THE SMUGGLER. 9 



with the degree of secrecy and safety which 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, 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 stable or his cart-shed early 

 in the morning, found it tenanted by anything but horses or 

 waggons. 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 stone 

 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, despatched 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 that was 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 flagrant 

 delict. 



Were it only our object to depict the habits and manners of 

 these worthy people, we might take any given part of the sea- 

 ward side of Kent that we chose for particular description, for 

 it was all the same. No railroads had penetrated through the 

 country then, no coast blockade was established, even martello 

 towers were unknown ; and in the general confederacy or un- 

 derstanding which existed throughout the whole of the county, 



