The Pink Flamingo :: Ghosthunting Tombstone Style

This evening we dined with friends who own a well-known Tombstone business. We were inside the business around 8:30PM. I was taking some photos of the owner and my father. They were talking. I heard someone enter the room where we were talking. I didn't pay much attention. Hearing the footsteps, I assumed it was my mother. It sounded like a woman wearing heals. I turned around and realized no one was in the room but the three of us. I mentioned this to my friend who suggested I might want to take a few photos and let's see what we can find. I ended up taking 58 photos. I was going through the camera before leaving their home and saw something on one of them. I don't have a DVD with me, so I took one of theirs to make copies of the photos. I started going through the photos. Either I have bounced reflection of the flash, which I don't think it is, or something a little weird. I quickly copied the photos then drove them over to their house. I never told them which photos I thought might contain something irregular.

We head home tomorrow. I've had a great week. This is the first time in ages I've had a break - a year, really. I just wish I could stay another week, but I need to get home and start going through all my interesting new research materials.

There has been an interesting new archaeological find in Israel.

Today the Chambers Book of Days honors one of my ancestors. I am a direct descendant of Sir Thomas Moore. I was going to link to this article tomorrow, but the irony of the situation is so great, I can't resist linking here. Is it possible a reconciliation is possible between us and them? My problem is – and will be for awhile – the fact that the other guys don’t approve of women in the clergy. Let’s face the fact that the ultra conservative Anglicans who love making trouble have a problem with people who don’t fit their little mode of just who should or shouldn’t be a priest. First they decided to get rid of gay bishops and clergy. Now they want to prevent women from being Bishops. I gather the next step is to prevent women from voting at all. If the conservative Anglicans keep going, they may just end up stripping us of the right to take communion at all.

THE CHAMBERS BOOK OF DAYS

Born: John Flaxman, sculptor, 1755, York; Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles, governor of Java (1811—1816), author of a History of Java, founder of the Zoological Society, 1781.
Died: Henry II of England, 1189, Chinon Castle; Pope Benedict XI, 1303; Sir Thomas More, Chancellor of England, beheaded 1535, London; Edward VI of England, 1553, Greenwich; Archbishop Grindal, 1583, Croydon; Humphry Wanley, learned scholar, 1726; Michael Bruce, poet, 1767, Kinnesswood, Tlinross-shire; George Augustus Elliot, Lord Heathfield, military commander, 1790: Granville Sharpe, philanthropist, 1813, Fulham: Samuel Whitbread, statesman, 1815: Sir Henry Raeburn, painter, 1823, Edinburgh; Sir Thomas Munro, 1827, Madras; D. M. Moir, poet and miscellaneous writer, 1851, Musselburgh Scotland; Andrew Crosse, electrician, 1855: Sir Francis Palgrave, historian, 1861.
Feast Day: St. Julian, anchoret, about 370. St. Palladius, apostle of the Scots, bishop and confessor, about 450. St. Moninna, of Ireland, virgin, 518. St. Goar, priest and confessor, 575. St. Sexburgh, abbess of Ely, 7th century.

SIR THOMAS MORE

When Sir Thomas More was installed as lord chancellor, in the room of Cardinal Wolsey, the Duke of Norfolk, by the king's express command, commended him 'unto the people, there with great applause and joy gathered together,' for his admirable wisdome, integritie, and innocencie, joined with most pleasant facilitie of witt; praise which perfectly suited its subject.

Sir Thomas More united prudence with pleasantry, great and singular learning with simplicity of life, and unaffected humility with the proudest temporal greatness: he preferred the love of his family, and the quiet pleasures of his own house-hold, to the favours of kings or delights of courts. It was only after the repeated urging of Henry, that at last he consented to relinquish his studious and secluded life at Chelsea: and it may truly be said that he was never happy after: for, besides his natural shrinking from public responsibility, and his disregard of worldly notoriety, he had a remarkably clear insight into Henry's character, and never put much faith in his abundant favours.

