was chased by a French +privateer and the helmsman shot. The privateer’s captain was so overcome +by this incidental killing that he relinquished his prize. After a few +more trips, the _Lively_ proved unseaworthy, and the confederates then +purchased the _Neptune_, which was wrecked after three successful voyages +had been made. But Rattenbury tells us, with some pride, that he saved +the cargo. In the meanwhile, however, the _Lively_ having been repaired, +had put to sea in the smuggling interest again, and had been captured and +confiscated by the revenue officers. Rattenbury lost £160 by that +business. Soon afterwards he took a share in a twelve-oared galley, and +was one of those who went in it to Alderney for a cargo. On the return +they were unfortunate enough to fall in with two revenue cutters: the +_Stork_ and the _Swallow_, that had been especially detailed to capture +them; and accordingly did execute that commission, in as thorough and +workmanlike fashion as possible, seizing the tubs and securing the +persons of Rattenbury and two others; although the nine other oarsmen +escaped. Captain Emys, of the _Stork_, took Rattenbury aboard his +vessel, and treated him well, inviting him to his cabin and to eat and +drink with him. Next day the smugglers were landed at Cowes. + +“Rattenbury,” said the genial captain, “I am going to send you aboard a +man-o’-war, and you must get clear how you can.” To this the saucy +Rattenbury replied, “Sir, you have been giving me roast meat ever since I +have been aboard, and now you have run the spit into me.” He was then +put aboard the _Royal William_, on which he found a great many other +smuggler prisoners. Thence, in the course of a fortnight, he and the +others were drafted to the _Resistance_ frigate, and sent to Cork. +Arrived there, our slippery Rattenbury duly escaped in course of the +following day, and was home again in six days more. + +The activities of the smugglers were at times exceedingly unpatriotic, in +other ways than merely cheating the Revenue, and Rattenbury was no whit +better than his fellows. He had not long returned home when he made +arrangements, for the substantial consideration of one hundred pounds, to +embark across the Channel four French officers, prisoners of war, who had +escaped from captivity at Tiverton. Receiving them on arrival at Beer, +and concealing them in a house near the beach, their presence was soon +detected and warrants were issued for the arrest of Rattenbury and five +others concerned. Rattenbury adopted the safest course and surrendered +voluntarily, and was acquitted, with a magisterial caution not to do it +again. + +Every now and again Rattenbury found himself arrested, or in danger of +being arrested, as a deserter from the Navy. Returning on one of many +occasions from a successful smuggling trip to Alderney, and drinking at +an inn, he found himself in company with a sergeant and several privates +of the South Devon Militia. Presently the sergeant, advancing towards +him, said, “You are my prisoner. You are a deserter, and must go along +with me.” + +Must! what meaning was there in that imperative word for the bold +smuggler of old? None. But Rattenbury’s first method was suavity, +especially as the militia had armed themselves with swords and muskets, +and as such weapons are exceptionally dangerous things in the hands of +militiamen. “Sergeant,” said he (or says his author for him, in that +English which surely Rattenbury himself never employed) “you are surely +labouring under an error. I have done nothing that can authorise you in +taking me up, or detaining me; you must certainly have mistaken me for +some other person.” + +He then describes how he drew the sergeant into a parley, and how, in +course of it, he jumped into the cellar, and, throwing off jacket and +shirt, to prevent any one holding him, armed himself with a reaphook and +bade defiance to all who should attempt to take him. + +The situation was relieved at last by the artful women of Beer rushing in +with an entirely fictitious story of a shipwreck and attracting the +soldiers’ attention. In midst of this diversion, Rattenbury jumped out, +and, dashing down to the beach, got aboard his vessel. After this +incident he kept out of Beer as much as possible; and shortly afterwards +was successful in piloting the _Linskill_ transport through a storm that +was likely to have wrecked her, and so safely into the Solent. He earned +twenty guineas by this; and received the advice of the captain to get a +handbill printed, detailing the circumstances of this service, by way of +set-off against the various desertions for which he was liable to be at +any time called to account. + +Soon after this, Lord and Lady Rolle visited Beer, and Rattenbury’s wife +took occasion to present his lordship with one of the bills that had been +struck off. “I am sorry,” observed Lord Rolle, reading it, “that I +cannot do anything for your husband, as I am told he was the man who +threatened to cut my sergeant’s guts out.” Such, you see, was the +execution Rattenbury, at bay in the cellar, had proposed with his +reaphook upon the military. + +Hearing this, and learning that Lady Rolle was also in the village, he +ran after her, and overtaking her carriage, fell upon his knees and +presented one of his handbills, entreating her ladyship to use her +influence on his behalf, so that the authorities might not be allowed to +take him. It is a ridiculous picture, but Rattenbury makes no shame in +presenting it. “She then said,” he tells us, “you ought to go back on +board a man-o’-war, and be equal to Lord Nelson; you have such spirits +for fighting. If you do so, you may depend I will take care you shall +not be hurt.” To which he replied; “My lady, I have ever had an aversion +to [sic] the Navy. I wish to remain with my wife and family, and to +support them in a creditable manner, {194} and therefore can never think +of returning.” + +Her ladyship then said, “I will consider about it,” and turned off. +About a week afterwards, the soldiers were ordered away from Beer, +through the influence of her ladyship, as I conjecture, and the humanity +of Lord Rolle. + +And so Rattenbury was left in peace. He tells us that he would have now +entered upon a new course of life, but found himself “engaged in +difficulties from which I was unable to escape, and bound by a chain of +circumstances whose links I was unable to break. . . . I seriously +resolved to abandon the trade of smuggling; to take a public-house, and +to employ my leisure hours in fishing, etc. At first the house appeared +to answer pretty well, but after being in it for two years, I found that +I was considerably gone back in the world; for that my circumstances, +instead of improving, were daily getting worse, for all the money I could +get by fishing and piloting went to the brewer.” Thus, he says, he was +obliged to return to smuggling; but we cannot help suspecting that +Rattenbury is here not quite honest with us, and that smuggling offered +just that alluring admixture of gain and adventure he found himself +incapable of resisting. + +Adventures, it has been truly said, are to the adventurous; and +Rattenbury’s career offered no exception to the rule. There was, +perhaps, never so unlucky a smuggler as he. Returning to the trade in +November 1812, and returning with a cargo of spirits from Alderney, his +vessel fell in with the brig _Catherine_, and was pursued, heavily fired +upon, and finally captured. The captain of the _Catherine_, raging at +them, declared they should all be sent aboard a man-o’-war; but a search +of the smuggling craft revealed nothing except one solitary pint of gin +in a bottle: the cargo having presumably been put over the side. The +crew were, however, taken prisoners aboard the _Catherine_, and their +vessel was taken to Brixham. Rattenbury and his men were kept aboard the +_Catherine_ for a week, cruising in the Channel, and then the brig put in +again to Brixham, where the wives of the prisoners were anxiously +waiting. Next morning, in the absence of the captain and chief officer +ashore, the women came off in a boat, and were helped aboard the brig; +when Rattenbury and three of his men jumped into the boat and pushed off. +The second mate, who was in charge of the vessel, caught hold of the oar +Rattenbury was using, and broke the blade of it, and the smuggler then +threw the remaining part at him. The mate then fired; whereupon +Rattenbury’s wife knocked the firearm out of his hand. Picking it up, he +fired again, but the boat’s sail was up, and the fugitives were well on +the way to shore, and made good their escape, amid a shower of bullets. +They then dispersed, two of them being afterwards re-taken and sent +aboard a man-o’-war bound for the West Indies; but Rattenbury made his +way safely home again and was presently joined there by his wife. + +The public-house was closed in November 1813, smuggling was for a time in +a bad way, owing to the Channel being closely patrolled; and Rattenbury, +now with a wife and four children, made but a scanty subsistence on +fishing and a little piloting. In September 1814 he ventured again in +the smuggling way, making a successful run to and from Cherbourg, but in +November another run was quite spoilt, in the first instance by a gale, +which obliged the smugglers to sink their kegs, and in the second by the +revenue officers seizing the boats. Finally, on the next day a +custom-house boat ran over their buoy marking the spot where the kegs had +been sunk, and seized them all—over a hundred. “This,” says Rattenbury, +with the conciseness of a resigned victim, “was a severe loss.” + +The succeeding years were more fortunate for him. In 1816 he bought the +sloop _Elizabeth and Kitty_, cheap, having been awarded a substantial sum +as salvage, for having rescued her when deserted by her crew; and all +that year did very well in smuggling spirits from Cherbourg. Successes +and failures, arrests, escapes, or releases, then followed in plentiful +succession until the close of 1825, when the most serious happening of +his adventurous career occurred. He was captured off Dawlish, on +December 18th, returning from a smuggling expedition, and detained at +Budleigh Salterton watch-house until January 2nd, when he was taken +before the magistrates at Exeter, and committed to gaol. There he +remained until April 5th, 1827. In 1829 he says he “made an application” +to Lord Rolle, who gave him a letter to the Admiral at Portsmouth, and +went aboard the _Tartar_ cutter. In January 1830 he took his discharge, +received his pay at the custom-house, and went home. + +Very slyly does he withhold from us the subject of that application, and +the nature of the _Tartar’s_ commission; and it is left for us to +discover that the bold smuggler had taken service at last with the +revenue and customs authorities, and for a time placed his knowledge of +the ins and outs of smuggling at the command of those whose duty it was +to defeat the free-traders. It was perhaps the discovery that the work +of spying and betraying was irksome, or perhaps the ready threats of his +old associates, that caused him to relinquish the work. + +However that may be, he was soon at smuggling again, carried on in +between genuine trading enterprises; and in November 1831 was unlucky +enough to be chased and captured by the Beer preventive boat. As usual, +the cargo was carefully sunk before the capture was actually made, and +although the preventive men strenuously grappled for it, they found +nothing but a piece of rope, about one fathom long. On the very slight +presumptive evidence of that length of rope, Rattenbury and his eldest +son and two men were found guilty on their trial at Lyme Regis, and were +committed to Dorchester gaol. There they remained until February 1833. + +Rattenbury’s last smuggling experience was a shoregoing one, in the month +of January 1836, at Torquay, where he was engaged with another man in +carting a load of twenty tubs of brandy. They had got about a mile out +of Newton Abbot, at ten o’clock at night, when a party of riding-officers +came up and seized the consignment “in the King’s name.” Rattenbury +escaped, being as eel-like and evasive as ever, but his companion was +arrested. + +Thus, before he was quite fifty-eight years of age, he quitted an +exceptionally chequered career; but his wonted fires lived in his son, +who continued the tradition, even though the great days of smuggling were +by now done. + +That son was charged, at Exeter Assizes, in March 1836, with having on +the night of December 1st, 1835, taken part with others in assaulting two +custom-house officers at Budleigh Salterton. Numerous witnesses swore to +his having been at Beer that night, sixteen miles away, but he was found +guilty and sentenced to seven years’ transportation; the Court being +quite used to this abundant evidence, and quite convinced, Bible oaths to +the contrary notwithstanding, that he was at Budleigh Salterton, and did +in fact take part in maltreating His Majesty’s officers. + +Jack Rattenbury was on this occasion cross-examined by the celebrated Mr. +Serjeant Bompas, in which he declared he had brought up that son in a +proper way, and “larnt him the Creed, the Lord’s Prayer, and the Ten +Commandments.” (Perhaps also that important Eleventh Commandment, “Thou +shalt not be found out!”) + +“You don’t find there, ‘Thou shalt not smuggle?’” asked Mr. Serjeant +Bompas. + +“No,” replied Rattenbury the ready, “but I find there, ‘Thou shalt not +bear false witness against thy neighbour.’” + +The injured innocent, like to be transported for his country’s good, was +granted a Royal Pardon, as the result of several petitions sent to Lord +John Russell. + +The village of Beer, deep down in one of the most romantic rocky coves of +South Devon, is nowadays a very different kind of place from what it was +in Rattenbury’s time. Then the home of fishermen daring alike in fishing +and in smuggling, a village to which strangers came but rarely, it is now +very much of a favourite seaside resort, and full of boarding-houses that +have almost entirely abolished the ancient thatched cottages. A few of +these yet linger on, together with one or two of the curious old stone +water-conduits and some stretches of the primitive cobbled pavements, but +they will not long survive. The sole characteristic industry of Beer +that is left, besides the fishing and the stone-quarrying that has been +in progress from the very earliest times, is the lace-making, nowadays +experiencing a revival. + +But the knowing ones will show you still the smugglers’ caves: deep +crannies in the chalk cliffs of Beer, that at this place so curiously +alternate with the more characteristic red sandstone of South Devon. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + + + THE WHISKY SMUGGLERS + +A MODERN form of smuggling little suspected by the average Englishman is +found in the illicit whisky-distilling yet carried on in the Highlands of +Scotland and the wilds of Ireland, as the records of Inland Revenue +prosecutions still annually prove. The sportsman, or the more +adventurous among those tourists who roam far from the beaten track, are +still likely to discover in rugged and remote situations the ruins of +rough stone and turf huts of no antiquity, situated in lonely rifts in +the mountain-sides, always with a stream running by. If the stranger is +at all inquisitive on the subject of these solitary ruins, he will easily +discover that not only are they not old, but that they have, in many +cases, only recently been vacated. They are, in fact, the temporary +bothies built from the abundant materials of those wild spots by the +ingenious crofters and other peasantry, for the purpose of distilling +whisky that shall not, between its manufacture and its almost immediate +consumption, pay duty to the revenue authorities. + +This illegal production of what is now thought to be the “national drink” +of Scotland and Ireland, is not of any considerable antiquity, for whisky +itself did not grow popular until comparatively recent times. Robert +Burns, who may not unfairly be considered the poet-laureate of whisky, +and styles it “whisky, drink divine,” would have had neither the +possibility of that inspiration, nor have filled the official post of +exciseman, had he flourished but a few generations earlier; but he was +born in that era when whisky-smuggling and dram-drinking were at their +height, and he took an active part in both the drinking of whisky and the +hunting down of smugglers of it. + +One of the most stirring incidents of his career was that which occurred +in 1792, when, foremost of a little band of revenue officers, aided by +dragoons, he waded into the waters of Solway, reckless of the quicksands +of that treacherous estuary, and, sword in hand, was the first to board a +smuggling brig, placing the crew under arrest and conveying the vessel to +Dumfries, where it was sold. It was this incident that inspired him with +the poem, if indeed, we may at all fitly claim inspiration for such an +inferior Burns product: + + THE DE’IL’S AWA’ WI’ THE EXCISEMAN + + The De’il cam’ fiddling thro’ the town, + And danc’d awa’ wi’ the exciseman; + And ilka wife cry’d, “Auld Mahoun, + I wish you luck o’ your prize, man.” + + We’ll mak’ our maut and brew our drink, + We’ll dance, and sing, and rejoice, man; + And monie thanks to the muckle black De’il, + That danced awa’ wi’ the exciseman. + + There’s threesome reels, and foursome reels, + There’s hornpipes and strathspeys, man; + But the ae best dance e’er cam’ to our lan’, + Was—the De’il’s awa’ wi’ the exciseman. + +Whisky, _i.e. usquebaugh_, signifying in Gaelic “water of life,” +originated, we are told, in the monasteries, where so many other +comforting cordials were discovered, somewhere about the eleventh or +twelfth century. It was for a very long period regarded only as a +medicine, and its composition remained unknown to the generality of +people; and thus we find among the earliest accounts of whisky, outside +monastic walls, an item in the household expenses of James the Fourth of +Scotland, at the close of the fifteenth century. There it is styled +“aqua vitæ.” + +A sample of this then new drink was apparently introduced to the notice +of the King or his Court, and seems to have been so greatly appreciated +that eight bolls of malt figure among the household items as delivered to +“Friar James Cor,” for the purpose of manufacturing more, as per sample. + +But for generations to come the nobles and gentry of Scotland continued +to drink wine, and the peasantry to drink ale, and it was only with the +closing years of another century that whisky became at all commonly +manufactured. We read that in 1579 distillers were for the first time +taxed in Scotland, and private stills forbidden; and the rural population +did not altogether forsake their beer for the spirit until about the +beginning of the eighteenth century. Parliament, however, soon +discovered a tempting source of revenue in it, and imposed constantly +increasing taxation. In 1736 the distillers’ tax was raised to 20_s._ a +gallon, and there were, in addition, imposts upon the retailers. + +It might have been foreseen that the very natural result of these +extortionate taxes would be to elevate illegal distilling, formerly +practised here and there, into an enormously increased industry, +flourishing in every glen. Only a very small proportion of the output +paid the duties imposed. Every clachan had its still, or stills. + +This state of things was met by another Act which prohibited the making +of whisky from stills of a smaller capacity than five hundred gallons; +but this enactment merely brought about the removal of the more or less +openly defiant stills from the villages to the solitary places in the +hills and mountains, and necessitated a large increase in the number of +excisemen. + +Seven years of these extravagant super-taxes sufficed to convince the +Government of the folly of so overweighting an article with taxation that +successful smuggling of it would easily bring fortunes to bold and +energetic men. To do so was thus abundantly proved to be a direct +provocation to men of enterprise; and the net result the Government found +to be a vastly increased and highly expensive excise establishment, whose +cost was by no means met by the revenue derived from the heavy duties. +Failure thus becoming evident, the taxes were heavily reduced, until they +totalled but ten shillings and sixpence a gallon. + +But the spice of adventure introduced by illegal distilling under the old +heavy taxation had aroused a reckless frame of mind among the +Highlanders, who, once become used to defy the authorities, were not +readily persuaded to give up their illegal practices. The glens +continued to be filled with private stills. Glenlivet was, in especial, +famed for its whisky-smugglers; and the peat-reek arose in every +surrounding fold in the hills from hundreds of “sma’ stills.” Many of +these private undertakings did business in a large way, and openly sold +their products to customers in the south, sending their tubs of spirits +under strong escort, for great distances. They had customers in England +also, and exciting incidents arose at the Border, for not only the +question of excise then arose, but that of customs duty as well; for the +customs rates on spirits were then higher in England than in Scotland. +The border counties of Northumberland and Cumberland, Berwick, Roxburgh, +and Dumfriesshire were infested with smugglers of this double-dyed type, +to whom must be added the foreign contrabandists, such as the Dutchman, +Yawkins, who haunted the coasts of Dumfriesshire and Galloway with his +smuggling lugger, the _Black Prince_, and is supposed to be the original +of Dirk Hatteraick, in Scott’s romance, “Guy Mannering.” + +The very name of this bold fellow was a terror to those whose duty it was +to uphold law and order in those parts; and it was, naturally, to his +interest to maintain that feeling of dread, by every means in his power. +Scott