Page:History of the Fylde of Lancashire (IA historyoffyldeof00portiala).pdf/332

 These huge mounds of sand, much more numerous than in our day, formed excellent store-houses for the contraband goods, generally spirits, which were packed in hampers, and so overlaid with fish that their presence was never even suspected. The illicit cargoes were brought across the channel in trading vessels, from which they were landed by means of light open boats, and at once secreted in the manner just indicated, until a suitable opportunity occurred for their removal to one of the neighbouring towns. The success attending these ventures induced the smugglers to construct a sloop of their own, with the intention of prosecuting so profitable a trade on a larger scale, but information of their proceedings having been conveyed by some one to official quarters, a detachment of soldiers was promptly despatched to put an end to the nefarious practices. So thoroughly did these men effect their purpose, that, although no capture is recorded as having taken place, the whole band was dispersed, and from that date no more offences of this character have been known on the coast.

In 1788 the houses of Blackpool had increased to about thirty-five, and these were arranged in an irregular line along the edge of the cliffs; the intervals between the habitations being with few exceptions so wide that this small number stretched out from north to south, over a distance of quite a mile. One group of six was especially remarkable as presenting a more respectable and modern exterior than any of the others, most of which still retained a great deal of their original defective appearances, as though their owners were unwilling or unable to adapt themselves and their abodes to the improved state of things springing up around them. The company during the busiest part of the season amounted to about four hundred persons, and a news-room had been established for their use in the small cottage, before mentioned, on the site of the Lane Ends Hotel, the smith's shop adjoining having been converted into a coffee-room and kitchen, at which a public dinner was prepared each day during the summer, and served at a dining-room erected across the way. There were now four additional inns in the village, named respectively, Bailey's, Forshaw's, Hull's, and the Yorkshire House. The first of these had sprung up on the cliffs towards the north, and was kept by an ancestor of its present proprietor; the second was the nucleus