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blueinkedfrostThis book is a tremendously interesting historical account of a very specific place and time - the Norman Cross prison for French prisoners of war taken in the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars.
“There are in those prisons some men, if they deserve that name, who possess money, with which they purchase at the daily market whatever is allowed to enter, and with those articles they purchase of some unfortunate and unthinking Fellow-prisoner, his Rations of Bread for several days together, and frequently both Bread and Beef for a month, which he, the merchant, seizes upon daily, and sells it out again to some other unfortunate being, on the same usurious terms; allowing the former one halfpennyworth of potatoes daily to keep him alive; not contented with this more than savage barbarity he purchases next his clothes, and bedding, and sees the miserable man lie naked on the planks, unless he will consent to allow him one halfpenny a night to lie in his own hammock, and which he makes him pay by a further Deprivation of his rations when his original debt is paid.” - Captain Woodriff, letter to M. Otto, early 1800
“You see, my dear Sir, since our selection of the invalids, and the benefit of warm weather, we have had but one death this ten days. If another batch of those vagabonds, who by their bad conduct defy all the benefits the Benevolence of this country bestows upon them, were to be sent away in September next, we might expect great benefit from it in the winter, for to a certainty all these blackguards will die in the winter. Compare sixty a week with one in ten days.” - Pencilled note by surgeon at Norman Cross, early 1800
The author of this book describes the latter note as being evidence of the bad character of the prisoners!
The accounts of the prison marquetry out of straws intrigued me - a craft that the prisoners practiced and sold. They used straw dyed with beautiful colours to create a range of objects, such as these examples photographed in black and white.
And here's a creepy example of the prisoners' craft:
This thing is made out of animal bone. The figures work mechanically. A lady turns a wheel, a child moves forward, a soldier and a lady waltz, a mother tosses her baby, and the lady on the left prepares some tea. All made out of bones boiled down from the prisoners' rations!
Additionally, there's an exciting story recounted of an escape from Pembroke Prison. Two brave Pembroke lasses try a daring rescue of twenty-five prisoners!
“Five hundred prisoners were confined in a building on Golden Hill, near Pembroke, and, as was the custom, they were allowed to eke out the very meagre allowance voted for their subsistence by the sale of toys, which they carved out of wood and bone. Two Pembroke lasses were employed in bringing the odds and ends requisite for this work, and in carrying away refuse from the prison. These girls not having the law of nations or the high policy of Europe before their eyes, dared to fall in love with two of the Frenchmen, and formed a desperate resolve not only to rescue their lovers, but the whole of the prisoners in the same ward, 100 in number. It was impossible to smuggle any tools into the prison, but a shin of horse beef seemed harmless even in the eyes of a Pembroke Cerberus. With the bone extracted from this delicacy the Frenchmen undermined the walls, the faithful girls carrying off the soil in their refuse buckets. When the subway was complete, the lasses watched until some vessel should arrive. At length a sloop came in loaded with a consignment of culm for Stackpole. That night the liberated men made their way down to the water, seized the sloop, and bound the crew hand and foot, but unfortunately the vessel was high and dry, and it was found impossible to get her off. Alongside was a small yacht belonging to Lord Cawdor which they managed to launch. This would not take them all; but the two women and twenty-five men got on board, taking with them the compass, water casks, and provisions from the sloop. In the morning there was a great hue and cry. Dr. Mansell, a leading man in Pembroke, posted handbills over the whole county, offering 500 guineas for the recovery of these two traitorous women, alive or dead. In a few days the stern of the yacht and other wreckage being picked up, the patriotic party were satisfied that the vengeance of Heaven had overtaken the traitors. They were, however, mistaken, for the Frenchmen captured a sloop laden with corn, and, abandoning the yacht, compelled the crew to carry them to France. When they were safe, it is pleasant to read that the commissary and engineer married the girls. During the short peace, the engineer and his wife returned to Pembroke and told their story; they then went to Merthyr and obtained employment in the mines, but on the renewal of hostilities went back to France, where it is to be hoped they lived very happily ever afterwards.”
And then there's the story of the impoverished Bishop of Moulins, a French clergyman living near the prison in ill health and old age. The Bishop was given a servant from the prisoners of war, and thus became the centre of an illicit straw-smuggling operation! The servant supplied the prisoners with straw to make hats and bonnets to sell, therefore making a profit and undercutting British trade in this area. This event did not end well either for the Bishop or the prisoners.
Overall, the book strikes one as a meticulously carried out piece of research: carefully sourced, with the closed thing to speculation being an excerpt from another's detailed work about the social culture in a nearby prison. Strong on facts and figures and a historical work of interest.
