ter. When Mr. Rennie, the engineer, was engaged in surveying the Weald with a view of cutting a canal through it in 1802 , he found the country almost destitute of practicable roads, although so near to the metropolis on the one hand, and the sea coast on the other. The interior of the county was then comparatively untraversed, except by bands of smugglers, who kept the inhabitants in a state of constant terror."
Considering then that locomotion was generally difficult, that the roads were wretched, and that the persons engaged in the unlawful trafic were in almost all instances well acquainted with all the by-ways, out-of-the-way nooks and corners, it is not difficult to understand that once away from the coast, in a country like the Weald of Kent and Sussex, the smugglers were comparatively safe, even in the daytime ; for, added to their intimate knowledge of the country, the disposition of the country people, in general, was favourable to the smuggler (I am speaking now of forty or fifty years ago) ; not only the common people, but farmers, country tradesmen, and some in authority even lent a helping hand, in more ways than one, to the safe transit, and sometimes to the safe keeping of smuggled goods ; and least of all would any casual observer of smugglers ' doings be expected to drop one word of any transaction he might witness that might lead to the detection of the parties concerned.
