Records of Woodhall Spa and Neighbourhood: Historical, Anecdotal, Physiographical, and Archaeological, with Other MatterWalter, J. Conway (James Conway)
History
Records of Woodhall Spa and Neighbourhood: Historical, Anecdotal, Physiographical, and Archaeological, with Other Matter
Walter, J. Conway (James Conway)
Woodhall Spa (England)
There needed not to blazon forth the Swinton,
His ancient burgonet the boar; &c.
“Cambridge Portfolio,” vol. i., pp. 233, 234.
This may be a convenient place to discuss the origin of the name Dymock.
Walford (“Tales of Great Families”) says the name is Welsh, being a
contraction of Daimadoc, which means David Madoc. He was a descendant of
Owen Tudor, Lord of Hereford and Whittington. This chief had three sons;
the second married a daughter of the Prince of North Wales, half a
century before the Conquest, and was ancestor of David ap Madoc;
Dai-Madoc, in course of time, shrinking into Daimoc, or Dymoke. Burke
says that the John Dymoke who married Margaret de Ludlow, granddaughter
of Philip de Marmion, was a knight of ancient Gloucestershire ancestry,
and there is a village of Dymock, near Gloucester. A Welsh origin is
likely, as there were Dymokes of Pentre in Wales; the Lady Margaret de
Ludlow, who married Sir John Dymoke of Scrivelsby, took her title from
Ludlow in the adjoining county of Salop. And another Welsh origin of the
name has been suggested. “Ty,” pronounced “Dy” in Welsh, means “house”;
“moch” means “swine”; and so Dymoke would mean Swinehouse, after the
fashion of Swynburne, Swinhop, Swineshead; all old names. The motto of
the Dymokes, adopted at a later date, Pro Rege Dimico, “I fight for the
King,” is again a case, though most appropriate, of a “canting” motto.
{211} I am indebted, for these details, to that very interesting work,
Walford’s “Tales of Great Families.”
{212a} “Words of Wellington,” by Sir William Fraser, Bart., pp. 41–44.
The “Gentleman’s Magazine” for 1821 contains a picture of Sir H. Dymoke,
riding on his white charger into Westminster Hall, supported on either
side by the Duke of Wellington and Marquis of Anglesey, on horseback; and
two Heralds, with tabards and plumes, on foot.
{212b} (_a_) sword, (_b_) girdle, (_c_) scabbard, (_d_) partisans,
_i.e._ halberts, (_e_) gilt, (_f_) pole-axe, an ancient weapon, having a
handle, with an iron head, on the one side forming an axe, and the other
side a hammer; this, in the hands of a strong man was a fatal instrument
of destruction; (_g_) the chasing staff was a gilt “wand of office”
carried before the Champion, to clear the way, (_h_) a pair of gilt
spurs.
{215} Had we continued on the road skirting the Park and passing within
150 yards of Scrivelsby church, we should have presently reached the
village of Moorby, with a modern brick church, but having a remarkable
old font, and part of an uncommon “minstril column;” thence, turning
westward, we might have passed through Wood Enderby, with modern church
of sandstone; and so have reached Haltham, our next stage; but this route
must be considered as rather beyond a walk or drive from Woodhall Spa,
although it would repay the energetic visitor to take it.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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