The Gunpowder Plot and Lord Mounteagle's Letter Part 33

On Monday, the 6th day of May, 1901, the writer had the happiness of accomplishing a purpose he had long had in mind, namely, that of paying a visit to Great Plowland (anciently Plewland), in the Parish of Welwick, Holderness, the birthplace of John and Christopher Wright, and also of their sister, Martha Wright, who was married to Thomas Percy, of Beverley.

These three East Riding Yorkshiremen have indeed writ large their names in the Book of Fate. For, as the preceding pages have shown, they were among that woeful band of thirteen who were involved, to their just undoing, in the rash and desperate enterprise, known as the Gunpowder Treason Plot, of the year 1605, the second year of the reign of James I., King of England, Wales, Scotland, and Ireland, and progenitor and predecessor of our own Most Gracious King Edward VII. Long may he reign, a crowned and sceptred Imperial Monarch: and in Justice may his house be established for ever![A]

[Footnote A: How full of happy augury for the future of our Empire was the fine speech of His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, delivered in the Guildhall, London, the 5th December, 1901, shortly following on the Prince's and His Princess's return to Old England's sh.o.r.es, after their historic sojourning, during the year 1901, in His Majesty's loyal Dominions beyond the seas.]

The writer arrived at the town of Patrington (the post-town of Plowland) somewhat late in the afternoon. He had not been before; but he well knew that Patrington is famous, far and near, for its stately and exquisitely-beautiful church, so aptly styled "the Queen of Holderness,"

the church of Hedon being "the King."

After viewing the general features of the little town of Patrington, which, maybe, is but slightly changed since its main street was trodden by English men and English women of "the s.p.a.cious days of Good Queen Bess," I (to have recourse to the first person singular, if the liberty may be pardoned) went in search of some ancient hostelry such as wherein "Jack Wright, Kit Wright, and Tom Percy," then in the hey-day of their youthful strength and vigour, quaffed the foaming tankard of the nut-brown ale, or called for their pint of sack, when William Shakespeare[A] was the Sir Henry Irving of his day, and was writing his immortal dramas for all Nations and all Time.

[Footnote A: The common consent of mankind ranks Shakespeare, along with Homer and Dante, as one of the world's three Poet-Kings.]

Such a house of entertainment "for man and beast" I found in the inn bearing the time-honoured and sportsmanlike sign of the "Dog and Duck".

On entering the portals of this ancient hostelry the historic imagination enabled me to conjure up the sight of some of the gentlemen who, three hundred years ago, must have formed the company who a.s.sembled at the "Dog and Duck;" to discuss, maybe, a threatened Spanish invasion of England's inviolate sh.o.r.es; "a progress" of the great Tudor Queen; or the action of her Privy Counsellors, Lord Burleigh, Sir Francis Walsingham, the Earl of Leicester, Sir Robert Cecil, Sir Walter Raleigh, and the ill-fated Robert Devereux Earl of Ess.e.x; or, belike, to sound the praises of that model of chivalry, Sir Philip Sidney, the General Gordon, Lord Bowen, and Matthew Arnold of his day, and the darling of his countrymen for ever.

If I had to content myself with the historic imagination alone for the sight of John Wright, one of the most expert swordsmen of his time; of Christopher Wright, who was a taller man than his brother, of a closer and more peaceable disposition; and of Thomas Percy, their brother-in-law, who was agent for his cousin, the great head of the House of Percy; and also for the vision of all those high-born, courageous, but self-willed, wayward Yorkshire Elizabethan gentlemen, in their tall hat, graceful cloak,[A] and short sword girded on their side, with their tinkling falcons on their wrist, with their cross-bows and their dogs: if I had to be content with imagination alone for all this, on that Monday, the 6th day of May, 1901, I had the sight and vision in the solid reality of flesh and blood of "mine host" of the "Dog and Duck," who bade me welcome in right cheery tones; and, in answer to my question, told me he well knew Great Plowland, in the Parish of Welwick (being a native of those parts), and ever since he was a boy he had heard tell that some of the Gunpowder plotters had been at Plowland.[B]

[Footnote A: The cloak was then one of the outward tokens of a gentleman.]

[Footnote B: It is impossible to understand Shakespeare's characters aright except one has first made a close study of such typical Elizabethan gentlemen as the Gunpowder plotters and their friends, and of the Elizabethan Catholic gentry in general. Hence the wide value of the labours of such men as Simpson, Morris, Pollen, Knox, and Law.]

