Beverley’s links with Lewis Carroll are shared here in the North-East (From Darlington and Stockton Times)

Beverley’s links with Lewis Carroll are shared here in the North-East

11:07am Friday 28th August 2009 in Countryman's Diary

AN UNEXPECTED visit to Beverley, in the East Riding of Yorkshire provided reminders of two strong associations with this region.

One is Beverley’s links with Lewis Carroll, the author of Alice in Wonderland and other titles, while the other is the presence of the Frith Stool within the Percy Chapel of Beverley Minster.

The links with the North-East arise through Lewis Carroll’s early association with Croft on Tees, while the Frith Stool was once part of the system of claiming the right of sanctuary in churches and other locations. The famous knocker on Durham Cathedral was for the same purpose.

The story concerning Lewis Carroll in Beverley may be something of a myth because it is said he noticed the 18ins high carved stone figure of a rabbit that serves as a corbel at one side of a stone archway in the historic St Mary’s Church.

This beautiful old church is often mistaken for Beverley Minster but the two stand a considerable distance apart, St Mary’s at the northern end of the famous market square with the minster at the south.

Some accounts suggest the famous rabbit is in Beverley Minster but this is not true.

However, he is not very easy to locate within St Mary’s but differs from a wild rabbit because he is dressed in a smart coat while carrying a scroll and a pilgrim’s staff.

His ears are erect, but in Alice in Wonderland the figure carries a famous pocket watch; this one has no such adornment.

The story about the youthful Lewis Carroll, whose real name was Charles Ludwidge Dodgson, was that he was on a family outing to Beverley when he spotted the rabbit’s figure in St Mary’s.

The history of the rabbit is somewhat uncertain. St Mary’s dates from Norman times and was once a chapelof- ease to Beverley Minster.

Over the following three cen- VILLAGE VIEW: The green at Dalton, near Richmond turies, St Mary’s was rebuilt three times with the present nave and tower dating from 1520.

No record remains of the carving of the rabbit or its purpose, neither do we know the name of its sculptor – he left no mark or signature. So the presence of the rabbit is something of a mystery.

But there is also a mystery about Lewis Carroll’s supposed sighting of the carving.

His diaries refer to a journey between York to Hull during which he was almost certain to pass through Beverley but they do not mention stopping in the town or seeing the carving.

He had links with the area – his uncle was rector at Burton Agnes and Harpham from 1833 to 1840, and his grandfather lived at Hull, so it was not unusual for him to visit Beverley.

Lewis Carroll’s association with the North-East includes his boyhood at Ripon, Richmond and Croft on Tees, where his father was a clergyman.

The old church at Croft with its intriguing graveyard is full of curiosities, such as the umbrella tree, that might have influenced the young Lewis Carroll. If his penname creates interest, it is said that Lewis was the English equivalent of Ludwidge (his mother’s maiden name) while Carroll is a derivation from Charles, his own Christian name. SO far as Beverley’s Frith Stool is concerned, this is also known as the Chair of Peace and is a large stone seat upon which criminals would sit to guarantee safety from their pursuers. The Peace of St John of Beverley extended for one mile in all directions around the minster and fugitive criminals would strive to reach the stool before they were caught.

Once upon it, they were granted 30 days’ grace during which the canons of the minster tried to make peace between the criminal and his hunters. If that failed, the prisoners were taken away for trial.

The precise rules about seeking sanctuary varied slightly from place to place. A place of sanctuary could be any place owned by the church such as a school, abbey, hospital, mint or even an open space and as long ago as AD 887, during the reign of Alfred the Great, it was possible for criminals to seek sanctuary from the law.

The general rule was that once sanctuary was reached, the criminal was allowed 30 days in which to confess his crimes and he could be freed if he promised, on oath, to behave himself and bear no “poynted wepen, dagger of knyfe, ne none other wepen against the King’s peace.”

Once a felon had gained sanctuary inside a church, it was the duty of the faithful and brethren to feed, protect and entertain him during those 30 days, although it seems many disappeared in the darkness of night, having gained a brief but valuable respite from the manhunt.

Some felons in sanctuary were given the opportunity to abjure the realm which meant swearing to leave the country by the first available means and never to return, but in fact, a lot of them never reached a port and so became outlaws. They could be recognised by the letter A that was branded on their thumbs.

Durham Cathedral retains the famous brass sanctuary knocker by which felons had to arouse someone inside the building to gain admission as they sought the sanctuary of the mighty church and its brethren. BEAVERS are in the news, not because of their ancient association with the name of Beverley, but due to attempts to return them to British rivers.

In the past they survived in the wild in many of our rivers but were hunted both for their fur and musk glands, the latter thought to contain medicinal qualities. They became extinct in England some 800 years ago but survived in Scotland for a further three centuries.

Beavers are large rodents up to three feet in length with wide flat tails and they are noted for their amazing ability to construct dams across rivers and streams. Their skills are such that the dams, built of felled trees, stones and mud, actually form a waterproof barrier that creates a build-up of deep water.

This is an essential part of their breeding programme and the dams also a form of protection against predators.

The deepest water will not freeze and so the beavers, which live in communities, build a series of underwater chambers using the same material as their dams and it is here that they live and breed.

Recent attempts to reintroduce beavers to the wild in England and Scotland have not met with general approval.

There are concerns that they will harm the environment along our rivers by their indiscriminate felling of trees and creation of dams, one example being that their dams in Scotland will prevent salmon from breeding. It is also claimed they could spread diseases to other water-borne creatures.

Earlier this month, a captive beaver escaped to live on the River Tamar in Cornwall, where its route was marked with felled trees, clearly the work of a beaver due to the distinctive gnawing technique.

Another escaped in Scotland and has disappeared, one belief being that it has been shot because of the anticipated harm it might cause.

Efforts to re-establish beavers in Britain have been compared with the ill-judged introduction of coypu whose presence was at first regarded as interesting, but which soon became a dangerous pest. Likewise, introduction of the grey squirrel and mink have also proved disastrous, so can we be sure that beavers living in the wild are really a good idea?