More was retained in the king's household like a personal friend, except that there must have been a degree of tyranny in his being kept thus continually from his own family. But his pleasantries amused the king and his queen, and his learning was useful to a monarch, who was writing a book which was to be the wonder of Christendom, and which had to be looked over, corrected, and arranged by Sir Thomas, as Sir Thomas himself admits, before Europe could be honoured with a glance at it. He was employed on several embassies alone, and in company with Wolsey: and finally, much against his will, he succeeded in 1529, to the highest honours, upon Wolsey's fall.

He filled the office of chancellor with a wisdom and unspotted integrity which were unexampled in his own time: and yet united with these virtues such graceful ease and agreeable manners, that it seemed to him no effort to he honest, and no difficulty to be just. When one woman sought to bribe him, by presenting him with a valuable cup, he ordered his butler to fill it with wine, and having drunk her health, returned it: and when another presented him with a pair of gloves, containing forty pounds, he accepted the gloves and returned the gold, declaring that 'he preferred his gloves without lining?'

More, though liberal-minded, was a stanch believer in the pope's supremacy, and had a great dread of heresy: and when Henry opposed the pope's will and decree by marrying Anne Boleyn, More resigned his chancellorship. He did not do so ostensibly on that account, but the king was shrewd enough to surmise his true reason. Henry really loved his servant, and did his utmost to obtain his approval of the new marriage, but the ex-chancellor preserved a discreet silence. The king, piqued by the neutrality of one whose opinion he valued, and on whom he fancied he had bestowed so many inestimable benefits, determined to make the late favourite acquiesce in his sovereign's will. More was invited to the coronation, and urged to appear, but he refused. He was threatened, but he only smiled. His name was put in the bill of attainder against the supposed accomplices of Joan of Kent, and then erased as a favour. But when the oath was put to him, which declared the lawfulness of the king's marriage, he would not take it, and so was committed to the Tower: and after many attempts, first to change him, and then to make him betray himself, so as to afford just ground for condemnation, he was tried and condemned unjustly, and beheaded, to the regret and shame of the whole nation, and all the world's astonishment and disgust.

The body of Sir Thomas More was first interred in St. Peter's Church, in the Tower, and afterwards in Chelsea Church: but his head was stuck on a pole, and placed on London Bridge, where it remained fourteen days. His eldest and favourite daughter, Margaret Roper, much grieved and shocked at this exposure of her father's head, determined, if possible, to gain possession of it. She succeeded: and, according to Aubrey, in a very remarkable manner. 'One day,' says he, 'as she was passing under the bridge, looking on her father's head, she exclaimed: "That head has lain many a time in my lap, would to God it would fall into my lap as I pass under!" She had her wish, and it did fall into her lap!' Improbable as this incident may appear, it is not unlikely that it really occurred. For having tried in vain to gain possession of the head by open and direct means, she bribed or persuaded one of the bridge-keepers to throw it over the bridge, as if to make room for another, just when he should see her passing in a boat beneath. And she doubtless made the above exclamation to her boatmen, to prevent the suspicion of a concerted scheme between her and the bridge-keeper. However some of these particulars may be questioned, it appears certain that Margaret Roper gained possession of her father's head by some such means, for when summoned before the council for having it in her custody, she boldly declared that 'her father's head should not be food for fishes!' For this she was imprisoned, but was soon liberated, and allowed to retain her father's head, which she had enclosed in a leaden box, and preserved it with the tenderest devotion. She died in 1544, aged 36, and was buried in the Roper vault, in St. Dunstan's Church, Canterbury: and, according to her own desire, her father's head was placed in her coffin. But subsequently, for some cause not now known, it was removed from its leaden case, and deposited in a small niche in the wall of the vault, with an iron grating before it, where it now remains in the condition of a fleshless skull.

Margaret Roper was well skilled in Greek, Latin, and other languages: a proficient in the arts and sciences as then known: and a woman of remarkable determination and strength of character. A tradition, preserved in the Roper family, records that Queen Elizabeth offered her a ducal coronet, which she refused, lest it should be considered as a compromise for what she regarded as the judicial murder of her father.

Dime con quien andas y te digo quien eres.

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