By the 25th March the staff had been engaged, and on that day it was reported that a section of the buildings, sufficient for the custody of 1,840 prisoners, was ready for their reception. On the day before this report was sent, a portion of the military barracks had been occupied by the small number of troops considered sufficient for the moment. These marched in on the 24th, and were ready to mount guard over the expected prisoners. The work of building went rapidly on during the rest of the year, and nine months from its commencement Mr. Craig, a principal architect of the department, was sent down for the final inspection. As will be seen by the footnote, page 14, payments to W. Adams, Chief Carpenter, went on up to 29th November 1797, when we may assume that the prison in its first form was complete. From the time of its occupation, this prison was, like others of its class, known as a “depot”—“The Norman Cross Depot for Prisoners of War.” Locally it was frequently spoken of and written about as the Norman Cross Prison, or the Norman Cross Barracks, or even Yaxley or Stilton Barracks. The term depot included the prison proper, the barracks, and all other Government buildings. In the succeeding chapter this Depot is fully described, and its necessary establishment touched upon. {16} CHAPTER II THE PRISON AND ITS ESTABLISHMENT It is no flattery to a prisoner to gild his dungeon. CALDERON, _Fortunas de Andromed et Persus_. THE following description of the Depot is founded on personal observations of the site, on contemporary plans and records, of greater or less accuracy, on the meagre information which could be obtained from the few old people who had in their early days seen and known the place, and who were still alive in 1894, when the materials for the lecture on which this narrative is based were collected, and on facts recorded by recent writers the accuracy of which can be verified. The site of the Depot was a space of forty-two acres, situated in the angle formed where, seventy-six miles from London, “the Great North Road” is joined, five miles from Peterborough by the old Coach Road from Boston and East Lincolnshire.