Cannon shots
Yesterday I read that Edinburgh Castle was named as the best castle in Europe and the crowds today affirmed its popularity.  Taking advantage of my Historic Scotland card I returned for the second time in less than a week to see places not visited recently.   The castle has been used as a prison for hundreds of years including during WW1 and of particular interest were the vaults where PoWs had been held since war broke out between Britain and France in 1796.  Between then and 1814 over a thousand were imprisoned in the dark cramped cold passages including a five year old drummer boy captured at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805 who was still there six years later.  Most of the prisoners were captured sailors of several different nationalities including many French and some Americans.  

In order to relieve their boredom some prisoners made models, boxes, chess sets and games using the straw from their bedding and bones from meat or wood.
Trusted prisoners were even allowed to sell their skilled work which became very popular that customers would make commissions and supply materials. Every day between 10am and 3.30pm people could come and buy things that the prisoners had made and these would be passed between the railings of the exercise yard outside.  It enabled the men to buy tobacco, clothes and food or even paper and pens to write to families at home.   Small craft workshops were built in the exercise yard and dealers supplied materials for making furniture and straw hats. Eventually they were banned from making straw hats after local craftsmen complained about having to compete with cheap labour.  One very detailed model is the HMS St George  which was bought by the Duke of Atholl for £5 4s 6d. (probably about £1000 today)  Life for those prisoners must have been more pleasant than for the many who had no skills to pass their endless days in an awful place before any hope of release.
The extra shows some of the intricate boxes made mainly with straw and bones.