Did you know?
The local nickname for natives of Wiltshire is Moonrakers. This was thought to originate from a story of smugglers who, in seeking to hide their illegal stash of Brandy, dropped the casks at the bottom of a village pond. When the Excise men arrived to confront them, the smugglers used wooden rakes to disturb the surface of the water so that the Excise men could not see the casks under the surface.
When asked what they were doing, they replied that they were trying to rake in the large round cheese floating on the surface of the pond, which was of course the reflection of the full moon on the water. The local officials considered them to be simpletons and left, allowing the smugglers to continue with their activity. Most local villages in Wiltshire claim that this took place at their village pond.
