196 HISTORY OF HARTING. 



tenant-farmer a higher price for wool, the export of 

 which was protected by a duty. A gang of smugglers 

 having secured the two witnesses, Chater and Galley, 

 at Rowland's Castle, tied them upon horses and 

 whipped them for miles along the road towards Rake, 

 untill Galley fell dead. He was buried at a place 

 on Caryll's property, which by curious coincidence 

 was called Gaily Grove* for more than a century 

 before. The smugglers had obtained possession of 

 their enemies through the treachery of an innkeeper's 

 wife at Rowland's Castle ; and upon their bodies were 

 found letters, containing their evidence, addressed to 

 Major Battine, of East Harden. One, John Greentree, 

 of West Harting, swore at the trial that he had picked 

 up the packet for Major Battine, in a great coat 

 lying on the road beyond Harting Pond. Thus the 

 smugglers seem to have entered Harting on the south- 

 western extremity, and to have passed near Lady, 

 Holt and Foxcombe, avoiding South Harting on 

 their way to Rake. Poor Chater was still more in- 

 humanly tortured than Galley ; and after having been 

 chained up for three days in a turf-shed at Rake, 

 was led, after the most revolting cruelty, to the 

 Harehurst Well (now " Harris Well ") in the wood, 

 200 yards below Lady Holt House, where he was 

 hung over the edge and stoned to death. The well 

 seems to have been a dry pit, probably excavated by 

 Caryll as a second resort for water, while the boring 

 for Lady Holt well was unsuccessful. Finding that 

 after Chater had hung for some time over the well 

 he was not quite dead, the smugglers went to Lady 

 Holt House and borrowed a ladder from old Wm. 

 Combleach, the gardener ; it was, however, found to 

 be too long for their purpose, and they despatched 

 their victim with stakes and stones, f After the 



* Gaily Grove occurs several times, once with Fyning Wood. 

 West Harting Leager, 1632. 



f Harting Church Register, Sep. 19, 1748. " Buried Wm. 

 Chater." 



