33 



The Company at present employ about 120 men, 

 though there are 300 dredgers and rlatsmen engaged 

 altogether at \Vhitstable in 80 smacks, each of which has 

 a name and number. 



Before \ve dwell for a while on oyster 



mugg mg. cu it ure as it is now carried on, it may be 



interesting to note that the excitement of smuggling often 



proved attractive, and sometimes profitable, to Whitstable 



hshcrmen. Hasted remarks that "The Street (meaning 



4 'The Street," Whitstable. 



Whitstable Street, not the strip of hard ground running 

 out to sea, known locally as the ' Street ') is very populous, 

 and the inhabitants of it thriving, consisting mostly in the 

 fishing and oyster dredging, the coal trade, the passage 

 hoys to and from London, and in the shops which supply 

 the whole of them with the necessaries of life, and above 

 all the illicit trade of smuggling, though that has been 

 within these few years much more than at present." 



