268 French Prisoners. 



Little is told as to the life they led during their residence 

 of two and a half years in that small country town. A letter, 

 however, from one of the Dumfries officers — Monsieur L. 

 Motin — of date 30th March, 181 2, to Mr Chambers, Peebles, 

 throws some light on their initial impressions of Sanquhar. 

 M. Motin said : — " We have lately lost our friends Walther, 

 O 'Conor, etc., who have been removed from this town to a 

 dirty place named Sanquhar. I heard some days after their 

 departure that they were extremely uncomfortable, such kind 

 of people as the inhabitants had no room to spare ; the greater 

 part of the Frenchmen are lodged in barns and kitchens ; they 

 can get neither beef nor mutton, nothing but salted meat and 

 eggs. They have applied to the Transport Office in order, I 

 was told, to be removed to Moffat." These views would no 

 doubt undergo due modification on better acquaintance. 



With regard to their pastimes, Mr Brown, the local his- 

 torian, states that the banks of Crawick Water was one of 

 their favourite resorts, and that on a rock in the Holm Walks 

 the Italian words, " Luogo di Delizia " {place of delight), were 

 inscribed by one of them, with the date " 181 2 " beneath. 

 Lower down the date " 181 4 " was cut. out in the same way, 

 and to the right were carved two concentric circles, with the 

 word " Souvenir " between. These inscriptions still stand. 

 One of their best known bathing places was a large pool on 

 the Crawick Water within the Holm Woods, and immediately 

 above the Holm House. This pool, in deference to its foreign 

 bathers, has long been known as " The Sodgers' Pool " — a 

 title it bears to this day, although its volume of water is much 

 less now than then, and it is no longer the resort of bathers. 



Another method of occupying their time is described by 

 Mr James Smith in his article on " Extinct Masonic Lodges 

 in Dumfriesshire." " The most interesting of irregular 

 lodges formed in the Province," he says, " was established 

 by the French Prisoners of war in Sanquhar. From Mr John 

 T. Thorp's valuable book on ' French Prisoners' Lodges,' 

 from which, by his kind permission we quote, we learn that 

 in a sale catalogue of French Masonic books, etc., issued in 

 1863, stated to have belonged to one of the principal lodges in 

 Paris, there are two items, entitled (i) (translation) ' Historical 



