ILLICIT DISTILLING AND SMUGGLING
From about the close of the seventeenth until well on in the nineteenth
century, smuggling was carried on to a large extent in the Border
counties of England and Scotland, not only as regards the evasion of
customs duties on imported articles, but as well in the form of illicit
distillation.
In the good old times, better than half-way through the eighteenth
century, cargoes consisting of ankers of French brandy, bales of lace,
cases of tobacco, boxes of tea, and what not, were "run" almost nightly
on certain parts of the coasts of Berwick, Northumberland, and Galloway,
borne inland by long strings of pack-horses, and securely hid away in
some snug retreat, perhaps far up among the Border hills. Few of the
inhabitants but looked with lenient eye on the doings of the
"free-traders"; few, very few, deemed it any crime to take advantage of
their opportunities for getting liquor, tea, and tobacco at a cheaper
rate than they could buy the same articles after they had paid toll to
the King. Smuggled goods, too, were thought to possess quality and
flavour better than any belonging to those that had come ashore in
legitimate fashion; the smuggler's touch, perhaps, in this respect was--
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