the body of Fairhall was hung up in chains on Horsendown Green, and that of Kingsmill on Goudhurst Gore, at which places they had lived.
The " Hawkhurst Gang " was thus broken up, and smuggling became a more dangerous proceeding, and moreover, the public mind being fairly aroused by the atrocious proceedings of the smugglers, they took to highway robbery and housebreaking, which ultimately brought many of them to the gallows.
Thus ended the notorious " Hawkhurst Gang," the memory of which will probably never die out in this part of England. It is not uncommon to hear middle aged men say, " My grandfather told me this," or " I heard an old man say that." This gang was daring, desperate, cold-blooded, and cruel. I have heard that going home early one morning, they met an old wo man, and one of the gang asked her how old she was ; she replied, " Eighty-one." He immediately gave her a blow on the head with the butt end of a pistol, ex claiming " You have lived long enough !"
W. D. Cooper, Esq. , in his admirable paper before alluded to, says, speaking of the last century, " The new force was utterly inadequate to the suppression of the trade. In the next forty-five years the daring of the smugglers grew with the impunity with which they were enabled to act. Large gangs of forty, fifty, and even one hundred, rode, well armed with guns, bludgeons, and clubs, throughout the country, setting -
