231 THE SEA. 



and tar gratifies the nautical affections of the inmates. Everything is paid, caulked, and 

 seamed, from the keels of the white-painted boats that are hauled up bottom upwards, to 

 the felt-covered shingles over the out-houses, and the frames of the cottage windows, and 

 the palings of the enclosure. Everything, even to the concealed refuse-heaps, is trim and 

 ship-shape, showing the presence of an easy discipline and the predominance of habits of 

 tidiness and order." 



Then the Review goes on to describe the exciting and perilous post of the coast- 

 guard when import duties were excessive, and lucky smugglers made rapid fortunes. 

 " The sympathies of the whole adjacent country were against them. Half the country 

 people were employed from time to time in running illicit cargoes, and made a very good 

 thing of it. Those Avere the days of hard drinking, and farmers almost openly encouraged 

 a trade that dropped kegs of cheap hollands and runlets of pure French brandy at their 

 very doors. As. for the women, of course to say nothing of their romantic sympathies 

 with daring law-breakers they were all in favour of the men who filled and sweetened 

 the cheering tea-cup, that would otherwise have been altogether beyond their means. 

 Even gentlemen holding His Majesty's commission of the peace were said to connive at 

 the ' fair trade ; for a consideration, and to express no surprise at the production of mysterious 

 casks that had been concealed in out-of-the-way corners of their premises. There were 

 certain depots, in dry caverns, in remote homesteads or sequestered barns, the secret of 

 which was religiously preserved, although it was the common property of highly ques- 

 tionable characters. There were codes of signals which could be clearly read by all but 

 the preventive men, and which gave notice of danger or of a favourable opportunity, as 

 the case might be. The officer in charge of the station had his faculties preternatural ly 

 sharpened, and could scent something wrong in the most natural incidents. The wreaths 

 of smoke rising from a heap of burning weeds might convey a warning to some expected 

 vessel. A fishing-boat putting out to sea, engaged apparently in its lawful business, 

 might really be bound on a similar errand. Then it was the business of the day-watch to 

 scan carefully each craft that appeared off the coast, and his natural vigilance was stimulated 

 by the prize-money that might fall to his share. Then the nocturnal promenade was 

 no mere formality. The thicker the night the more likely that something might be going 

 on under cover of the fog; and the ear of the look-out was always bent to distinguish, 

 amidst the murmur of the waves, the sound of suppressed voices, or the plash of muffled 

 oars. Nor was the walk by any means free from personal danger, and indeed it was 

 seldom taken in solitude; for, even apart from the inveterate animosity existing between 

 the smugglers and the preventive men, those were days when deeds of violence were 

 common, and the life of a man was of little account compared to the safety of a cargo 

 that might be worth hundreds or thousands of pounds. If he chanced to fall over the 

 cliff by accident, everything might be satisfactorily settled before he was replaced; for 

 when a smuggling lugger stood in for the coast there were plenty of ready hands to 

 help to discharge her cargo ; and unless the men of the nearest preventive station got 

 assistance from elsewhere, there was little left for them but to look on helplessly. Boats 

 from the nearest fishing hamlets swarmed in about the smuggler; strings of horses, in 

 chai-ge of people armed to the teeth, made their way to the coast from the inland farms. 



