SMUGGLING.

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Atterbury, 4 when his body was brought over from Calais forinterment.

One of the greatest frauds on record against the custom-houseauthorities, however, was perpetrated by a man named John Wilkes,who, on one occasion, as he afterwards boasted, when apprehendedon another charge, brought from Calais to Dover 10007. worthof lace wrapped round the limbs of a corpse! A woman foryears made a trade of taking forty or fifty females across fromDover to Calais, who on their return journey wore upon their headsbonnets trimmed with the most elaborate and valuable lace. Ofcourse the custom-house officers could not legally stop her, andafter a time she retired upon a fortune. All were not equallysuccessful, however, for in the reign of George II. we readabout one Ann Warner being sentenced to ten years’ penal servi-tude for smuggling laces, hidden in the insides of Normandypoultry, which she professed to be bringing to the Englishmarket.

Towards the close of the French war, in the present century,smuggling of lace again became more rife than ever. It was invain the authorities stopped the travelling carriages on their roadfrom seaport towns to London, rifled the baggage of the unfortunatepassengers by the mail at Rochester and Canterbury; they weregenerally outwitted, though spies in the pay of the customs wereever on the watch.

The writer has in her possession a Brussels veil of great beauty,which narrowly escaped seizure. It belonged to a lady who wasin the habit of accompanying her husband, for many years memberfor one of the Cinque Ports. The day after the election she wasabout to leave for London, somewhat nervous as to the fate of aBrussels veil she had purchased of a smuggler for a hundredguineas; when, at a dinner party, it was announced that LadyEllenborough, wife of the Lord Chief Justice, had been stoppednear Dover, and a large quantity of valuable lace seized concealedin the lining of her carriage. Dismayed at the news, the ladyimparted her trouble to a gentleman at her side, who immediatelyoffered to take charge of the lace and convey it to London, remark-ing that “ no one would suspect him, as he was a bachelor.”Turning round suddenly, she observed one of the hired waiters to

4 The turbulent bishop of Rochester, who was arraigned for his Jacobiteintrigues, and died in exile at Paris. 1731.

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