THE SMUGGLERS 



313 



They came up from Shoreham Water, riding into the sea 

 at high tide and loading the horses straight from the boats. 



They passed just behind this shoulder of the Downs, 

 and would ride up into the Hurtwood the same night — 

 right across Sussex and a few miles over. As the crow 

 flies it is twenty-five miles, and who knows how much 

 more by the devious ways they had to follow. They got 



A Shoulder of the Downs 



up to the wooded heights either by Jelley's Hollow or 

 Horseblock Hollow, or up by the ' Windmill ' Inn. 



This inn, originally a lonely cottage, was a favourite 

 resort of theirs. It was first known as the ' New Inn.' To 

 this day it has the false roof for hiding smuggled goods. 



A hundred years ago it was a very rough and lawless 



set of people that lived in the hamlet of Peaslake, that 



lies in a northern hollow of the Hurtwood, and in the 



scattered cottages in the neighbouring forest land — a tract 



2 K 



