Winchester
Measured by the number of prisoners of war confined here, Winchester assuredly should rank as a major establishment, but it seems to have been regarded by the authorities rather as a receiving-house or a transfer office than as a real prisoner settlement, possibly because the building utilized3—a pile of barracks which was originally intended by Charles the Second to be a palace on the plan of Versailles, but which was never finished, and which was known as the King’s House Prison—was not secure enough to be a House of Detention4. It was burned down in 1890.
In 1756 there were no less than 5,000 prisoners at Winchester. In 1761 the order for the withdrawal5 of the military from the city because of the approaching elections occasioned much alarm, and brought vigorous protests from leading inhabitants on account of the 4,000 prisoners of war who would be left practically unguarded, especially as these men happened to be just then in a ferment6 of excitement, and a general outbreak among them was feared. Should this take place, it was represented that nothing could prevent them from communicating with the shipping7 in Southampton River, and setting free their countrymen prisoners at Portchester and Forton Hospital, Gosport.
In 1779 Howard visited Winchester. This was the year when the patients and crew of a captured French hospital ship, 263the Ste. Julie, brought fever into the prison, causing a heavy mortality.
Howard reported that 1,062 prisoners were confined here, that the wards9 were lofty and spacious10, the airing yards large, that the meat and beer were good, but that the bread, being made with leaven11, and mixed with rye, was not so good as that served out to British prisoners. He recommended that to prevent the prisoners from passing their days lying indolently in their hammocks, work-rooms should be provided. Several prisoners, at the time of his visit, were in the Dark Hole for attempting to escape, and he observed that to be condemned12 to forty days’ confinement13 on half-rations in order to pay the ten shillings reward to the men who apprehended15 them seemed too severe. The hospital ward8 was lofty and twenty feet wide. Each patient had a cradle, bedding, and sheets, and the attendance of the doctor was very good. He spoke16 highly of Smith, the Agent, but recommended a more regular system of War-Prison inspection17.
Forgery18 was a prevalent crime among the Winchester prisoners. In 1780 two prisoners gave information about a systematic19 manufacture of false passports in the prison, and described the process. They also revealed the existence of a false key by which prisoners could escape into the fields, the maker20 of which had disappeared. They dared not say more, as they were suspected by their fellow-prisoners of being informers, and prayed for release as reward.
To the letter conveying this information the Agent appended a note:
‘I have been obliged this afternoon to take Honoré Martin and Apert out of the prison that they may go away with the division of prisoners who are to be discharged to-morrow, several prisoners having this morning entered the chamber21 in which they sleep, with naked knives, declaring most resolutely22 they were determined23 to murder them if they could find them, to prevent which their liberty was granted.’
In 1810 two prisoners were brought to Winchester to be hanged for forging seven-shilling pieces. I think this must be the first instance of prisoners of war being hanged for forgery.
264
Roscrow and Kergilliack, near Penryn, Cornwall
In spite of the great pains I have taken to get information about these two neighbouring prisons, the results are most meagre. Considering that there were war-prisoners there continuously from the beginning of the Seven Years’ War in 1756 until the end of the century, that there were 900 prisoners at Roscrow, and 600 at Kergilliack, it is surprising how absolutely the memory of their sojourn24 has faded away locally, and how little information I have been able to elicit25 concerning them from such authorities on matters Cornish as Mr. Thurstan Peter, Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch, Mr. Otho Peter, and Mr. Vawdrey of St. Budock. The earliest document referring to these prisoners which I have found is a letter of thanks from the prisoners at Kergilliack in 1757, for the badly needed reform of the hospital, but I do not think that the two places ranked amongst the regular war-prisons until twenty years later. At no time were they much more than adapted farms. Roscrow consisted of a mansion26, in a corner of which was a public-house, to which a series of substantial farm-buildings was attached, which, when surrounded by a wall, constituted the prison. Kergilliack, or Regilliack, as I have seen it written, was of much the same character.[11]
In 1797 the Roscrow prisoners, according to documents I found at the Archives Nationales in Paris, were nearly all privateersmen. Officers and men were herded27 together, which the former deeply resented; as they did much else, such as being bullied28 by a low class of jailers, the badness of the supplies, the rottenness of the shoes served out to them, the crowded sleeping accommodation, the dirt, and lastly the fact that pilchards formed a chief part of their diet.
In this year a Guernsey boy named Hamond revealed to the 265authorities a mine under the foundation of the house, five feet below the ground and four feet in diameter, going out twenty yards towards the inside fence. He had found the excavated29 earth distributed among the prisoners’ hammocks, and told the turnkey. He was instantly removed, as he would certainly have been murdered by the other prisoners.
The tunnel was a wonder of skill and perseverance30. It was said that the excavators had largely worked with nothing but their hands, and that their labour had been many times increased by the fact that in order to avoid the constant occurrence of rock they had been obliged to make a winding31 course.
