Strange Pages from Family Papers | Page 7

uttered centuries
beforehand. And that prayer was not long unanswered, for Carr did not
enjoy Sherborne for any length of time. Committed to the Tower for
the murder of Sir Thomas Overbury, he was at last released and
restricted to his house in the country, "where in constant
companionship with the wife, for the guilty love of whom he had
become the murderer of his friend, he passed the remainder of his life,
loathing the partner of his crimes, and by her as cordially detested."
Spelman goes so far as to say that "all those families who took or had
Church property presented to them, came, either in their own persons or
those of their descendants, to sorrow and misfortune." One of the many
strange occurrences relating to Sir Anthony Browne, standard-bearer to
King Henry VIII., was communicated some years ago in connection
with the famous Cowdray Castle, the principal seat of the Montagues.
It is said that at the great festival given in the magnificent hall of the
monks at Battle Abbey, on Sir Anthony Browne taking possession of
his Sovereign's gift of that estate, a venerable monk stalked up the hall
to the daïs, where Sir Anthony Browne sat, and, in prophetic language,
denounced him and his posterity for usurping the possessions of the
Church, predicting their destruction by fire and water--a fate which was
eventually fulfilled.
One of the last viscounts was, in 1793, drowned when trying to pass the

Falls of Schaffhausen on the Rhine, accompanied by Mr. Sedley
Burdett, the elder brother of the distinguished Sir Francis. They had
engaged an open boat to take them through the rapids; but it seems the
authorities tried to prevent so dangerous an enterprise. In order,
however, to carry out their project, they started two hours earlier than
the time previously fixed--four o'clock in the morning--and
successfully passed the first or upper fall. But, unhappily, the same
good fortune failed them in their next descent, for "the boat was
swamped and sunk in passing the lower fall, and was supposed to have
been jammed in a cleft of the submerged rock, as neither boat nor
adventurers ever appeared again. In the same week, the ancient seat of
the family, Cowdray Castle, was destroyed by fire, and its venerable
ruins are the significant monument at once of the fulfilment of the old
monk's prophecy, and of the extinction of the race of the great and
powerful noble."
It is further added that the last inheritor of the title--the immediate
successor and cousin of the ill-fated young nobleman of Schaffhausen,
Anthony Browne, the last Montague, who died at the opening of this
century--left no male issue, and his estates devolved on his only
daughter, who married Mr. Stephen Poyntz, a great Buckinghamshire
landlord. Some years after their marriage Mr. Poyntz was desirous of
obtaining a grant of the dormant title "Viscount Montague" in favour of
the elder of his two sons, issue of this marriage; but his hopes were
suddenly destroyed by the death of the two boys, who were drowned
while bathing at Bognor, the "fatal water" thus becoming the means, in
fulfilment of the monk's terrible denunciation on the family in his
fearful curse.
In a similar manner the great Tichborne trial followed, it is said, upon
the fulfilment, in a manner, of a prophecy, respecting that ancient
family, made more than seven hundred years before. When the Lady
Mabelle Tichborne, wife of the Sir Roger who flourished in the reign of
Henry II., was lying on her death-bed, she besought her husband to
grant her the means of leaving behind her a charitable bequest in the
form of an annual dole of bread. To gratify her whim, he accordingly
promised her the produce of as much land in the vicinity of the park as

she could walk over while a certain brand was burning; for, as she had
been bedridden for many years, he supposed that she would be able to
go round only a small portion of the property. But when the venerable
dame was carried out upon the ground, she seemed to regain her
strength, and, greatly to the surprise of her husband, crawled round
several rich and goodly acres, which, to this day, retain the name of
"The Crawls." On being reconveyed to her chamber, Lady Mabelle
summoned her family to her bedside and predicted its prosperity so
long as the annual dole was observed, but she left her solemn curse on
any of her descendants who should discontinue it, prophesying that
when such should happen, the old house would fall, and the family
name "become extinct from failure" of male issue. And she further
added, that this would be foretold by a generation of seven sons being
followed immediately after by a generation of seven