Shepherdstown register. [volume] (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1955, 1897-09-09


Is the Pride of Mine Host Of the "Leath-
err Bottel"--An Antique Church and the
Rrasses 1t Contains.
Less than an honr and half from
London is the quiet little station at
Stole street, named, suppose, in honor
of Roman road and trodden by travel
ers as they approach the manifold glo-
ries of Gotham.
Gotham, the Kentish Gotham, is enc
Of those places in which Kent is SO
rich, favored alike by nature and art
and historical association. For what is
called park scenery it has few superiors
in England. The church has memorials
of its fourteenth century lords as fresh
as when they felt the last touch Of the
workman S tools. while the inn opposite
| is redolentwith the memories Of Charles
Dickens, and the rudy old Elizabethan
hall is one of the stateliest homes IN
| England-a real home, constantly lived
] in.
To see Gotham in its glory one must
of course visit it in summer. 1t IS hard
" fair to go there, as l did, on weep
ing autumn day, though it was full Of a
| charm of its own. In the first place, the
season plecluded my approaching Cob
ham in the orthodox way-from the
back Of the ancient buildings which
form the new college. The boy who acts
as porter at the station did not recon-
mend the short cut for very wet day.
1t had recently been plowed So, pass
ing first an old Kentish black and white
house to the left and then fine red
| brick Georgian mansion described by
him as FARM to the right, | strobe up
the main street of Gotham village TO
where putative leather bottle swings
in front of the inn which Dickens i'm
mortalized in "Pickwick. :" The leather
bottle, which, proudly labeled 'Ecce
| Signum," swings over a sign Of Dick
| ems Mr.. Pickwick standing on chair
with his hands under his coattails, is, as
matter of fact, made of cast iron and
weighs no less than 40 pounds, the real
bottle being kept on the top of the clock
in the bar parlor, guarded by an uncer-
tain looking monkey and dog. 1t Is
| SHAPED like a barrel, with combined
stopper and handle on one side, and has
large hole cut out just below the han
die. the reason Of this being that when
| 1t was dug out of a field hard by 1t
weighed so heavy that the finder hacked
a hole to see what was IN IT. He was re-
warded by finding money, which was
probably exactly what he wanted to find.
The inn claims to be as old as the
chancel Of the church opposite, which
| would make it fourteenth century. Even
the aspect of the much repaired exterior
does not make this impossible, and the
rough, worm eaten, dark oak beams IN
the low ceiling Of the Dickens room
| certainly look old enough.
The Dickens room is the pride of mine
host and brings Gotham visits from
host of theatrical people, who certainly
would never visit it for the sake Of its
lords, ancient or modern, and their hall
and church and college. In the visitors
book 1 read such names as ". S. Penley
and J. L. Toole, the latter accompanied
by Mr.. Clement Scott, and over the
mantelpiece hung pretty theatrical
portrait of Miss Mary Anderson, with
her hands tied together in some charac-
ter which did not recognize-her me-
mento of visit here.
The walls are hung with prints of
various characters and scenes in Dickens
books, Dickens programmes. sketches,
and what not, among them being The
Graphic's picture Of the Empty
Chair, " which made Luke Fildes name,
and Dickens last letter Tin autograph,
dated June s, 1870, i'll reply TO Non
conformist minister named Matcham, a
letter about Edwin Brood" and with
| q pathetic and particular interest, be-
| cause Dickens III this last letter OF his
| life avows that he had always cherished
| Cbristianity-even written a book to
bring it home to his children, though he
had not proclaimed his belief from the
house top. Jingle, Sidney Carton, the
devoted, and Pecksniff are among the
more prominent characters on the walls.
| All around the room there are rows Of
| old fashioned chairs, the place of honor
|
flat topped article of the variety known
to old furniture dealers as 1.-The Wind
sor.
Whatever the claims of the Leather
Bottel" to fourteenth century honors,
there is no doubt of the antiquity of the
church, though the age of the exterior,
except the towers, is obliterated with
facing Of flints. Two gigantic fiints, one
of them at least feet by 2, lie on the
grass below. The interior Of the church,
once ruined with plaster and whitewash,
is now carefully restored and highly
interesting. First in Importance, Of
course, come its monumental brasses,
some 80 of them, not erected, but laid
down on the chancel floor to the honor
of the lords and ladies of Gotham and
the masters of their college. These
brasses have no superiors in England,
and 90 as far back as the beginning of
the fourteenth century. Not a line is
obliterated in these craven images of the
knights and danes the one in full
armor, the other in the height Of fashion.
Tradition says|that in Cromwell's time
they were saved from the heavy hand OF
the spoiler by being first whitewashed
to escape notice, and then covered with
deep litter for the stabling of my lord
protectors horses. l think that they
must have been further saved By wooden
floors being laid over the flags on which
they rest for few odd centuries. Lon
don Queen.