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
Huge, mighty, massive, hard, and strong,
Were the choice stones they lifted then;
The vision of their hope was long,
They knew their God, those faithful men."
Having lingered a moment in the south aisle to note the badges of the
royally descended Courtenay, our steps tend eastward to the memento
that records an even more illustrious name than theirs, and that forms
the unique association connected with this country church. But ere we
reach it they are arrested a moment to observe the two large and
singularly representative squires' pews of the Jacobean knight Sir
Nicholas Lower, an olden resident of Clifton in Landulph, and of whom
we shall have something further to say by and by. One was evidently
intended for the use of the family, the other on the opposite side of
the aisle, larger, raised and arranged as a sort of gallery, evidently
intended to be occupied by his worship's servants and retainers. Both
are elaborately decorated in their upper portions with carved panels
displaying the armories of his descent and alliance, below they
exhibit the linen pattern, and on the corners appears his crest
sculptured in full relief. Immediately beyond is a large high-tomb,
whose massive black marble table records that the bodies of the old
knight and his dame repose below, while on the aisle wall immediately
above the gallery-pew are two further inscribed brasses to their
memories.
Now stay thy foot, and hearken! for we are standing not on princely,
nay, nor royal, but even over imperial dust. Give thy thoughts wing,
from these leaden skies and mist-hung coasts,--nor stay them until
they have reached the sunny shores of the Bosphorus and the Golden
Horn, the classic precincts and immortal traditions of that
superlatively beautiful city that holds the keys of the two continents
in her hands, and to the illustrious dynasty that erstwhile ruled her,
and by whose name she is still designated. Then learn that a direct
descendant of this distinguished race, an exile from his native clime,
and almost an outcast on the face of the earth, found his last refuge
in this life, under a friendly roof close by, and lies at rest,--not
in marble sarcophagus under vaulted dome near the home of his royal
ancestors,--but, equally well, beneath the simple pavement of this
rustic sanctuary.
Resolve thy parable, you say. Read the inscription recorded on yonder
unpretending brass plate:--
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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