England was sunk in vice, ignorance, and spiritual darkness, the prototype of Heywood became the herald of salvation to hundreds who, probably, till then had never heard the gospel. He was a true, persevering, and successful Christian Evangelist. He long ago rested from his labours, but his works still follow him. The events in the narrative relating to the smuggling carried on at the close of the last, and the early part of the present century, are only specimens of very frequent occurrences; and in writing the story pains have been taken to show that the demoralisation among all classes of society brought about or intensified by the revenue laws then existing, and as then administered, and the determined opposition to them on the part of the people, were among the direst obstacles to the spread of the gospel, and its cordial reception, not only in the vicinity of Hurlock Chase, but almost everywhere else, on every coastline round Great Britain. There are other points of the story to which reference might here be made, such as the prevalence of gambling among the higher classes of society, and the evils to which it inevitably led. It is sorrowful that this cannot yet be spoken of as a thing only of the past. HURLOCK CHASE. CHAPTER I. PRELIMINARY. UR story takes date a good many years ago. Old men and women now tottering towards the grave were children then; and the old people of that day have long reposed under the clods of the valley. The face of the country is altered. Its grand features indeed remain; but the scenery and its adjuncts have undergone many changes. Woods and forests have been cleared, commons inclosed; the Chase itself, which gives us a title for the following tale, is now divested of all rights to its ancient name, being reclaimed from its former wilderness state, and split up into numerous flourishing farms. The buildings which we shall have occasion to describe have either disappeared, or if yet standing, have been subjected to such alterations and renovations, that their first builders and owners, could they revisit the earth, might be lost in wonder at the vagaries of modern architects. Villages have sprung up in spots which then were rarely traversed and knew no habitations. The old roads, such as they were, have been diverted, closed, and broken up; new ones, more adapted to the comfort and convenience of modern travellers, have been opened; and—last and unkindest cut of all to lovers of seclusion-a busy railroad stretches across the valleys, bridges over the ravines, tunnels through the hills, and awakens with the rumbling of its hourly trains, and the shrill sound of the steam whistle, the echoes which formerly slumbered in peace, or were but rarely roused by the report of the sportsman's gun, the winding of the huntsman's horn, the cry of following hounds, and the shriek of the night owl. The people of the district (which, for sufficient reasons, we do not intend particularly to notify, save that it lies within a few miles of our southern coast) have undergone changes something corresponding with those already described as having passed over the aspect of the country. The peasantry, at least, retain most of the characteristics of their South Saxon race and tongue. Nevertheless, their manners have been to some degree softened by an education which, if not profound, is more widely diffused than that of former days; and their morals have been improved, positively, by more Scriptural light than of yore; and, negatively, by the diminution of provocatives and temptations to a pursuit which has ever been found the prolific source of crime--we mean that of smuggling. Changes have also taken place in the lawful occupations of the people. Necessarily, in an agricultural and pastoral country, the bulk of its labouring population must be either ploughmen or shepherds, and their necessary congeners; but intermingled with these, in the district referred to, were employments which were neither agricultural nor pastoral. The land beneath its surface possessed beds of sandy clay, rich in iron ore; and the mills, furnaces, and forges, which were scattered over a considerable extent of country, were able, by the help of abundant water-power, to compete with the manufactories of the more northern parts of our island, in the price and quality of their productions; while the large and flourishing forests furnished sufficient wood and charcoal for smelting, and gave employment to numerous gangs |