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Adapted from Penny, J. A. (1935) Folklore Round Horncastle
Horncastle: W. K. Morton, p.20.

HOW A MAN GAVE £10 FOR A BUNDLE OF HAY
"Some years ago before John Taylor was murdered at the Eler Tree
[sic] it was kept by someone else, and was only a "Tom and Jerry", that is, the owner could only sell beer, not wine or spirits, and had to close at 10 instead of 12. He arranged with some smugglers, after giving them £10, that they should put the tobacco he had paid for into a hole dug in the night for it in his garden, close to the road, so that all they had to do was

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stop their cart, put the tobacco into the hole and fill in the earth over it with a spade left handy for that purpose, so he dug the hole in the garden and left the spade handy to mark the place agreed on between him and the smugglers, and went comfortably to bed, and the next morning found the hole filled in, but the spade was gone. As he could not find it he went to Horncastle and bought a new spade and at night dug up his tobacco and took it into the Eler Tree. Then, thinking he would like a pipe, he opened the big package, and then found, to his rage and disgust, it was not tobacco, but hay, for which he had paid the smugglers £10. When next he saw them he naturally accused them of putting hay into the hole instead of tobacco, while they complained he had never dug a hole or left a spade to dig one with, and they could not risk leaving the tobacco in the garden, or waking him up to take it in. The more he accused them of substituting hay, the more they accused him of no hole or spade to dig one with, and the smugglers refused to refund the £10, or run the risk of bringing any more to such a careless, lazy fellow. After some time the mystery was solved when he noticed a great smoker never came to buy tobacco as usual, and yet was always smoking, and when he asked him whether he did not want to buy any more tobacco, he said “No,” and when he asked him where he bought his tobacco, he grinned and said. “Nowhere, and it will be long before I do; I dig it up now”.

John Hart.

© Kermode

The Elder Tree Smuggler

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