Frenxh Prisoners. 253 



have been to the theatre of the town, and I was very satisfied 

 with the actors ; they are very good for a little town like 

 Dumfries, where receipts are not very copious, though I would 

 have very much pleasure with going to the play-house now and 

 then. However, I am deprived of it by the bell which rings 

 at five o'clock ; and if I am not in my lodging by the hour 

 appointed by law, I must at least avoid to be in the publick 

 meeting at which some inhabitants don't like to see me." 

 This letter shows a certain proficiency in English which many 

 of them studied, giving French lessons in exchange. They 

 found a knowledge of English useful at the private enter- 

 tainments and balls to which they were invited by the towns- 

 men and county families. One of them was asked by Mr 

 Chambers " why he was not at the ball on Friday?" and he 

 said that " his acquaintance being in mourning he could not 

 go there " — an act of self-denial which did him honour. 



Many lodged together so as to have a common table. 

 Some cooked and others catered or suggested the menu for 

 the day. The country folks gazed with mingled curiosity and 

 surprise at the terrible Frenchmen when they went out on their 

 frog and hedgehog catching excursions. An old man in the 

 workhouse, who was born at the beginning of the century, 

 tells how he acted as a kind of page or message boy to eight 

 who stayed in the Old Buck Inn. He was sent to the 

 butcher's for meat which they ordered, and he conducted his 

 employers to the likeliest places in the country for the objects 

 of their quest. A noted Dumfries character called George 

 Hair, who died a few years ago, used to tell how the first 

 " siller " he ever earned was for " gatherin' paddocks for the 

 Frenchmen." 



Some of them were rather given to practical jokes. Full 

 of health and animal spirits, they were ready for any fun that 

 offered. " Youth at the helm, and pleasure at the prow," 

 how could they take things seriously? Here is a specimen 

 of their pranks as told by an aged inmate of Lanark Poor- 

 house, who passed his early boyhood in Dumfries. He 

 remembered particularly some fifteen or sixteen who lived 

 together in a big house not far from his father's, and that 

 there was a meadow near at hand where they got great store 



