Far be it from me to question the great Richard Jefferies –
but I wonder where he got his story from. In 1896 the posthumously published
Jefferies Land included a short history of Lydiard Tregoze and the Lydiard Park
estate.
‘Lydiard and the neighbourhood are remarkably well wooded.
Oak is abundant though it is observed that the trees never reach that enormous
size which astonishes one in other localities. There is a curious legend about
these oak trees. Ages ago a member of the Bolingbroke family rendered some
important service to an English monarch. In return he received a grant of the
lands of Lydiard until he should have taken three crops off them, after which
they were to revert to the Crown.
The wily nobleman had the lands sown with acorns and hazel
nuts, which shot up into oaks and hazel woods, and the Bolingbrokes have not
cleared their first crop yet. Such is the story.’
Jefferies Land - A History of Swindon and its Environs
By the late Richard Jefferies
Published MDCCCXCVI
One of the earliest references to Lydiard is in Domesday
published in 1086 when it is recorded that the manor had previously belonged to
Alfred of Marlborough. It was acquired by the Tregoze family at the end of the
12th century and a royal reference was made in 1270 when Henry III
granted Robert Tregoze a royal licence to impark woodland and create a deer
park.
But the Jefferies reference implies a much later royal
favour as he mentions the Bolingbroke family. Viscount Bolingbroke was a title bestowed
upon Henry St John in 1712. The St John family had inherited the Lydiard
property through a marriage between heiress Margaret Beauchamp and Oliver St
John in c1420. Perhaps the Jefferies story
came from a similar source to the one who told me the heart-breaking tale of a
bereaved mother and two trees.
Several years ago, I was told the sad story of a grieving
mother who planted two trees on the front lawn of Lydiard House in memory of
the sons she lost fighting in the Civil Wars.
The mother in question was Anne Leighton, Lady St John, the
wife of Sir John St John, 1st Baronet. But there were a few
inconsistencies in the story. Firstly, three sons not two fell during the 17th
century wars, and there was an even greater problem – Anne Leighton, the mother
in question, died following the birth of her 13th child in 1628,
long before the outbreak of war.
But then, I reflected, perhaps it was the action of a
grieving stepmother, Sir John’s second wife, Margaret Whitmore, Lady Grobham.
She married Sir John two years after the death of his first wife Anne and
played an active role in raising his young family. But Lady Margaret died in
1637, several years before the death of her Cavalier stepsons.
I duly reported all this back to the teller of the tale. ‘Ah
well,’ he said, ‘it makes a good story,’ a sentiment with which the Richard Jefferies
informant would probably have agreed.
Meanwhile I’m creating my own little piece of arboretum history.
At the first sign of autumn I beetle up to Lydiard before the children get
their hands on the fallen conkers. And here is my nursery of horse chestnut
trees. Should be a few years before I’ve harvested my three crops.
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| Richard Jefferies |
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| Henry St John, Viscount Bolingbroke |
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| Anne Leighton, Lady St John |
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| 18th century view of Lydiard House |
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