This is one of three frontier sites where English settlers arrived in a non English speaking country. Before Virginia English settlers arrived in Philipstown, County Offally, Ireland, and after it, Albany, Cape Province, South Africa. They have many features in common; they were on the very edge of the British Empire, they were remote. the settlers were poorly prepared, may not have been told the whole truth before they emigrated and the natives were not friendly.
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Posted: March 13th, 2011 | Filed under: Places | Tags: Albany, Cape Province, Charles River, County Offaly, Ireland, Philipstown, South Africa, USA, Virginia, beggars, frontier, geuzen, proverb | 4 Comments »
This is the best known Beggars Bush site, though for the wrong reason, and through unusual sources. The site was on Ermine Street, which was the main northern road west of the fens. John Walker’s The Universal Gazetteer (London 1798) lists two Beggars Bushes, including this one and another in Middlesex at Enfield.
It is now the site of the Wood Green Animal Refuge, at King’s Bush Farm.
It is on a summit standing at 138ft above sea level in an area where the average height of the surrounding country is closer to 50ft. From London it is the last of a series of rises, and in both directions the trees on the summit stand out against the skyline. It would be widely visible, not only from the Great North Road, (A1198) but from the roads to Stevenage & London (A1) and the road to Cambridge (A14). It would be passed by travellers from London to the north of England.
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Posted: March 13th, 2011 | Filed under: Places | Tags: Andover, Brewer, Godmanchester, Huntingdonshire, John Taylor, Map, Saxton, Thomas Fuller, anthologies, naming story, print, proverb | No Comments »
A terrier dated 30 March 1528 of the manor of Annington in Botolphs, lists under “Buttells Dene. The Furlonge called Quochman otherwyse Beggers busch to begyn at the north syde under Hendersch and soe to goe southe to beggers bush.” It is possible the name is older as the document states “this terror is a copie of an old Terror and wryten verbatim with that terror” (WSRO, Wiston Ms. 5163). It is recorded again in 1635 “…in Buttles Deane in the furlong call[e]d Quochmans furlong al[i]as Beggers Bush abutting upon the Land of Edward Hyde…”’(WSRO, EP1/25/3). I am not aware of any later records.
The precise location cannot be found but it is in the Adur valley, and could well be on the parish boundary between Botolphs and Coombes. The Beggars Bush at Sompting is about two miles to the south west, up Winding Bottom towards Steep Down.
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Posted: March 13th, 2011 | Filed under: Places | Tags: Annington, Sompting, Sussex, derogatory, proverb | No Comments »
“And as the matter is made knowne vnto my Lorde the preacher is sure to go by the worst and the recusant to carrie all the honestie: Yea the preacher shalbe a busie enuious fellow one that doth not obserue the booke and conforme himself according vnto order and perhaps go home by beggars bush for any benefice he hath to liue vpon. For it may be the Bb. will be so good vnto him as to depriue him for not subscribing. As for the recusant, he is known to be a man that must have liberty of his conscience. Is this good dealing brethren.”
Text & Usage
The Epistle was a pamphlet of 54 pages published in October 1588 in response to A Defense of the Government established in the Church of England for Ecclesiastical Matters (1587) by Dr John Bridges. It was the first of a series of anonymous tracts supporting the presbyterian cause against Archbishop Whitgift’s attempts to impose uniformity of worship and promote the power of bishops over clergy. The Epistle stated it was “Printed overseas, in Europe, within two furlongs of a Bounsing Priest, at the cost and charges of M. Marprelate, Gentlemen”.
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Posted: March 13th, 2011 | Filed under: Writers | Tags: Christopher Marlowe, Literary, Robert Greene, Thomas Nashe, proverb | No Comments »
“The great Patrimonies that wealthy men leave their children after their death, make them rich: but vice and other marthriftes happening into their companies, never leave them until they bee at the beggers bush, where I can assure you they become poore.”
Usage
This is one of the earliest recorded literary uses of the phrase. It is used in a literary sense of falling into poverty, in this instance by one’s own folly. The author did not feel any need to elaborate or explain it. This suggests it was already in common use. The usage is similar to the earlier alternative beggarly attributes – Isabel Plumpton’s Beggars Staffe and William Bullein’s Beggars Barne. There is no suggestion that it was a real location.
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Posted: March 13th, 2011 | Filed under: Writers | Tags: Isabel Plumpton, Jane Anger, Literary, William Bullein, proverb | No Comments »
“Sir for God sake take an end, for we are brought to begger staffe, for you have not to defend them withall.”
This comes from a moving personal letter from Isabel Plumpton (“your bedfellow”) to her husband Sir Robert Plumpton urging him to end the litigation that was ruining them. Sir Robert, Warden of Knaresborough Castle, was involved in numerous legal cases involving his inheritence, and actions by Sir Richard Empson, the King’s Agent. His title to the estates was bound up in such a way that he could not sell it to raise money to cover the costs. Having lost at York Assizes he had gone to London to appeal. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: March 13th, 2011 | Filed under: Writers | Tags: Isabel Plumpton, Jane Anger, William Bullein, proverb | No Comments »
“Fellowes are so braine sicke now adaies if thei haue but tenne shillynges, yea, though thei doe borowe it, will be twoo or three times a yere at Westminster haule ; let wife or children begge ; & in the ende thei go home many miles, by foolam crosse, by weepyng cross, by beggers Barne, and by knaues Acre, &c. This commeth of their lawing ; then thei crie, might doe ouer come right, would I had knowen as muche before, I am undone, &c. “
Usage
The text includes classical references, items from morality plays, and early usages of popular turns of phrase. The phrase”to go home by” is identical with early examples of the Beggars Bush phrase. The alternative places are all proverbial. This shows that the usage with Beggars Bush is only a variation of a proverbial phrase. The context is almost identical to the circumstances of the Plumpton Correspondence using the similar Beggar Staff.
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Posted: March 10th, 2011 | Filed under: Writers | Tags: Ditchling, Isabel Plumpton, Literary, Robert Greene, Thomas Nashe, William Bullein, proverb | No Comments »
” . . . almost brought to beggars bush . . .”
Usage
The usage is consistent with the literary use. We know the phrase was in use in Oxford before 1623 from the Twyne Correspondence. It seems likely to have to originated with Mabbe, who was a faithful but not literal translator. The phrase does not appear in an edition of 1706 described as being newly “done into English”. In Mabbe’s translation of La Celestina (as The Spanish Bawd) by Fernando de Rojas he uses the similar phrase, “She was as well known to them all, as the begger knows his dish”.
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Posted: March 1st, 2011 | Filed under: Writers | Tags: Ben Jonson, Brian Twyne, Izaak Walton, Literary, Oxford, dish, proverb | No Comments »
