[125] Basil Thomson, loc. cit., chap, xix., p. 202.
[126] Vide Appendix A.
[129] In the great action off Cape Trafalgar on 21st October 1805, the Leviathan, seventy-four guns, under Captain Bayton, was next to the Victory. After passing through the enemy’s line she dismasted her opponent, raked the Santissima Trinidad, and passed on to the San Augustin, one of seven coming to surround her; this ship was silenced in fifteen minutes, and the crew of the Leviathan, making her fast with a hawser, towed her into the English Fleet with the English Jack flying. The French ship L’Intrépide had by distant firing cut into the sails and rigging of the Leviathan, but three more British ships coming up, L’Intrépide was, after a noble resistance, also compelled to surrender, and was set on fire by the Britannia. The crews were landed at Portsmouth and transferred to Norman Cross, where they were received on 8th January 1806. One was Corporal Jean De la Porte, whose name appears as the maker of signed straw marquetry pictures, and to whom are attributed many other unsigned pictures of the same character. Mr. Jean De la Porte is spoken of as an officer; had he been of that rank he would not have been in the prison, but out on parole. He was a Petty Officer, and would be in the Petty Officers’ prison. He was confined at Norman Cross for nearly nine years, and during this long captivity his artistic skill and taste must have enormously mitigated his suffering.
[131a] On Horn and Tortoiseshell, by H. Akin, late Secretary of the Society of Arts, London. Journal of the Franklin Institute, London. Series vol. xxvi., pp. 256–9. 1840.
[131b] I have a drinking-horn, given to me by the daughter-in-law of the man for whom it was made, engraved with his name—J. Bates—surrounded by a floral pattern.—T. J. W.
[133a] This art was practised by amateurs in the 18th century. In 1875 an attempt was made to reintroduce the work. “Mosaicon, or Paper Mosaic,” W. Bemrose, jun. (Bemrose & Sons, 10, Paternoster Buildings, E.C., and Irongate, Derby.)
[133b] The authenticity of the wine slides as Norman Cross work is absolute. Mr. Vinter, who gave them to the author for presentation to the museum, affirmed that his mother had known them all her life in the house of her parents, an inn opposite the prison. Her father had purchased them in the prison market. Mr. Vinter’s mother had herself seen from a window of the house a prisoner shot by a sentinel as he was attempting to escape. Of the caddies, one is in the possession of the Countess of Lindsey at Uffington Park, twelve miles from Norman Cross (Plate VII., Fig. 2, p. 40). Mr. Bodger has the second; it is of beautiful design, but dilapidated. The third is in the collection of Miss Paull, of Truro, and is known as the work of a French prisoner at the Falmouth Depot (Plate VIII, Fig. 1, p. 46). It is possible that the three caddies were all the work of the same artist, who may have been one of the thousands of prisoners who were sent from Falmouth to Norman Cross.
[134a] Parliamentary History, xxxvi. 450.
[134b] There were two rates for the tax on hats, those of a wider diameter being taxed at the higher rate.
[134c] Norman Cross. Correspondence with the French Government relative to prisoners of war, issued from Downing Street 1st January 1801, as a supplement to Appendix 59. Report of the Transport Board to the House of Commons, 1798.