Complaints increased: the bad bread was often not delivered till 5 p.m. instead of 8 a.m., the beer was undrinkable, and the proportion of bone to meat in the weighed allowance ridiculous. The Agent paying no attention to reiterated32 complaints, the following petition, signed at Kergilliack as well as at Roscrow, was sent to the Transport Office Commissioners33 for
‘that redress34 which we have a right to expect from Mr. Bannick’s [the Agent] exertions35 on our behalf; but, unfortunately for us, after making repeated applications to him whenever chance threw him in our way, as he seldom visited the prison, we have the mortification36 of finding that our reasonable and just remonstrances38 have been treated with the most forbidding frowns and the distant arrogance39 of the most arbitrary Despot when he has been presented with a sample of bread delivered to us, or rather, rye, flour, and water cemented together, and at different times, and as black as our shoes.
(Signed)
‘The General Body of French Officers
confined in Roscrow Prison.’
A further remonstrance37 was set forth40 that the Agent and his son, who was associated with him, were bullies41; that the surgeon neglected his duties; and that the living and sleeping quarters were bad and damp.
The only result I can find of these petitions, is a further exasperation42 of the prisoners by the stopping of all exchange privileges of those who had signed them.
The following complaints about the hospital at Falmouth in the year 1757 I have placed at the end of this notice, as I cannot be sure that they were formulated43 by, or had anything 266to do with, foreign prisoners of war. From the fact that they are included among a batch44 of documents at the Record Office dealing45 with prisoners of war, I think it is quite possible that they may be associated with them, inasmuch as Falmouth, like Dover, Deal, and other coast ports, was a sort of receiving office for prisoners captured on privateers, previous to their disposal elsewhere.
It was complained that:
1.
No bouillon was served if no basin was brought: the allowance being one small basin in 24 hours.
2.
Half the beds had no sheets, and what sheets there were had not been changed for six months.
3.
Beds were so scarce that new arrivals were kept waiting in the open yards.
4.
The attendants were underpaid, and therefore useless.
5.
No bandages were supplied, so that the patients’ own shirts had to be torn up to make them.
6.
Stimulants46 and meat were insufficient47, and the best of what there was the attendants secured beforehand.
7.
Half-cured patients were often discharged to make room for others.
From what Mr. Vawdrey, the Vicar of St. Budock, Falmouth, has written to me, it is certain that French officers were on parole in different places of this neighbourhood. Tradition says that those who died were buried beneath a large tree on the right hand of the north entrance of the church. There are entries in the registers of the deaths of French prisoners, and, if there is no evidence of marriages, there is that ‘some St. Budock girls appear to have made captivity48 more blessed for some of them’. Some people at Meudon in Mawnan, named Courage, farmers, trace their descent from a French lieutenant49 of that name. Mawnan registers show French names. Pendennis Castle was used as a war-prison, both for French from the Peninsula, and for Americans during the war of 1812.
Shrewsbury
I am indebted to Mr. J. E. Anden, M.A., F.R. Hist. S., of Tong, Shifnal, for the following extracts from the diary of John Tarbuck, a shoemaker, of Shrewsbury:
‘September, 1783. Six hundred hammocks were slung50 in 267the Orphan51 Hospital, from which all the windows were removed, to convert it into a Dutch prison, and as many captive sailors marched in. Many of the townspeople go out to meet them, and amongst the rest Mr. Roger Yeomans, the most corpulent man in the country, to the no small mirth of the prisoners, who, on seeing him, gave a great shout: “Huzza les Anglais! Roast beef for ever!” This exclamation52 was soon verified to their satisfaction, as the Salop gentry53 made a subscription54 to buy them some in addition to that allowed by their victors, together with shoes, jackets, and other necessaries. ’Twas pleasing to see the poor creatures’ gratitude55, for they’d sing you their songs, tho’ in a foreign land, and some companies of their youth would dance with amazing dexterity56 in figures totally unlike the English dances with a kind of regular confusion, yet with grace, ease, and truth to the music. I remember there was one black boy of such surprising agility57 that, had the person seen him, who, speaking against the Abolition58 of the slave-trade, said there was only a link between the human and the brute59 creation, it would have strengthened his favourite hypothesis, for he leaped about with more of the swiftness of the monkey than the man.
‘I went one Sunday to Church with them, and I came away much more edified60 than from some sermons where I could tell all that was spoken. The venerable appearance and the devotion evident in every look and gesture of the preacher, joined to the grave and decent deportment of his hearers ... had a wonderful effect on my feelings and tended very much to solemnize my affections.
‘May, 1785. Four of the Dutch prisoners escape by means of the privy61 and were never retaken. Many others enlist62 in the English service, and are hissed63 and shouted at by their fellows, and deservedly so. The Swedes and Norwegians among them are marched away (being of neutral nations) to be exchanged.’
A newspaper of July 1784 (?) says:
‘On Thursday last an unfortunate affair happened at the Dutch Prison, Shrewsbury. A prisoner, behaving irregular, was desired by a guard to desist, which was returned by the prisoner with abusive language and blows, and the prisoner, laying hold of the Centinel’s Firelock, forced off the bayonet, and broke the belt. Remonstrance proving fruitless, and some more of the Prisoners joining their stubborn countryman, the Centinel was obliged to draw back and fire among them, which killed one on the spot. The Ball went through his Body and wounded one more. The man that began the disturbance64 escaped unhurt.’
268The prisoners left Shrewsbury about November 1785.
