The record-union., 1891-10-03
WAKEMAN'S VANDERINGS.
Where the "Gunpowder Plot
Was Conc0cted.
The Home of the Catesbys-Men in
Armor and sLadyes Faire'' Mar
shaled from the Dim and Knightly
Days.

Especial Correspondence of RECoRD-UNIoN.
+Copyright, 1911
AsHBY ST. LEDGERs, Eng, Sept. q, 1891.
One feels quite prideful thrill of orig
lnal discovery if he can hit an object or
place in all Europe where the great
American globe trotter has not already
come; took a hasty glance; photographed
everybody and everything with snap
camera or upon his majestic memory;
Clipped off piece of the object or shrine
for his collection; made hafa dozen notes
with stylographic pen for future refer
9nce; cut his name and the date Of his
visit upon any available woodwork about
the spot, or otherwise left his mark; and
then with ''bif7' and Zip projected
himself meteorically through space to the
next pleasing or hideous object of inter
est.
1 have found one spot in Great Britain
where there is at least no local record of
the species. The fact is a noteworthy one
and the place itself possesses eXraordina-
ry interest. 1t is called Ashby ST. Ledg-
ers. To be very definite regarding a To-
cality so distinctive for its SO tar quite un-
known beauties and interest, it is but d
tiny Village four miles north from Day-
entry, sixteen from Northampton, in the
niddivision of the County OF Northamp-
ION, hundred of Fawsley, petty seasonal
division, Union and County Court Dis
Lrict Of Daventry, rural deanery OF Day-
entry, archdeaconry of Northampton and
diocese OF Peterborough"
The taxgatherers OF the Crown have
thus minutely located the village and pa
rlsh, ,and to make it perfectly accessible to
those who ''do'' Ireland, Scotland and
England in one week or less it should be
added that Ashby st. Ledgers is but fif-
teen minutes walk westward from Will
ton Station on the main line of the Lon
1on and Northwestern Railway from
London TO the noted school town Of Rug
by, and that the most noted conspiracy
IN English history, popularity known as
Guy EawkeS' GunpOWder Plot" was
concocted within the sunny, slumberous
precincts Of its now crumbling and ivy
covered walls.
To the casual student of history the
chief incidents of the plot may properly
90 recalled. Stripped Of their usual big
oted verbiage, 1t was plan originated by
sir Robert Catesby, lord of this very man
or, and other malcontents, including
Thomas Percy, Christopher and John
Wright, Thomas and Robert Winter, one
Bates, and their braver tool, Guido Tor
guy Faux Tor Fawkes), representing the
enemies OF James l., then recently eIe-
waited TO the throne under the union OF
the English and Scottish Crowns, and
shortly thereafter proclaimed King of
Great Brltain-tO remove an obnoxious
Government in the concrete, King, Lords
and Commons, at a single explosion Of
gunpowder, instead of by a great and
protracted waste of gunpowder through
prolonged cruel civil war, in which an
entire nation is often all but destroyed.
This was probably the Conspirators'
considerate and pleasant view of the mat
ter. They rented a fine cellar immedi-
ately under Parliament House and sue
ceeded IN cancealing within it thirty bar
rels and four hOgsheads of gunpowder
GOV cred with billets and faggots OF
wood, great iron bars, Stones" etc, be-
sides young and ambitious Mr.. Fawkes,
wrapped IN a cloak and booted and
spurred," and provided with "a dark
.anthOrn and tinder boxe with which TO
set of the tOuch-woOd," ;" which, cOmmu-
licating with the thirty barrels and four
hogsheads OF gunpowder, at the instant
81 the Kings cOnvening Parliament,
November ., 1908, was expected to give
immediate relief to the political situa-
zion.
However, by means of an anonymous
letter TO Lord MOnteagle, whom some one
OF the conspirators desired TO save. the
plot was discovered; young Mr.. Fawkes,
Tuom the pictures represent as having
1or some time neglected his hair and
beard, was dragged out Of his mysterious
surroundings, spread upon a convenient
rack, inducing a confession and shortly
after hung, while Percy, Catesby, Win
Ter and the two Wrights were chased
2roln this place through Warwiclshire To
doibeach, in Statfordshire where they
were all slain, fighting to the death, ex-
cept Winter. He was captured alive to
dlc on the gaIlOws: and a sufficient num-
NJ FNafaR III Hl-rg. e.
connected with this mad effort to pro-
claim the young Princess Elizabeth
Queen IN place OF James, to appease the
most fastidious and eNacting religio-po-
litical feeling of the time, and cause sue
Eeedlng generations to
Remember, remember.
The Filth of November,
Guupowder, Treason and Plot
were put to death in the Old Palace Yard
Et Westminster and at st. PauFs.
The manor Of st. Ledgers. the former
home of the arch cOnspirator, Sir Robert
Iatesby, IS one of the most ancient in
.5rltaln. 1t possesses an eVentful history
: am indebted for its romantic narrative
30 my host. Major III. =. Senhouse, It's
present proprietor and lord of the manor.
Aside from its peculiar interest. in view
0t st. Ledgers' individual historic associa-
}ions, 1t IS most curious and fascinating
as illustrative of the extraordinary re-
Dle English estates, their frequent strange
Flcissltudes, and the almost purely histO-
&ic volumes which might be written upon
uearly any single piece of entailed mano-
Jial property in England.
The manor was granted by William the
Conqueror TO Hugh de Grentmaisnil over
200 years ago. At the time "Domesday
Book" the first tax book Of England.
was prepared l0S0 and 1856, this Hugh
Ne Grentmaisnil held four "hides" of
iand in Ashby. There were eight acres
of meadow, and the whole was then val
ned at sixty shillings. This Hugh &c
s:Ompanicd the COnQueror on his expedi-
ti0n to England. and was rewarded for
lis services with upward Of 100 manors
in different counties, twenty OF which lay
IN NorthamptOnshire lie was associated
with Odo, Bishop Of Bayeaux, and VIM.
s,itz-0sborn III executing the high Office
pf ,iusticiary Of England two years after
the conquest, and died in l094, six DAYS
After he had assumed a religious habit.
Tie was succeeded by his son Robert.
from whom the estate descended in Il22
90 Ivo de Grentmaisnil, his oldest suryiv-
tng brother and heir. This lvo Ioined the
tonfederacy in support Of Robert Duke of
Normandy, in the reign Of Henry l., but
She enterprise falling, and being heavily
lined for his delinquency, he applied for
protection TO Robert, Carl of Mellent, one
pt the Kings chief counselors, at whose
suggestion he undertook pilgrimage To
4 erusalem. For this purpose the Earl
loaned him 500 marks, or about 1888, for
which he mortgaged to him all his pos
sessions in England. by way of security,
Cor hiteen years, on condition that it
should be restored 10 his son Ivo, whom
She Earl engaged on oath should be mar
iled 10 his own niece the daughter of the
Earl or Warwick. The King ratified his
agreement but lyo, the father, dying on
lIis pilgrimage, the son was deprived OF