8 THE SMUGGLER. 



the case might be; and many streets in sea-port towns had 

 private passages from one house to another, so that the gentle- 

 man 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 

 by 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 ad- 

 vantages, and the daring character of the natives on the shores 

 of the Channel was sure to turn those advantages to the pur- 

 poses 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 commerce, which we may well call the regular trade, was 

 p ! Hastings, Rye, and Winchelsea, in no degree to be com- 

 pared to that which was 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 

 time, Sandwich Flats and Pevensey Bay presented a harbour 

 of refuge, and a place of repose to kegs innumerable and bales 

 of great value ; at another period, 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 tra- 

 versed by long trains of horses, escorting or carrying every 

 description of contraband articles. 



The interior of the country was not less favourable to the 

 traffic than the coast : large masses of wood, numerous gentle- 

 men'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 " minnisses," 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 



