Cathedrals -- England; England -- Description and travel
Now Steyning lies under Chanctonbury, but I resisted the temptation to
spend the afternoon in the old camp there looking over the "blue
goodness of the weald," for I wished especially to visit the church of
Wiston, and to see, if I might, Wiston House, which Sir Thomas
Shirley built about 1576, and where those three brothers were born who
astonished not only Sussex and all England, but Rome itself and the
Pope by their marvellous daring and adventures.
The old manor house is delightfully situated in its beautiful park
under the dark height of Chanctonbury, and though much altered,
retains on the whole its fine Elizabethan character. The manor
originally belonged to the De Braose, from whom it passed by marriage
to the Shirleys. In the church, a small Decorated building, there is
a fine brass of 1426 to Sir John de Braose, on which over and over
again we read Jesu Mercy: this in the south chapel. His little son is
buried under an arch on the north, where there is a curious effigy of
him. The first Shirley, whose monument we find here, though only in
part, is that of Sir Richard, who died in 1540; but it was Sir Thomas,
who also has his monument, that built Wiston and was the father of
those three remarkable sons. He was the great-grandson of Ralph Shirley
of Wiston, and the son of William Shirley, who died in 1551. Till his
time the family had of course been Catholic; it was he who first
abandoned the Faith; perhaps it was this spirit of adventure so
unfortunate in him which descended to that famous "leash of brethren"
and drove them out upon their adventures. The least remarkable and the
most unfortunate of these sons of his was the eldest, Thomas, whose
life, however, as a soldier and freebooter, both on shore in the Low
Countries and at sea, is sufficiently full of adventure to satisfy
anyone. He came, however, to utter grief at last, and had to sell
Wiston, retiring to the Isle of Wight, where he died in 1630.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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