THE LAST INVASION OF PEMBROKESHIRE.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."' Sin,—The enclosed extract from the "Annual -Register," touching the last invasion of Pembrokeshire, may interest your readers. Doubt has sometimes been cast on it, but in my boyhood I knew an old woman who could remember it.—I
Perse School House, Cambridge.
" The following letter was this day sent to the Lord Mayor of London :— My Lord,—I have the honour to acquaint your lordship that intelligence has been received that two French frigates, a corvette and a lugger, appeared off the coast of Pembrokeshire on the 22nd inst., and on the evening of that day disembarked some troops (reported by deserters to be about twelve hundred men, but without field pieces). Every exertion has been made by the lord-lieutenant and gentlemen of the county and its neighbour- hood for taking the proper steps on this occasion ; and the greatest zeal and loyalty has been shown by all ranks of people. Imme- diately on an account having been received at Plymouth of the forces having appeared in the Bristol Channel, frigates were despatched from Plymouth in quest of them.—I have the honour
to be, Sc.c., _ PORTLAND. Advice has been since received that the French troops mentioned in the preceding letter surrendered at discretion to Lord Cawdor." —Annual Register, January 25th, 1797.
[Note that these invaders really understood the game and kept strictly to the rules of which we have heard so much of late. Like true sportsmen they came without guns Or horses. The Army Council ought to erect a monument to their memory.—ED. Spectator.]
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