owed.

[8] These, of course, were not the light rowing-boats of the kind that
were in use on the Thames and elsewhere. The term wherry was applied
to various decked fishing-vessels belonging to England, Ireland, and
the Isle of Man.

CHAPTER V

THE HAWKHURST GANG

We come now to consider the desperate character of a band of men who
rendered themselves for all time notorious in the domestic history of
our country by acts of unbridled violence and consummate cruelty.

But before we proceed to relate as fully as our limited space will
allow the details of these incidents, it is necessary to remind
ourselves once again of the great, solid mass of sympathy, both active
and passive, that was always at the back of the smugglers. Without
this such daring runs by night could never have occurred: doubtful of
the assistance which could be whole-heartedly given by the people on
shore, the seafaring men would never have dared to take such enormous
risks of life and goods. Not merely did the villagers come down to the
shore to help to bring the goods inland, not only did they lend their
horses and carts, but they would tacitly suffer the smugglers to hide
casks of spirits in wells, haystacks, cellars, and other places. In
Cornwall, for instance, fifty-five tubs of spirits were found
concealed in a well, over the top of which a hay-stack had been
built. This was near Falmouth, one of the most notorious of the
smuggling localities. And there is actual record of at least one
instance where the natives charged a rent of a shilling a tub for
stowing away the smuggled goods. In another county a cavern had most
ingeniously been hollowed out under a pond big enough to hold a
hundred casks, the entrance being covered over with planks carefully
strewed with mould. So clever and original was this idea that it was
never discovered for many years.

But the most notorious, the most formidable, and certainly the most
abominably cruel gang of smugglers which ever achieved notice was the
Hawkhurst contingent. The "Hawkhurst Gang," as they were known, were a
terror to whatever law-abiding citizens existed in the counties of
Kent and Sussex. They feared neither Custom officers nor soldiery,
they respected neither God nor man, and in the course of attaining
their aims they stopped at no atrocity nor brooked any interference
from anyone. By the year 1747 smugglers had become so daring and
committed such terrible crimes that the only cours