EASTWELL PARK.

Tuapeka Times, Volume VII, Issue 434, 13 February 1875, Page 3

EASTWELL PARK.

We extract from the "Kentish Express," the following description of Eastwell Park, the country seat of the Duke of Edinburgh :—: — Eastwell lies in that part of Kent where, according to Fuller, " health and wealth are reconciled to live together." There are few nobler oaks in the country and few more picturesque woodland glades than are to be found in the Park of Eastwell, which Defoe, in his "Journey through England," declares to be the finest he had ever seen. From a hill in the north-west corner, toward which the the avenues called the "Star Walks" converge, there is a view across the country on either side ; on the north, Sheerness and the Nore are seen beyond the heights of Cullock Wood and the Forest of the Blean ; on the south, the Channel is visible beyond Romney Marsh. The massy leafage of the oak at this time, varried with all the russets and " soder gold " of late autumn, gives character to the greater part of the wide prospect. " It has not been unusually observed," says the gossipping Aubrey, " that to cut oak-woo.d is unfortunate," and it would seem that the oaks of Kastwell are under the protection of more than usually powerful wood-nymphs. "I cannot omit," continues Aubrey, " taking notice of the great misfortunes in the family of the Earl of Winchelsea, who, at Eastwell, in Kent, felled down a moat curious grove of oaks, near his own iv>ble seat, and gave the -first blow with his own hands. Shortly after his cuuntess died in her bed suddenly : and his eldest son, the Lord Maidstone, was killed at sea by a cannonbullet."

•There is no lack of great oak trees in the park, many of which are sufficiently gnarled and ancieut to have looked down on the " last of the Plantaganets " as he wandered beneath their shadow. For, if there be any truth in the story, it was at Eastwell that the last representative of the "broom plant" lingered through an inglorious existence, and in Eastwell Church or Churchyard that he lies buried. Early in the last century Francis Peek published his collection of " divers scarce and curious pieces." Among them appears a letter from Dr. Thomas Brett, of Spring Grove, near Eastwell, to Dr. Warren, Fellow of Trinity Hall, Cambridge. • This letter is • dated September 1, 1772. In it the writer says that, in the year 1720, " the late Isord Henea^e, Earl of Wmchelsea," pointed out to him a remarkable entry in the parish register of Eastwell, to the following effect : — V. (This mark is throughout the register prefixed go the names of persons of noble birth) — "Richard Plantagenet was buryed the 22ud daye of December, anno ut supra. Ex registro de Kastwell, sub anno 1550." /The entry had of course been copied from an earlier register. ' Doctor Brett had apparently never before heard of this Richard Plantagenet , but Lord Winchelsea, from whatever source he obtained it, told him a long story, of which the details are somewhat too minute to have been handed down by tradition. Sir Thomas Moyle, it appears, bought the estate of Eastwell about the year 1548, and at once began to build a new house on the site of that now existing. As he watched its progress he observed that the "chief bricklayer" whenever he left off work, retired with a book. Sir Thomas found out that the book was in Latin, and the bricklayer at last consented to entrust Sir Thomas Moyle with a secret which he had never before confided to any one. He had been, he said, brought up by a Latin schoolmaster until he reached the age of 15 or 16. He knew nothing about his parents ; but a " gentleman " came now and then to see that he had all that was necessary, "and one day this gentleman took him and carried him to a fine great house, where a man, finely dressed, with star and garter, came to him, asked him some questions, talked kindly to him, and gave him some money." A short time passed, and the boy was conveyed to the field of Bosworth, and there into the King Richard's tent. The King embraced him, and told him that he was his son. "But," said the King, "tomorrow I must fight for my crown : If I gain the victory I will own you, and take care of you ; but if I lose the battle, then shift for^yourself as well as you can." So the' king dismissed him with a purse of gold. He watched the battle, and, after assuring himself uf Richard's death, rode to London, whei'e he sold hi 3 horse and his clothes ; and at last bound himself to a bricklayer, hoping in such an obscure condition to remain safe and untroubled. Sir Thomas Moyle, struck with his story, offered to receive him into his household, since he was old (he must have been at least 77) and almost past labour. Instead of. this, however, the bricklayer asked leave tp build for himself a house in. a certain field. This was allowed, and when the Park of Eastwell was afterwards enclosed, this field and house were taken in*o it., • The house, says Dr. Brett, " ooatumed gtanding till his (my lord's)

father pulled it down. Bu f , said my lord, * T would as soon have pulled down this house' — meaning Eastwell Place." The site of Plantagenet's house, now occupied by a modern building, is still pointed out ; whilst a spring not far from it is still called " Plautagenet's Well."- A tomb in the Eastwell Church, which has long since lest its brasses, has been assigned to him, with bnt little probability. This is the country of "wells" — the water springs bursting forth abundantly from the green sand on the edge of the chalk. At Withersdeii, between ICastwell and Wye, is St. Eustace's well, blessed by a cei-laiu Eustace, Abbot of Flai. who, at the beginning of the thirteenth century, came into England to preach the better observance of the Sunday. Thfi parish of West well, which closely adjoins East well Park, rejoices in a spring which played an important part in a onse »>f witchcraft, duly recorded by Reginald Scot (himself a Kentisman), in his " Disco veri." In 1574 one Mildred Norrington, servant to William Sponde, " was possessed with Satan in the night of October 13th." The ministers of West well and Kerinington were summoned in haste ; and in the course of a {conference which "took place between them and the evil spirit, . the latter accused "Old Alice, of West well-street," of having killed three persons by aid of the same devil which had taken possession of Mildred Norrington "Satan's voice," say the ministers, " did differ much from the maid's voice, and all that he spake was in his own name." The " possessed " was, however, as Master Scot describes her, only a " ventriloqua," although she did not "confess her cozenage" until had been drenched with water from the parish well, which had long beeu held to be of efficacy against all evil hags and witches.

Eastwell lies just below the line of the ancient "Pilgrim's Way," the road which keeping along the sides of the downs, was followed by those coming from the solthern coast who sought the shrine of St. Thomas at Canterbury. Stunted yews and oak trees mark its course and the pilgrims who journeyed along it halced to pay their vows at such lesser shrines as they encountered on their way, Such was Charing, a little west of Eastwell, where, in the Uhurch, was a remarkable relic — the block on which John the Baptist was beheaded— brought into England land by Richard I. Charing was a manor of the archbishops, and in their palace there, of which there are considerable remains, Henry VIII. was entertained on his way to the famous Field of the Cloth of Gold.