Soon was the compact made that that very evening, ere darkness came on, "mine host" should drive me to the site of where John Wright and Christopher Wright first beheld the light of the sun. (In view of the fact that the circ.u.mstantial evidence to-day available tends to prove that Christopher Wright was the repentant conspirator who revealed the Plot and so saved King James I., his Queen, and Parliament from destruction by exploded gunpowder, it may be easily conceived that I felt great eagerness to gaze on Plowland with as little delay as possible.)

A short drive brought my driver and myself within sight of the tall "rooky" trees, the blossoming orchard, the ancient gabled buildings in the background, and the handsome two-storied red-brick dwelling, all standing, on slightly rising ground, within less than a quarter of a mile from the king's highway, which to-day are known as Great Plowland, in the Parish of Welwick, Holderness, in the East Riding of the County of York.

This, then, was the fair English landscape whereon the eyes of Christopher Wright had rested in those momentous years, from 1570 to 1580, when "the child is father of the man!" I exclaimed in spirit.

As we were entering through the gates of Plowland I made enquiry as to the name of the owner of this historic spot. I was informed that the gentleman to whom the ancestral seat of the Wrights, of Plowland, belonged resided on his own domain.

On reaching Plowland Hall (now Plowland House), Mr. George Burnham, of Plowland House, came forward, and, with frank, pleasant courtesy, never to be forgotten, a.s.sured me that I was at liberty to see the place where the two Gunpowder conspirators, John and Christopher Wright, had lived when boys.

I alighted from my vehicle, and being joined by Miss Burnham, sister to Mr. Burnham, the owner of the estate, we all three examined the evident traces of the moat, the remains of what must have been the old Gothic chapel, and certain ancient buildings and doors in the rear, which were left intact when old Plowland Hall was taken down, shortly after the middle of the nineteenth century, to make way for the present Plowland House.--See Frontispiece to this Book for picture of Plowland House.

[The Burnhams, of Plowland, are the grandchildren of the late Richard Wright, Esq., of Knaith, near Gainsborough, Lincolnshire. One of that gentleman's descendants is _Robert Wright_ Burnham, the eldest brother to the present owner of Plowland and his sister. The name _Richard_ Wright is found in the Register of Christenings at Ripon Minster, under date 29th March, 1599, as the son of one _John_ Wright, of _Skelton_.]

After taking leave of my kind friends, the "guardians" of Great Plowland, Mr. Robert Medforth, of the "Dog and Duck" hostelry, at Patrington, drove me to Welwick. A short survey of this characteristically East Riding Yorkshire village and its grey old Gothic church in its grave-yard, where John and Christopher Wright were christened, no doubt, brought the historical travels and explorations of Monday, May 6th, 1901, to a delightful and profitable close.

"Farewell, Plowland," I interiorly exclaimed, when I turned myself in my conveyance, for the last time, to take the one last, lingering look, "Farewell, Plowland, once the home _not only_ of those who 'knowing the better chose the worse,' and who, therefore, verified in themselves that law of Retribution, that eternal law of Justice, '_the Guilty suffer,' but also_ once the home of some of the supremely excellent of the earth.

Farewell, Plowland, where Mary Ward, that beautiful soul, resided with Ursula Wright, her sainted grandmother, the wife of Robert Wright, the mother of Christopher Wright: where Mary Ward resided, during the five years, 1589 to 1594, before returning to her father's house at Mulwith, in the Parish of Ripon, on the banks of the sylvan Ure."

The Estate of Plowland came into the Wright family in the reign of Henry VIII., owing to John Wright, Esquire (a man of Kent), having married Alice Ryther, one of the daughters and co-heiresses of Sir John Ryther, of Ryther, on the banks of the "lordly Wharfe," between York and Selby.

John Wright's son, Robert, succeeded as the owner of Plowland (or Plewland). Robert Wright married for his second wife Ursula Rudston, whose family had been lords of Hayton, near Pocklington, from the days of King John. Ursula Wright was akin to the Mallory (or Mallorie) family, of Studley Royal, Ripon, and so a cousin in some degree to most of the grand old Yorkshire gentry, such as the Ingleby family, of Ripley Castle and of Harewell Hall, Dacre, near Brimham Rocks, in Nidderdale, and the Markenfields, of Markenfield Hall, near Ripon, to mention none others beside.[A][B][C][D] (This is shown by the Ripon Registers.)

[Footnote A: The Most Honourable the Marquis of Ripon, K.G., Viceroy of India (1880-85), and the Most Honourable the Marchioness of Ripon, C.I., are akin to John Wright and Christopher Wright, through the Mallories of Studley Royal.]

[Footnote B: The Right Honourable the Lord Grantley, of Markenfield Hall, is akin to the Wrights, through his ancestor, Francis Norton, the eldest son of brave old Richard Norton; the Mallories; the Inglebies; and many others.]

