MOTHER SHIPTON

Gisborne Times, Volume LXXI, Issue 11382, 6 December 1930, Page 9

MOTHER SHIPTON

SOME REMARKABLE PROPHECIES

-Mother Shipton was horn near Knar.esborough, -• Yorkshire, in 1488 and' died about 1559. ‘She was de-„ scribed ’. as a half-mythical English prophetess, baptised Ursula Sbuthiel. She. married Tony' Shipton, a builder According to' tradition, - however, .she was’ the child of Agatha Shipton and the devil. •' The suggestion • that Mother. Shipton had foretold the end of the world in -1881- was tho cause of the most poignant' alarm throughput rural England ‘in'- that year, the, people ■ deserting their houses and spending .'the nights in prayer in the fields, rchurches, and chapels. This latter .alleged prophecy was one of a series of forgeries to' which Charles Hlndley,' who reprinted in 1802 a garbled version of Richard Head’s “Life,” confessed in 1873. The prophecies are as follows: ' ' •

Carriages without .horses shall go, And accidents fill the' .world with woe;'

Primrose Hill ill London shall he, And in the centre a. Bishop’s See.

Around the world thoughts shall fly - . . • • In the twinkling of.an.eye.-

Water shall yet more wonders do, How strange, yet.shall be ..true. The world upside down, shall be.; Ancl gold, found at the root of tree Through .hills men shall ride, And no horse? or ass by their side Under water men shall walk,

•Shall ride, shall sleep and talk; In the. air men.shall he seen.

In white,, in. .black, and in green

A great man shall come and go! Three times (three shall lively France Be led to play a bloody dance; Before her people shall Be free, Three Tyrant Rulers shall. she see; Three times the people's hope is gone; Three Rulers in succession see, Each springing from different dynasty. Then shall tlie worser fight be done, England and France shall lie. as one.

Tlie British Olive next shall twine In marriage with the German vine

Men shall walk over rivers and under rivers.

Iron in'tliel water-/.shall float As easy as a wooden boat.

Gold .shall be found, and found In a land that’s not now known. Fire and water shall more wonders do ’ . « , England shall at last admit a Jew The Jew that was held in scorn. Shall of a Christian be horn, and horn. A house of glass ’.shall come to pass

In England but- alas!

Wair will follow with the work. In the 'land of the Pagan and Turk ;

And /State and State in fierce strife Will seek each other’s life. But when the North shall divide the South,

An Eagle shall build.in the Lion’s mouth.

Taxes for blood and for AVar Will come to every door.

All. England’s sons that plough the land, Shall he seen book in hand, Learning shall so , ebb and flow, The poor shall most wisdom know.

Waters shall flow where corn shall grow; Com shall grow where water doth flow. Houses shall appear in the vales below, And covered by hail and snow.