tells us how, on one particular night, happening to be ashore with +a considerable quantity of goods in his sole custody, a strong party of +excisemen came down upon him. Far from shunning the attack, Yawkins +sprang forward, shouting, “Come on, my lads, Yawkins is before you.” + +The revenue officers were intimidated, and relinquished their prize, +though defended only by the courage and address of one man. On his +proper element, Yawkins was equally successful. On one occasion he was +landing his cargo at the Manxman’s Lake, near Kirkcudbright, when two +revenue cutters, the _Pigmy_ and the _Dwarf_, hove in sight at once, on +different tacks, the one coming round by the Isles of Fleet, the other +between the point of Rueberry and the Muckle Ron. The dauntless +free-trader instantly weighed anchor and bore down right between the +luggers, so close that he tossed his hat on the deck of the one and his +wig on that of the other, hoisted a cask to his maintop, to show his +occupation, and bore away under an extraordinary pressure of canvas, +without receiving injury. + +So, at any rate, the fantastic legends tell us, although it is but fair +to remark, in this place, that no practical yachtsman, or indeed any +other navigator, would for a moment believe in the possibility of such a +feat. + +To account for these and other hairbreadth escapes, popular superstition +freely alleged that Yawkins insured his celebrated lugger by compounding +with the Devil for one-tenth of his crew every voyage. How they arranged +the separation of the stock and tithes is left to our conjecture. The +lugger was perhaps called the _Black Prince_ in honour of the formidable +insurer. Her owner’s favourite landing-places were at the entrance of +the Dee and the Cree, near the old castle of Rueberry, about six miles +below Kirkcudbright. There is a cave of large dimensions in the vicinity +of Rueberry, which, from its being frequently used by Yawkins and his +supposed connection with the smugglers on the shore, is now called “Dirk +Hatteraick’s Cave.” Strangers who visit this place, the scenery of which +is highly romantic, are also shown, under the name of the “Gauger’s +Leap,” a tremendous precipice. + +“In those halcyon days of the free trade,” says Scott, “the fixed price +for carrying a box of tea or bale of tobacco from the coast of Galloway +to Edinburgh was fifteen shillings, and a man with two horses carried +four such packages.” + +This condition of affairs prevailed until peace had come, after the final +defeat of Napoleon at Waterloo. The Government then, as always, sadly in +need of new sources of revenue, was impressed with the idea that a fine +sum might annually be obtained by placing these shy Highland distillers +under contribution. But there were great difficulties in the way. The +existing laws were a mere dead letter in those regions, and it was scarce +likely that any new measures, unless backed up by a display of military +force, would secure obedience. The Duke of Gordon, at that period a +personage of exceptionally commanding influence with the clansmen, was +appealed to by the Government to use his authority for the purpose of +discouraging these practices; but he declared, from his place in the +House of Lords, that the Highlanders were hereditary distillers of +whisky: it had from time immemorial been their drink, and they would, in +spite of every discouragement, continue to make it and to consume it. +They would sell it, too, he said, when given the opportunity of doing so +by the extravagantly high duty on spirits. The only way out of the +difficulty with which the Government was confronted was, he pointed out, +the passing of an Act permitting the distilling of whisky on reasonable +terms. + +The result of this straightforward speech was the passing of an Act in +1823 which placed the moderate excise duty of 2_s._ 3_d._ a gallon on the +production of spirits, with a £10 annual license for every still of a +capacity of forty gallons: smaller stills being altogether illegal. + +These provisions were reasonable enough, but failed to satisfy the +peasantry, and the people were altogether so opposed to the regulation of +distilling that they destroyed the licensed distilleries. It was scarce +worth the while of retailers, under those circumstances, to take out +licenses, and so it presently came to pass that for every one duly +licensed dealer there would be, according to the district, from fifty to +one hundred unlicensed. + +And so things remained until by degrees the gradually perfected system of +excise patrols wore down this resistance. + +In the meanwhile, the licensed distillers had a sorry time of it. + +Archibald Forbes, many years ago, in the course of some observations upon +whisky-smugglers, gave reminiscences of George Smith, who, from having in +his early days been himself a smuggler, became manager of the Glenlivet +Distillery. This famous manufactory of whisky, in these days producing +about two thousand gallons a week, had an output in 1824 of but one +hundred gallons in the same time; and its very existence was for years +threatened by the revengeful peasantry and proprietors of the “sma’ +stills.” Smith was a man of fine physical proportions and great courage +and tenacity of purpose, or he could never have withstood the +persecutions and dangers he had long to face. “The outlook,” he said, +“was an ugly one. I was warned, before I began, by my neighbours that +they meant to burn the new distillery to the ground, and me in the heart +of it. The Laird of Aberlour presented me with a pair of hair-trigger +pistols, and they were never out of my belt for years. I got together +three or four stout fellows for servants, armed them with pistols, and +let it be known everywhere that I would fight for my place till the last +shot. I had a pretty good character as a man of my word, and through +watching, by turns, every night for years, we contrived to save the +distillery from the fate so freely predicted for it. But I often, both +at kirk and market, had rough times of it among the glen people, and if +it had not been for the Laird of Aberlour’s pistols I don’t think I +should have been telling you this story now.” + +In ’25 and ’26 three more small distilleries were started in the glen; +but the smugglers succeeded very soon in frightening away their +occupants, none of whom ventured to hang on a second year in the face of +the threats uttered against them. Threats were not the only weapons +used. In 1825 a distillery which had just been started at the head of +Aberdeenshire, near the banks o’ Dee, was burnt to the ground with all +its outbuildings and appliances, and the distiller had a very narrow +escape of being roasted in his own kiln. The country was in a +desperately lawless state at this time. The riding-officers of the +Revenue were the mere sport of the smugglers, and nothing was more common +than for them to be shown a still at work, and then coolly defied to make +a seizure. + +Prominent among these active and resourceful men was one Shaw, proprietor +of a shebeen on the Shea Water, in the wilds of Mar. Smugglers were free +of his shy tavern, which, as a general rule, the gaugers little cared to +visit singly. Shaw was alike a man of gigantic size, great strength, and +of unscrupulous character, and stuck at little in the furtherance of his +illegal projects. But if Shaw was a terror to the average exciseman, +George Smith, for his part, was above the average, and feared no man; and +so, when overtaken by a storm on one occasion, had little hesitation in +seeking the shelter of this ill-omened house. Shaw happened to be away +from home at the time, and Smith was received by the hostess, who, some +years earlier, before she had married her husband, had been a sweetheart +of the man who now sought shelter. The accommodation afforded by the +house was scanty, but a bedroom was found for the unexpected guest, and +he in due course retired to it. Mrs. Shaw had promised that his natural +enemies, the smugglers, should not disturb him, if they returned in the +night; but when they did return, later on, Shaw determined that he would +at least give the distillery man a fright. Most of them were drunk, and +ready for any mischief, and would probably have been prepared even to +murder him. Shaw was, however, with all his faults, no little of a +humorist, and only wanted his joke at the enemy’s expense. + +The band marched upstairs solemnly, in spite of some little hiccoughing, +and swung into the bedroom, a torch carried by the foremost man throwing +a fitful glare around. The door was locked when they had entered, and +all gathered in silence round the bed. Shaw then, drawing a great +butcher’s knife from the recesses of his clothes, brandished it over the +affrighted occupant of the bed. “This gully, mon, iss for your powels,” +said he. + +But Smith had not entered this House of Dread without being properly +armed, and he had, moreover, taken his pistols to bed with him, and was +at that moment holding one in either hand, under the clothes. As Shaw +flourished his knife and uttered his alarming threats, he whipped out the +one and presented it at Shaw’s head, promising him he would shoot him if +the whole party did not immediately quit the room; while with the other +(the bed lying beside the fireplace) he fired slyly up the chimney, +creating a thunderous report and a choking downfall of soot, in midst of +which all the smugglers fled except Shaw, who remained, laughing. + +Shaw had many smart encounters with the excise, in which he generally +managed to get the best of it. The most dramatic of these was probably +the exploit that befell when he was captaining a party of smugglers +conveying two hundred kegs of whisky from the mountains down to Perth. +The time was winter, and snow lay thick on field and fell; but the +journey was made in daytime, for they were a numerous band and well +armed, and feared no one. But the local Supervisor of Excise had by some +means obtained early news of this expedition, and had secured the aid of +a detachment of six troopers of the Scots Greys at Coupar-Angus, part of +a squadron stationed at Perth. At the head of this little force rode the +supervisor. They came in touch with the smugglers at Cairnwell, in the +Spittal of Glenshee. + +“Gang aff awa’ wi’ ye, quietly back up the Spittal,” exclaimed the +supervisor, “and leave the seizure to us.” + +“Na, faith,” replied Shaw; “ye’ll get jist what we care to gie!” + +“Say ye so?” returned the excise officer hotly. “I’ll hae the whole or +nane!” + +The blood rose in Shaw’s head, and swelled out the veins of his temples. +“By God,” he swore, “I’ll shoot every gauger here before ye’ll get a +drap!” + +The supervisor was a small man with a bold spirit. He turned to his +cavalry escort with the order “Fire!” and at the same time reached for +Shaw’s collar, with the exclamation, “Ye’ve given me the slip often +enough, Shaw! Yield now, I’ve a pistol in each pocket of my breeches.” + +“Have ye so?” coolly returned the immense and statuesque Shaw, “it’s