The 17th-century Tom Watson?
QUESTION
Charles Moore recently compared Tom Watson to Titus Oates. What was the latter’s crime? Born on September 15, 1649, in oakham, rutland, Titus oates attended Merchant Taylor’s School in 1665, but was expelled two years later and went to a school at Sedlescombe, near Hastings. He progressed to Cambridge in 1667 (his father was a minister and a graduate of Corpus Christi).
He first entered Gonville and Caius, and then St John’s College. His reputation at Caius, according to a fellow student, was that of ‘the most illiterate dunce, incapable of improvement’. At St John’s, a Dr Watson wrote of him: ‘He was a great dunce, ran into debt, and being sent away for want of money, never took a degree.’
Despite this, he was ordained as an Anglican priest on May 29, 1670, and was given the living of Bobbing, in Kent, on March 7, 1673.
At about this time, he was convicted of perjury, having falsely accused Hastings schoolmaster William Parker of sodomy. oates want to jail, but escaped and fled to London. In 1677, he was appointed chaplain of the royal navy ship Adventurer, but was soon dismissed, accused of ‘unnatural acts’. He escaped capital punishment because he was a clergyman.
In early 1677, oates became chaplain to the Protestants in the household of roman Catholic Henry Howard, 6th Duke of norfolk. There he was befriended by the fanatical anti- Jesuit Israel Tonge, who urged him to betray his Catholic masters to the government.
oates went undercover and joined the roman Catholic church in March 1677, but was expelled from seminaries at Valladolid in Spain and Saint-omer in France.
returning to London in 1678, he and Tonge concocted an account of a vast Jesuit conspiracy — The Popish Plot — to assassinate Charles II and place his roman Catholic brother James, Duke of York, on the throne. They publicised the tale through a prominent justice of the peace, Sir Edmund Berry Godfrey, and their revelations seemed all the more plausible when Godfrey was found murdered in october 1678.
A wave of terror swept through London, and oates was hailed as his country’s saviour, even though Charles himself examined oates and found his tale unconvincing. The witch hunt resulting from his testimony was responsible for the execution of at least 25 people but, as the frenzy subsided, inconsistencies were discovered in his story.
In June 1684, the Duke of York was awarded damages of £100,000 in a libel suit against oates, and when, in 1685, the Duke came to the throne as James II,
QUESTIONS
Q : How different are the cricket bats being used these days by, say, Alastair Cook from those used by Peter May when he was England captain?
Mrs A. samson, Aldeburgh, suffolk. Q : Can brain cells regenerate?
K. sykes, Bedford. Q : Was Benito Mussolini addicted to milk?
Mary evans, Upper Woodford, Wilts. oates was convicted of perjury, pilloried,ill id flogged and imprisoned.
James was deposed in 1688 and, at the accession of William of orange and Mary in 1689, oates was pardoned and granted a pension of £260 a year. His reputation, however, still languished, and he died in July 1705, quite forgotten by the public.
oates is remembered in Absalom And Achitophel the poetic political satire by John Dryden (1631–1700): ‘sunk were his eyes, his voice was
harsh and loud, ‘sure signs he neither choleric was
nor proud: ‘His long chin proved his wit, his
saint-like grace ‘A church vermilion and a Moses’ face.’
Keith Rowland, Chichester, sussex.
QUESTION
Which is the oldest cricket club?
CHALVINGTON And ripe Cricket Club, from Wealdon, East Sussex, is the oldest in the world. The Chalvington And ripe CC, formed in 1762, celebrated its 250th anniversary in 2012, though some historians say the club was actually founded five years earlier, in 1757.
CrCC organised a series of events during 2012 to celebrate its history — culminating in a 35-over match on Sunday, September 9, against David English’s famous Bunburys.
In the past the club has played host to the Sussex county team and legendary players such as W. G. Grace. England’s Women’s Cricket team, including Baroness rachael Heyhoe Flint, have played at the Yew Tree Inn, Chalvington.
More recently the likes of Chris Adams, James Kirtley, Peter Moores and Alan and Colin Wells have played there, and it has even hosted international matches, playing host to the Australian Crusaders.
The oldest cricket ground in the world is certainly Mitcham Green, where the red ball game was first played in 1685, though not by Mitcham CC, which was formed many years later (around the 1780s). Lord Horatio nelson watched cricket on this ground.
Three Mitcham CC players — fast bowler Tom richardson (1890s), batsman Andy Sandham (1920s) and wicket-keeper Herbert Strudwick (early 1900s) — were all selected to play for England. other old clubs include: The Vine CC, Sevenoaks, Kent (formed in 1774); Hambledon CC (Hampshire); and Shaftesbury CC (Dorset).
tony Matthews, Almeria Province, Andalucia, spain
QUESTION
Why is the Boeing RC-135 intelligence-gathering a aircraft known as ‘Rivet Joint’?
BEFORE the Sixties, the U.S. Air Force used number codes to distinguish its projects, but has since used code names, usually consisting of two reasonably short words. Some wellknown examples are: Senior Trend is the Lockheed F-117, a stealth fighter; Have Blue is the Lockheed stealth technology demonstrator; Tacit rainbow is the northrop AGM-136 anti-radar missile; and Senior Citizen, originally believed to be the Aurora hypersonic reconnaissance aircraft, probably refers to a secret Special operations STOL and/or Stealth Transport.
The first word is a memorable but semirandom word sometimes indicative of the project (Senior, Have, Pave, Cobra, Pacer, Compass, Quick, etc) and operationally related programmes use the same word. rivet is the USAF modification programme and Joint refers specifically to the Boeing RC-135 itself.
There are many facets to the rivet project. Some refer to developments — rivet King, for example, was an idea to modify Boeing VC-135B transports, and rivet Gyro was meant to improve aircraft navigation systems. others, such as rivet Lock, rivet Stem, rivet stock, etc, refer to specific missions.
A comprehensive guide can be found in William M. Arkin’s Code names: Deciphering U.S. Military Plans, Programs And operations In The 9/11 World.
J. J. Holmes, London e5.
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