e each other, one at the east and the other at
the west of the whole enclosure, for the accommodation of two regiments
of infantry that formed the garrison.

The English officers were quartered in a large wooden house close to the
road towards the south-east corner of the enclosure, and close to the
house of the Commandant. This last was the only building of brick in the
whole place, and remains to this day, together with the officers' mess-
room, and the house where they were quartered, now cased with brick.

It is said that 500 hands were employed in the construction of these
works, and it is not surprising, considering their extent, and the fact
that the War Office was urgent in pressing them to completion, as the
prisoners multiplied so fast. Amongst other things, they had to sink
some thirty wells in the prisoners' enclosures and other parts. They
were of considerable depth, and yielded excellent water, so that the
large population of this singular place had two of the great necessaries
of life--good air and good water. In passing along the Peterborough
Road, some of these wells may be recognised by the boards placed over
them, they being still in use for the cattle grazing peacefully on the
old site, where once so many victims of war had been collected.

The barracks had been erected barely six years when they were put up to
let by the Government, all the prisoners having been discharged at the
Peace of Amiens in 1802. The advertisement is to be seen in the columns
of the local paper of that date. Whether any application was made for
the hire of the whole or any part of the premises in consequence, is not
known. He must, at all events, have been an enterprising man who could
aspire to be tenant of the whole of such an incongruous collection of
buildings, which, however admirably adapted to the object for which they
were erected, could only suit the purpose of some local "Barnum" of those
days. However, the Government evidently feared they might be wanted
again, though not so soon as was actually the case: for the Peace of
Amiens came to an untimely end the following year.

With regard to the internal administration of the Norman Cross barracks,
very copious particulars are to be found in the Government Record Office.
Indeed, they are so copious as to be wearisome. Regulations are varied,
or new ones added every year. Thus, at first, there was no _parole_ at
Norman Cross, or any of the other prisons. O