“There are in those prisons some men, if they deserve that name, who possess money, with which they purchase at the daily market whatever is allowed to enter, and with those articles they purchase of some unfortunate and unthinking Fellow-prisoner, his Rations of Bread for several days together, and frequently both Bread and Beef for a month, which he, the merchant, seizes upon daily, and sells it out again to some other unfortunate being, on the same usurious terms; allowing the former one halfpennyworth of potatoes daily to keep him alive; not contented with this more than savage barbarity he purchases next his clothes, and bedding, and sees the miserable man lie naked on the planks, unless he will consent to allow him one halfpenny a night to lie in his own hammock, and which he makes him pay by a further Deprivation of his rations when his original debt is paid.” - Captain Woodriff, letter to M. Otto, early 1800
“You see, my dear Sir, since our selection of the invalids, and the benefit of warm weather, we have had but one death this ten days. If another batch of those vagabonds, who by their bad conduct defy all the benefits the Benevolence of this country bestows upon them, were to be sent away in September next, we might expect great benefit from it in the winter, for to a certainty all these blackguards will die in the winter. Compare sixty a week with one in ten days.” - Pencilled note by surgeon at Norman Cross, early 1800
The author of this book describes the latter note as being evidence of the bad character of the prisoners!
The accounts of the prison marquetry out of straws intrigued me - a craft that the prisoners practiced and sold. They used straw dyed with beautiful colours to create a range of objects, such as these examples photographed in black and white.
And here's a creepy example of the prisoners' craft:
This thing is made out of animal bone. The figures work mechanically. A lady turns a wheel, a child moves forward, a soldier and a lady waltz, a mother tosses her baby, and the lady on the left prepares some tea. All made out of bones boiled down from the prisoners' rations!
Additionally, there's an exciting story recounted of an escape from Pembroke Prison. Two brave Pembroke lasses try a daring rescue of twenty-five prisoners!
“Five hundred prisoners were confined in a building on Golden Hill, near Pembroke, and, as was the custom, they were allowed to eke out the very meagre allowance voted for their subsistence by the sale of toys, which they carved out of wood and bone. Two Pembroke lasses were employed in bringing the odds and ends requisite for this work, and in carrying away refuse from the prison. These girls not having the law of nations or the high policy of Europe before their eyes, dared to fall in love with two of the Frenchmen, and formed a desperate resolve not only to rescue their lovers, but the whole of the prisoners in the same ward, 100 in number. It was impossible to smuggle any tools into the prison, but a shin of horse beef seemed harmless even in the eyes of a Pembroke Cerberus. With the bone extracted from this delicacy the Frenchmen undermined the walls, the faithful girls carrying off the soil in their refuse buckets. When the subway was complete, the lasses watched until some vessel should arrive. At length a sloop came in loaded with a consignment of culm for Stackpole. That night the liberated men made their way down to the water, seized the sloop, and bound the crew hand and foot, but unfortunately the vessel was high and dry, and it was found impossible to get her off. Alongside was a small yacht belonging to Lord Cawdor which they managed to launch. This would not take them all; but the two women and twenty-five men got on board, taking with them the compass, water casks, and provisions from the sloop. In the morning there was a great hue and cry. Dr. Mansell, a leading man in Pembroke, posted handbills over the whole county, offering 500 guineas for the recovery of these two traitorous women, alive or dead. In a few days the stern of the yacht and other wreckage being picked up, the patriotic party were satisfied that the vengeance of Heaven had overtaken the traitors. They were, however, mistaken, for the Frenchmen captured a sloop laden with corn, and, abandoning the yacht, compelled the crew to carry them to France. When they were safe, it is pleasant to read that the commissary and engineer married the girls. During the short peace, the engineer and his wife returned to Pembroke and told their story; they then went to Merthyr and obtained employment in the mines, but on the renewal of hostilities went back to France, where it is to be hoped they lived very happily ever afterwards.”
And then there's the story of the impoverished Bishop of Moulins, a French clergyman living near the prison in ill health and old age. The Bishop was given a servant from the prisoners of war, and thus became the centre of an illicit straw-smuggling operation! The servant supplied the prisoners with straw to make hats and bonnets to sell, therefore making a profit and undercutting British trade in this area. This event did not end well either for the Bishop or the prisoners.
Overall, the book strikes one as a meticulously carried out piece of research: carefully sourced, with the closed thing to speculation being an excerpt from another's detailed work about the social culture in a nearby prison. Strong on facts and figures and a historical work of interest.
