FRENCH PRISONERS AT 

 PORTCHESTER 



In the early part of the last century, when England 

 was engaged in a deadly struggle with Napoleon, an 

 immense number of French prisoners of war were 

 incarcerated in various parts of the country. In the 

 year 1811 it is calculated that not less than fifty 

 thousand Frenchmen were prisoners in England. Of 

 this enormous number the prison at Dartmoor, built 

 by the Government in 1809 for their reception, held as 

 many as ten thousand unfortunate men, who pined in 

 vain for the sunnier climes of France. " For seven 

 months in the year," wrote one of them, " it is a vraie 

 Sib6rie, covered with unmelting snow. When the 

 snows go away, the mists appear. Imagine the 

 tyranny of perfide Albion in sending human beings 

 to such a place." Others were lodged in Mill Bay 

 Prison, near Plymouth, and on board prison-ships 

 moored in Hamoaze. Other prison-ships lay in the 

 Medway off Chatham, and at other convenient stations 

 along the coast. But Hampshire appears to have re- 

 ceived the greater number of the foreigners. French 

 officers on parole were scattered throughout the 

 smaller country towns, such as Odiham, Whitchurch, 

 Bishop's Waltham, Andover, and Alresford where in 

 the churchyard several tombstones erected to the 



