A Moorland Farm. 41 



become sympathizers, and the officer believed, or in 

 his helpless position pretended to believe, that the 

 smugglers were giving their help in good faith, and 

 that his only duty was to make sure that the prisoners 

 did not escape. When the excisemen returned with 

 the horse and cart, and saw the general state of 

 affairs, and that there were only a few of the empty 

 worthless movables piled up to be taken away, they 

 were glad to get the prisoners and drunken soldiers 

 into the cart without anything else, letting the two 

 women go free, and sacrificing the spoils, for which 

 indeed the small country cart, filled as it was with 

 living occupants, would have had no room. 



It may be guessed, perhaps, as well from other 

 incidents of the narrative as from the ready sympathy 

 between farmers, soldiers, and smugglers in defeating 

 the law, that there was but little prosperity in that 

 part of the country. The farmers had often much 

 difficulty in making their rents out of the farms, and 

 David's master at length determined to give his up, 

 and wait for the chance of getting a better one. His 

 herd, therefore, and other labourers, had to look out 

 for fresh employment 



The conditions of life on a moorland farm at this 

 period and in this district may be better understood 

 by a description of the general type of the farm 

 buildings themselves. They had no ceilings or stair- 

 cases. The byre, the kitchen, the spence, the barn, 

 and the cartshed, formed a continuous line, with no 

 rooms behind or above them, unless sometimes a loft 

 reached by a ladder. One passage, leading from the 

 front to the garden at the back, separated the kitchen 



