Smugcfling in the last Ceniury. 169 



right arm.* But now the ironfields of Staffordshire have 

 put out the furnaces. The coal mines of Durham have de- 

 stroyed the charcoal trade, and taken away the seamanship. 

 The brine-pits of Cheshu-e have dried up the salterns which 

 covered the south-western shores. Of course, this loss of 

 material prosperity has told on the intelligence and morals of 

 the district. 



In the New Forest itself, till within the last thirty years, 

 smuggling was a recognized calling. Lawlessness was the rule 

 during the last century. Warner says that he had then seen 

 twenty or thirty waggons laden with kegs, guarded by two 

 or three hundred horsemen, each bearing two or three " tubs," 

 coming over Hengistbury Head, making their way, in the open 

 day, past Christchurch to the Forest. At Lymington, a troop 

 of bandits took possession of the well-loiowu Ambrose Cave, on 

 the borders of the Forest, and carried on, not only smuggling, 

 but wholesale burglary. . The whole country was plundered. 

 The soldiers were at last called out, the men tracked, and 

 the cave entered. Booty to an enormous extent was found. 

 The captain turned King's evidence, and confessed that he had 



* It is surprising, in looking over the musters of ships in the reigns of 

 Edward II. and P^dward III., to see how few Northern ports are mentioned." 

 The importance, too, of the South-coast ports, which were sometimes sum- 

 moned by tliemselves, arose not only from the reasons in the text, but from 

 being close to the country with which Ave were in a state of chronic warfare. 

 See, too, the State Papers^ vol.i., p. 812, 813, where the kvics of the fleets 

 in 1545, against D'Anr.ebault, with the names of e^ich vessel and its poit, 

 are given ; as also p. 827, where the neighbouring coast of Dorset is 

 described as deserted, in consequence of the sailors flocking to the Kuig's 

 service. I think that I have somewhere seen that our sailors were once 

 rated as English, Irish, Scotch, and the "West Country," the latter 

 standing the highest. 



Z 160 



