The Uffington White Horse is a famous prehistoric chalk carving of an animal (they say horse--it looks like a cat to me) on the side of a hill. The white horse has been dated to about 3000 years ago, and Iron Age coins have been found with the image of this horse engraved on them. (Does Jacob's body language show how underwhelmed he was?)
Near Uffington is a tiny village called Stanton Harcourt, where some of my ancestors lived in the 1400s. My ancestors who lived there were the Harcourts, and a couple of them were knights. At this church in the village is a special chapel dedicated to the Harcourts where my ancestors Sir Robert Harcourt and Margaret Byron Harcourt have a tomb.
This is an ancestor on my Grandpa Brough's side, so pay attention if you're on that side of the family. Sir Robert was the sheriff of Leicestershire and Warwickshire, Governor of Vernon in Normandy, High Steward of the University of Oxford, and he became a Knight of the Garter in 1464. He was murdered by members of the Lancastrian party in 1471. Margaret Lady Harcourt's lasting legacy is that hers is one of only 2 surviving examples of tombs where women are portrayed wearing the Order of the Garter. (Go girl!)
While Jacob was gone last week I couldn't sleep, so I filled that time doing family history research, and I'm so glad I did!! This was a fun experience. (You can see the tomb in the background of the photo I'm in above, and I included the below photo from another angle so you can see that Margaret is buried next to him--against the wall.)
2 comments:
Looks like another fun adventure was had! Rachel, I am sorry to hear you were having trouble sleeping. Hope Jacob is home and your resting well again :) Jen
We saw that white horse too. Wasn't it listed in the English Heritage guide book? We were so underwhelmed we didn't even stop driving. ;)
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