remarkable fact that the sons of each of
these men have all risen to high positions in commerce, literature,
art, and politics, and those that still survive are proud to
acknowledge that they owe their position to the splendid example and
beautiful home-life which they were taught to live when children.
Guarding the coast was not the only occupation of the Preventive
Coastguard.

There arose in 1848 a manning difficulty in the Navy, which became so
grave that the large force of disciplined men employed in protecting
the revenue were drilled in gunnery to fit them for sea service. Many
of them were called out to serve aboard ship during the war with
Russia in 1854. One of the grievances in the service was the
irritating and unfair policy of the Board of Customs in constantly
moving the men from one station to another. In many instances the
hardships constituted a public scandal. Adequate recompense was never
made for this breaking-up of their little homes, and frequently when
they arrived at some outlandish coast village there was no provision
made for housing them. I know of several instances where families were
beholden to the generosity of the villagers or farmers for lodgings
until a house was found. During the interval their furniture was
stored in some dirty stable or store. It was not an uncommon thing for
these poor fellows to be removed, with their families, from one end of
England to the other two or three times in a year, at the behest of an
uneasy bureaucratic commander-in-chief who knew little, and probably
cared less, about the domestic hardships incurred. From Holy Island or
Spital to Deal in those days of transit by sea was a greater and more
hazardous voyage than that of Liverpool to New York to-day. The
following story may give some idea of their life as they then lived
it.

A group of fishermen stood at the north end of the row, watching a
smart cutter that was beating from the north against a strong S.S.E.
wind and heavy sea, which broke heavily on the beach and over an
outlying reef of rocks which forms a natural breakwater and shelters
the fishermen's cobles from the strong winds that blow in from the sea
during the winter months. The cutter tacked close in to the north end
of the ridge several times during the forenoon. Her appearance was
that of a Government vessel, and her commander evidently wished to
communicate with the shore. When the ensign was hoisted to the main
gaff, the onlookers kne