A correspondent of a Shrewsbury newspaper in 1911 writes:
‘A generation ago there were people living who remembered the rebuilding of Montford Bridge by prisoners of war. They went out each Monday, tradition says, in carts and wagons65, and were quartered there during the week in farm-houses and cottages near their work, being taken back to Shrewsbury at the end of each week.’
The correspondence evoked66 by this letter, however, sufficiently67 proved that this was nothing more than tradition.
Yarmouth
Prisoners were confined here during the Seven Years’ War, although no special buildings were set apart for their reception, and, as elsewhere, they were simply herded with the common prisoners in the ordinary lock-up. In 1758 numerous complaints came to the ‘Sick and Hurt’ Office from the prisoners here, about their bad treatment, the greed of the jailer, the bad food, the lack of medical attendance and necessaries, and the misery68 of being lodged69 with the lowest class of criminals. Prisoners who were seriously ill were placed in the prison hospital; the jailer used to intercept70 money contributed by the charitable for the benefit of the prisoners, and only paid it over after the deduction71 of a large commission. The straw bedding was dirty, scanty72, and rarely changed; water had to be paid for, and there was hardly any airing ground.
After the building of Norman Cross Prison, Yarmouth became, like Deal and Falmouth, a mere73 receiving port, but an exceedingly busy one, the prisoners being landed there direct from capture, and generally taken on by water to Lynn, whence they were conveyed by canal to Peterborough.
From the Norwich Mercury of 1905 I take the following notes on Yarmouth by the late Rev1. G. N. Godwin:
‘Columns of prisoners, often 1,000 strong, were marched from Yarmouth to Norwich, and were there lodged in the Castle. They frequently expressed their gratitude for the kindness shown them by the Mayor and citizens. One smart privateer captain coolly walked out of the Castle in the company of some visitors, and, needless to say, did not return.
‘From Yarmouth they were marched to King’s Lynn, halting 269at Costessy, Swanton Mosley (where their “barracks” are still pointed74 out), East Dereham, where some were lodged in the detached church tower, and thence to Lynn. Here they were lodged in a large building, afterwards used as a warehouse75, now pulled down. [For a further reference to East Dereham and its church tower, see p. 453.]
‘At Lynn they took water, and were conveyed in barges76 and lighters77 through the Forty Foot, the Hundred Foot, the Paupers’ Cut, and the Nene to Peterborough, whence they marched to Norman Cross.
‘In 1797, 28 prisoners escaped from the gaol78 at Yarmouth by undermining the wall and the row adjoining. All but five of them were retaken. In the same year 4 prisoners broke out of the gaol, made their way to Lowestoft, where they stole a boat from the beach, and got on board a small vessel79, the crew of which they put under the hatches, cut the cable, and put out to sea. Seven hours later the crew managed to regain80 the deck, a rough and tumble fight ensued, one of the Frenchmen was knocked overboard, and the others were ultimately lodged in Yarmouth gaol.’
Edinburgh
For the following details about a prison which, although of importance, cannot from its size be fairly classed among the chief Prisoners of War dép?ts of Britain, I am largely indebted to the late Mr. Macbeth Forbes, who most generously gave me permission to use freely his article in the Bankers’ Magazine of March 1899. I emphasize his liberality inasmuch as a great deal of the information in this article is of a nature only procurable81 by one with particular and peculiar82 facilities for so doing. I allude83 to the system of bank-note forgery pursued by the prisoners.
Edinburgh Castle was first used as a place of confinement for prisoners of war during the Seven Years’ War, and, like Liverpool, this use was made of it chiefly on account of its convenient proximity84 to the waters haunted by privateers. The very first prisoners brought in belonged to the Chevalier Bart privateer, captured off Tynemouth by H.M.S. Solebay, in April 1757, the number of them being 28, and in July of the same year a further 108 were added.
‘In the autumn of 1759 a piteous appeal was addressed to the publishers of the Edinburgh Evening Courant on behalf of 270the French prisoners of war in Edinburgh Castle by one who “lately beheld85 some hundreds of French prisoners, many of them about naked (some without any other clothing but shirts and breeches and even these in rags), conducted along the High Street to the Castle.” The writer says that many who saw the spectacle were moved to tears, and he asked that relief might be given by contributing clothing to these destitute86 men. This letter met with a favourable87 response from the citizens, and a book of subscriptions88 was opened forthwith. The prisoners were visited and found to number 362. They were reported to be “in a miserable89 condition, many almost naked,” and winter approaching. There were, however, revilers of this charitable movement, who said that the public were being imposed upon; that the badly clothed were idle fellows who disposed of their belongings90; that they had been detected in the Castle cutting their shoes, stockings, and hammocks into pieces, in the prospect91 of getting these articles renewed. “One fellow, yesterday, got twenty bottles of ale for a suit of clothes given him by the good people of the town in charity, and this he boasted of to one of the servants in the sutlery.”
‘The promoters of the movement expressed their “surprise at the endeavours used to divert the public from pursuing so humane92 a design.”.... They also pointed out that the prisoners only received an allowance of 6d. a day, from which the contractor’s profit was taken, so that little remained for providing clothes. An estimate was obtained of the needs of the prisoners, and a list drawn93 up of articles wanted. Of the 362 persons confined 8 were officers, whose subsistence money was 1s. a day, and they asked no charity of the others; no fewer than 238 had no shirt, and 108 possessed94 only one. Their other needs were equally great. The “City Hospitals for Young Maidens” offered to make shirts for twopence each, and sundry95 tailors to make a certain number of jackets and breeches for nothing. The prisoners had an airing ground, but as it was necessary to obtain permission before visiting them, the chance they had of disposing of any of their work was very slight indeed.’
