ENGLISH PILGRIMS AND PILGRIMAGES.

Otago Witness, Issue 3103, 3 September 1913, Page 79

ENGLISH PILGRIMS AND PILGRIMAGES.

(Copyright.)

The pilgrimage was a popular and picturesque feature of every-day life in preReformation times, and persists in Catholic countries, and even among Catholics in non-Catholic countries, to this day. In the turbulent Middle Ages the pilgrims banded together and travelled in large companies as much from the necessity of mutual protection as from choice, particularly when they were bound for such distant goals as Rome or the Holy Land. Even when engaged on a pilgrimage to some shrine in their own country, the pilgrims usually travelled in large companies. They came to wear a sort of common or uniform dress, the distinctive features of which were a large soft hat, a scrip or pilgrim’s pouch, a staff, a rosary and a crucifix, and one br more ‘‘signs.” These .‘‘signs” were little images of saints, or brooches,, which most pilgrims between the twelfth and sixteenth centuries wore in their hats. They are supposed to have had their origin in the shells worn by pilgrims to the shrine of St. James of CompcGtella in Spain. Many of these little lead ‘‘signs,” usually bearing some inscription relative to St. Thomas (of Canterbury), have been found in the Thames. The well-known verses of Sir Walter Raleigh express admirably the spirit of the true pilgrims : Give me my scallop shell of quiet, My staff of faith to walk upon, My scrip of joy, immortal diet, My bottle of salvation; My gown of glory (hope’s true gage) And :hcn I’ll take my pilgrimage. OLD ENGLISH PILGRIMS.

Perhaps the oldest of purely English pilgrimages was that to the shrine of “ Our La-dye ” of Walsingham, that quiet little spot in Norfolk not far from the sea. Walsingham Chapel was founded in 1061, and was reputed to have been an exact facsimile of the holy house at Nazareth. When the Saracens prevented the usual pilgrimages to Palestine such shrines as that of Walsingham were more frequently resorted to. A handsome new church was built to replace the old shrine in 1420. Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon had great devotion to Our Lady of Walsingham. The Kins: changed his attitude in later years, and ordered the shrine to be desecrated, but he came to regret this, and is said to have repented on his death-bed.

A later and even more famous pilgrimage was that to the tomb of the murdered archbishop, Thomas a Becket -n Canterbury Cathedral. Immortalised by Chaucer in his “Canterbury Tales, ’ which convey such a wonderfully vivid and graphic impression of the motley and picturesque company of pilgrims, this pilgrimage was for centuries the meet popular in England, and was performed by all sorts and conditions of men and women. In addition to Canterbury and Walsingham, Peterborough, St. David’s, and St. Andrew’s were also the goals of occasional bands of pilgrims, who wended their way thither from time to time. •A RELIGIOUS PILGRIMAGE OF TO-DAY.

Next in importance to Canterbury, in later years, might be placed Holywell, the little town in North Wales which has grown up round St. Winifred’s Well, the fame of which endures to this day. One of the natural wonders of Wales, this remarkable spring sends up water at the rate of 21 tons per minute at a uniform temperature higher than that of ordinary spring water. In addition to its unique natural features, St. Winifred’s Well is believed by many to possess miraculous properties, particularly in the way of healing the sick and restoring the crbmled and deformed to their former ''health and vigour.