no’ +lang they’ll be there, then!” and with that he laid violent hands upon +each pocket and so picked the exciseman bodily out of his saddle, tore +out both pistols and pockets, and then pitched him, as easily as an +ordinary man could have done a baby, head over heels into a snow-drift. + +Meanwhile, the soldiers had not fired; rightly considering that, as they +were so greatly outnumbered, to do so would be only the signal for an +affray in which they would surely be worsted. A wordy wrangle then +followed, in which the exciseman and the soldiers pointed out that they +could not possibly go back empty-handed; and in the end, Shaw and his +brother smugglers went their way, leaving four kegs behind, “just out o’ +ceeveelity,” and as some sort of salve for the wounded honour of the law +and its armed coadjutors. + +Not many gaugers were so lion-hearted as this; but one, at least, was +even more so. This rash hero one day met two smugglers in a solitary +situation. They had a cart loaded up with whisky-kegs, and when the +official, unaided, and with no human help near, proposed single-handed to +seize their consignment and to arrest them, they must have been as +genuinely astonished as ever men have been. The daring man stood there, +purposeful of doing his duty, and really in grave danger of his life; but +these two smugglers, relishing the humour of the thing, merely descended +from their cart, and, seizing him and binding him hand and foot, sat him +down in the middle of the road with wrists tied over his knees and a +stick through the crook of his legs, in the “trussed fowl” fashion. +There, in the middle of the highway, they proposed to leave him; but when +he pitifully entreated not to be left there, as he might be run over and +killed in the dark, they considerately carried him to the roadside; with +saturnine humour remarking that he would probably be starved there +instead, before he would be noticed. + + [Picture: Smugglers hiding goods in a tomb] + +The flood-tide of Government prosecutions of the “sma’ stills” was +reached in 1823–5, when an average of one thousand four hundred cases +annually was reached. These were variously for actual distilling, or for +the illegal possession of malt, for which offence very heavy penalties +were exacted. + +Preventive men were stationed thickly over the face of the Highlands, the +system then employed being the establishment of “Preventive Stations” in +important districts, and “Preventive Rides” in less important +neighbourhoods. The stations consisted of an officer and one or two men, +who were expected by the regulations not to sleep at the station more +than six nights in the fortnight. During the other eight days and nights +they were to be on outside duty. A ride was a solitary affair, of one +exciseman. Placed in authority over the stations were “supervisors,” who +had each five stations under his charge, which he was bound to visit once +a week. + +George Smith, of Glenlivet, already quoted, early found his position +desperate. He was a legalised distiller, and paid his covenanted duty to +Government, and he rightly considered himself entitled, in return for the +tribute he rendered, to some measure of protection. He therefore +petitioned the Lords of the Treasury to that effect; and my lords duly +replied, after the manner of such, that the Government would prosecute +any who dared molest him. This, however, was not altogether satisfactory +from Smith’s point of view. He desired rather to be protected from +molestation than to be left open to attack and the aggressors to be +punished. A dead man derives no satisfaction from the execution of his +assassin. Moreover, even the prosecution was uncertain. In Smith’s own +words, “I cannot say the assurance gave me much ease, for I could see no +one in Glenlivet who dared institute such proceedings.” + +It was necessary for a revenue officer to be almost killed in the +execution of his duty before the Government resorted to the force +requisite for the support of the civil power. A revenue cutter was +stationed in the Moray Firth, with a crew of fifty men, designed to be +under the orders of the excise officers in cases of emergency. + +But the smugglers were not greatly impressed with this display, and when +the excisemen, accompanied with perhaps five-and-twenty sailors, made +raids up-country, frequently met them in great gangs of perhaps a hundred +and fifty, and recaptured any seizures they had made and adopted so +threatening an attitude that the sailors were not infrequently compelled +to beat a hasty and undignified retreat. One of these expeditions was +into Glenlivet itself, where the smugglers were all Roman Catholics. The +excisemen, with this in mind, considered that the best time for a raid +would be Monday morning, after the debauch of the Sunday afternoon and +night in which the Roman Catholics were wont to indulge; and accordingly, +marching out of Elgin town on the Sunday, arrived at Glenlivet at +daybreak. At the time of their arrival the glen was, to all appearance, +deserted, and their coming unnoticed, and the sight of the peat-reek +rising in the still air from some forty or fifty “sma’ stills” rejoiced +their hearts. + +But they presently discovered that their arrival had not only been +observed but foreseen, for the whole country-side was up, and several +hundred men, women, and children were assembled on the hill-sides to bid +active defiance to them. The excisemen keenly desired to bring the +affair to a decisive issue, but the thirty seamen who accompanied them +had a due amount of discretion, and refused to match their pistols and +cutlasses against the muskets that the smugglers ostentatiously +displayed. The party accordingly marched ingloriously back, except +indeed those sailors who, having responded too freely to the smugglers’ +invitation to partake of a “wee drappie,” returned gloriously drunk. The +excisemen, so unexpectedly baulked of what they had thought their certain +prey, ungraciously refused a taste. + +This formed the limit of the sorely tried Government’s patience, and in +1829 a detachment of regulars was ordered up to Braemar, with the result +that smuggling was gradually reduced to less formidable proportions. + +The Celtic nature perceives no reason why Governments should confer upon +themselves the rights of taxing and inspecting the manufacture of +spirits, any more than any other commodity. The matter appears to +resolve itself merely into expediency: and the doctrine of expediency we +all know to be immoral. The situation was—and is, whether you apply it +to spirits or to other articles in general demand—the Government wants +revenue, and, seeking it, naturally taxes the most popular articles of +public consumption. The producers and the consumers of the articles +selected for these imposts just as naturally seek to evade the taxes. +This, to the Celtic mind, impatient of control, is the simplest of +equations. + +About 1886 was the dullest time in the illicit whisky-distilling industry +of Scotland, and prosecutions fell to an average of about twenty a year. +Since then there has been, as official reports tell us, in the language +of officialdom, a “marked recrudescence” of the practice. As Mr. +Micawber might explain, in plainer English, “there is—ah—in fact, more +whisky made now.” Several contributory causes are responsible for this +state of things. Firstly, an economical Government reduced the excise +establishment; then the price of barley, the raw material, fell; and the +veiled rebellion of the crofters in the north induced a more daring and +lawless spirit than had been known for generations past. Also, +restrictions upon the making of malt—another of the essential +constituents from which the spirit is distilled—were at this time +removed, and any one who cared might make it freely and without license. + +Your true Highlander will not relinquish his “mountain-dew” without a +struggle. His forefathers made as much of it as they liked, out of +inexpensive materials, and drank it fresh and raw. No one bought whisky; +and a whole clachan would be roaring drunk for a week without a coin +having changed hands. Naturally, the descendants of these men—“it wass +the fine time they had, whateffer”—dislike the notion of buying their +whisky from the grocer and drinking stuff made in up-to-date +distilleries. They prefer the heady stuff of the old brae-side +pot-still, with a rasp on it like sulphuric acid and a consequent feeling +as though one had swallowed lighted petroleum: stuff with a headache for +the Southerner in every drop, not like the tamed and subdued creature +that whisky-merchants assure their customers has not got a headache in a +hogshead. + +The time-honoured brae-side manner of brewing whisky is not very +abstruse. First find your lonely situation, the lonelier and the more +difficult of access, obviously the better. If it is at once lonely and +difficult of approach, and at the same time commands good views of such +approaches as there are, by so much it is the better. But one very +cardinal fact must not be forgotten: the site of the proposed still and +its sheltering shieling, or bothy, must have a water-supply, either from +a mountain-stream naturally passing, or by an artfully constructed rude +system of pipes. + +A copper still, just large enough to be carried on a man’s back, and a +small assortment of mash-tubs, and some pitchers and pannikins, fully +furnish such a rustic undertaking. + +The first step is to convert your barley into malt; but this is to-day a +needless delay and trouble, now that malt can be made entirely without +let or hindrance. This was done by steeping the sacks of barley in +running water for some forty-eight hours, and then storing the grain +underground for a period, until it germinated. The malt thus made was +then dried over a rude kiln fired with peats, whose smoke gave the +characteristic smoky taste possessed by all this bothy-made stuff. + +It was not necessary for the malt to be made on the site of the still, +and it was, and is, generally carried to the spot, ready-made for the +mash-tubs. The removal of the duty upon malt by Mr. Gladstone, in 1880, +was one of that grossly overrated and really amateur statesman’s many +errors. His career was full of false steps and incompetent bunglings, +and the removal of the Malt Tax was but a small example among many +Imperial tragedies on a grand scale of disaster. It put new and vigorous +life into whisky-smuggling, as any expert could have foretold; for it was +precisely the long operation of converting the barley into malt that +formed the illegal distiller’s chief difficulty. The time taken, and the +process of crushing or bruising the grains, offered some obstacles not +easily overcome. The crushing, in particular, was a dangerous process +when the possession of unlicensed malt was an offence; for that operation +resulted in a very strong and unmistakable odour being given forth, so +that no one who happened to be in the neighbourhood when the process was +going on could be ignorant of