Page 76 - BV20

76 The House of Israel

Bonaventure) re cord ing this sig nal -- I made en qui ries at de tail. It will be of great value if any reader can of fer a
the Na tional Mar i time Mu seum, Green wich, and the Brit - clue lead ing to pho to ge nic ev i dences of a sim i lar na -
ish Mu seum, with out suc cess. Then, by dint of much per - ture.
sis tent prob ing at the Pub lic Re cord Of fice I was given a
clue that some thing to that ef fect might be found at the --Bob Danvers Walker. Crown and Com -
Brit ish Li brary. Suc cess at last; but with it came a some - mon wealth, Au gust 2001
what dif fer ent story from what we have been led to be -
lieve. In The Span ish War 1585-7, ed ited by J. Corbett, is An other Church -- An other
re pro duced a type script of the pri vate let ter writ ten in the Wit ness
hand of Drake’s of fi cial sec re tary, Wil liam Spenser, and
sub scribed with Sir Fran cis Drake’s sig na ture ad dressed, he ti tle of this ar ti cle in tro duces us to the an cient
‘To my very lov ing friend Mr. John Foxe, preacher’...etc. T Church of St. An drew, sit u ated in the tiny ham let
But note this: the let ter was writ ten fol low ing the raid on of Stoke Dry in the County of Rutl and, which is
Cadiz on 27th April, 1587, one year ear lier. How ever, the sub ject of our cover pic ture.
what is im por tant is that the let ter gives warn ing of the im -
pend ing in va sion threat and con cludes with these words: This church is un usual in hav ing its main en trance on
the North side. Over this is a ‘parvis’ or priests’ cham -
“Where fore I shall re quire you to con tinue a faith ful re - ber, dat ing from Tu dor times, but the orig i nal stone
mem brance of us in your prayers that our pres ent ser vice build ing was Nor man. There are traces of Nor man
may take good ef fect as God may be glo ri fied, His Church, string courses in side, on the North wall of the Chan cel
our Queen and coun try pre served, and the en emy of the and of the Chan try Cha pel, and most in ter est ing are the
truth ut terly van quished, that we may have con tin ual Nor man pil lars sup port ing the Chan cel Arch. The
peace in Is rael.” South and North aisles date back to the 13th and 14th
cen tu ries, with the caps of some pil lars and re sponds
A post script writ ten in Sir Fran cis’ own hand reads thus: hav ing nail and head or na ments used dur ing the early
“Our en e mies are many, but our Pro tec tor commandeth Eng lish pe riod.
the whole world; let us pray con tin u ally and our Lord Je -
sus will help in good time mer ci fully.” We know the out - Stoke Dry was at one time in the own er ship of the
come. Digby fam ily and the un for tu nate con nec tion of Sir

Everard Digby with the Gun pow der Plot in 1604/5, led
Queen Eliz a beth com manded a mon u ment to be erected to him be ing hanged for trea son in 1606.
on Plym outh Hoe with the in scrip tion ‘He blew with His
winds and they were scat tered.” Should you have a copy It was a Cen tral Tele vi sion programme ear lier this
of The Ox ford Book of Eng lish Prose (Couch) see what year, fea tur ing the Church of Stoke Dry, which led this
James Mel ville had to say in his highly de scrip tive piece writer to visit it, the Me di eval wall paint ings be ing of
about The Ar mada Cast aways in Fife; here is the rel e vant great in ter est. We look first in the Chan try Cha pel.
para graph: “And in very deed, as we knew cer tainly well Here we see a crowned king tied to a tree, be ing shot
af ter, the keeper of his agin (own) Is rael was in the full of ar rows by two war riors. The no tice on the wall
mean time con vey ing that mon strous navy about our claims this to be King Edmund of Suf folk shot by Dan -
coasts and di rect ing their hicks and Galictis to the is - ish bow men. It also goes on to say, how ever, that the
lands, rocks and sands, where upon he had des tined bow men re sem ble Amer i can In di ans and that Vi kings
their wreck and de struc tion.” Color slides of that epic reached Amer ica 200 years be fore Co lum bus.
es say and Sir Fran cis Drake’s let ter are now in cluded in
The Story of our Royal Tra di tions. My mas ter copy of Certainly, the figure on the left has a full feathered
this lec ture is ever be ing aug mented or amended in mi nor headdress. The one on right has a single feather and

The Berean Voice