Page:Devon & Cornwall Notes & Queries.djvu/257

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1 86 Devon Notes and Queries, 1 8 14. My friend had with him his grandfather's papers, from which I learned that the prisoners here were under the charge of Mr. Joseph Gribble, a local solicitor and county coroner, as the agent for war prisoners appointed by the War Office. Mr. Gribble's house was opposite the entrance to the Vicarage, several members of his large family continued to reside here, the last only died in 1899, y^^ ^^^7 appeared to have forgotten all about the prisoners. The regulations ordered all prisoners to parade outside Mr. Gribble's office at 10 o'clock on Tuesday and Saturday mornings to answer their names. They were obliged to lodge where he ordered them, and all their correspondence passed through his hands. They were not permitted to leave their lodgings before 6 a.m., and must be in the house by 6 p.m. during November, December and January ; by 7 p.m. during February, March, April, September and October, and by 9 p.m. in May, June, July and August. Their walks were confined to the main roads and limited to one mile from the end of the town, which points were marked by mile stones, several of which still remain in situ. A prisoner might not enter a field, wood or bye-way without the agent's permission. These regulations were printed on the papers shown me, and comprise nearly all we know of the conditions under which these foreigners lived in our towns. In Ashburton churchyard near the tower door there stands a headstone, on a knoll known , as strangers' hill, which marks the grave of a young French officer. The inscription reads: **Ici. Repose Francois Guidon^ natif de Camhrai en France, Sous Lieutenant au ^6me Regt, de Ligne, Ddc^dd le 18 jbre, 181 5. Age de 22 Ans, Requiescat in pace" This is all we know of him, he may have been a prisoner taken at Waterloo just three months before his death ; or he may have been one of the defenders of bis native town of Cambrai which was taken by a detachment of the British army under Sir Charles Colville on 24th June, 1815, and brought a prisoner to England to die in an enemy's land and so mingle his dust with that of his ancient foes in our quiet churchyard. Recently the inscription was re-cut by some local *' Old Mortality " and a photograph of the grave was sent, by our Portreeve, to the Maire of Cambrai with a request that it might be handed to any member of