CHURCH, MONTGOMERY
A few months after the marriage, the Earl of Pembroke obtained for him from the King the living of Bemerton, whilst he was still in deacon’s orders, but he was speedily ordained priest.
“When, at his induction he was shut into Bemerton Church, being left there to toll the bell, as the law requires him, he staid so much longer than an ordinary time before he returned to his friends, that staid expecting him at the church door, that his friend Mr. Woodnot looked in at the church window, and saw him lie prostrate on the ground before the altar; at which time and place (as he after told Mr. Woodnot) he set rules to himself for the future manage of his life; and then and there made a vow to labour to keep them.”
He died of consumption in 1632, aged 39.
It is remarkable that Wales should have given to England two of her sweetest sacred singers, George Herbert and Henry Vaughan.
The church of Montgomery, an interesting building with Early English arcade, is cruciform with a modern tower at the extremity of the northern transept. It possesses a superb carved-oak screen with rood-loft and good stalls, but the quaint misereres have been badly mutilated. The church contains a good deal of Early English work, but the east and west windows are Perpendicular.
In the graveyard, in a remote corner, is “The Robber’s Grave,” a bare space even with the surrounding ground, and it remains bare, although the grass grows luxuriantly about it.
Fresh soil has been frequently spread over it, and seeds of various kinds have been sown, but not a blade for many years was known to spring there—the soil remained sterile. Until recently the bare patch was of the size and shape of a coffin, but of late the surrounding grass has somewhat encroached; nevertheless the coffin-shape remains. The date of the grave is 1821.
The story relating to it is this. A widow named Morris and her daughter occupied a farm called Oakfield in the parish. The farmer, James Morris, had been a dissipated, neglectful man, and had left his wife and child in distressed circumstances. The little estate had formerly belonged to a yeoman farmer named Pearce, and Thomas, who now represented this family, hoped with his savings to be able, when the Morrises were down, to recover Oakfield.