Pevsner missed it.
WOOLLEY. Far from anywhere it seems, a farm or two, and a church enshrined in splendid elms and chestnuts. It has fragments of Norman work but most of it is 13th century, though the tower with its spire is 14th. Children have been christened at its font 600 years. There is a screen with a panelled door, a Jacobean stool, a stone coffin, and, rather an odd thing to find in a church, a chest-of-drawers made about 1700.
We came here upon Mikipher Alphery, of whom we had not heard before. He was a Russian prince who left Russia with two brothers because their lives were threatened, and it is odd to find that he came here as rector about two years after Shakespeare died and stayed for a quarter of a century. Then he was back here again. He died in London in the year of the Great Fire, having suffered much at the hands of the Puritans but finding England safer and much more comfortable than his own land. A little strange it seems to think of this little flock with a Russian prince for a shepherd.
We came here upon Mikipher Alphery, of whom we had not heard before. He was a Russian prince who left Russia with two brothers because their lives were threatened, and it is odd to find that he came here as rector about two years after Shakespeare died and stayed for a quarter of a century. Then he was back here again. He died in London in the year of the Great Fire, having suffered much at the hands of the Puritans but finding England safer and much more comfortable than his own land. A little strange it seems to think of this little flock with a Russian prince for a shepherd.
I know the real story of Mikiphor Alphery. We started a research back in 2000. He had never been a prince though did come from Russia in 1602.
ReplyDeleteArthur is/was never the most reliable historian!
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