This was perhaps the worst prison visited by Howard, and he emphatically recommended the appointment of a regular inspector. In 1779 complaints came from Pembroke of the unnecessary use of fire-arms by the militiamen on guard, and that 150 prisoners were crowded into one small house with an airing yard twenty-five paces square—this was the year of Howard’s visit. His recommendations seem to have had little effect, for in 1781 twenty-six prisoners signed a complaint that the quantity and the quality of the provisions were deficient; that they had shown the Agent that the bread was ill-baked, black, and of bad taste, but he had taken no notice; that he gave them cow’s flesh, which was often bad, thinking that they would refuse it and buy other at their own expense; that he vexed them as much as he could, telling them that the bread and meat were too good for Frenchmen; that on their complaining about short measure and weight he refused to have the food measured and weighed in their presence in accordance with the regulations; that he tried to get a profit out of the straw supplied by making it last double the regulation time without changing it, so that they were obliged to buy it for themselves; and that he had promised them blankets, but, although it was the raw season of the year, none had yet been issued. In 1797 the Admiralty inspector reported that the condition of the dépôt at Pembroke was very unsatisfactory; the discipline slack, as the Agent preferred to live away at Hubberstone, and only put in an occasional appearance; and that the state of the prisoners was mutinous to a dangerous degree. _The Fishguard affair of 1797_ If the Great Western Railway had not brought Fishguard into prominence as a port of departure for America, it would still be famous as the scene of the last foreign invasion of England. On February 22, 1797, fifteen hundred Frenchmen, half of whom were picked men and half galley slaves, landed from four vessels, three of which were large frigates, under an Irish General Tate, at Cerrig Gwasted near Fishguard. They had previously been at Ilfracombe, where they had burned some shipping. There was a hasty gathering of ill-armed pitmen and peasants to withstand them, and these were presently joined by Lord Cawdor with 3,000 men, of whom 700 were well-trained Militia. Cawdor rode forward to reconnoitre, and General Tate, deceived, as a popular legend goes, into the belief that he was opposed by a British military force of great strength, by the appearance behind his lordship of a body of Welshwomen clad in their national red ‘whittles’ and high-crowned hats, surrendered.