it, while he retained his sense of smell. + +Brought ready-made from the clachan to the bothy, the malt was emptied +into the mash-tubs to ferment; the tubs placed in charge of a boy or +girl, who stirs up the mess with a willow-wand or birch-twig; while the +men themselves are out and about at work on their usual avocations. + +Having sufficiently fermented, the next process was to place the malt in +the still, over a brisk heat. From the still a crooked spout descends +into a tub. This spout has to be constantly cooled by running water, to +produce condensation of the vaporised alcohol. Thus we have a second, +and even more important, necessity for a neighbouring stream, which +often, in conjunction with the indispensable fire, serves the excisemen +to locate these stills. If a bothy is so artfully concealed by rocks and +turves that it escapes notice, even by the most vigilant eye, amid the +rugged hill-sides, the smoke arising from the peat-fire will almost +certainly betray it. + +The crude spirit thus distilled into the tub is then emptied again into +the still, which has been in the meanwhile cleared of the exhausted malt +and cleansed, and subjected to a second distilling, over a milder fire, +and with a small piece of soap dropped into the liquor to clarify it. + +The question of maturing the whisky never enters into the minds of these +rustic distillers, who drink it, generally, as soon as made. Very little +is now made for sale; but when sold the profit is very large, a capital +of twenty-three shillings bringing a return of nine or ten pounds. + +But the typical secret whisky-distiller has no commercial instincts. It +cannot fairly be said that he has a soul above them, for he is just a +shiftless fellow, whose soul is not very apparent in manner or +conversation, and whose only ambition is to procure a sufficiency of +“whusky” for self and friends; and a “sufficiency” in his case means a +great deal. He has not enough money to buy taxed whisky; and if he had, +he would prefer to make his own, for he loves the peat-reek in it, and he +thinks “jist naething at a’” of the “puir stuff” that comes from the +great distilleries. + +He is generally ostensibly by trade a hanger-on to the agricultural or +sheep-farming industries, but between his spells of five days at the +bothy (for it takes five days to the making of whisky) he is usually to +be seen loafing about, aimlessly. Experienced folk can generally tell +where such an one has been, and what he has been doing, after his +periodical absences, for his eyelids are red with the peat-smoke and his +clothes reek with it. + + [Picture: Dragoons dispersing smugglers] + +Perhaps the busiest centre of Highland illicit whisky-distilling is now +to be located in the Gairloch, but anything in the shape of exact +information on so shy a subject is necessarily not obtainable. Between +this district and the Outer Hebrides, islands where no stills are to be +found, a large secret trade is still believed to exist. Seizures are +occasionally made but the policy of the Inland Revenue authorities is now +a broad one, in which the existence of small stills in inconsiderable +numbers, although actually known, is officially ignored: the argument +being that undue official activity, with the resultant publicity, would +defeat itself by advertising the fact of it being so easy to manufacture +whisky, leading eventually to the establishment of more stills. + +The illegal production of spirits does, in fact, proceed all over Great +Britain and Ireland to a far greater extent than generally suspected; and +such remote places as the Highlands are nowadays by no means the most +favourable situations for the manufacture. Indeed, crowded towns form in +these times the most ideal situations. No one in the great cities is in +the least interested in what his neighbour is doing, unless what he does +constitutes a nuisance: and it is the secret distiller’s last thought to +obtrude his personality or his doings upon the notice of the neighbours. +Secrecy, personal comfort, and conveniences of every kind are better +obtained in towns than on inclement brae-sides; and the manufacture and +repair of the utensils necessary to the business are effected more +quickly, less expensively, and without the prying curiosity of a Highland +clachan. + +It follows from this long-continued course of illegal distilling that the +Highlands are full of tales of how the gaugers were outwitted, and of +hairbreadth escapes and curious incidents. Among these is the story of +the revengeful postmaster of Kingussie, who, on his return from a journey +to Aberlour on a dark and stormy night, called at Dalnashaugh inn, where +he proposed to stay an hour or two. The pretty maid of the inn attended +diligently to him for awhile, until a posse of some half-dozen gaugers +entered, to rest there on their way to Badenoch, where they were due, to +make a raid on a number of illicit stills. The sun of the postmaster +suddenly set with the arrival of these strangers. They were given the +parlour, and treated with the best hospitality the house could afford, +while he was banished to the kitchen. He was wrathful, for was he not a +Government official, equally with these upstarts? But he dissembled his +anger, and, as the evening wore on and the maid grew tired, he suggested +she had better go to bed, and he would be off by time the moon rose. No +sooner had she retired than he took the excisemen’s boots, lying in the +inglenook to dry, and pitched them into a great pot of water, boiling +over the blaze. + +When the moon had risen, he duly mounted his pony and set out for +Badenoch, where he gave out the news that the gaugers were coming. + +The excisemen could not stir from the inn for a considerable time, for +their boiled boots refused to be drawn on; and by the time they had been +enabled to stretch them and to set out once more on their way, the +Badenoch smugglers had made off with all their gear, leaving nothing but +empty bothies for inspection. The local historian is silent as to what +happened afterwards to the postmaster, the only possible author of this +outrage. + +A smuggler of Strathdearn was unfortunate in having the excise pouncing +suddenly upon him in his bothy, and taking away his only cask of whisky. +The hated myrmidons of a Sassenach Government went off with the cask, and +were so jealous of their prize that they took it with them to the inn +where they were to pass the night. All that evening they sang songs and +were merry with a numerous company in an upper room; but even at their +merriest they did not forget their capture, and one of their number sat +upon it all the time. + +It chanced, however, that among these merry fellows were some of the +smuggler’s friends, who were careful to note exactly the position of the +cask. They procured an auger and bored a hole from the room below, +through the flooring and into the cask, draining all the whisky away. +When the excisemen had come to the end of their jollification, they had +only the empty cask for their trouble. + +One of the brae-side distillers of Fortingal brought a cart laden with +kegs of whisky into Perth, by arrangement with an innkeeper of that town; +but the innkeeper refused to pay a fair price. + +“Wha will her sell it till, then?” asked the would-be vendor. + +The innkeeper, a person of a saturnine humour, mentioned a name and a +house, and the man went thither with his cart. + +“What is it, my man?” asked the occupier, coming to the door. + +“Well, yer honour, ’tis some o’ the finest whusky that iver was made up +yon, and niver paid the bawbee’s worth o’ duty.” + +“D’ye know who I am?” returned the householder. “I’m an officer of +excise, and I demand to know who sent you to me.” + +The smuggler told him. + +“Now,” said the exciseman, “go back to him and sell him your whisky at +his own price, and then begone.” + +The man did as he was bidden; sold his consignment, and left the town. +It was but a few hours afterwards that the innkeeper’s premises were +raided by the excise, who seized the whisky and procured a conviction at +the next Assizes, where he was heavily fined. + +One of the last incidents along the Border, in connection with +whisky-smuggling between Scotland and England, occurred after the duty +had been considerably lowered. This was a desperate affray which took +place on the night of Sunday, January 16th, 1825, at Rockcliffe Cross, +five miles from Carlisle on the Wigton road. One Edward Forster, officer +of excise, was on duty when he observed a man, whose name, it afterwards +appeared, was Charles Gillespie, a labourer, carrying a suspicious +object, and challenged him. This resulted in an encounter in which the +excise officer’s head was badly cut open. Calling aid of another +labourer, who afterwards gave evidence, he remarked that he thought the +smuggler had almost done for him, but pursued the man and fired upon him +in the dark, with so good an aim that he was mortally wounded, and +presently died. It was a dangerous thing in those times for an excise +officer to do his duty, and at the inquest held the coroner’s jury +returned a verdict of “Murder”; the men who formed the jury being +doubtless drawn from a class entirely in sympathy with smuggling, and +possibly engaged in it themselves. Forster, evidently expectant of that +verdict, did not present himself, and was probably transferred by his +superiors to some post far distant. There the affair ends. + +About the same time, on the Carlisle and Wigton road, two preventive men +at three o’clock in the morning met a man carrying a load, which, when +examined, proved to be a keg of spirits. Two other men then came up and +bludgeoned the officers, one of whom dropped his cutlass; whereupon a +smuggler picked it up, and, attacking him vigorously, cut him over the +head. The smugglers then all escaped, leaving behind them two bladders +containing eight gallons of whisky. