at Poole, and taking away a quantity of tobacco which had been seized and deposited there. They were executed at Tyburn. The place called Whitesmith was celebrated for its nest of smugglers long after this time. It has been stated, by a person who took the office of overseer of a neighbouring parish about forty years ago, that one of the outstanding debts of the previous year was due to ——— of Whitesmith, a well-known smuggler, for "two gallons of gin to be drunk at the vestry"!
There were places of deposit for the smuggled goods, most ingeniously contrived, in various parts of Sussex. Among others, it is said, was the manorial pound at Falmer, under which there was a cavern dug, which could hold 100 tubs of spirits; it was covered with planks, carefully strewed over with mould, and this remained undiscovered for years.
In the churchyard at Patcham there is an inscription on a monument, now nearly illegible, to this effect:—
Sacred to the Memory
of Daniel Scales, who was unfortunately shot, on Thursday Evening, Nov. 7th, 1796.
Alas! swift flew the fatal lead,
Which pierced through the young man's head.
He instant fell, resigned his breath,
And closed his languid eyes in death.
All you who do this stone draw near,
Oh! pray let fall the pitying tear.
From this sad instance may we all
Prepare to meet Jehovah's call.
The real story of his death is this. Daniel Scales was a desperate smuggler, and one night he, with many more, was coming from Brighton, heavily laden, when the excise officers and soldiers fell in with them. The smugglers fled in all directions; a riding-officer, as they were called, met this man, and called upon him to surrender his booty, which he refused to do. The officer, to use the words of the editor's informant, a very respectable man and neighbour, who in early life was much engaged in such transactions, knew that "he was too good a man for him, for they had tried it out before; so he shot Daniel through the head."
Sir John Deane, the founder of the Grammar School at
