VIII BABINGLEY 253 during his residence He has done so much squire of Sandringham, that he has, here, been an ideal lord of the manor. for the district and its inhabitants that visitors, who on one day in the week, when the royal family is not in residence, are permitted to view the grounds, and who at all times can explore that part of the estate beyond the park walls, are liable to forget that the neighbourhood has interesting associations unconnected with its royal landlord. One event which occurred near here many centuries ago ought not, however, to be forgotten. It was the building of the first East Anglian Christian church at Babingley, a small parish on the road from Sandringham to Lynn. Felix of Burgundy was its founder; and the present church, which stands a little to the right of the road, on some marshland near Castle Rising, is believed to occupy the site of the rude edifice in which assembled that seventh century teacher's first converts. Nothing in the existing church suggests its ancient foundation; but there is little doubt that the hamlet is the Babinkelia mentioned in old chronicles, and some low hills in the neighbourhood are still known as the "Christian Hills." "It is easy to imagine," remarks a writer who devoted considerable time to research into the early history of the Sandringham estate, "what a striking change the arrival of Felix must have caused, even in the scantily-peopled villages of the coast. The inhabitants of Babingley and Sandringham . . . . . wont to graze their cattle on the hills of Wolferton in order that they might be sacrificed . . . . in the heathen temple of the locality, mused with wonder and curiosity on the simple buildings, the humane practice, the spiritual worship of the new religion." The villages around Sandringham are noted for their interesting churches. Those of Dersingham and Snettisham are especially remarkable; while that of Heacham, a hamlet about two miles from Hunstanton, is notable because it contains several monuments to the Rolfes, who have held the manor for several centuries. A member of this family 254 POCAHONTAS CHAP. married Princess Pocahontas, the Virginia princess who visited England and appeared at the Court of James I. The story of this unfortunate princess has often been told; but I do not remember ever having seen attention drawn to the fact that East Anglians were intimately concerned in the shaping of her destiny. Nearly three hundred years ago, when love of adventure and greed of gain caused the thoughts of a large number of Englishmen to turn towards the new colony of Virginia, Henry Spelman, a son of the famous Elizabethan antiquary, Sir Henry Spelman (who was a Norfolk man), was one of a party of emigrants who set sail for the New World. From his own account of his experiences it appears that he arrived at Jamestown in October, 1609, and a few days later was made prisoner by the Potomac Indians. It was his own belief that he was sold to his captors by Captain John Smith, the Governor of Jamestown, who was anxious that some Englishman of his acquaintance should learn the red men's language; but as Spelman was little more than fourteen years old at the time it is not unlikely that he misunderstood the Governor's motives in leaving him in the Indians' hands. At any rate, he had no difficulty in escaping to Jamestown; and almost immediately afterwards he voluntarily went, with two companions, to live in the chief Powhatan's wigwams. There, when his life was threatened, he found a guardian angel in the beautiful Indian maiden, Pocahontas, daughter of Powhatan. This princess also seems to have protected Captain John Smith, who, on his return to England, affirmed that she had often saved his life. East Anglians apparently found especial favour in her eyes. Spelman was a Norfolk man; Captain John Smith was born in Lincolnshire; and John Rolfe, who, in 1613, became her husband, she being then eighteen years of age, was a native of the village of Heacham. This John Rolfe had accompanied Sir Thomas Dale to Virginia subsequent to the latter's appointment to the governor VIII POCAHONTAS 255 ship of the colony. Soon after his arrival Pocahontas was captured by the English, brought to Jamestown, and there held hostage for certain Englishmen who were prisoners in her father's hands. Her beauty attracted the young emigrant, who, on finding, as had Smith and Spelman, she had a tender spot in her heart for Englishmen—more particularly East Anglians -applied to the governor for permission to make her his wife. This request was at once granted, young Rolfe being a favourite with the Governor, who may also have hoped to bring about more friendly relations between the white and red men by the alliance; and the chief Powhatan's consent having been obtained the marriage took place at Jamestown. There, Rolfe and his "royal" wife remained three years, and then set sail for England, where, their story having preceded them, they found themselves the centre of considerable interest-in fact, the "lions" of a London season. Pocahontas might well, had her life been spared, have become a court favourite. She was presented to King James and his Queen, and soon learnt to adapt herself to the conditions of London society; while her little son, who inherited his mother's grace and beauty, was greatly admired. But it was soon noticed that her health was failing, and her husband at once determined to take her back to her native woods. The variableness of the English climate no doubt accounted for her weakness; but among those persons for whom the story of her life had a fascination were some who attributed her decline to the shock she received at unexpectedly meeting Captain John Smith, to whom, rumour would have it, she had given her heart before she met John Rolfe, and whom she believed to be dead. Whatever may have been the cause of her illness, she was fated never again to set foot on her native soil. She died on board the ship which was to have carried her back to America, on the eve of its sailing. She was buried in a Greenwich church which has long been burnt down; and her husband went back to Virginia alone, leaving his little son to be educated by a relative in 256 POCAHONTAS CH. VIII England. Some years later the son followed his father to America, where he married, and, when he died, left an only daughter. From her several well-known American families claim descent, and are proud of the strain of Indian blood derived from Powhatan's lovely daughter. Whether Pocahontas spent much, or any, of her brief life in England at her husband's ancestral home by the grey North Sea, I cannot say; but her marriage has inseparably associated her with Heacham, where the Rolfes are still in possession of their ancient manor. It is sad to think that when she died her body was not laid to rest in the shadow and silence of her native woods, or, at least, among her husband's people in the little Norfolk church by CASTLE RISING, KING'S LYNN, AND MARSHLAND WITH the knowledge of having entered one of the finest cycling districts in England, and the prospect of the weather "holding," as they say in Norfolk, fine, I am in a mood to appreciate Castle Rising even if the decayed little town possessed no more striking attraction than its old wayside cross. Rising, however, can boast of the finest ruined Norman castle in Norfolk, and when I climb to the top of the ancient earthworks which here, as elsewhere in the county, were chosen as the site for a baronial stronghold, I have no inclination to hasten on to Lynn. For before me is a massive Norman tower, rich in the characteristic arch-work and mouldings of the period from which it dates. Like Framlingham Castle, it scarcely seems a ruin; indeed, some parts of it are still inhabited; but the gateway which leads to the inner bailey has fallen into formless decay. The deep fosse, too, presents no such unscalable sides to the modern visitor as it did to the twelfth century invader: tall ash trees are rooted in the high heaped banks, in the midst of fragrant blossoming hawthorns. On the grass S |