FAMILY CURSES

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23044, 21 November 1936, Page 28

FAMILY CURSES

THE TICHBORNE DOLE The most famous family curse—if one may so designate it—is that which has apparently had no evil effects on the people who lie beneath it. *his is the mystery of Glamis Castle, the ancestral home of the Earls of Strathmore, where the Duchess of York has been in residence lately. There are many uncanny stories connected with Glamis. but the best known is that of the secret chamber where a former earl is traditionally supposed to have diced with the devil. What this room actually contains is known only to the earl, his heir, and the factor of the estate. The heir is initiated into the mystery on the night of his twenty-first’ birthday, and the secret —whatever it is—has never been divulged to the outside world. When the late earl was “sounded on the subiect he told the inquirer that “ if you could guess the nature of this secret you would go down on your knees and thank God it were not y °More than one of the earls have declared themselves to be oppressed by the knowledge that they had acquired on reaching their majorities, so that we may reasonably include the Glamis mystery among family “ curses (writes Mr W. Lamb in the Newcastle Weekly Chronicle). A “ family curse ” which just missed fulfilment was that of the Tichbornes. According to tradition. Sir Roger Tichborne. who lived in the reign of Henry I, promised his dying wife—the Lady Isabella—that he would annually distribute a dole derived from the rents of as much land as she could encompass by crawling while a lighted brand continued burning. The lady—whose charitable life had endeared her to the countryside—managed to creep on her hands and knees round 23 acres of ground, which, by the way, is known as the “Crawls” to this day. Having completed her task and feeling that death was imminent. Lady Isabella warned her husband that so long as the dole was faithfully dis-

tributed his family would prosper, but as soon as the charity was discontinued there would be born a generation of seven sons to be followed by seven daughters, after which the family would become extinct. This warning so impressed the T;chbornes that for 600 years the dole was distributed in the shape of 1900 small loaves, but in 1796 the charity was transferred to the church by Sir Henry Tichborne —and he had seven sons! Four of these succeeded to the title in a short space of time, then came the promised seven daughters, and eventually the family name wa.--changed to Doughty-Tichborne. How near Lady Isabella came to being a true prophet may be gathered from the fact that when the baronet of that day died he had no issue, and the line of succession was onlv saved from extinction by a posthumous son born three months after the baronet’s death.