Audubon Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Iowa) 1894-1925, 1905-07-06
! Have Quaint Celebration

Especial Correspondence.)

and reads an ecclesiastical riot act to
them, denouncing them as a "graceless
brood of vipers," reminding them that
life is short and hell is near at
hand" and soaring them into a peni-
tential mood, in which they accept the
rule of st. Benedict.
Time takes another jump, and Will
liam the Conqueror, full armed, stern
and wrathful, stalks upon the scene
and frightens the monks worse than
Wulfsy did.
"By Gods grace" he says, "ye shall
find William the Norman hath a swift
hand to seize and a strong hand to
hold"
Then he goes on to declare that
Sherborne is nc longer a see, the
church no longer a cathedral, and the
town no longer the chief city Of Yves
sex. He transfers the bishopric to
Sarum, and departs, attended by his
knights on horseback and followed by
the bishop, whom he compels to trudge
after him afoot to his new billet.
The next episode shows Roger OF
Caen, the chief minister Of Henry l.,
laying the foundations Of the castle
whose ruins supplied the stage on
which the folk play was performed.
The episode which followed, the sew
enth, presents a striking contrast to
those which precede it and is carried
out in the Dorset dialect. It portrays a
dispute between the parishiOners and
the monks, which starts in a coHtro-
versy concerning the erection OF a font
in the parish church and ends with
the firing of the abbey by the parish
priest. During the progress Of this
scene Robin Hood, Maid Marian, Friar
Tuck, Little John and their retinuo
were introduced and gave a Morris
dance. 1t was danced to the original
tune, too.
The foundation of the almshOuse,
still a flourishing institution in Sher-
borne, by Sir Humphrey Stafford and
others in the year 1437, forms the
subject of the eighth episode.
The ninth shows the expulsion Of
the monks at the dissolution Of the
monastery by King Harry and the
sale of the abbey church.
The next illustrates the refounding
of the famous S]herborne school and
the receipt of it's charter from King
Edward vi. in 1850.
The last of the episodes introduces
one of the most heroic and tragic
figures of English history, Sir Walter
Do1oinh u-hnSn association with Shnr-
borne is accounted not the least of its
claims to distinction. 1t depicts his
Homecoming, with his wife, to the cas-
tie which had been granted him by
Queen Elizabeth. Sir Walter makes
some pretty and gallant speeches to
his wife, which puts her in such good
humor that she fills his pipe for him
and leaves him to the enjoyment of
the ''Virginian weed" which he is sup
posed to have first introduced into
England. Then occurs that humorous
incident with which every smoker is
familiar. A servant m in, and
imagining his master is on fire, souses
him with a jug of ale.
The performance concluded with a
final tableau emblematlc or the pres
ent and past greatness of Sherborne,
in which all the principal figures that
appeared in the previous pageants par
ticipated.
Sherborne was symbOliZed by a
stately female figure with long loose
hair, surmounted by a castellated
crown, and bearing in her right hand
a model of SherbOrne abbey.
On her right hand stood another fe-
male figure, typifying her American
daughter, who dropped the final re"
from her name when she settled in
Massachusetts. She wore a diadem of
stars on her head; her left hand
rested on the arms of the state Of Mas
sachusetts, and in her right hand she
pore a model Of a caravel.