‘To the Glory of God and in memory of the American Prisoners of War who were detained in the Dartmoor War Prison between the years 1809 and 1815, and who helped to build this Church, especially of the 218 brave men who died here on behalf of their country. This Window is presented by the National Society of United States Daughters of 1812. Dulce est pro patria mori.’ CHAPTER XIX SOME MINOR PRISONS As has been already stated, before the establishment of regular prisons became a necessity by the increasing flow of prisoners of war into Britain, accommodation for these men had to be found or made wherever it was possible. With some of these minor prisons I shall deal in this chapter. WINCHESTER Measured by the number of prisoners of war confined here, Winchester assuredly should rank as a major establishment, but it seems to have been regarded by the authorities rather as a receiving-house or a transfer office than as a real prisoner settlement, possibly because the building utilized—a pile of barracks which was originally intended by Charles the Second to be a palace on the plan of Versailles, but which was never finished, and which was known as the King’s House Prison—was not secure enough to be a House of Detention. It was burned down in 1890. In 1756 there were no less than 5,000 prisoners at Winchester. In 1761 the order for the withdrawal of the military from the city because of the approaching elections occasioned much alarm, and brought vigorous protests from leading inhabitants on account of the 4,000 prisoners of war who would be left practically unguarded, especially as these men happened to be just then in a ferment of excitement, and a general outbreak among them was feared. Should this take place, it was represented that nothing could prevent them from communicating with the shipping in Southampton River, and setting free their countrymen prisoners at Portchester and Forton Hospital, Gosport. In 1779 Howard visited Winchester. This was the year when the patients and crew of a captured French hospital ship, the _Ste. Julie_, brought fever into the prison, causing a heavy mortality.