William Fergusson, clerk to Dr. James Walker, the Agent for the prisoners of war in the Castle, described as a man of fine instincts, seems to have been one of the few officials who, brought into daily contact with the prisoners, learned to sympathize with them, and to do what lay in their power to mitigate96 the prisoners’ hard lot.
Early in May 1763, the French prisoners in the Castle, 271numbering 500, were embarked97 from Leith to France, the Peace of Paris having been concluded.
During the Revolutionary War with France, Edinburgh Castle again received French prisoners, mostly, as before, privateersmen, the number between 1796 and 1801 being 1,104. In the later Napoleonic wars the Castle was the head-quarters of Scotland for distributing the prisoners, the commissioned officers to the various parole towns of which notice will be taken in the chapters treating of the paroled prisoners in Scotland, and the others to the great dép?ts at Perth and Valleyfield. We shall see when we come to deal with the paroled foreign officers in Scotland in what pleasant places, as a rule, their lines were cast, and how effectively they contrived98 to make the best of things, but it was very much otherwise with the rank and file in confinement.
‘An onlooker’, says Mr. Forbes, ‘has described the appearance of the prisoners at Edinburgh Castle. He says:—These poor men were allowed to work at their tasteful handicrafts in small sheds or temporary workshops at the Castle, behind the palisades which separated them from their free customers outside. There was just room between the bars of the palisade for them to hand through their exquisite99 work, and to receive in return the modest prices which they charged. As they sallied forth from their dungeons100, so they returned to them at night. The dungeons, partly rock and partly masonry102, of Edinburgh Castle, are historic spots which appeal alike to the sentiment and the imagination. They are situate in the south and east of the Castle, and the date of them goes far back.’ It is unnecessary to describe what may still be seen, practically unchanged since the great war-times, by every visitor to Edinburgh.
In 1779 Howard visited Edinburgh during his tour round the prisons of Britain. His report is by no means bad. He found sixty-four prisoners in two rooms formerly103 used as barracks; in one room they lay in couples in straw-lined boxes against the wall, with two coverlets to each box. In the other room they had hammocks duly fitted with mattresses104. The regulations were hung up according to law—an important fact, inasmuch as in other prisons, such as Pembroke, 272where the prison agents purposely omitted to hang them up, the prisoners remained in utter ignorance of their rights and their allowances. Howard reported the provisions to be all good, and noted105 that at the hospital house some way off, where were fourteen sick prisoners, the bedding and sheets were clean and sufficient, and the medical attention good.
This satisfactory state of matters seems to have lasted, for in 1795 the following letter was written by the French prisoners in the Castle to General Dundas:
‘Les prisonniers de guerre fran?ais détenus au chateau106 d’Edinburgh ne peuvent que se louer de l’attention et du bon traitement qu’ils ont re?u de Com.-Gén. Dundas et officiers des brigades écossoises, en foi de quoi nous livrons le présent.
‘Fr. Leroy.’
Possibly the ancient camaraderie107 of the Scots and French nations may have had something to do with this pleasant condition of things, for in 1797 Dutch prisoners confined in the Castle complained about ill treatment and the lack of clothing, and the authorities consented to their being removed to ‘a more airy and comfortable situation at Fountainbridge’.
In 1799 the Rev. Mr. FitzSimmons, of the Episcopal Chapel108, an Englishman, was arraigned109 before the High Court of Justiciary for aiding in the escape of four French prisoners from the Castle, by concealing111 them in his house, and taking them to a Newhaven fishing boat belonging to one Neil Drysdale, which carried them to the Isle112 of Inchkeith, whence they escaped to France. Two of them had sawn through the dungeon101 bars with a sword-blade which they had contrived to smuggle113 in. The other two were parole prisoners. He was sentenced to three months’ imprisonment114 in the Tolbooth.
A French prisoner in 1799, having learned at what hour the dung which had been collected in the prison would be thrown over the wall, got himself put into the hand-barrow used for its conveyance115, was covered over with litter, and was thrown down several feet; but, being discovered by the sentinels in his fall, they presented their pieces while he was endeavouring to conceal110 himself. The poor bruised116 and affrighted fellow supplicated117 for mercy, and waited on his knees until his jailers came up to take him back to prison.
273In 1811 forty-nine prisoners contrived to get out of the Castle at one time. They cut a hole through the bottom of the parapet wall at the south-west corner, below the ‘Devil’s Elbow,’ and let themselves down by a rope which they had been smuggling118 in by small sections for weeks previously119. One man lost his hold, and fell, and was mortally injured. Five were retaken the next day, and fourteen got away along the Glasgow road. Some were retaken later near Linlithgow in the Polmount plantations120, exhausted121 with hunger. They had planned to get to Grangemouth, where they hoped to get on board a smuggler122. They confessed that the plot was of long planning. Later still, six more were recaptured. They had made for Cramond, where they had stolen a boat, sailed up the Firth, and landed near Hopetoun House, intending to go to Port Glasgow by land. These poor fellows said that they had lived for three days on raw turnips123. Not one of the forty-nine got away.