To many people this will seem frankly incredible, but the piles of crutches and surgical appliances which have been left by sufferers who happily did not need them after bathing in the well, gives one furiously to think. The fine old Gothic building which covers the well is said to have been erected by Margaret, Countess of Richmond, the mother of Henry VII. Even to this day there are pilgrimages—mostly composed of Roman Catholics—to St. Winifred's Well, and although the pib grims travel, prosaically enough, by rail and motor 'bus, still they must have something of the true pilgrim spirit, for the cures, in which a lively and devout faith is said to play an important part, are by no means rare. THE PASSING OF THE PILGRIMAGE. It must.be admitted, however, that the religions pilgrimage, as it was known in pre-Reformation times, is not now much practised in England. Apart from the religious element, there is not the same necessity for large bodies of wayfarers to travel together as there was in the turbulent days of the Middle Ages. But even if it be conceded that the pilgrimage, in the earlier sense of the word, is almost a thing of the past, the pilgrim is by no means extinct. His outward seeing may be different, his method of travelling quicker and more luxurious; but the spirit of the true pilgrim—as apart from the mere sight-seer —is still very much tin tame —the desire to pay homage to the object of his reverence or admiration on some spot hallowed by memories and association. THE NEW PILGRIM. Literary pilgrimages have come very much to the fore in these later days, and in the course of a year many admirers of Shakespeare visit Stratford, devotees of Milton travel to dial font St. Giles, and those who desire to revivify their admiration of Burns go to see his cottage near Ayr. Stratford-on-Avon is, however, paramount as the literary shrine of the English-speaking peoples. The quaint, many-gabled, half-timbered house which was Shakespeare’s birthplace, and the fine old church by the banks of the Avon •where all that was mortal of the immortal

bard lies buried, are visited by thousands of people, not only from all parts of the British Empire, but also from Germany and more particularly from the United States. In fact, considering the distance they have to travel, the numbers of Americans who cross the ‘ ‘ herring pend to pay homage to the memory of Shakespeare in his native Stratford is far more creditable and bespeaks a greater admiration for his work than is the case with the great majority of the poet-dramatist’s own countrymen. ANGLO-AMERICAN “SHRINES.”

There is another old house in Stratford that recalls to Americans the romantic story of the foundation of one of their most famous colleges —Harvard University. All good Americans, having seen the birthplace of the Bard of Avon, turn their footsteps to Harvard House, —a fine example of Elizabethan domestic architecture in an excellent state of preservation — where in 1605 Robert Harvard married Catherine Rogers, daughter of Thomas Rogers, a contemporary of Shakespeare’s and an alderman of Stratford. The young couple went to live at Southwark, and there their sou John was born. John grew up to be a studious youth, and entered Emmanuel College, Cambridge, in 1627, taking his M.A. degree in 1635. Two years later, having married a Miss Sadler, John Harvard and his wife emigrated to New England, and he was appointed minister to the first church ni Charlestown. A project for the establishment of a college enlisted his warm and practical sympathy, and he bequeathed to it some £BOO. representing half his fortune. In recognition of his beneficence the college was called Harvard College. But he hardly lived to see it opened, as he died of consumption in the year following that of his arrival. A stained glass window has been erected to the memory of Harvard in the church where he was baptised—that of St. Saviour’s, Southwark.

It is not generally known that another benefactor of an American college was of English, or, rather, Welsh origin—namely, Elihn Yale, who helped the struggling university which was named after him. His forbears hailed from Plas-yn-Yale, near Llangollen, and he is buried at Wrexham. His tomb bears a quaint epitaph, beginning— Korn in America, in Europe bred. In Afric travelled, and in Asia wed. THE AMERICAN PILRGIM’S PROGRESS. Many of our American cousins, the most painstaking and enterprising of modern pilgrims, visit Sulgrave Manor House, once the property of the Washington family, who gave to the United States their first President, and the stars if not the stripes, which emblazon the American flag. Sulgrave Manor House, atone time the home of Laurence Washington, whose eldest son Robert was the ancestor of George Washington, is a fine old Tudor house about 14 miles from Northampton, and can easily be reached from Ranburv.

The village of Ecton is sometimes visited, too. by patriotic Americans, as the native place of the Franklins. Benjamin Franklin's lather was already a married man with children when he emigrated to America in 1685, but previous to that the Franklins-had been connected with Ecton for some 300 veaxs.

Buckinghamshire, or that part of it which might be called the Penn country, should attract English pilgrims us well as Americans. The tracing of the English homes of William Penn, the founder of Pennyslvania, from Tower Hill to his last resting-place at Jordans, that quiet Old World Quaker meeting-house near Chalfont St. Giles, should form a task congenial to the heart of the modern pilgrim. It is in the contemplation of the lives and dwelling-places of such men as Penn, who looked upon themselves as pilgrims, that one catches something of the spirit of the true pilgrim of olden time — a rare thing in these hustling modern days.