| There is much the world knows about the British, | | | | in his book that you could see the smugglers selling |
| they have a strange sense of humour, the weather | | | | contraband openly on the beach. Nearby is the place |
| is unpredictable, if you stand in one place for too long | | | | where Rothschild paid Folkestone smugglers to |
| you will experience all four seasons in less than | | | | deliver gold to his family in France who then passed it |
| fifteen minutes. The food is terrible, the | | | | on to their relatives in Spain to pay the British army |
| accommodation worse, the beer is terrible and they | | | | fighting Napoleon. However, don not tarry too long, |
| have no culture. How wrong can you get, if a | | | | smuggling in Folkestone continued into the 1980s with |
| strange sense of humour, terrible food, awful beer, | | | | tobacco, wines and spirits being carried through the |
| rotten hotels and weather is not culture what is? | | | | harbour to supplement a meagre wage and may still |
| If you come to Folkestone and choose the right | | | | be practiced today. |
| places, you can experience all that and more. You can | | | | Take a turn around the seafood stalls, pick a dish of |
| catch a train from Charing Cross Station and be in | | | | prawns or cockles or even jellied eels, and buy a pint |
| Folkestone in an hour and twenty minutes, you may | | | | of bitter beer from the nearby pub. There is an art |
| experience the culture of late running trains, delays | | | | to drinking English beer, do not sip as it will taste too |
| because a leaf has fallen on the line or a fuse has | | | | bitter, take a long slow draft on the back of the |
| blown and the signals do not work. Nevertheless, | | | | tongue and swallow and you will discover why the |
| what do you care, you are on holiday. | | | | English have kept this fine nectar to themselves for |
| If you plan your trip at the right time you can make | | | | so long. |
| the journey on a 1950s steam train, possibly the | | | | When you have finished your beer and seafood ask |
| Golden Arrow. | | | | the landlady for directions to the Old High Street. |
| Arrive at eleven o'clock in the morning. The sea fog | | | | Take a slow stroll up the steep hill, the narrowest |
| has usually gone out with the tide, the rain clouds are | | | | public road still open to traffic in England. Look in the |
| not due for at least another two hours and the sun | | | | art galleries and watch an artist paint a picture. When |
| is breaking through the cloud. Get out the train at | | | | you arrive at the top of the hill turn left and there is |
| Folkestone Central Station, grab a cab and ask for | | | | a pub, the Guildhall, or a little further to the British |
| the Fish Market. | | | | Lion where Dickens is said to have written one of his |
| Folkestone Harbour is a working harbour with small | | | | many books. Make a choice from one of the many |
| inshore fishing fleet and the occasional small cargo | | | | selections of real beer, maybe the seafood was |
| ship, take a walk along the harbour wall and smell the | | | | insufficient so have a light lunch and at about four |
| air, this was once a port that had a history of | | | | o'clock call a cab and return to the Central Station. |
| smuggling that goes back nearly 300 years. Beneath | | | | As you travel home or to your hotel you may think |
| your feet are long lost smugglers tunnels where | | | | that was not a bad day out, if you are an overseas |
| French contraband was carried to all corners of the | | | | visitor you will have seen a side of England and its |
| town including the church? | | | | culture that none of your fellow countrymen will have |
| In 1860, the headmaster of a local school complained | | | | experienced. |
