‘Whoever pulls this sword from this stone and anvil, is rightful born King of all England”.
That’s my modern version of some famous words that evoke romance, chivalry and intrigue. They come from Morte d’Arthur, the great work by Sir Thomas Malory, and it was he who really started our love affair with Camelot.
Northamptonshire has many connections with great authors from across the centuries and Malory is no exception.
Just inside the porch of Winwick Parish Church, near West Haddon, is a notice telling us that Malory’s family had become Lords of the Manor of Winwick in 1287. Thomas never lived there, but after his death in 1471, his widow, Elizabeth, did.
Winwick wasn’t alone in boasting such a link; indeed, almost the whole county could be called ‘Malory country’. His was very much a Northamptonshire family with branches and connections in Northampton, Welton, Sibbertoft, Holcot, Sudborough, Litchborough, Dingley and Watford, to name but a few.
Quite where he wrote most of his epic book is uncertain, but we know that it was completed in prison in 1469 or 1470 and it was printed in 1485 by Caxton.
Sadly, the small notice in Winwick church is our only palpable reminder of him anywhere in the county.
There is more of a trail if you happen to be a fan of John Dryden. He was born in Aldwincle in 1631, and spent much of his childhood over the main Thrapston to Oundle road in Titchmarsh.
We should be proud that John Dryden was the first person to be named Poet Laureate. Later he came back to the county and stayed for the summers of 1698 and 1699 at Cotterstock Hall, near Oundle, where he wrote Fables Ancient and Modern.
His output was immense though very little of it is exactly fashionable nowadays. His greatest plays, All For Love and Marriage À la Mode are still performed regularly. Probably his most celebrated poem is A Song for St Cecilia’s Day, November 22 1687.
In 1992, following the separation of the Prince and Princess of Wales and the fire at Windsor Castle, The Queen labelled that year her “Annus Horribilis”, echoing the title of Dryden’s work, Annus Mirabilis, which saluted London after its survival of the plague and the Great Fire.
Not far from Titchmarsh is Lowick, a beautiful village with one of the most breathtaking churches in the kingdom.
The surrounding district inspired the novelist Anthony Trollope, who stayed in the Old Rectory as a guest of Parson Collins.
While he was there he worked on one of his lesser-known books, Dr Wortle’s School, published in1879.
He set his story in a village called Bowick in Broughtonshire. Perhaps a little like our Lowick and Broughton?
The novel was scandalous; it involved a schoolmaster, Mr Peacocke, who went to Bowick with his beautiful American wife, to teach at the school run by Dr Wortle.
Unfortunately, the Peacocke’s was a bigamous marriage and when all was revealed, the eyebrows of Broughtonshire were raised very high!