Page:Volume 3 1840.pdf/53

From Historical Hastings
This page has been proofread


interior also — has been blocked up by the debris of the cliff, which has on more than one occasion fallen as an avalanche to the consternation and danger of the inhabitants near thereto. It is perhaps known to only a very few persons now living that in the early days of the town’s existence the said Caves were more than once the secret depository of smuggled goods, and that in 1835 or thereabout, there was a private still at work in them. Information having been given to Smith that the coast-guard officers intended to search and to seize, the apparatus was got away stealthily during the succeeding night to a loft over a stable or coach-house in the Victoria or Harold Mews, and there concealed until at a subsequent date it was stolen by a party and conveyed to Catsfield or Ninfield. It was there made use of for several years in the manufacture of some execrable stuff called brandy, which was sold by an itinerant vendor at a low price in neighbouring towns and villages., but of which the solid rock was nevertheless a portion of the structure. Of late years the entrance to these Caves and probably much of the interior also — has been blocked up by the debris of the cliff, which has on more than one occasion fallen as an avalanche to the consternation and danger of the inhabitants near thereto. It is perhaps known to only a very few persons now living that in the early days of the town’s existence the said Caves were more than once the secret depository of smuggled goods, and that in 1835 or thereabout, there was a private still at work in them. Information having been given to Smith that the coast-guard officers intended to search and to seize, the apparatus was got away stealthily during the succeeding night to a loft over a stable or coach-house in the Victoria or Harold Mews, and there concealed until at a subsequent date it was stolen by a party and conveyed to Catsfield or Ninfield. It was there made use of for several years in the manufacture of some execrable stuff called brandy, which was sold by an itinerant vendor at a low price in neighbouring towns and villages.