01/13/2024
Thought for the day:
It's not how you start out;; it's where you end up.
In Berkshire, England there's a stately, ancient mansion, Ufton Park, the ancestral home of the Perkins family (apparently my direct lineage) who emigrated to the British Colonies in America well before the Revolutionary War due to religious persecution by the Church of England, according to Ancestry.com and other history sources.
They were Catholics being endlessly harassed for not attending the Official Church; the mansion was raided by Sheriffs looking for priests believed to be hiding within the confines of the Manor; and indeed, there were priests, who escaped through a tunnel system that took them several hundred yards underground from the manor to thick woods where they could hide until the raid was over. Catholic chalices, robes, paintings of the Pope, crosses, and prayer books were, however, confiscated and held as evidence. They were not jailed, but heavily fined and ostracized.
After years of oppression, the Perkins family fled to find religious freedom in the new world.
I think all the Catholic Perkins's have since died off and their offspring became Protestants... seems we sort of went from sprinklin' to dunkin'.
If my family hadn't left Great Britain, I might've had a pretty good life over there as Lord Kent of Berkshire; as it is, I'm just a commoner with a few cows and horses in a slightly smaller house in what was once north-eastern Mexico while my Perkins ancestors resided in England.
Oh well, I guess it could be worse.
Ufton Court is now a Grade 1 listed historical Manor House on 40 acres of land, currently in use as a wedding and event venue and home of the Ufton Court Educational Foundation, open for organized tours. School classes from around the world can explore the house and grounds and hear about its history from docents. The escape tunnels are still there!
I hope there remains a Perkins family room in there somewhere... I'd settle for a little efficiency apartment upstairs with a view of the forests; I may have to head that way in 2024 depending upon what happens over here in the Colonies.