Old Times at OtterbourneYonge, Charlotte M. (Charlotte Mary)
History
Old Times at Otterbourne
Yonge, Charlotte M. (Charlotte Mary)
Hampshire (England) -- History; Otterbourne (England) -- History
Good men had come to think that founding colleges was the very best thing
they could do for the benefit of the Church, and William of Waynflete,
who was made Bishop of Winchester in 1447, founded another college at
Oxford in honour of St. Mary Magdalen. To this College he gave large
estates for its maintenance, and in especial a very large portion of our
long, narrow parish of Otterbourne. Ever since his time, two of the
Fellows of Magdalen, if not the President himself, have come with the
Steward, on a progress through the estates every year to hold their Court
and give audit to all who hold lands of them Till quite recently the
Court was always held at the Manor House, the old Moat House, which must
once have been the principal house in the parish, though now it is so
much gone to decay. Old Dr. Plank, the President of Magdalen, used to
come thither in Farmer Colson's time. What used to be the principal room
has a short staircase leading to it, and in the wainscot over the fire-
place is a curious old picture, painted, I fancy, between 1600 and 1700,
showing a fight between turbaned men and European soldiers, most likely
Turks and Austrians. It is a pity that it cannot tell its history. The
moat goes all round the house, garden, and farmyard, and no doubt used to
have a drawbridge. Forty or fifty years ago, it was clear and had fish
in it, but the bridge fell in and choked the stream, and since that it
has become full of reeds and a mere swamp. It must have been a really
useful protection in the evil times of the Wars of the Roses.
Most likely the Commandments were painted over the old fresco on the east
wall of the nave of the old Church either in the time of Edward VI, or
Elizabeth, for if they had been later, the letters would not have been
Old English. The foreigners who meddled so much with our Church in the
latter years of Edward VI obtained that the Holy Communion should not be
celebrated in the chancels, but that the Holy Table should be spread in
the body of the Church, and many Chancels were thus disused and became
ruinous, as ours most certainly did at some time or other. St.
Elizabeth's College was broken up and the place where it stood given to
the college of St. Mary. It is still called Elizabeth Meadow. The
presentation to the Cure of our two parishes went with the estate of
Hursley.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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