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + + + SOME SMUGGLERS’ TRICKS AND EVASIONS—MODERN TOBACCO-SMUGGLING—SILKS AND + LACE—A DOG DETECTIVE—LEGHORN HATS—FOREIGN WATCHES + +THE tricks practised by smugglers other than those daring and resourceful +fellows who risked life, limb, and liberty in conflict with the elements +and the preventive service, may form, in the narration, an amusing +chapter. Smugglers of this kind may be divided, roughly, into three +classes. Firstly, we have the ingeniously evasive trade importer in +bulk, who resorts to false declarations and deceptive packing and +labelling, for the purpose of entering his merchandise duty-free. +Secondly, we have the sailors, the firemen of ocean-going steamers, and +other persons of like classes, who smuggle tobacco and spirits, not +necessarily to a commercial end, in considerable quantities; and thirdly, +there are those enterprising holiday-makers and travellers for pleasure +who cannot resist the sport. + +We read in _The Times_ of 1816 that, among the many expedients at that +time practised for smuggling goods into France, the following scheme of +introducing merchandise into Dieppe had some dexterity. Large stone +bottles were procured, and, the bottoms being knocked off, they were then +filled with cotton stockings and thread lace. A false bottom was fixed, +and, to avoid suspicion, the mouth of each bottle was left open. Any +inquiries were met with the statement that the bottles were going to the +spirit merchant, to be refilled. + + [Picture: Smugglers Attacked] + +This evasion was successfully carried on until a young man from Brighton +ventured on too heavy a speculation. He filled his bottle with ten dozen +stockings, which so weighted it that the bottom came off, disclosing the +contents. + +Ingenuity worthy of a better cause is the characteristic of modern types +of smugglers. A constant battle of wits between them and the +custom-house officers is in progress at all ports of entry; and the +fortunes of either side may be followed with much interest. + +One of the most ingenious of such tricks was that of the trader who was +importing French kid-gloves. He caused them to be despatched in two +cases; one, containing only right-hand gloves, to Folkestone, the other, +left-hand only, to London. Being at the time dutiable articles, and the +consignee refusing to pay the duty, the two cases were confiscated and +their contents in due course sold at auction. No one has a use for odd +gloves, and these oddments accordingly in each case realised the merest +trifle; but the purchaser—who was of course the consignee himself—netted +a very considerable profit over the transaction. The abolition of duty +on such articles has, however, rendered a modern repetition of the trick +unnecessary. Nor is it any longer likely that foreign watches find their +way to these shores in the old time-honoured style—_i.e._ hung in leather +bags round the persons of unassuming travellers. + +Such an one, smuggling an unusual number across from Holland, calculated +upon the average passage of twenty-four hours, and reckoned he could, for +once in a way, endure that spell of waiting and walking about deck +without lying down. He could not, as a matter of fact, on account of the +watches, afford to lie down. To his dismay, the vessel, midway of the +passage, encountered a dense fog, and had occasionally to stop or slow +down; and, in the end, it was a forty-eight hours’ passage. The +unfortunate smuggler could not endure so much, and was obliged to +disclose his treasure. So the Revenue scored heavily on that occasion. + +Tobacco is still largely smuggled, and is, in fact, the foremost article +so treated to-day; the very heavy duty, not less than five times its +value, forming a great, and readily understood, temptation. Perhaps the +most notable attempt in modern times to smuggle tobacco in bulk was that +discovered in 1881. + +The custom-house staff in London had for some time before that date +become familiar with warning letters sent anonymously, hinting that great +quantities of tobacco were continually being conveyed into England from +Rotterdam without paying duty, but for a while little notice was taken of +these communications; until at length they grew so definite that the +officials had no choice but to inquire. Detective officers were +accordingly despatched to Rotterdam, to watch the proceedings there, and +duly observed the packing of two large marine boilers with tobacco, by +hydraulic pressure. They were then shipped aboard a steamer and taken to +London, whence they were placed upon the railway at King’s Cross, for +delivery in the north. A great deal of secret manoeuvring by the +custom-house officials and the police resulted in both boilers being +seized in London and those responsible for them being secured. It was +then discovered that they were only dummy boilers, made expressly for +smuggling traffic; and it was further thought that this was by no means +the first journey they had made. The parties to this transaction were +fined close upon five thousand pounds, and the consignment was +confiscated. + +To conceal tobacco in hollow loaves of bread, especially made and baked +for this purpose, was a common practice, and one not altogether unknown +nowadays; while the coal-bunkers, the engine-rooms, and the hundred and +one odd corners among the iron plates and girders of modern steamships +afford hiding-places not seldom resorted to. The customs officers, who +board every vessel entering port, of course discover many of these +_caches_, but it is not to be supposed that more than a percentage of +them are found. + +Smuggled cigars are to-day a mere commonplace of the ordinary +custom-house officer’s experience with private travellers, and no doubt a +great quantity find a secret passage through, in the trading way. For +some years there was a considerable import of broomsticks into England +from the Continent, and little or no comment was made upon the curious +fact of it being worth while to import so inexpensive an article, which +could equally well be made here. But the mystery was suddenly dispelled +one day when two clerks in a customs warehouse, wearied of a dull +afternoon, set to the amusement of playing single-stick with two of these +imported broomsticks. No sooner did one broomstick smite upon another in +this friendly encounter than they both broke in half, liberating a +plentiful shower of very excellent cigars, which had been secreted in the +hollowed staves. + +Silks formed an important item in the smugglers’ trade, and even the +gentlemen of that day unconsciously contributed to it, by the use of +bandana handkerchiefs, greatly affected by that snuff-taking generation. +Huskisson, a thoroughgoing advocate of Free Trade, was addressing the +House of Commons on one occasion and declaring that the only possible way +to stop smuggling was to abolish, or at any rate to greatly reduce, the +duties; when he dramatically instanced the evasions and floutings of the +laws. “Honourable members of this House are well aware that bandana +handkerchiefs are prohibited by law, and yet,” he continued, drawing one +from his pocket, while the House laughed loud with delight, “I have no +doubt there is hardly a gentleman here who has not got a bandana +handkerchief.” + +Lace-smuggling, of course, exercised great fascination for the ladies, +who—women being generally lacking in the moral sense, or possessing it +only in the partial and perverted manner in which it is owned by +infants—very rarely could resist the temptation to secrete some on their +way home from foreign parts. The story is told how a lady who had a +smuggled lace veil of great value in her possession grew very nervous of +being able to carry it through, and imparted her anxiety to a gentleman +at the hotel dinner. He offered to take charge of it, as, being a +bachelor, no one was in the least likely to suspect him of secreting such +an article. But, in the very act of accepting his offer, she chanced to +observe a saturnine smile spreading over the countenance of the waiter at +her elbow. She instantly suspected a spy, and secretly altered her +plans, causing the veil to be sewn up in the back of her husband’s +waistcoat. + +The precaution proved to be a necessary one, for the luggage of the +unfortunate bachelor was mercilessly overhauled at every customs station +on the remainder of the journey. + +Among the many ruses practised upon the preventive men, who, as the butts +of innumerable evasive false-pretences, must have been experts in the +ways of practical jokes, was that of the pretended drunken smuggler. To +divert attention from any pursuit of the main body of the tub-carrying +gang, one of their number would be detailed to stagger along, as though +under the influence of drink, in a different direction, with a couple of +tubs slung over his shoulders. It was a very excellently effective +trick, but had the obvious disadvantage of working only once at any one +given station. It was the fashion to describe the preventive men as +fools, but they were not such crass fools as all that, to be taken in +twice by the same simple dodge. + +The solitary and apparently intoxicated tub-carrier would lead the +pursuers a little way and would then allow himself easily to be caught, +but would then make a desperate and prolonged resistance in defence of +his tubs. At last, overpowered and the tubs taken from him, and himself +escorted to the nearest blockade-station, the tubs themselves would be +examined—and would generally be found to contain only sea-water! + +The customs men, however, were not without their own bright ideas. The +service would scarcely have been barren of imagination unless it were +recruited from a specially selected levy of dunderheads. But it was an +exceptionally brilliant officer who hit upon the notion of training a +puppy for discovering those places where the smugglers had, as a +temporary expedient, hidden their spirit-tubs. It would often happen +that a successful run ended at the beach, and that opportunities for +conveying the cargo inland had to be waited upon. It would, therefore, +be buried in the shingle, or in holes dug in the sands at low water, +until a safe opportunity occurred. The customs staff knew this perfectly +well, but they necessarily lacked the knowledge of the exact spots where +these stores had been made. + + [Picture: Smugglers Defeated] + +The exceptionally imaginative customs officer in question trained a +terrier pup to the business of scenting them by the cunning method of +bringing the creature up with an acquired taste for alcohol. This he did +by mixing the pup’s food with spirits, and allowing it to take no food +that was not so flavoured. Two things resulted from this novel +treatment: the dog’s growth was stunted, and it grew up with such a +liking for spirits that it would take nothing not freely laced with +whisky, rum, gin, or brandy. + +The plan of operations with a dog educated into these vicious tastes was +simple. When his master found a favourable opportunity for strolling +along the shore, in search of buried kegs, the dog, having been deprived +of his food the day before, was taken. When poor hungry Tray came to one +of these spots, the animal’s keen and trained scent instantly detected +it, and he would at once begin scratching and barking like mad. + +The smugglers were not long in solving the mystery of their secret hoards +being all at once so successfully located; and, all too soon for the +Revenue, a well-aimed shot from the cliffs presently cut the dog’s career +short. + +“Perhaps the oddest form of the smuggling carried on in later times,” +says a writer in an old magazine, “was a curious practice in vogue +between Calais and Dover about 1819–20. This, however, was rather an +open and well-known technical evasion of the customs dues than actual +smuggling. The fashion at that time came in of ladies wearing Leghorn +hats and bonnets of enormous dimensions. They were huge, strong plaits, +nearly circular, and commonly about a yard in diameter; and they sold in +England at from two to three guineas, and sometimes even more, apiece. A +heavy duty was laid