I now come to the science of forgery as practised by the foreign prisoners of war in Scotland, and I shall be entirely124 dependent upon Mr. Macbeth Forbes for my information.
The Edinburgh prisoners were busy at this work between 1811 and the year of their departure, 1814.
The first reputed case was that of a Bank of Scotland one-guinea note, discovered in 1811. It was not a very skilful125 performance, for the forged note was three-fourths of an inch longer than the genuine, and the lettering on it was not engraved126, but done with pen and printing ink. But this defect was remedied, for, three weeks after the discovery, the plate of a guinea note was found by the miller127 in the mill lade at Stockbridge (the north side of Edinburgh), in cleaning out the lade.
In 1812 a man was tried for the possession of six one-pound forged notes which had been found concealed128 between the sole of his foot and his stocking. His story as to how he came into possession of them seems to have satisfied the judge, and he was set free; but he afterwards confessed that he had received them from a soldier of the Cambridge Militia129 under the name of ‘pictures’ in the house of a grocer at Penicuik, near the Valleyfield Dép?t, and that the soldier had, at his, the accused man’s, desire, purchased them for 2s. each from the prisoners.
274In July 1812 seven French prisoners of war escaped from Edinburgh Tolbooth, whither they had been transferred from the Castle to take their trial for the forgery of bank-notes. ‘They were confined’, says a contemporary newspaper, ‘in the north-west room on the third story, and they had penetrated130 the wall, though very thick, till they got into the chimney of Mr. Gilmour’s shop (on the ground floor), into which they descended131 by means of ropes. As they could not force their way out of the shop, they ascended132 a small stair to the room above, from which they took out half the window and descended one by one into the street, and got clear off. In the course of the morning one of them was retaken in the Grass Market, being traced by the sooty marks of his feet. We understand that, except one, they all speak broken English. They left a note on the table of the shop saying that they had taken nothing away.’
Afterwards three of the prisoners were taken at Glasgow, and another in Dublin.
From the first discoveries of forgeries133 by prisoners of war, the Scottish banks chiefly affected134 by them had in a more or less satisfactory way combined to take steps to prevent and to punish forgeries, but it was not until they offered a reward of ￡100 for information leading to the discovery of persons forging or issuing their notes that a perceptible check to the practice was made. This advertisement was printed and put outside the dép?t walls for the militia on guard, a French translation was posted up inside for the prisoners, and copies of it were sent to the Agents at all parole towns. With reference to this last, let it be said to the credit of the foreign officers on parole, both in England and Scotland, that, although a Frenchman has written to the contrary, there are no more than two recorded instances of officers on parole being prosecuted135 or suspected of the forgery of bank-notes. (See pp. 320 and 439.) Of passport forgeries there are a few cases, and the forgery mentioned on p. 439 may have been of passports and not of bank-notes.
In addition, says Mr. Macbeth Forbes, the military authorities were continually on the qui vive for forgers. The governors of the different dép?ts ordered the turnkeys to examine narrowly notes coming in and out of prison. The militiamen 275had also to be watched, as they acted so frequently as intermediaries, as for instance:
‘In November 1813 Mr. Aitken, the keeper of the Canongate Tolbooth, detected and took from the person of a private soldier in a militia regiment136 stationed over the French prisoners in Penicuik, and who had come into the Canongate Prison to see a friend, forged guineas and twenty-shilling notes on two different banks in this city, and two of them in the country, amounting to nearly ￡70. The soldier was immediately given over to the civil power, and from thence to the regiment to which he belonged, until the matter was further investigated.’
In July 1813 the clerk of the Valleyfield Dép?t sent to the banks twenty-six forged guinea notes which were about to be sold, but were detected by the turnkey.
The Frenchmen seem to have chiefly selected for imitation the notes of the Bank of Scotland, and the Commercial Banking137 Company of Scotland, as these had little or no pictorial138 delineation139, and consisted almost entirely of engraved penmanship. The forgers had to get suitable paper, and, as there were no steel pens in those days, a few crow quills140 served their purpose. They had confederates who watched the ins and outs of the turnkey; and, in addition to imitating the lettering on the face of the note, they had to forge the watermark, the seals of the bank, and the Government stamp. The bones of their ration14 food formed, literally141, the groundwork of the forger’s productions, and as these had to be properly scraped and smoothed into condition before being in a state to be worked upon with ordinary pocket-knives, if the result was often so crude as to deceive only the veriest yokel142, the Scottish banks might be thankful that engraving143 apparatus144 was unprocurable.
‘Several forged notes, in imitation of the notes of the governor and company of the Bank of Scotland, having appeared, chiefly in the neighbourhood of the dép?ts of French prisoners of war, a caution is hereby, on the part of the said governors and company, given against receiving such forged notes in payment. And whoever shall, within three months from the date hereof, give such information as shall be found sufficient, on lawful146 trial, to convict any one concerned in forging 276or feloniously uttering any of the said notes, shall receive a reward of a hundred pounds sterling147. These forged notes are executed by the hand with a pen or pencil, without any engraving. In most of them the body of the note has the appearance of foreign handwriting. The names of the bank officers are mostly illegible148 or ill-spelled. The ornamental149 characters of the figures generally ill-executed. The seals are very ill-imitated. To this mark particular attention is requested.’
