Bone Model of H.M.S. Prince of Wales
Made by prisoners of war
The Abbé Legoux tried to have religious services in a private house, but they were poorly attended, the Republicans nearly all being atheists, and preferring to pass their Sundays at card-tables and billiards.
Mrs. Roberts thus describes some peculiarities of the prisoners’ dress and manners:
‘Their large hooped gold ear-rings, their pink or sky-blue umbrellas, the Legion of Honour ribbons in their button holes; their profuse exchange of embraces and even kisses in the public street; their attendant poodles carrying walking-sticks in their mouths, and their incessant and vociferous talking. A great source of amusement was the training of birds and dogs.
‘There were few instances of friction between the prisoners and the townsfolk, but there was one angry affray which led to six of the prisoners being sent to Norman Cross to be kept in close confinement. The wives of some of the prisoners had permission to join their husbands in confinement, but “they were very dingy, plain-looking women.”
‘Colonel Fruile married a Miss Moore, daughter of a Chesterfield cabinet maker, and she, like the English wives of other of the prisoners, went to France when Peace was proclaimed. Rank distinctions between officers were rigidly observed, and the junior officers always saluted their superiors who held levées on certain days of the week. The fortunes of Napoleon were closely followed; defeats and victories being marked. During the sojourn of the French prisoners at Chesterfield, took place the battles of Wagram, Jena, Vienna, Berlin, and the Russian campaign. The news of Trafalgar produced great dismay, and the sight of rejoicings—of sheep and oxen roasted whole, of gangs of men yoked together bringing wood and coals for bonfires, was too much to bear, and most of them shut themselves up in their lodgings until the rejoicings were over.
‘After the Peace a few of the prisoners remained in Chesterfield, and some of their descendants live in the town to-day. Many died, and were buried in the “Frenchmen’s Quarter” of the now closed Parish churchyard.’
Oswestry
Oswestry, in Shropshire, was an important parole town. In 1803, when rumours were afloat that a concerted simultaneous rising of the French prisoners of war in the Western Counties was to be carried out, a hurried transfer of these latter was made to the more inland towns of Staffordshire and Shropshire. and it has been stated that Oswestry received no less than 700, but this has been authentically contradicted, chiefly by correspondents to Bygones, a most complete receptacle of old-time information concerning Shropshire and the Welsh border, access to which I owe to the kindness of Mr. J. E. Anden of Tong, Shifnal.
Among the distinguished prisoners at Oswestry were the Marquis d’Hautpol, on whose Memories of Captivity in England I have already drawn largely; General Phillipon, the able defender of Badajos, who escaped with Lieut. Garnier from Oswestry; and Prince Arenburg, who was removed thither to Bridgnorth upon suspicion of having aided a fellow prisoner to escape.
The prisoners were, as usual, distributed in lodgings about the town; some were at the Three Tuns inn, where bullet marks in a wall are said to commemorate a duel fought between two of them.
From the London Chronicle of May 20, 1813, I take the following: