favourites. In a small volume in the British
Museum, which merits the particular
description of it which I shall afterwards give.
that story is thus narrated:

"The Prophesie of Shipton's Wife in the
time of King Henry the Eight.

"When she heard that King Henry the
Eighth should be king, and Cardinall Wolsey
should be at Yorke, she said that 'Cardinall
Wolsey should never be at Yorke,' which
the king and cardinall hearing, being angry,
sent the Duke of Suffolk and Lord Darcy to
her, who came with their men disguised to
the king's house near York, where, leaving
their men, they went to Mr. Besly, in York,
and desired him to goe with them to Mother
Shipton's house,* where, when they came,
they knocked at the doore. She said, 'Come
in, Mr. Besly, and those honourable lords
with you;' and Mr. Besly would have put in
the lords before him, but she said, 'Come in,
Mr. Besly; you know the way best, they doe
not.' This they thought strange, that she
should know them and never saw them;
then they went into the house where there
was a great fire, and they dranke and were
merry." (Mother Shipton was, at all events,
no curmudgeon.) " ' Mother Shipton,' said
the duke (not altogether requiting her
hospitality), ' if you knew what we came about,
you would not bid us so welcome;' shee said,
'The messenger should not be hanged.'
'Mother Shipton,' said the duke, 'you said
the cardinall should never see Yorke;' 'Yea,'
said shee, ' I said he might see Yorke, but
never come at it.' 'But,' said the duke,
'when he comes to Yorke thou shalt be
burned;' 'Wee shall see that,' said she,
and plucking her handkercher off her head,
she threw it into the fire, and it would not
burne; then she took her staffe and turned
it into the fire, and it would not burne; then
she tooke and put it on againe. 'Then,' said
the duke, 'what mean you by this?' She
replyed, 'If this had burned, I might have
burned.' 'Mother Shipton,' quoth the duke,
what thinke you of me?' 'My lord,' said
she, 'the time will come you will be as low
as I am, and that will be a low one indeed.'
My Lord Piercy said, 'And what say you of
me?' 'My lord,' said shee, 'shooe your
horse to the quick, and you shall do well,
but your body will be buried in Yorke pavement,
and your head shall be stolen from
the Barre, and carried into France;' at which
they all laughed, saying, 'that would be a
great lop between the head and the body.'"
(A marginal note here says: "This proved
true, for hee rose in rebellion in the north;
and by not flying when hee might, hee was
taken and beheaded in Yorke, where his body
was buried, and his head was stolen and
carried into France, tempore Eliz. Reg.")
"Then said Darcy, 'And what think you of
me?' She said, 'You have made a great
gunne, shoot it off, for it will never doe you
any good; you are going to warre, you will
paine many a man, but kill none.' So they
went away. Not long after, the cardinall
came to Cawood, and going to the top of the
tower, he asked, where stands York, and
how far it was thither; and said that one
said he should never see Yorke. 'Nay,' said
one, 'she said you might see Yorke, but
never come at it.' He vowed to burn her
when he came to York. Then they showed
him York, and told him it was but eight
miles thence, and he said that he would
soone be there; but being sent for by the
king, he dyed on his way to London, at
Leicester, of a luske. And Shipton's wife
said to Mr. Besly, ' Yonder is a fine stall
built for the cardinall in the Minster, of
gold, pearle, and precious stones, goe and
present one of the pillars to King Henry;'
and he did so."

* It was one of what were called the " Dring " houses.

In this alleged prophecy by Mother Shipton,
all the principal conditions were fulfilled;
the discrepancies in the story are to be laid
at the door of the narrator. After Henry the
Eighth had plundered his minister, and
banished him to his diocese, Wolsey, travelling
by slow stages, finally established himself
at Cawood, preparatory to making his
entry into York, for the purpose of installation.

He went thither from Scroby, a house
belonging to his see, about the end of
September, fifteen hundred and thirty, and the
ceremony of installation was fixed for Monday,
the first of November, following.
On the preceding Friday, however, the Earl
of Northumberland arrived with order from
the king to arrest him on a charge of high
treason. He was at once removed in custody
from Cawood, and he died at Leicester on his
way to London: he certainly never entered
York.

Of the three lords who visited Mother
Shipton as the tradition relates, and were too
curious concerning their own fortunes, the
Duke of Suffolk was executed in fifteen hundred
and fifty-four, for his share in Courtenay's
insurrection, which precipitated the
fate of Lady Jane Grey. Sir Thomas Percy (the
Lord Percy of the legend) suffered, in
fifteen hundred and thirty-six, for participating
in Aske's rebellion, known as the Pilgrimage
of Grace; and Lord Darcy, who
was implicated in the same rising, was
beheaded on Tower Hill. Respecting these
noblemen, it will be observed that, with the
exception of the special warning addressed to
Percy, ambiguity of phrase was Mother Shipton's
great resource. As a time must have
come for all men to die, the death of the
Duke of Suffolk would necessarily bring him
some day as low as herself; and the prediction
concerning Lord Darcy was as vague as
astrology itself could have framed it. With
regard to the more precise indication of Percy's
fate, I am afraid something was subsequently