The seals, bearing the arms of the Bank of Scotland, are of sheep’s bone, and were impressed upon the note with a hammer, also probably of bone, since all metal tools were prohibited. The partially150 executed forgery of a Bank of Scotland guinea note shows the process of imitating the lettering on the note in dotted outline, for which the forgers had doubtless some good reason, which is not at once patent to us.
Until 1810 the punishment for forgery was the hulks. During that year the law in England took a less merciful view of the crime, and offenders151 were sentenced to death; and until 1829, when the last man was hanged for forgery, this remained the law.
As to Scotland Mr. Forbes says: ‘The administration was probably not so severe as in England ... no French prisoner suffered anything more than a slight incarceration152, and a subsequent relegation153 to the prison ships, where some thousands of his countrymen already were.’
Armed with a Home Office permit I visited the prisons in the rock of Edinburgh Castle. Owing to the facts that most of them have been converted into military storerooms and that their substance does not lend itself readily to destruction, they remain probably very much as when they were filled with the war-prisoners, and, with their heavily built doors and their strongly barred apertures154, which cannot be called windows, their darkness and cold, the silence of their position high above even the roar of a great city, convey still to the minds of the visitors of to-day a more real impression of the meaning of the word ‘imprisonment’ than does any other war-prison, either extant or pictured. At Norman Cross, at Portchester, at Stapleton, at Dartmoor, at Perth, there were at any rate open spaces for airing grounds, but at Edinburgh there could have 277been none, unless the narrow footway, outside the line of caverns155, from the wall of which the precipice156 falls sheer down, was so utilized.
Near the entrance to the French prisons the following names are visible on the wall:
Charles Jobien, Calais, 1780.
Morel de Calais, 1780.
1780. Proyol prisonnier nee natif de bourbonnais (?).
With the Peace of 1814 came the jail-delivery, and it caused one of the weirdest158 scenes known in that old High Street so inured159 to weird157 scenes. The French prisoners were marched down by torchlight to the transport at Leith, and thousands of citizens lined the streets. Down the highway went the liberated160 ones, singing the war-songs of the Revolution—the Marseillaise and the ?a ira. Wildly enthusiastic were the pale, haggard-looking prisoners of war, but the enthusiasm was not exhausted with them, for they had a great send-off from the populace.
In Sir T. E. Colebrooke’s Life of Mountstuart Elphinstone, Mr. John Russell of Edinburgh writes that when he first knew Mountstuart, his father, Lord Elphinstone, was Governor of Edinburgh Castle, in which were confined a great number of French prisoners of war. With these prisoners the boy Mountstuart loved to converse161, and, learning from them their revolutionary songs, he used to walk about singing the Marseillaise, ?a ira, and Les Aristocrates à la Lanterne, much to the disgust of the British officers, who, however, dared not check such a proceeding162 on the part of the son of the Governor. Mountstuart also wore his hair long in accordance with the revolutionary fashion.
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| n.滞留，停留；拘留，扣留；(教育)留下 | |
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5
withdrawal
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| n.取回，提款；撤退，撤军；收回，撤销 | |
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6
ferment
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| vt.使发酵；n./vt.（使）激动，（使）动乱 | |
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7
shipping
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| n.船运（发货，运输，乘船） | |
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8
ward
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| n.守卫，监护，病房，行政区，由监护人或法院保护的人（尤指儿童）；vt.守护，躲开 | |
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9
wards
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| 区( ward的名词复数 )； 病房； 受监护的未成年者； 被人照顾或控制的状态 | |
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spacious
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| adj.广阔的，宽敞的 | |
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11
leaven
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| v.使发酵；n.酵母；影响 | |
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12
condemned
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| adj. 被责难的, 被宣告有罪的 动词condemn的过去式和过去分词 | |
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13
confinement
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| n.幽禁，拘留，监禁；分娩；限制，局限 | |
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14
ration
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| n.定量(pl.)给养，口粮；vt.定量供应 | |
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15
apprehended
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| 逮捕，拘押( apprehend的过去式和过去分词 )； 理解 | |
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16
spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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17
inspection
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| n.检查，审查，检阅 | |
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18
forgery
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| n.伪造的文件等，赝品，伪造（行为） | |
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19
systematic
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| adj.有系统的，有计划的，有方法的 | |
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20
maker
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| n.制造者，制造商 | |
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21
chamber
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| n.房间，寝室；会议厅；议院；会所 | |
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22
resolutely
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| adj.坚决地，果断地 | |
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23
determined
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| adj.坚定的；有决心的 | |
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24
sojourn
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| v./n.旅居，寄居；逗留 | |
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25
elicit
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| v.引出,抽出,引起 | |
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26
mansion
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| n.大厦，大楼；宅第 | |
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27
herded
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| 群集，纠结( herd的过去式和过去分词 )； 放牧； （使）向…移动 | |
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28
bullied
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| adj.被欺负了v.恐吓，威逼( bully的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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29
excavated
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| v.挖掘( excavate的过去式和过去分词 )；开凿；挖出；发掘 | |
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30
perseverance
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| n.坚持不懈，不屈不挠 | |
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31
winding
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| n.绕，缠，绕组，线圈 | |
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32
reiterated
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| 反复地说，重申( reiterate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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33
commissioners
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| n.专员( commissioner的名词复数 )；长官；委员；政府部门的长官 | |
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34
redress
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| n.赔偿，救济，矫正；v.纠正，匡正，革除 | |
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35
exertions
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| n.努力( exertion的名词复数 )；费力；（能力、权力等的）运用；行使 | |
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36
mortification
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| n.耻辱，屈辱 | |
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37
remonstrance
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| n抗议，抱怨 | |
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38
remonstrances
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| n.抱怨，抗议( remonstrance的名词复数 ) | |
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39
arrogance
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| n.傲慢，自大 | |
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40
forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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41
bullies
