Through East Anglia in a Motor CarVincent, James Edmund
General
Through East Anglia in a Motor Car
Vincent, James Edmund
Norfolk (England) -- Description and travel; Suffolk (England) -- Description and travel
Elizabethan, was no doubt built by the Sir William Cordell already named,
who flourished in the reign of Elizabeth.
At Cavendish, a few miles to the westward, we are at the original home of a
family better known than the Cordells or the Martins, and of real note in
history. "In the chancel of the Church was buried Chief Justice Sir John
Cavendish, beheaded by Wat Tyler's mob. His younger son, John, and Esquire
to Richard II is said to have slain this sturdy rebel." So "Murray," but
the last statement, standing alone, is merely irritating. What is the sense
of saying this, and no more, to a generation taught by painstaking
historians to believe that Walworth, the Lord Mayor, struck Wat Tyler to
the ground "where he was instantly dispatched by others of the King's
attendants"? Of course young John Cavendish may have been one of these
attendants; but in any case Walworth was the protagonist, and should have
been mentioned at least. According to the just custom of Indian sport the
credit belongs to him who gets in the first spear, and in the Highlands the
sportsman who lays the stag low, not the gillie who grallochs him,
possesses the honour of the day.
The story of the Cavendish family shall not be told here, for it is long,
and not free from controversial points, and, of course, they are still in
the land and of far greater consequence now than they ever were when
Cavendish was their chief home. The glory of the village has waned and
theirs has waxed. Of both the next village, Clare, and of the family who
gave it their name or took theirs from it, Ichabod may be written without
reserve. The Earls of Clare flourished from the days of the Conquest to
those of Bannockburn, where the last of the race lost his life, and during
that period of nearly two hundred and fifty years they clearly held high
sway in these parts of East Anglia. Their great seat was at Clare, in a
castle long desecrated by a railway station, the castle itself being built
in connection with one of those great and mysterious mounds, like that of
Thetford, concerning which the ancients were far more willing than the
moderns are to write with assurance. The names of several adjacent places,
Stoke by Clare, for example, serve at once to show how wide was the area
of the Clare influence and to raise the suspicion that the place was named
after them and not they after the place. Not, perhaps, the greatest of
them, but certainly the one whose memory has lasted longest, was "Richard,
surnamed Strongbow, Earl of Strigul," who came to the assistance of Dermot
Macmorrogh, King of Leinster, in 1172. Dermot, it may be remembered, had
carried off the wife of a brother Prince, named Ororic of Breffny, who,
with the assistance of the King of Connaught, Roderic, had invaded Leinster
and had expelled Dermot. Dermot then laid his case before our Henry II,
offering to hold his kingdom in vassalage for Henry, if help to recover it
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account