After Sion Ceddol was buried, not far from the church, I’d sought to persuade Anna to return with me to London, but had known it was unlikely. By Christmas I’d learn, in a letter from Stephen Price, that she was betrothed to a schoolmaster in Hereford.
Within three weeks of my return home, Thomas Jones came to Mortlake with my cousin Joanne, and we discussed these matters in some depth. I was intrigued to learn that five parish churches in the area of Pilleth and the Radnor Forest were dedicated to the Archangel Michael, which made me wonder if I’d not been drawn, that strange and tragic morn, into some archaic circus of power, long buried.
Who can say? Yet while the Wigmore shewstone remained there, I did take something away, which I was able to demonstrate to Thomas Jones… and hoped one day to show to the Queen in the gardens at Richmond.
The first instinct of it had been beside the tump, when the twig which had scored my head had twitched in my hand.
In my mother’s garden at Mortlake, I found forked twigs, of birch and hazel, with which, to my great joy, I was able to discover a new well betwixt our orchard and the church.
On another occasion, when Goodwife Faldo lost not a ring (thank God) but a copper brooch, I was able to find it for her – in the hedge by the road leading to the brewery – by walking with the twig held out before me and awaiting its response.
Feeling my wrists seized by an unknown force. Learning, by trial, that I should simply let it happen, for, when I tried to study
Several times, I’d swear that when my wrists moved I would look up and think I’d caught a bright bobbing movement over a hedge or a wall, like the progress of a red hat.
But, of course, this was in my mind, for I do not See.
Notes and Credits
A YEAR AFTER it was opened, the inquest into the death of Amy Dudley did indeed end, as John Dee expected, with a verdict of Accidental Death. It made no difference. Dudley would never marry Elizabeth.
Most of the theories about Amy’s death are explored in depth in
In these increasingly secular times, it’s easy to underestimate the influence of religion, superstition and magic in Tudor England and Wales. Often, advances in science only added credibility to the concept of magic.
For anyone still sceptical, the classic
Once again, I also relied on
Dee’s abilities as a dowser are fairly well chronicled. John Aubrey records how he’d find missing items for his Mortlake neighbour, Goodwife Faldo. The Faldo family of Mortlake were long-time neighbours of John Dee and his mother. It may have been the daughter-in-law of the Goodwife Faldo mentioned in this manuscript, who, as an old woman, gave an account of the tall, good-looking and generous Dr Dee to Aubrey.
Dee’s scrying sessions, in later life, with the medium, Edward Kelley, are well chronicled. He apparently told people his crystal had come ‘from the angels’ but where his scrying activities began is less certain. The Queen’s interest is well known, as is her visit to Dee’s house to examine his scrying equipment for herself. It’s likely she was accompanied on this visit by Robert Dudley. The beryl in the British Museum may have been Dee’s… or may not.
Dowsing is the only fringe-psychic gift he appeared to have possessed. Thanks to Ced Jackson, John Moss, Graham Gardner and Helen Lamb of the British Society of Dowsers for background. And Caitlin Sagan for the BM pictures.
The story of how Presteigne became the assize town of Radnorshire is well documented. The Mid Wales organised-crime syndicate, Plant Mat, based in a cave in the Devil’s Bridge area of Ceredigion, accepted responsibility for the murder of a judge at Rhayader and some of its members were subsequently hunted down.
The Prices did finish their new home, still known as Monaughty and still the most impressive Elizabethan house in Radnorshire, standing alone, in a curve of the road from Knighton to Penybont.
John Dee is recorded as visiting Wigmore in 1576, when he found discarded manuscripts, which he considered to be of some value, in the remains of the chapel at Wigmore Castle, already falling into ruin. Today, the castle is far more visible than the abbey. The abbot’s house is now the home of John and Carol Challis, who were kind enough to show us around… and put me on to Abbot Smart, more of whose alleged misdeeds were uncovered by John Grove, of the Mortimer History Society.
Roger Vaughan went on to become MP for Radnorshire and, in the 1580s, bought Kinnersley Castle, just over the English border, which he restored extensively, putting in large windows to flood its rooms with light. A ceiling, decorated with esoteric symbols in its moulding, is said to have been designed by John Dee. As Dee was not known as an interior decorator, it can only be assumed that, if he
Five years later, in 1565, local merchant John Beddoes, after whom Presteigne High School is named, left an area of land, the rent from which is still used to pay for the ringing of the nightly curfew. But that was another book.
Twm Sion Cati – Thomas Jones, of Tregaron – is still a well-known folk hero in south-west Wales, often celebrated as the Welsh Robin Hood. He was pardoned by Elizabeth not long after she came to the throne. And he did indeed become John Dee’s cousin by marriage.
It was Tracy Thursfield, student of the Hidden, who first told me about the shewstone (which was last heard of at Brampton Bryan Castle, home of the Harleys, who were also connected with Wigmore Abbey) and gave regular advice throughout. Mairead Reidy, ace researcher, found more details and provided a rich assortment of relevant literature. Keith Parker, author of
Thanks once again to the present owners of the two houses at Nant-y-groes. Also Duncan Baldwin and Lucille, for legal advice. Apart from those involving royalty and high government figures, there’s little evidence of the way Elizabethan trials were conducted, especially at assize level. It seems unlikely that there were barristers for the prosecution and defence, as we know them today, which suggests that most of the questioning of witnesses was done by the judge himself. The rights of the accused to offer up a defence were not automatic and might depend on the generosity of the judge.
Thanks to Sir Richard Heygate, co-author with Philip Carr-Gomm of (every home should have one)
