Above: The pub sign in Raleigh's home village of East Budleigh maintains an enduring legend
If it's not the 'spuds and
ciggies' stuff that you associate with Sir Walter Raleigh, you'll probably know
the story of how he gained Queen Elizabeth I's attention by laying his cloak
over a puddle.
But where? And when?
The story is first told by the historian Thomas Fuller (1608-1661)
in his Worthies of England. ‘No
other contemporary comment has been found on such a fascinating piece of gossip,’
notes biographer Raleigh Trevelyan. Yet
he does not dismiss it entirely.
‘The cloak episode’, he writes in
his Sir Walter Raleigh (2002), ‘said
to have happened at Greenwich and usually regarded as a fairy story, could
easily have been true, being perfectly in keeping with Raleigh's character - an
extravagant gamble on his part.’
Generations of children know the story from the Ladybird book
Equally true, I suppose, could be
the story of Sir Walter drenched by the bucket of water – or ale – that an
alarmed servant used to extinguish the Great Elizabethan’s pipe. Typically the
story is told in more than one place.
Local
residents familiar with such tales tend to be more assertive. Helen Bennett,
for example, attended a talk I gave to the Exmouth Historical Society on 1 October
and questioned my scepticism about ‘the incident of the cloak’.
‘As
a Enfieldian I could not let your opinion go as I was brought up on the tale!’
she wrote later to me in the following edited email:
‘Close
by where I lived as a child was the country estate of Forty Hall built by a
former Lord Mayor of London Sir Nicholas Rainton in 1629. The house,
gardens and parkland have been a stunning public park since the 1960s when the
estate was bought from the Parker Bowles family after the war.
‘In
the grounds are the remains of the Palace of Elsynge where Elizabeth and Edward
[the future Edward VI] are recorded to have spent much of their
childhood. Indeed, it is here that they were told of their father's
death.’
All that now remains of the royal residence of Theobalds. There's even less of Elsynge, demolished in the 1650s
Image
credit: Nigel Cox
Elsynge
is also within half a mile of Enfield Chase one of the hunting forests that
used to surround London, continues Helen, noting that Sir William Cecil's
and later King James I’s Theobalds lay just over the border into
Hertfordshire.
Turkey
Brook and Maiden's Bridge, where Raleigh is said to have laid down his cloak
Image credit: Julian
Osley
‘Below
Elsynge runs Turkey Brook and where the road passes over it the bridge is named
Maiden’s Bridge. It is here where local legend has it that Sir Walter
laid his cloak down for Queen Elizabeth. The name certainly alludes to
the fact. This tale was common and old knowledge when I was growing up in
the 1960s.'
Helen pointed out that Maiden’s Bridge lay on the probable route to Theobalds
from Elsynge.
‘Why
should an oral history not count?’ she asked. ‘Though I agree it is not definitive
but interesting none the less.
‘Finally,
some sources give Enfield as the place of birth of Raleigh's first son and also
where his wet nurse was located. An old timber house on Chase Side was
known locally as Sir Walter Raleigh's House. There is even a
postcard to prove it! Sadly it was demolished in the 1880s.’
Plenty of online
references support Helen’s view.
A National Trust volunteer’s blog at https://jloisa.wordpress.com/tag/maiden-bridge/
makes interesting reading.
|
And the National Archives have a photo of Sir Walter’s
house at Enfield, unfortunately not yet digitised. The details are below:
house at Enfield, unfortunately not yet digitised. The details are below:
Photograph of Sir Walter Raleigh's house, Chase Side,
Enfield, back view with 2 men sitting on seat.’
Copyright owner and author of work: William James Biggs,
Woodlands Estate, New Lane, Enfield. 1886.
Registration stamp: 20 March 1886.
Helen adds that the website for Historic England’s
very informative listing for Elsynge Palace is at
historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1002040
Whatever the truth of the story I am grateful to Helen for providing such a detailed background on the heritage that usually remains hidden in our increasingly suburban Britain.  FOR THE RALEIGH 400 CALENDAR OF EVENTS
WORLDWIDE IN 2018 CLICK ON
http://raleigh400.blogspot.co.uk/2018/01/raleigh-400-calendar-of-events-in-2018.html |
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