upon them, amounting to nearly half their value. + +It is a well-known concession, made by the custom-houses of various +countries, that wearing-apparel in use is not liable to duty, and herein +lay the opportunity of those who were financially interested in the +import of Leghorn plaits. A dealer in them hired, at a low figure, a +numerous company of women and girls of the poorest class to voyage daily +from Dover to Calais and back, and entered into a favourable contract +with the owners of one of the steamers for season-tickets for the whole +band of them at low rates. The sight of these women leaving the town in +the morning with the most deplorable headgear and returning in the +evening gloriously arrayed, so far as their heads were concerned, was for +some few years a familiar and amusing one to the people of Dover. + +Another ingenious evasion was that long practised by the Swiss importers +of watches at the time when watches also were subject to duty. An _ad +valorem_ duty was placed upon them, which was arrived at by the importers +making a declaration of their value. In order to prevent the value being +fixed too low, and the Revenue being consequently defrauded, the +Government had the right of buying any goods they chose, at the prices +declared. This was by no means a disregarded right, for the authorities +did frequently, in suspicious cases, exercise it, and bought considerable +consignments of goods, which were afterwards disposed of by auction, at +well-known custom-house sales. + +The Swiss makers and importers of watches managed to do a pretty good +deal of business with the customs as an unwilling partner, and they did +it in a perfectly legitimate way; although a way not altogether without +suspicion of sharp practice. They would follow consignments of goods +declared at ordinary prices with others of exactly similar quality, +entered at the very lowest possible price, consistent with the making of +a trading profit; and the customs officials, noting the glaring +discrepancy, would exercise their rights and buy the cheaper lots, +thinking to cause the importers a severe loss and thus give them a +greatly needed lesson. The watch-manufacturers really desired nothing +better, and were cheerfully prepared to learn many such lessons; for they +thus secured an immediate purchaser, for cash, and so greatly increased +their turnover. Other folks incidentally benefited, for goods sold at +customs auctions rarely ever fetched their real value: there were too +many keenly interested middlemen about for that to be permitted. Thus, +an excellent watch only, as a rule, to be bought for from £14 to £15, +could on these occasions often be purchased for £10. Naturally enough, +the proprietors of watch and jewellery businesses were the chief bidders +at these auctions; and, equally naturally, they usually found means to +keep down the prices to themselves, while carefully ensuring that private +bidders should be artfully run up. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + + + COAST BLOCKADE—THE PREVENTIVE WATER-GUARD AND THE COASTGUARD—OFFICIAL + RETURN OF SEIZURES—ESTIMATED LOSS TO THE REVENUE IN 1831—THE SHAM + SMUGGLER OF THE SEASIDE—THE MODERN COASTGUARD + +THE early coastguardmen had a great deal of popular feeling to contend +with. When the coast-blockade was broken up in 1831, and the “Preventive +Water-Guard,” as this new body was styled, was formed, officers and men +alike found the greatest difficulty in obtaining lodgings. No one would +let houses or rooms to the men whose business it was to prevent +smuggling, and thus incidentally to take away the excellent livelihood +the fisherfolk and longshoremen were earning. Thus, the earliest +stations of the coastguard were formed chiefly out of old hulks and other +vessels condemned for sea-going purposes, but quite sound, and indeed, +often peculiarly comfortable as residences, moored permanently in +sheltered creeks, or hauled up, high and dry, on beaches that afforded +the best of outlooks upon the sea. + +Very few of these primitive coastguard stations are now left. Their +place has been pretty generally taken by the neat, if severely +unornamental, stations, generally whitewashed, and enclosed within a +compound-wall, with which summer visitors to our coasts are familiar. +And the old-time prejudice against the men has had plenty of time to die +away during the eighty years or so in which the coastguard service has +existed. There are still, however, some eleven or twelve old hulks in +use as coastguard stations; principally in the estuaries of the Thames +and Medway. + +The Preventive Water-Guard, from which the existing coastguard service +was developed, was not only the old coast-blockade reorganised, but was +an extension of it from the shores of Hampshire, Sussex, Kent, and Essex, +to the entire coast-line of the United Kingdom. It was manned by sailors +from the Royal Navy, and the stations were commanded by naval +lieutenants. Many of the martello towers that had been built at regular +intervals along the shores of Kent and Sussex, and some few in Suffolk, +in or about 1805, when the terror of foreign invasion was acute, were +used for these early coastguard purposes. + +That the preventive service did not prevent, and did not at first even +seriously interfere with, smuggling, was the contention of many +well-informed people, with whom the Press generally sided. The +coast-blockade, too, was—perhaps unjustly—said to be altogether +inefficient; and was further said, truly enough, to be ruinously costly. +Controversy was bitter on these matters. In January 1825 _The Times_ +recorded the entry of the revenue cutter, _Hawke_, into Portsmouth, after +a cruise in which she had chased and failed to capture, owing to heavy +weather, a smuggling lugger which successfully ran seven hundred kegs of +spirits. To this item of news Lieutenant J. F. Tompson, of H.M.S. +_Ramillies_, commanding the coast-blockade at Lancing, took exception, +and wrote to _The Times_ a violent letter, complaining of the statements, +and saying that they were absolutely untrue. To this _The Times_ +replied, with considerable acerbity, on February 3rd, that the statement +was true and the lieutenant’s assertions unwarranted. The newspaper then +proceeded to “rub it in” vigorously: “There is nothing more ridiculous, +in the eyes of those who live upon our sea-coasts, than to witness the +tender sensibilities of officers employed upon the coast-blockade +whenever a statement is made that a smuggler has succeeded in landing his +cargo; as though they formed a part of the most perfect system that can +be established for the suppression of smuggling. Now be it known to all +England that this is a gross attempt at humbug. Notwithstanding all the +unceasing vigilance of the officers and men employed, smuggling is +carried on all along the coast, from Deal to Cornwall, to as great a +degree as the public require. Any attempt to smuggle _this_ FACT may +answer the purpose of a party, or a particular system, but it will never +obtain belief. + +“It was only a few days since that a party of coast-blockade men (we +believe belonging to the Tower, No. 61) made common cause with the +smugglers, and they walked off altogether!” + +Exactly! The sheer madness of the Government in maintaining the +extraordinary high duties, and of adding always another force to existing +services, designed to suppress the smugglers’ trade, was sufficiently +evident to all who would not refuse to see. When commodities in great +demand with all classes were weighted with duties so heavy that few +persons could afford to purchase those that had passed through His +Majesty’s Custom-houses, two things might have been foreseen: that the +regularised imports would, under the most favourable circumstances, +inevitably decrease; and that the smuggling which had already been +notoriously increasing by leaps and bounds for a century past would be +still further encouraged to supply those articles at a cheap rate, which +the Government’s policy had rendered unattainable by the majority of +people. + +An account printed by order of the House of Commons in the beginning of +1825 gave details of all customable commodities seized during the last +three years by the various establishments formed for the prevention of +smuggling: the Coastguard, or Preventive Water-guard; the +Riding-officers; and the revenue cruisers and ships of war. + +In that period the following articles were seized and dealt with: + +Tobacco 902,684¼ lb. +Snuff 3,000 ,, +Brandy 135,000 gallons. +Rum 253 ,, +Gin 227,000 ,, +Whisky 10,500 ,, +Tea 19,000 lb. +Silk 42,000 yards. +India handkerchiefs 2,100 pieces. +Leghorn hats 23 +Cards 3,600 packs. +Timber 10,000 pieces. +Stills 75 + +The cost of making these seizures, and dealing with them, was put as +follows: + + £ _s._ _d._ +Law expenses 29,816 19 4¾ +Storage, rent of warehouses, etc. 18,875 14 10½ +Salaries, cooperage, casks, repairs, 1,533,708 4 10 +etc. +Rewards to officers, etc. 488,127 2 11½ + £2,070,528 2 0¾ + +The produce of all these articles sold was £282,541 8_s._ 5¾_d._; showing +a loss to the nation, in attempting during that period to suppress +smuggling, of considerably over one million and three quarters sterling. + +This return of seizures provides an imposing array of figures, but, +amazing as those figures are by themselves, they would be still more so +if it were possible to place beside them an exact return of the goods +successfully run, in spite of blockades and preventive services. Then we +should see these figures fade into insignificance beside the enormous +bulk of goods that came into the country and paid no dues. + +Some very startling figures are available by which the enormous amount of +smuggling effected for generations may be guessed. It would be possible +to prepare a tabulated form from the various reports of the Board of +Customs, setting forth the relation between duty-paid goods and the +estimated value of smuggled commodities during a term of years, but as +this work is scarce designed to fill the place of a statistical abstract, +I will forbear. A few illuminating items, it may be, will suffice. + +Thus in 1743 it was calculated that the annual average import of tea +through the legitimate channels was 650,000 lb.; but that the total +consumption was three times this amount. One Dutch house alone was known +to illegally import an annual weight of 500,000 lb. + +An even greater amount of spirit-smuggling may legitimately be deduced +from the perusal of the foregoing pages, and, although in course of time +considerably abated, as the coastguard and other organisations settled +down to their work of prevention and detection, it remained to a late +date of very large proportions. Thus the official customs report for +1831 placed the loss to the Revenue on smuggled goods at £800,000 +annually. To this amount the item of French brandy contributed £500,000. +The annual cost of protecting the Revenue (excise, customs, and +preventive service) was at the same time between £700,000 and £800,000. + +An