CHAPTER XVIII 



THE SMUGGLERS 



Though most ot* the smuggling in this part of England, 

 of which so much went on in the end of the eighteenth 

 and beginning of the nineteenth centuries, passed through 

 the middle of Sussex, some of the goods landed on the 

 western shores of the country came up this way, passing 

 over Highdown Heath and Munstead Heath — wastes of 

 tall gorse, holly, and juniper, stunted oak and thorn and 

 Scotch fir. 



These high-lying lands are still scored with the remains 

 of old pack-horse tracks, then well known to the smugglers. 

 A gang would hide in the woody tangles, and one or two 

 of its members would steal out at night to the villages 

 and towns, selling brandy to public-house keepers and 

 private people. They came down to Godalming by Holloway 

 Hill. 



In those days there was no police, only a night-watch- 

 man, who cried the hours and the state of the weather : 

 ' Past ten o'clock and a starlight night,' and so on. 



The smugglers travelled at night, keeping to the woods 

 and heaths and least frequented lanes. Sometimes their 

 path was a scarcely defined track through the heath, 

 sometimes it was worn into a hollow by other and 

 more lawful use, and by the washing of rain. In time, the 

 rain, rushing down steep inclines, cut the track into deep 

 gullies, dangerous for the pack-horses. Then a fresh track 



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