A Strange Story Of Eastwell

book . So that it was probably towards the latter end of the year 1546 when Richard and Sir Thomas bad the fore-mentioned dialogue together . Consequently Richard could not build his house and have it dry enough for him to live in till the year 1547 . So that he must have been 77 or 78 years of age before he had his writ of ease . " When the letter emboding the tradition was printed bPeckdoubts

rey y , garding its authenticity were openly expressed , but Dr . Brett ' s account was verified , and his details defended by the Rev . Samuel Pegge , and also by the rector of Eastwell , in the Gentleman ' s Magazine for 1767 . Mr . Pegge , in his communication , calls attention to the statement in Drake ' s " Eboracum " that Richard III . certainly bad au illegitimate son , who was knighted at York , when a youthbhis father . Other writers of equal eminence have credited

, y this strange story . Mr . Jesse , in his "Memoirs of King Richard III . " ( 8 vo , 1861 ) expresses a general faith in it . Sir Bernard Burke gives the curious tradition a place in his "Anecdotes of the Aristocracy" ( 1849 , vol . ii ., p . 484 ) ; and iu further connection with the Plantagenets , the same distinguished author remarks in his charming " Vicissitudes of Families : — " What race in Europe surpassed in royal position , personal achievement ,

or romantic adventure , our Plantagenets , equally wise as valiant ; no less renowned in the cabinet than in the field ? Yet , as late as 1637 the great-grandson of Margaret Plantagenet , herself daughter and heir of George , Duke of Clarence , was following the cobbler ' s craft at Newport , in Shropshire . Among the lineal descendants of Edmoncl Woodstock , Earl of Kent , son of Edward I ., entitled to quarter the royal armsoccur a butcher and a toll-gathererthe

, , first a Mr . Joseph Smart , of Halesowen , Salop ; the latter Mr . G . Wymot , keeper of a turnpike-gate at Cooper ' s Bank , Dudley . Among descendants of Thomas Plantagenet , Duke of Gloucester , son of Edward III ., we discover Mr . Penny , late sexton at St . George ' s , Hanover Square—a strange descent from sword and sceptre to spade and pick . "

An imjienetrable mystery surrounds the whole narrative . Time has woven about it the soft , silken thread of romance so thickly and intricately , that the historic fact is irrecoverabl y . hidden from the keenest eye . But the legend lives amid the green groves of Eastwell , and the tale of the bricklayer Plantagenet prince jiasses yet from lip to lip , shadowing forth the memory of remote clays . Walter Cooper Dencly gives a jileasant and icturesque rendering of the

p old Kentish tradition in bis very interesting little volume , " Legends of the Lintel and the Ley" ( Bell and Daldy , 1863 ) , a work which we can heartily commend to our readers . After Mr . Dencl y has told the tale anew , he says of its hero : — " Buckingham , and Drake of York , make him Captain of Calais , while Rymerin " Fcedera" writes the name Johnand still asserts that he fell into

, , , the clutches of King Henry ; while many , with Walpole , have doubted even his reality from so slight a record . But even the legitimate son by Anne Neville was never heard of in the reign of Richmond , although created in his first year Earl of Salisbury by Edward , and years after Prince of Wales by his father . In this dilemma we leave those who read the records of Peck and ParsOns and Noble fairl y to judge whether this monument at Eastwell be not

the tomb of the bastard , Richard Plantagenet . " Neither do we attempt to unravel the doubt . We have laid the evidence before the reader , let each place his own value upon it . The historical writer must boar in mind the injunction of Geoffry Chaucer : — He nioste reherse as neighe as ever he can , Or elles he moste tellen his tale nntrewe . Suffice it for us that the tale , if tale it is , still haunts and hallows Eastwell .