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| n.欺凌弱小者, 开球 vt.恐吓, 威胁, 欺负 | |
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42
exasperation
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| n.愤慨 | |
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43
formulated
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| v.构想出( formulate的过去式和过去分词 )；规划；确切地阐述；用公式表示 | |
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44
batch
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| n.一批(组，群)；一批生产量 | |
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45
dealing
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| n.经商方法，待人态度 | |
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46
stimulants
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| n.兴奋剂( stimulant的名词复数 )；含兴奋剂的饮料；刺激物；激励物 | |
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47
insufficient
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| adj.(for，of)不足的，不够的 | |
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48
captivity
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| n.囚禁；被俘；束缚 | |
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49
lieutenant
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| n.陆军中尉，海军上尉；代理官员，副职官员 | |
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50
slung
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| 抛( sling的过去式和过去分词 )； 吊挂； 遣送； 押往 | |
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51
orphan
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| n.孤儿；adj.无父母的 | |
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52
exclamation
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| n.感叹号，惊呼，惊叹词 | |
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53
gentry
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| n.绅士阶级，上层阶级 | |
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54
subscription
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| n.预订，预订费，亲笔签名，调配法，下标（处方） | |
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55
gratitude
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| adj.感激，感谢 | |
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56
dexterity
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| n.(手的)灵巧，灵活 | |
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57
agility
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| n.敏捷，活泼 | |
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58
abolition
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| n.废除，取消 | |
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59
brute
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| n.野兽，兽性 | |
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60
edified
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| v.开导，启发( edify的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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61
privy
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| adj.私用的；隐密的 | |
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62
enlist
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| vt.谋取(支持等)，赢得；征募；vi.入伍 | |
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63
hissed
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| 发嘶嘶声( hiss的过去式和过去分词 )； 发嘘声表示反对 | |
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64
disturbance
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| n.动乱，骚动；打扰，干扰；(身心)失调 | |
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65
wagons
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| n.四轮的运货马车( wagon的名词复数 )；铁路货车；小手推车 | |
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66
evoked
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| [医]诱发的 | |
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67
sufficiently
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| adv.足够地，充分地 | |
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68
misery
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| n.痛苦，苦恼，苦难；悲惨的境遇，贫苦 | |
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69
lodged
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| v.存放( lodge的过去式和过去分词 )；暂住；埋入；（权利、权威等）归属 | |
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70
intercept
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| vt.拦截，截住，截击 | |
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71
deduction
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| n.减除，扣除，减除额；推论，推理，演绎 | |
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72
scanty
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| adj.缺乏的，仅有的，节省的，狭小的，不够的 | |
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73
mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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74
pointed
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| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
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75
warehouse
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| n.仓库；vt.存入仓库 | |
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76
barges
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| 驳船( barge的名词复数 ) | |
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77
lighters
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| n.打火机，点火器( lighter的名词复数 ) | |
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78
gaol
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| n.(jail)监狱；(不加冠词)监禁；vt.使…坐牢 | |
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79
vessel
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| n.船舶；容器，器皿；管，导管，血管 | |
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80
regain
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| vt.重新获得，收复，恢复 | |
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81
procurable
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| adj.可得到的，得手的 | |
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82
peculiar
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| adj.古怪的，异常的；特殊的，特有的 | |
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83
allude
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| v.提及，暗指 | |
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84
proximity
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| n.接近，邻近 | |
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85
beheld
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| v.看，注视( behold的过去式和过去分词 )；瞧；看呀；（叙述中用于引出某人意外的出现）哎哟 | |
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86
destitute
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| adj.缺乏的；穷困的 | |
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87
favourable
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| adj.赞成的，称赞的，有利的，良好的，顺利的 | |
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88
subscriptions
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| n.（报刊等的）订阅费( subscription的名词复数 )；捐款；（俱乐部的）会员费；捐助 | |
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89
miserable
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|
| adj.悲惨的，痛苦的；可怜的，糟糕的 | |
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90
belongings
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| n.私人物品，私人财物 | |
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91
prospect
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| n.前景，前途；景色，视野 | |
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92
humane
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| adj.人道的，富有同情心的 | |
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93
drawn
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| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
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94
possessed
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| adj.疯狂的；拥有的，占有的 | |
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95
sundry
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| adj.各式各样的，种种的 | |
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96
mitigate
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| vt.（使）减轻，（使）缓和 | |
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97
embarked
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| 乘船( embark的过去式和过去分词 )； 装载； 从事 | |
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98
contrived
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| adj.不自然的，做作的；虚构的 | |
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99
exquisite
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| adj.精美的；敏锐的；剧烈的，感觉强烈的 | |
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100
dungeons
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| n.地牢( dungeon的名词复数 ) | |
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101
dungeon
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| n.地牢，土牢 | |
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102
masonry
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| n.砖土建筑；砖石 | |
