Smugglers

I'm not a great fan of poetry as I largely lost my interest when they stopped rhyming the lines.  But I found this the other day in a book I was reading about the 1700's, and the amount of smuggling that went on along the south coast of England.  Everybody was in on it and out to avoid the excisemen!

If you wake at midnight and hear a horse's feet
Don't go drawing back the blind or looking in the street.
Them that ask no question isn't told a lie.
So watch the wall my darlings while the gentlemen ride by.

Four and twenty ponies, riding through the dark,
Brandy for the postman, baccy for the clerk;
Laces for the lady, letters for the spy.
Watch the wall my darlings while the gentlemen ride by.