errace meet for
Benedick and Beatrice to pace, exchanging raillery.

In Berwick church, by the way, is a memorial to George Hall, a former
rector, of whom it is said that his name "speaks all learning humane and
divine," and that his memory is "precious both to the Muses and the
Graces." The Reverend George Hall's works seem, however, to have
vanished.

[Sidenote: THE LONG MAN]

Wilmington, north-east of Alfriston, occupies a corresponding position
to that of Alciston in the north-west; but having a "lion" in the shape
of the Long Man it has lost its virginal bloom. Wilmington is providing
tea and ginger beer while Alciston nurses its unsullied inaccessibility.
The Long Man is a rude figure cut in the turf by the monks of the
Benedictine priory that once flourished here, the ruins of which are now
incorporated (like Alciston Grange) in a farm house on the east of the
village. At least, it is thought by some antiquaries that the effigy is
the work of the monks; others pronounce it druidical. The most alluring
of several theories, indeed, would have the figure to represent Pol or
Balder, the Sun God, pushing aside the doors of darkness--Polegate (or
Bolsgate) near by being brought in as evidence.

CHAPTER XXIX

SMUGGLING

The Cuckmere Valley--Alfriston smuggling foreordained--Desperado
and benefactor--A witty minister--Hawker of Morwenstowe--The church
and run spirits--The two smugglers, the sea smuggler and the land
smuggler--The half-way house--The hollow ways of Sussex--Mr. Horace
Hutchinson quoted--Burwash as a smuggler's cradle.

Alfriston's place in history was won by its smugglers. All Sussex
smuggled more or less; but smuggling may be said to have been
Alfriston's industry. Cuckmere Haven, close by, offered unique
advantages: it was retired, the coast was unpopulated, the roadway
inland started immediately from the beach, the valley was in friendly
hands, the paths and contours of the hills were not easily learned by
revenue men. Nature from the first clearly intended that Alfriston men
should be too much for the excise; smuggling was predestined. Farmers,
shepherds, ostlers, what you will that is respectable, these Alfriston
men might be by day and when the moon was bright; but when the "darks"
came round they were smugglers every one.

[Sidenote: MR. BETTS'S READINESS]

Chief of what was known nearly a hundred years ago as the "Alfriston
Gang" was Stanton Collins, who