interesting detailed statement of the contraband trade in spirits from +Roscoff, one of the Brittany ports, shows that, two years later than the +above, from March 15th to 17th, 1833, there were shipped to England, per +smuggling craft, 850 tubs of brandy; and between April 13th and 20th in +the same year 750 tubs; that is to say, 6,400 gallons in little more than +one month. And although Roscoff was a prominent port in this trade, it +was but one of several. + +So late as 1840, forty-eight per cent. of the French silks brought into +this country were said to have paid no duty; and for years afterwards +silk-smugglers, swathed apoplectically in contraband of this description, +formed the early steamship companies’ most regular patrons. + +The seaside holiday-maker of that age was an easy prey of pretended +smugglers, cunning rascals who traded upon that most wide-spread of human +failings, the love of a bargain, no matter how illegitimately it may be +procured. The lounger on the seaside parades of that time was certain, +sooner or later, to be approached by a mysterious figure with an +indefinable air of mystery and a semi-nautical rig, who, with many +careful glances to right and left, and in a hoarse whisper behind a +secretive hand, told a tale of smuggled brandy or cigars, watches or +silks. “Not ’arf the price you’d pay for ’em in the shops, guv’nor,” the +shameless impostor would say, producing a bundle of cigars, “but the real +thing; better than them wot most of the shops keep. I see you’re a gent. +as knows a good smoke. You shall ’ave ’em”—at some preposterously low +price. And generally the greenhorn did have them; finding, when he came +to smoke the genuine Flor de Cabbage he had bought, that they would have +been dear at any price. To that complexion of mean fraud did the old +smuggling traditions of courage, adventure, and derring-do come at last! + +The modern coastguard, known technically as the First Naval Reserve, is +still under Admiralty control, but proposals are, it is understood, now +afoot for entirely altering its status, and for reorganising it as a +purely civil force, under the orders of the customs and excise +authorities. At present the coastguard establishment numbers some 4,200 +officers and men, and is understood to cost £260,000 a year. It is not, +perhaps, generally understood that the coastguardman is really a +man-o’-war’s man, attached to a particular ship, and liable at any moment +of national emergency to be called to rejoin his ship, and to proceed on +active service. + +It is not really to be supposed that the coastguard succeed in entirely +suppressing smuggling, even in our own times. Few are the articles that +are now subject to duty, and the temptation is consequently not now very +great. Also, the landing of such goods as tea, tobacco, and spirits in +bulk would readily be detected; but smuggling of spirits and of tobacco +in small quantities is commercially remunerative while the duties are as +high as from 11_s._ to 17_s._ a gallon, and from 3_s._ 6_d._ to 5_s._ a +pound in respect of tobacco and cigars; while large quantities of that +entirely modern article, saccharine, on which there is a duty of one +shilling and threepence an ounce (with a minimum legal weight on import +of eleven pounds, designed to render clandestine traffic in it +difficult), must, in the very nature of things, be illegally introduced. + +That there will be a phenomenal increase of smuggling when the inevitable +happens and protection of the country’s trade against the foreigner is +instituted, seems certain. It will seem like old times come again. + + * * * * * + + THE END + + + + +INDEX + + +(_Individual smugglers indexed only when mentioned at length_.) + +ACTS OF PARLIAMENT, 7, 14, 17, 23, 27, 34–6 + +Arundel, Conflict at, 29 + + * * * * * + +BARHATCH, 104 + +Beccles, Outrage at, 113 + +Bedhampton Mill, near Havant, 107–109 + +Beer, 125, 183, 187, 191–4, 199 + +Blackwater, The, 114 + +Blakeney, 116 + +Bo-Peep, Fatal conflict at, 98–100 + +— Conflict at, 100 + +Borstal Hill (near Canterbury), Fatal conflict at, 80 + +Bradwell Quay, 114 + +Braemar, 217 + +Branscombe, Epitaph at, 125 + +Budleigh Salterton, Conflict at, 198 + +Bulverhythe, Fatal conflict at, 102 + +Burns, Robert, 202 + + * * * * * + +CAISTER, CONFLICT AT, 30, 115 + +Camber Castle, Fatal conflict at, 101 + +Canvey Island, 113 + +Carter family, smugglers, of Prussia Cove, 165–82 + +— Henry, 169, 172–83 + +— John, 169–72, 174 + +Carter, Wm., customs officer, 15 + +Castle, Mr., excise officer, murdered, 68 + +Chater, Daniel, Murder of, 49-60 + +“Chop-backs,” 78–80 + +Coastguard, The, 239, 246 + +Colchester, Outrage at, 113 + +“Cruel Coppinger,” 129–36 + +Cuckmere, Conflict at, 29 + + * * * * * + +DALNASHAUGH, 224 + +Diamond, John, smuggler, 49, 53, 54 + +“Dog and Partridge,” Slindon Common, 63–7 + +Dover, Fatal conflict at, 98 + +Dymchurch, Conflict at, 96 + + * * * * * + +EASTBOURNE, FATAL CONFLICT NEAR, 97 + +— at, 101 + +Ewhurst, Smugglers’ hiding-places at, 102–104 + +Export smuggling, 2, 12–23 + + * * * * * + +FAIRALL, SMUGGLER, 70–72 + +Fairlight Glen, Fatal conflict at, 100 + +Ferring, Conflict at, 22 + +Four Brothers, smuggling lugger, Fatal conflict with, 87–92 + +Fowey, Conflict at, 139 + +“Free-traders,” a term for smugglers, 39 + +Fuller’s-earth, 23 + + * * * * * + +GALLEY, WILLIAM, MURDER OF, 49–61 + +Gibson, William, smuggler, 162–4 + +Glenlivet, 209, 215 + +Gloves, evasions of glove-smugglers, 229 + +Goudhurst, Attack by smugglers on, 42–4 + +Gray, Arthur, 40 + +Greenhay, Conflict at, 29 + +“Green Man,” Bradwell Quay, 114 + +Grinstead Green, Outrage at, 41 + + * * * * * + +HARLEY, JOHN, Epitaph on, 125 + +Harting Combe, 55 + +Hartland, 134 + +Hastings, Epitaph at, 87 + +— Murder at, 86 + +— Outrage off, 79 + +Hawkhurst Gang, 40–73 + +— Outrage at, 41 + +Hawkins, Richard, Murder of, 63–7 + +Herstmonceux Castle, Ghostly drummer of, 84 + +Highdown Hill, near Worthing, 104 + +Hove church-tower as smugglers’ store, 81–3 + +— Conflict at, 83 + +Hunstanton, Epitaph at, 117 + +Hurstmonceux Castle, Ghostly drummer of, 84 + + * * * * * + +“INDIAN QUEENS,” THE, NEAR BODMIN, 189 + +Informers, 30–34, 65 + + * * * * * + +JACKSON, WM., SMUGGLER, 51–4, 62 + +James, G. P. R., on smuggling, 44, 73–7 + +James, Thos., Epitaph on, 148 + +Johnson, Dr., on Commissioner of Excise, 36 + +— on smugglers (see Title-page) + +Johnson, Thomas, smuggler, 156–62 + + * * * * * + +“KING OF PRUSSIA,” PORTH LEAH, OR PRUSSIA COVE, 165–72 + +Kingsmill, George, smuggler, shot, 43 + +— Thomas, smuggler, 43 + +— executed, 70, 72 + +Kingston-by-the-sea, Conflict at, 29 + +Kinson, Epitaph at, 119 + +Kipling, Rudyard, “smugglers’ song,” 45 + +Knill, John, 149 + + * * * * * + +LACE, SMUGGLING OF, 19, 233 + +Lady Holt Park, 54, 57–9 + +Langston Harbour, 107 + +Leghorn hats, Smuggling of, 236, 243 + +Lewis, Wm., Epitaph on, 124 + +_Lively_, smuggling lugger, Conflict with, 190 + +“Lobster Smack,” Canvey Island, 114 + +Lulworth, Conflict near, 121 + + * * * * * + +MAIDSTONE, MURDER BY SMUGGLER AT, 45 + +Maker, near Plymouth, 138 + +Mark, Robert, Epitaph on, 147 + +“Miller’s Tomb,” near Worthing, 104–106 + +Mills, John, smuggler, 63–7 + +Mills, Richard, the elder, 55, 58, 62, 66 + +— the younger, smuggler, 56, 62, 66 + +Moon, John, Epitaph on, 86 + +“Moonshine,” a term for smuggled spirits, 139 + +“Mount Pleasant” inn, near Dawlish, 126 + +Mylor, Epitaph at, 148 + + * * * * * + +OLLIVER, JOHN, miller, 104–106 + +Owlers, The, of Romney Marsh, 3, 12, 14–23 + + * * * * * + +PARHAM PARK, 65 + +Patcham, Epitaph at, 85 + +Paulson, Henry, midshipman, Epitaph on, 125 + +Paulet, Harry, smuggler, 162 + +Peddar’s (or Padder’s) Way, 118 + +Pett, Smugglers drowned at, 95 + +Pewit Island, 114 + +Polperro, 140 + +Poole, Outrage at, 48, 70 + +Potter, Tom, smuggler, 141 + +Preventive Water Guard, The, 239–44 + +Pring, Wm., smuggler and informer, 65 + +Privateers for prevention of smuggling, 37 + +Profits of smuggling, 9 + +Prussia Cove, 148, 165, 169–72 + + * * * * * + +RAKE, 54–62 + +Ransley Gang, The, 73 + +Rattenbury, Jack, smuggler, 123, 183–99 + +“Red Lion,” Rake, 54–62 + +“Red Lion,” Rye, 44 + +Rockcliffe Cross, Fatal conflict at, 226 + +Romney Marsh, 95 + +— wool-smuggling, 15–19 + +— Conflict on, 15–17 23 + +“Royal Oak,” Langston Harbour, 107 + +Ruxley Gang, 79 + +Rye, Conflict at, 94 + +— Outrage at, 44 + + * * * * * + +SACCHARINE, SMUGGLING OF, 247 + +St. Aldhelm’s Head, Fatal conflict at, 122 + +St. Ives, Cornwall, 149 + +St. Peter-upon-the-Wall, 114 + +Scales, Daniel, Epitaph on, 85 + +“Sea Cocks,” The, 40 + +Seacox Heath, 40 + +Seaford, Murders by smugglers at, 45 + +Seaton, Epitaph at, 125 + +Shaw, whisky smuggler, 211–14 + +Sheerness, Wool robbery near, 41 + +“Ship,” Woolbridge, 12 + +Shoreham, Outrage at, 41 + +Silks, Smuggling of, 19, 232, 243, 245 + +Smith, Adam, on smuggling, 153 + +Smith, George, of Glenlivet, 209–212 215 + +Smith, Sydney, on taxation, 5 + +Smugglers, Distinction between landsmen and seamen, 112 + +Smugglers’ labourers, Pay of, 10, 14 + +Smuggling, Growth of in eighteenth century, 24 + +— Pamphlet denouncing, 154-157 + +— Profits of, 9 + +Snargate church as smugglers’ store, 96 + +Southampton Water, 109 + +Spirits, Smuggling of, 9, 28, 80, 83, 88, 95, 96–105 115, 121, 127, 132, +138, 139, 143, 162, 171, 181, 187, 195, 198, 201–227 243, 244–7 + +Spittal of Glenshee, 213 + +“Stinkibus,” a term for spoiled spirits, 128 + +Swain, Joseph, Epitaph on, 87 + + * * * * * + +TALLAND, EPITAPH AT, 147 + +— Smuggling pranks at, 143–46 + +Tandridge, Epitaph at, 85 + +Tea, Smuggling of, 24, 28, 31, 33, 47-9, 63, 88, 113, 119, 152, 243, 244 + +Tobacco, Smuggling of, 23, 83, 88, 110, 230-232 243, 247 + +Todman, Thomas, Epitaph on, 85 + +Trotman, Robert, Epitaph on, 119 + + * * * * * + +WAREHORNE, 96 + +Warren, The, near Dawlish, 126–128 + +Watches, Smuggling of, 230, 237 + +Webb, Wm., Epitaph on, 117 + +Welcombe Mouth, 130, 134 + +Wendron, 148 + +Westfield, Epitaph at, 86 + +Whisky smuggling, 201–227 243 + +“White Hart,” Rowlands Castle, 50–54 + +Whitesand Bay, near Plymouth, Fatal conflict at, 140 + +“Wiltshire Moonrakers,” 120 + +“Windmill,” Ewhurst, 103 + +Wool, Exportation of forbidden, 3, 12–14 + +— Duties on, 12–14 + +— Smuggling of, 3, 12–23 + +Wreckers, 133, 167 + +Wyke (near Weymouth), Epitaph at, 124 + + * * * * * + +YAWKINS, 205–207 + + * * * * * + + * * * * * + + _Printed and bound by Hazell_, _Watson & Viney_, _Ltd._, _London and + Aylesbury_. + + + + +NOTES. + + +{66} “Gregory’s Gang” was a noted band of thieves and housebreakers, +active about 1730–35. Dick Turpin was at times associated with them. +See “Half Hours with the Highwaymen,” vol. ii., p. 177. + +{173} “Autobiography of a Cornish Smuggler.” (Gibbings & Co., Ltd., +1900.) + +{194} By smuggling, presumably. + + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SMUGGLERS*** + + +******* This file should be named 45856-0.txt or 45856-0.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/4/5/8/5/45856 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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