[Footnote C: Sir Henry Day Ingilby, Bart., of Ripley Castle, is likewise akin to the Wrights, the Winters, and indeed to almost all the other ill-fated plotters. I may mention also that Sir Henry is likewise related to the exalted Mary Ward, who (as was the case with her great kinswoman and friend, Lady Grace Babthorpe) lived at "lovely Ripley" in her childhood, with the Inglebies of that day, on more than one occasion, as we find recorded in Mary's "_Life_."]

[Footnote D: At Grantley a John Wright resided in the time of Elizabeth.

He was probably brother to Robert Wright, the father of John and Christopher Wright. Grantley Hall nestles in a leafy hollow of surpa.s.sing beauty. The swift, gentle, little River Skell flows past the Hall on towards St. Mary's Abbey, Fountains. Grantley Hall is now owned by Sir Christopher Furness, M.P. It was formerly one of the estates of the Lords Grantley.]

Robert Wright (the second Wright who owned Plowland) had been married before his marriage to Ursula Rudston. His first wife's name was Anne Grimstone. She was a daughter of Thomas Grimstone, Esquire, of Grimstone Garth. Robert Wright and Anne Grimstone had one son who "heired" Plowland.

His name was William Wright. He married Ann Thornton, of East Newton, in Rydale, a lady who was related to many old Rydale and Vale of Mowbray families in the North Riding of Yorkshire. The names of William Wright and Ann, his wife (born Thornton), are still recorded on a bra.s.s in the north aisle of Welwick Church.[A]

[Footnote A: Ma.s.s was said at Ness Hall, near Hovingham, not far from East Newton, during the early part of the nineteenth century. _I think_ that this was owing to the old Catholic family of Crathorne owning Ness Hall at this time. The Crathornes intermarried with the Wrights, of Plowland, in the days of James I. or Charles I., and I suspect that Ness Hall had been brought into the Crathorne family, through the Wrights, from the Thorntons. The Crathornes came from Crathorne, near Stokesley, in Cleveland. The Thorntons conformed to the Established Church.]

William Wright was half-brother to Ursula Ward, the wife of Marmaduke Ward, of Mulwith, Newby, and Givendale, near Ripon, the parents of the great Mary Ward, the friend of popes, emperors, kings, n.o.bles, statesmen, warriors, and indeed of the most distinguished personages of Europe during the reigns of James I. and Charles I. William Wright (or Wryght, as the name is spelt on the bra.s.s in Welwick Church) was also half-brother to the two Gunpowder conspirators, John and Christopher Wright, who were slain at Holbeach House, Staffordshire, a few days after the capture of Guy Fawkes by Sir Thomas Knevet, early in the morning of November 5th, 1605.

The late Rev. John Stephens, Rector of Holgate, York, and formerly Vicar of Sunk Island, Holderness, told me, in September, 1900, that Guy Fawkes is said to have slept at Plowland Hall, on Fawkes' departure for London for the last time, a tradition which is very likely to be authentic. For, as will be remembered, the Wrights, Fawkes, and Tesimond were old school-fellows at St. Peter's School, in the Horse Fayre, Gillygate, York,[A] which had been re-founded by Philip and Mary, who likewise founded the present Grammar School at Ripon.

[Footnote A: John Wright, Christopher Wright, Guy Fawkes, and Oswald Tesimond must have many a time and oft pa.s.sed through Bootham Bar, leading towards Clifton, Skelton, and Easingwold, along the great North Road. And besides the King's Manor to the left of Bootham Bar, Queen Margaret's Gateway, named after Queen Margaret (grandmother of Mary Queen of Scots), must have been to them all a thrice-familiar object. Queen Margaret, it will be remembered, was wife to King James IV. of Scotland, who fell at Flodden Field in 1513, fighting against the forces of the brother of the Scots' Queen, King Henry VIII.

In 1516, Henry VIII. invited his widowed sister to London, "and good Queen Katerine sent her own white palfrey" for her poor sister-in-law's "use."

On this memorable occasion the bereaved daughter of King Henry VII., through whom His Most Gracious Majesty King Edward VII., in part at least, traces his august t.i.tle to the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, was kindly welcomed by the worthy citizens of the northern capital.--See Dr. Raine's "_York_" (Longmans), p. 98.

In the month of July, 1900, at the Treasurer's House, on the north side of the Minster, our Most Gracious Sovereign and His Beloved Consort (then the Prince and Princess of Wales) together with the present Prince and Princess of Wales (then the Duke and d.u.c.h.ess of York), graciously sojourned for a brief season: an event memorable and historic even in the proud annals of the second city of the British Empire.]

SUPPLEMENTUM VI.

