Another locality where many changes have taken place deserves a passing notice. " The Old Woman's Tap." Why it was called this, I never heard.
The " Old Woman's Tap " was near the centre of the present St. Leonards, and consisted of a small pond of water, over which on the north side projected a stone, called " the Conqueror's Table. " On it William the Norman is said to have breakfasted before he marched from Hastings to meet the army of Harold. The stone is still preserved in the St. Leonards Subscription Gardens. The pond was supplied by a rivulet running through the site of the present gardens.
The " Old Woman's Tap " was a favourite rendezvous of the smugglers, and there was a place a little to the westward of it, called the " Stussels," which was the scene of a curious transaction between a custom-house officer and two noted smugglers, one Jemmy Roper, the master of a boat, and the other S_____. S______ , the principal owner of the cargo contained in the boat.
The custom-house officer, who was a supernumerary, going down to the water, found Jemmy holding the boat as well as he could with her bow against the beach, he having come in by mistake before the appearance of the company, which, however, was in the immediate neighbourhood. The officer with characteristic bluntness d____d Jemmy as a fool for bringing -
