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| Moonraker Legend |
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PEOPLE from Wiltshire are often known as Moonrakers and the term is a source of great pride for many related to the county. There are a number of variations of the legend that spawned this name but it is generally thought to be about a band of smugglersÂ… Lit by a beaming full moon, a group of Wiltshire smugglers were transporting some casks of contraband past a pond. Suddenly, the donkey carrying the casks was startled and the smuggled goods slipped into the pond. The smugglers grabbed some hay rakes they found nearby and tried to hook them onto the casks underneath the water to retrieve the valuable goods. An excise man passing by on his horse saw them raking the pond, with the full moon reflected in the water. When he questioned them about their strange behaviour, their quick-witted riposte was that they were raking out the cheese they could see in the water. The exciseman laughed himself silly and told everybody about the stupid countryfolk - but he never knew that, in fact, they were the ones who had fooled him. To find out more about the Moonrakers and Wiltshire Genealogy, see http://www.moonrakers.org.uk/ |
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