Letters Written in France, to a Friend in London: Between the Month of November 1794, and the Month of May 1795

Watkin Tench (1758-1833) was a British Marine officer who was held prisoner from 1794 to 1795 in Brittany, at the height of the French Revolution. During his imprisonment he wrote a series of letters to a friend in London (it is not clear whether this was genuine correspondence or a genre narrative), which was published in 1796. In them we learn of the adverse conditions he experienced on two convict hulks in Brest harbour, and his later period of parole in private lodgings in Quimper, which he recalls more favourably, as he was allowed to roam the countryside within a three-mile radius of the town. Tench’s letters reveal his thoughts on the turbulence and uncertainty brought about by the revolution, and the resistance (largely inspired by religion) of the Bretons to it. This is a fascinating first-hand account of France at a time of rapid political change.