The Fishguard Invasion by the French in 1797

This ebook was transcribed by Les Bowler.
SOME PASSAGES TAKEN FROM THE DIARY OF THE LATE REVEREND DANIEL ROWLANDS, SOMETIME VICAR OF LLANFIANGELPENYBONT
London T. FISHER UNWIN PATERNOSTER SQUARE MDCCCXCII
Dedicated BY PERMISSION TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE THE EARL OF CAWDOR
The very curious incident related in the following narrative took place nearly a hundred years ago, and, as men’s memories are short, and the whole affair reads like fiction—and very improbable and imaginative fiction—it may be as well to write a few lines of introduction, and to give my authorities for the facts mentioned in the story.
In the first place, the evidence of persons who had witnessed the landing, and who recollected it perfectly, and who have told the story to me—I have met many such in the course of my life, as my home was within sight of Fishguard Head. Probably the last of these eye-witnesses was the old woman who died a short time ago—on February 8, 1891. Her demise was announced by the Pembrokeshire papers as “The Death of a Pembrokeshire Centenarian.”
The death occurred on Sunday morning at the Dyffryn Cottages, near Fishguard, of Eleanor (Nelly) Phillips at the age of 103. Her age is pretty accurately fixed by a statement she was wont to make, that she was nine years old when the French landed at Fishguard. She was a spinster, and had been bedridden for eight years. When a mere girl she was in service at Kilshawe, near Fishguard, and was driving cows from a field when the French frigates appeared off the coast in 1797.
In the second place, the following books and pamphlets:—
Fenton’s “Pembrokeshire,” pp. 10, 11, and 12.
“The Book of South Wales,” by C. F. Cliffe, p. 251.
A curious and scarce pamphlet, written by Williams of Crachenllwyd, a place near St. David’s; he was the farmer who sent his servant to give the alarm. The pamphlet was called “The Landing of the French,” and was, I believe, printed at Haverfordwest.
“The Red Dragon,” 1885. Western Mail Office, Cardiff.