Bedale, Yorkshire
During the Seven Years’ War prisoners were on parole at Bedale in Yorkshire. The following lines referring to them, sent to me by my friend, Mrs. Cockburn-Hood, were written by Robert Hird, a Bedale shoemaker, who was born in 1768:
‘And this one isle by Frenchmen then in prisoners did abound,
’Twas forty thousand Gallic men. Bedale its quota found:
And here they were at liberty, and that for a long time,
Till Seventeen Hundred and Sixty Three, they then a Peace did sign,
But though at large, they had their bound, it was a good walk out,
Matthew Masterman in their round, they put him to the rout;
This was near to the Standing Stone: at Fleetham Feast he’d been,
And here poor Matthew they fell on. He soon defeated them;
His arms were long, and he struck hard, they could not bear his blows,
The French threw stones, like some petard; he ran, and thus did lose.
James Wilkinson, he lived here then, he’d sons and daughters fair,
Barber he was in great esteem, the Frenchmen oft drew there.’
To this the sender appended a note:
‘In the houses round Bedale there are hand-screens decorated with landscapes in straw, and I have a curious doll’s chair in wood with knobs containing cherry stones which rattle. These were made by French prisoners, according to tradition.’