CHAPTEE XXIII. 



SMUGGLING FOREIGN CONTRABAND LOWLAND AND 



HIGHLAND SMUGGLING PHILIP KENNEDY THE 



SMUGGLER MALCOLM GILLESPIE THE GAUGER. 



DURING the second half of the last century, and some- 

 what more than the first quarter of the present one, 

 smuggling, in various forms, prevailed extensively. 

 In the earlier time it was confined mainly to sea- 

 board districts. Kegs of gin from Holland and other 

 foreign goods were landed contraband at many con- 

 venient creeks and baylets along an extended line of 

 coast. The statement has been made, that there was 

 scarcely a family along the coast, from Don to Spey, 

 who were not more or less implicated in this parti- 

 cular system of "free trade." Some of the landed 

 proprietors even quietly countenanced the practice, 

 and participated in its gains; and all the more readily if 

 their sympathies happened to lie with the Jacobites. 

 In that case, so far from disgrace, there was actual 

 merit in the contraband operations ; it was not de- 

 priving the King of his due, but simply avoiding the 

 exactions of an unrighteous usurper. Along the 

 coast, from Stonehaven to Peterhead, the business of 

 smuggling foreign goods was pursued systematically 

 and perseveringly. On parts of the Buchan coast, it 

 had evidently engrossed the exertions of a large part 

 of the population. They acted under leaders, and 

 had their own cant watchwords, aliases and soubriquets; 

 and there was an oath of secrecy administered all 

 round among those who took an active part. In 



