But next to the abominable cruelties perpetrated by the Hawkhurst gang related in an earlier chapter, I have found no incident so utterly brutal and savage as the following.  I have to ask the reader to turn his imagination away from Sussex, and centre it on a very beautiful spot in Dorsetshire, where the cliffs and sea are separated by only a narrow beach.  On the evening of the 28th of June 1832, Thomas Barrett, one of the boatmen belonging to the West Lulworth Coastguard, was on duty and proceeding along the top of the cliff towards Durdle, when he saw a boat moving about from the eastward.  It was now nearly 10 P.M.  He ran along the cliff, and then down to the beach, where he saw that this boat had just landed and was now shoving off again.  But four men were standing by the water, at the very spot whence the boat had immediately before pushed off.  One of these men was James Davis, who had on a long frock and a covered hat painted black.

Barrett asked this little knot of men what their business was, and why they were there at that time of night, to which Davis replied that they had “come from Weymouth, pleasuring!” Barrett observed that to come from Weymouth (which was several miles to the westward) by the east was a “rum” way.  Davis then denied that they had come from the eastward at all, but this was soon stopped by Barrett remarking that if they had any nonsense they would get the worst of it.  After this the four men went up the cliff, having loudly abused him before proceeding.  On examining the spot where the boat had touched, the Coastguard found twenty-nine tubs full of brandy lying on the beach close to the water’s edge, tied together in pairs, as was the custom for landing.  He therefore deemed it advisable to burn a blue light, and fired several shots into the air for assistance.

Three boatmen belonging to the station saw and heard, and they came out to his aid.  But by this time the country-side was also on the alert, and the signals had brought an angry crowd of fifty men, who sympathised with the smugglers.  These appeared on the top of the cliff, so the four coastguards ran from the tubs (on the beach) to the cliff to prevent this mob from coming down and rescuing the tubs.  But as the four men advanced to the top of the cliff, they hailed the mob and asked who they were, announcing that they had seized the tubs.  The crowd made answer that the coastguards should not have the tubs, and proceeded to fire at the quartette and to hurl down stones.  A distance of only about twenty yards separated the two forces, and the chief boatman ordered his three men to fire up at them, and for three-quarters of an hour this affray continued.

It was just then that the coastguards heard cries coming from the top of the cliff—­cries as of some one in great pain.  But soon after the mob left the cliff and went away; so the coastguards went down to the beach again to secure and make safe the tubs, where they found that Lieutenant Stocker was arriving at the beach in a boat from a neighbouring station.  He ordered Barrett to put the tubs in the boat and then to lay a little distance from the shore.  But after Barrett had done this and was about thirty yards away, the lieutenant ordered him to come ashore again, because the men on the beach were bringing down Lieutenant Knight, who was groaning and in great pain.