#tichborne

[moonshot5]

Tichborne, Ontario (near Kingston)

1930 vs.2020

[chloe-the-fool]

Thinking about my favorite poem again ✨️

Tichborne's Elegy ✨️

Give it up for execution for treason to inspire you to write such a banger ✨️

[fionamccall]

Hampshire churches - Tichborne

Tichborne is famous for the Tichborne dole of flour given annually to villagers on the feast of the annunciation, and also the Tichborne curse and the Tichborne claimant.  The family were Catholic and were certainly unlucky - the church contains a monument to infant Richard Tichborne, who drowned in 1619.  The local legend has it that a gypsy refused hospitality at the door (the classic witchcraft scenario) cursed the child to die on a certain day.  He was taken in his baby carriage well away from the river, but fell out and drowned in a cart-rut full of water (certainly believable if you saw the walk I did to get back from Tichborne to Cheriton!).  

The church was described by my walk guide as having an atmosphere of great antiquity.  The chancel contains these fragments of medieval glass, including one to the church’s patron, St Andrew:

The Tichborne family not only had their own grand pew at the front of the church, near the pulpit, but also their own chapel or ‘oratory’ containing their monuments, and an Elizabethan altar where the Catholic mass was said for the family in the 16th and 17th century despite Catholicism being then outlawed.  

The family came under suspicion during the time of the Popish Plot and the family vaults were searched. 

Three sisters and four brothers on the tomb of their parents Sir Benjamin Tichborne and his wife Amphillis.

There are box pews (17th and 16th century) throughout:

The font is described as ancient and of unknown date in the church guide, twelfth century by Historic England:

The chancel’s saxon origins are most apparent in its exterior brickwork:

[nicethingsthose]

Elegy

My prime of youth is but a frost of cares; My feast of joy is but a dish of pain, My crop of corn is but a field of tares, And all my good is but vain hope of gain: The day is past, and yet I saw no sun, And now I live, and now my life is done.

My tale was heard, and yet it was not told, My fruit is fallen, and yet my leaves are green, My youth is spent, and yet I am not old, I saw the world, and yet I was not seen: My thread is cut, and yet it is not spun, And now I live, and now my life is done.

I sought my death, and found it in my womb, I looked for life, and saw it was a shade, I trod the earth, and knew it was my tomb, And now I die, and now I was but made; The glass is full, and now the glass is run, And now I live, and now my life is done.

-  Chidiock Tichborne (1586 - on the eve of his execution)

[moonshot5]

Tichborne Ontario

[tudoistoetriste]

Elegy

My prime of youth is but a frost of cares, My feast of joy is but a dish of pain, My crop of corn is but a field of tares, And all my good is but vain hope of gain; The day is past, and yet I saw no sun, And now I live, and now my life is done.

My tale was heard and yet it was not told, My fruit is fallen, and yet my leaves are green, My youth is spent and yet I am not old, I saw the world and yet I was not seen; My thread is cut and yet it is not spun, And now I live, and now my life is done.

I sought my death and found it in my womb, I looked for life and saw it was a shade, I trod the earth and knew it was my tomb, And now I die, and now I was but made; My glass is full, and now my glass is run, And now I live, and now my life is done.

Chidiock Tichborne 

Chidiock Tichborne was part of the Babington plot to assassinate Queen Elizabeth I. When the Protestant Elizabeth came to the throne, Catholics such as Tichborne had a degree of freedom to practise their faith. However, when Elizabeth was excommunicated by the pope in 1570, she retaliated by ending her tolerance of Catholicism in England. Records suggest that Tichborne and his father were questioned on several occasions about their ‘popish practices’.

Fatally for Tichborne, he agreed to take part in the Babington Plot . The conspiracy was exposed by a double agent and Tichborne and his fellow conspirators were executed in a particularly gruesome fashion, on 20 September 1586. The day before his death Tichborne wrote the Elegy for which he is now remembered. The poem was included in a letter he wrote to his wife.

[bigpaint-blog1]

Disappearance of Sir Roger Tichborne: Examining the evidence The claimant had a tattoo of an anchor on his arm as did Sir Roger.

[videobritain]

The Tichborne Dole in Hampshire