This custom is seven hundred years old, and was first
instituted on the Tichborne estate by Dame Mabel, the wife of Sir
Roger de Tichborne, knight, in the beginning of the twelfth century.
The foundress was renowned for her piety and charity, and by her own
people was looked upon as a saint. The family record says that she was
so charitable to the poor that, not content to exercise that virtue
all her lifetime, she instituted the "dole" as a perpetual memorial of
her goodness, and entailed it to her posterity. It is distributed
yearly on the 25th of March. A large oil-painting, now hanging in the
dining-room of Tichborne House, and representing the distribution of
the "dole," was painted in 1670, and is considered as one of the most
valuable family relics. The costumes of the period are faithfully
represented, most of the prominent figures are portraits, and the
scene is laid within the courtyard of the old manor, with its
sculptured gables and picturesque mullioned windows. The present
house, roomy and comfortable as it is, is a plain, unpretending
building, with no architectural features to recommend it, but the park
and grounds are very beautiful, the old trees disposed in deep glades
and avenues, and the situation altogether very picturesque. Since the
famous trial has made everything bearing the name of Tichborne a
target for curiosity, the occupants have been sadly annoyed, and
access to the house was at last, in self-defence, denied to strangers
who came simply as gaping sight-seers.
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