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103
formerly
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| adv.从前，以前 | |
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104
mattresses
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| 褥垫，床垫( mattress的名词复数 ) | |
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105
noted
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| adj.著名的，知名的 | |
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106
chateau
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| n.城堡，别墅 | |
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107
camaraderie
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| n.同志之爱，友情 | |
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108
chapel
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| n.小教堂，殡仪馆 | |
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109
arraigned
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| v.告发( arraign的过去式和过去分词 )；控告；传讯；指责 | |
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110
conceal
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| v.隐藏，隐瞒，隐蔽 | |
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111
concealing
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| v.隐藏，隐瞒，遮住( conceal的现在分词 ) | |
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112
isle
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| n.小岛，岛 | |
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113
smuggle
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| vt.私运；vi.走私 | |
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114
imprisonment
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| n.关押，监禁，坐牢 | |
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115
conveyance
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| n.(不动产等的)转让，让与；转让证书；传送；运送；表达；（正）运输工具 | |
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116
bruised
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| [医]青肿的，瘀紫的 | |
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117
supplicated
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| v.祈求，哀求，恳求( supplicate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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118
smuggling
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| n.走私 | |
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119
previously
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| adv.以前，先前（地） | |
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120
plantations
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| n.种植园，大农场( plantation的名词复数 ) | |
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121
exhausted
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| adj.极其疲惫的，精疲力尽的 | |
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122
smuggler
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| n.走私者 | |
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123
turnips
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| 芜青( turnip的名词复数 )； 芜菁块根； 芜菁甘蓝块根； 怀表 | |
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124
entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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125
skilful
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| (=skillful)adj.灵巧的，熟练的 | |
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126
engraved
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| v.在（硬物）上雕刻（字，画等）( engrave的过去式和过去分词 )；将某事物深深印在（记忆或头脑中） | |
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127
miller
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| n.磨坊主 | |
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128
concealed
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| a.隐藏的，隐蔽的 | |
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129
militia
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| n.民兵，民兵组织 | |
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130
penetrated
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| adj. 击穿的，鞭辟入里的 动词penetrate的过去式和过去分词形式 | |
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131
descended
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| a.为...后裔的，出身于...的 | |
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132
ascended
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| v.上升，攀登( ascend的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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133
forgeries
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| 伪造( forgery的名词复数 )； 伪造的文件、签名等 | |
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134
affected
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| adj.不自然的，假装的 | |
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135
prosecuted
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| a.被起诉的 | |
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136
regiment
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| n.团，多数，管理；v.组织，编成团，统制 | |
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137
banking
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| n.银行业，银行学，金融业 | |
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138
pictorial
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| adj.绘画的；图片的；n．画报 | |
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139
delineation
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| n.记述；描写 | |
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140
quills
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| n.（刺猬或豪猪的）刺( quill的名词复数 )；羽毛管；翮；纡管 | |
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141
literally
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| adv.照字面意义，逐字地；确实 | |
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142
yokel
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| n.乡下人；农夫 | |
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143
engraving
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| n.版画；雕刻（作品）；雕刻艺术；镌版术v.在（硬物）上雕刻（字，画等）( engrave的现在分词 )；将某事物深深印在（记忆或头脑中） | |
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144
apparatus
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| n.装置，器械；器具，设备 | |
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145
crudity
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| n.粗糙，生硬；adj.粗略的 | |
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146
lawful
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| adj.法律许可的，守法的，合法的 | |
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147
sterling
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| adj.英币的(纯粹的，货真价实的)；n.英国货币(英镑) | |
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148
illegible
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| adj.难以辨认的，字迹模糊的 | |
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149
ornamental
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| adj.装饰的；作装饰用的；n.装饰品；观赏植物 | |
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150
partially
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| adv.部分地，从某些方面讲 | |
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151
offenders
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| n.冒犯者( offender的名词复数 )；犯规者；罪犯；妨害…的人（或事物） | |
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152
incarceration
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| n.监禁，禁闭；钳闭 | |
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153
relegation
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| n.驱逐，贬黜；降级 | |
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154
apertures
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| n.孔( aperture的名词复数 )；隙缝；（照相机的）光圈；孔径 | |
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155
caverns
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| 大山洞，大洞穴( cavern的名词复数 ) | |
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156
precipice
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| n.悬崖，危急的处境 | |
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157
weird
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| adj.古怪的，离奇的；怪诞的，神秘而可怕的 | |
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158
weirdest
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| 怪诞的( weird的最高级 )； 神秘而可怕的； 超然的； 古怪的 | |
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159
inured
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| adj.坚强的，习惯的 | |
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160
liberated
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| a.无拘束的，放纵的 | |
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161
converse
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| vi.谈话，谈天，闲聊；adv.相反的，相反 | |
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162
proceeding
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| n.行动，进行，(pl.)会议录，学报 | |
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