Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-l7hp2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-07T05:55:01.862Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Notes on Two Trades

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 July 2023

Get access

Summary

i. STRAWPLAITING.

” The Life of George Borrow,” by Mr. Herbert Jenkins (1912), contains, on page II, a description of the extensive prison erected by the English Government, in 1796, at Norman Cross, in Huntingdonshire, covering forty acres of ground, in which to confine some six thousand of the prisoners made during the Napoleonic wars. There, for fifteen months, George Borrow’s father, Captain Borrow, and his regiment, remained in charge of the prisoners on “prison duty and straw-plait destroying.” In a note on page 13 we read: “ The prisoners occupied much of their time in straw-plait making; but the quality of their work was so much superior to that of the English that it was forbidden, and consequently destroyed when found.“

In “Lavengro,” chapter iv., George Borrow refers to his experiences as a boy at Norman Cross, and to the ruthless inroads, called in the slang of the place straw-plait hunts, when in pursuit of a contraband article which the prisoners, in order to procure themselves a few of the necessaries and comforts of existence, were in the habit of making, red-coated battalions were marched into the prisons, and at the bayonet’s point seized the straw-plait and carried it off to be cast on the “ accursed bonfire and burnt beneath the view of the glaring eyeballs of the despairing prisoners.”

There is a tradition in Luton that the Luton straw hat manufacturers and plait-dealers used to visit Norman Cross for the purpose of doing business with the prisoners. Mr. John C. Kershaw commissioned Mr. Arthur C. Cooke to paint a picture representing Luton manufacturers purchasing plait of the French prisoners. The picture was presented to the town by Mr. Kershaw, and it hangs in the Public Library.

I should be glad of any information as to the truth or otherwise of the Luton tradition.

About 1840 the late Mr. Edward Chilwell Williamson (Lawyer Williamson) gave my mother a lady’s fancy work box, covered both inside and out with varicoloured split-straws depicting houses, trees, animals, etc. The box had been purchased by Mr. Williamson of the prisoners at Norman Cross early in the century.

Type
Chapter
Information
Publisher: Boydell & Brewer
First published in: 2023

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure no-reply@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×