St. Mary's Hall, Stonyhurst, Blackburn, 5th October, 1901.

... You are quite correct in saying that the doctrine of Equivocation is the justification of stratagems in war, and of a great many other recognised modes of conduct.

But I despair of its ever finding acceptance in the minds of most Englishmen: since they will not take the trouble of understanding it; while, at the same time, they have not the slightest scruple in misrepresenting it. It is, of course (like most principles, whether of art, or of science, or of philosophy), not a truth immediately to be grasped by the average intellect, and, therefore, liable to much misapplication. Even the best-trained thinkers may frequently differ as to its comprehension of this or that particular concrete case.

Given the tendency of human nature, English or foreign, to shield itself from unpleasant consequences at the expense of truth, it is unsafe to supply the public with a general principle, which, precisely on account of its universality, might be made to cover with some show of reason, many an unwarrantable _jeu de mots_. There are many exceedingly useful drugs which it would be unwise to throw into the open market. Hence, I quite recognise the partial validity of the objection to the doctrine in question. But since the doctrine is so often thrust in the public face, it is as well it should appear in its true colours.

This leads me to a point which I think ought to be insisted upon, namely, that those features, which are most objectionable to Englishmen in the scholastic doctrine were devised by their authors with the intention of _limiting_ the realm of Equivocation and of safeguarding the truth more closely.

All rational men are agreed that there are circ.u.mstances in which words must be used that are _prima facie_ contrary to truth--in war, in diplomacy, in the custody of certain professional secrets. In such instances the non-Catholic rule seems to be: Tell a lie, and have done with it. The basis of such a principle is Utilitarian Morality, which estimates Right and Wrong _merely_ by the consequences of an action. The peripatetic philosopher, on the other hand, who maintains the _intrinsic_ moral character of certain actions, and who holds _mordicus_ to the love of truth for its own sake, is not content to rest in a lie, however excusable, but endeavours, for the honour of humanity, to demonstrate that such apparent deviations from truth are not such in reality. For he perceives in them _two_ meanings--whence the name _Equivocation_--one of which may be true, while the other is false. The speaker utters the words in their true meaning, and that the hearer should construe them in the other sense is the latter's own affair.

"_Not at home_" may mean "_out of the house_" or "_not inclined to receive visitors_." It is the visitor's own fault if he attaches the first meaning to the phrase rather than the second, or _vice versa_.

No sensible man would consider a prisoner to be "lying" in his plea of "_Not Guilty_," because a certain juryman, in his ignorant simplicity, should carry off the impression of the prisoner's _absolute_, and not merely of his _legal_, innocence. Yet the plea may mean either both or only the latter.

Similarly, an impertinent ferretter-out of an important secret needs blame none but himself if he conceives the answer "_No_" to intimate anything else than that he should mind his own business.

As to such _facts_ there is, I should say, an overwhelming agreement of opinion. That they differ from what we all recognise as a sheer "_lie_" is pretty evident. It is, therefore, convenient and scientific to label them with some other name, and the Scholastic hit upon the not inapt one of _Equivocation_.

The malice of lying consists, according to Utilitarian Philosophy, in the destruction of that mutual confidence which is so absolutely necessary for the proper maintenance and development of civilized life. But the Scholastic, while fully admitting this ground, looks for a still deeper root, and finds it in the very fact of the discrepancy between the speaker's internal thought and its outward expression. The difference between the two positions may be more clearly apprehended in the following formula:--The first would define a lie as "_speaking with intent to deceive_;" whereas the second defines it "_speaking contrary to one's thought_" (_locutio contra mentem_), even where there is no hope (and therefore no intent) of actual deception. The latter is clearly the stricter view, yet very closely allied with, and supplementing, the former. For we may perhaps say with Cardinal de Lugo--and _a la_ Kant--that the malice of the discrepancy mentioned above lies in the self-contradiction which results in the liar, between his inborn desire for the trust of his fellow-men and his conviction that he has rendered himself unworthy of it--that he has, in other words, degraded his nature.

Now, where there do not exist relations of mutual confidence, such malice cannot exist. An enemy, a burglar, a lunatic, an impudent questioner, etc., are, _in their distinguishing character_, beyond the pale of mutual confidence--_i.e._, when acting professionally as enemies, burglars, etc.

In regard to such outlaws from society, some moralists would accordingly maintain that the duty of veracity is non-existent, and that here we may "answer a fool according to his folly." If a burglar asks where is your plate, you may reply at random "_In the Bank_," or "_At Timbuctoo_," or "_I haven't any_." If a lunatic declares himself Emperor of China, you may humour him, and give him _any_ information you may imagine about his dominions, etc.