The Strife of the Roses and Days of the Tudors in the WestRogers, W. H. Hamilton (William Henry Hamilton)
History
The Strife of the Roses and Days of the Tudors in the West
Rogers, W. H. Hamilton (William Henry Hamilton)
Great Britain -- History -- Tudors, 1485-1603; Great Britain -- History -- Wars of the Roses, 1455-1485
Low in the valley on the extreme right, some very old, and, evidently
from this distance, unmistakably important buildings are gathered
together, attesting the presence of the chief domicile of the place in
days of yore, and still retaining much of their antient consequence
with old gateway, great kitchen, and turreted chimney, and vast barn
two hundred feet long, with roof arched and high as a cathedral,--the
antient Grange, or Place, and country seat of the Abbess of
Shaftesbury.
Thus much for the mid-distance of the scene; an equally
representative, and in some peculiarities unique fore-ground is at our
feet.
Centrally almost, comes the Church--large, substantial, and
well-windowed--with a curious, but now-a-day unfortunately very
common, half-antient half-modern look, exhibiting a low massive tower
rising from its centre, capped with a pseudo-classic lantern, pierced
with four large, circular, winking clock-face apertures. It stands in
a well-kept churchyard, ornamented by some noble yew trees, and around
two sides of it runs a road, skirted with low antient buildings,
picturesquely gabled and chimnied, and dating from Tudor times.
Immediately on the right of the church, and jostling, almost vulgarly
invading the sacred precincts of the churchyard, which it adjoins,
rises the obtrusive bulk of a huge brewery, with accompanying chimney
stalk, as big as the church itself, and almost as venerable
looking,[36] a pertinent illustration of the contiguity, so often
sarcastically associated in one of our modern political cries.
[36] Of late it has been considerably rebuilt, and "dappered up"
as the Dorsetshire folk express it, to newness and smartness of
appearance.
On the left of the church, but at further distance, and pleasantly
situated on an acclivity, is an immense well-built union workhouse,
larger than either.
Strange company these, materially and metaphorically, and eminently
characteristic of our modern civilization, the brewery and the
workhouse, with the church between them, and suggestive of many
thoughts;--of clamorous interest too even in this little town, in this
passing hour, as announcements in large letters attest that meet the
eye of the wayfaring man, tarrying here about.
But leaving these present-day regions of noisy morality, and all
"burning questions" akin, to other disciples, be the purpose of our
quiet enjoyment to-day of a fairer and more gracious kind, as we note
peradventure the career, and seek it may be the association and
historic companionship of one who trod the troubled path of life in
the past, and endeavour--however imperfectly--to brighten his memory
for a season.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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