Isle of Sheppey

In the year of our Lord's incarnation, 851, which was the third after the birth of King Alfred, Carol, Earl of Devon, fought with the men of Devon against the pagans at a place called Wigamborg, and the Christians gained the victory.

And that same year the pagans first wintered in the island called Sheppey, which means the Sheep Isle, and is situated in the river Thames between Essex and Kent, but is nearer to Kent than to Essex.

It has in it a fine monastery.

The same year also, a great army of the pagans came with 350 ships to the mouth of the river Thames, and sacked Dorobernia, which is the city of the Cantuarians, and also the city of London, which lies on the north bank of the river Thames, on the confines of Essex and Middlesex.

About the middle of the ninth century the number of Norse pirates greatly increased, and their ravages became more regular and constant, leading in many cases to permanent settlements.

In 855 the Old English chronicler tells us the heathen men for the first time remained over winter in Sheppey at the mouth of the Thames, and thereafter year by year it recounts the deeds of the Viking band which wintered in England and is called simply here the army.

It is no longer a matter of summer raids but of unbroken occupation.

In 878 during midwinter the army stole away to Chippenham and overran the land of the West Saxons and sat down there, and many of the people they drove beyond sea, and of the remainder the greater part they subdued and forced to obey them, except King Alfred, and he with a small band with difficulty retreated to the woods and to the fastnesses of the moors.

Having obtained all he could desire from this stratagem, his fruitful invention soon hinted another.

He now became the plain honest country farmer, who living in the Isle of Sheppey in Kent had the misfortune to have his grounds overflowed and all his cattle drowned.

His habit was now neat but rustic, his air and behavior simple and inoffensive, his speech in the Kentish dialect, his countenance dejected, his tale pitiful.

wondrous pitiful a wife and seven helpless infants being partakers of his misfortunes so that if his former stratagem answered his wishes this did still more so he now getting seldom less than a guinea a day having raised a considerable booty by these two stratagems he made the best of his way towards stratton in devonshire where was soon to be held a general meeting of the gypsies here he was received with great applause on account of the successful stratagems he had executed and he had an honourable mark of distinction bestowed upon him being seated near the king though our hero by means of these stratagems abounded with all the pleasures he could desire yet he began now to reflect with himself on that grand and noble maxim of life that we are not born for ourselves only but indebted to all mankind to be of as great use and service to them as our capacities and abilities will enable us to be he therefore gave a handsome gratuity to a famous rat-catcher who assumed the honour of being rat-catcher to the king to be initiated into that and the still more useful secret of curing madness in dogs or cattle our hero by his close application soon attained so considerable a knowledge in his profession that he practised with much success and applause to the great advantage of the public in general not confining the good effects of his knowledge to his own community only but extending them universally to all sorts of people wheresoever they were wanted for though we have before observed that the mendicants are in a constant state of hostility with all other people and mr carew was as alert as any one in laying all manner of schemes and stratagems to carry off a booty from them yet he thought as a member of the grand society of human kind he was obliged to do them all the good in his power when it was not opposite to the interest of that particular community of which he was a member mr carew's invention being never at a loss he now formed a new stratagem to execute which he exchanged his habit shirt etc for only an old blanket shoes and stockings he laid aside because they did not suit his present purpose being thus accoutred or rather unaccoutred he was now no more than poor mad tom whom the foul fiend had led through fire and through flame through ford and whirlpool over bog and quagmire that hath laid knives under his pillow and halters in his pew set ratsbane by his porridge made him proud at heart to ride on a bay trotting horse over four-inch bridges to curse his own shadow for a traitor who eats the swimming frog the toad the tadpole the wall-newt and the water-newt that in the fury of his heart when the foul fiend rages swallows the old rat and ditch-dog drinks the green mantle off the standing pool and mice and rats and such small gear have been tom's food for seven long year o do de do de do day bless thee from whirlwind star-blasting and taking do poor tom some charity whom the foul fiend vexes there could i have him now and there and there again and there though the sharp hawthorn blows the cold wind tom's a cold who gives anything to poor tom in this character and with such like expressions our hero entered the house both of great and small claiming kindred to them and committing all manner of frantic actions such as beating himself offering to eat coals of fire running against the wall and tearing to pieces those garments which were given him to cover his nakedness by which means he raised very considerable contributions but these different habits and characters were still of farther use to our hero for by their means he had a better opportunity of seeing the world and knowing mankind than most of our youths who make the grand tour for as he had none of those petty amusements and rare shows which so much divert our young gentlemen abroad to engage his attention it was wholly applied to the study of mankind their various passions and inclinations and he made the greater improvement in his study as in many of his characters they acted before him without reserve or disguise he saw in little and plain houses hospitality charity and compassion the children of frugality and found under gilded and spacious roofs littleness uncharitableness and inhumanity the offspring of luxury and riot he saw servants waste their masters' substance in that there were no greater nor more crafty thieves than domestic ones and met with masters who roared out for liberty abroad acting the arbitrary tyrants in their own houses he saw ignorance and passion exercise the rod of justice oppression the handmaid of power self-interest outweighing friendship and honesty in the opposite scale pride and envy spurning and trampling on what was more worthy than themselves he saw the pure white robes of truth sullied with the black hue of hypocrisy and dissimulation he sometimes too met much riches unattended by pomp and pride but diffusing themselves in numberless unexhausted streams conducted by the hands of two lovely servants goodness and beneficence And he saw honesty, integrity, and goodness of mind, inhabitants of the humble cot of poverty.

She met and married a royal official and took the name Agnes.

this a fantastical tale or did two mysterious green children show up in suffolk england maybe only history knows but what do you think next up we have the piano man no not billy joel of all the strangest stories to come out of the isle of sheffy a small town just 50 miles from london the story of the piano man and how he came to be wandering around the town soaking wet dazed with a musical talent that would later earn him a spot in the new york symphony would baffle the locals and the world for years to come standing in the isle of shepping one can look east and see tall mass protruding from the waters of a ship that's long been sitting at the bottom of the ocean floor mystery of this you ask well this ship has one and a half tons of explosives on it that could go off at any given time or so that's what the locals will tell you But the SS Montgomery isn't the only mystery the ocean has given up to the Isle.

In 2005, a nameless man wandered around the Isle of Sheppey, wet, hungry and peering in the window at a local McDonald's.

Police were summoned to the restaurant where they found the man just standing there, blank expression on his face.

When the police asked him his name, it seemed as though he conveniently didn't know.

Having obtained all he could desire from this stratagem his fruitful invention soon hinted another.

He now became the plain honest country farmer who living in the Isle of Sheppey in Kent had the misfortune to have his grounds overflowed and all his cattle drowned.

His habit was now neat but rustic, his air and behavior simple and inoffensive, his speech in the Kentish dialect, his countenance dejected, his tale pitiful, wondrous pitiful, a wife and seven helpless infants being partakers of his misfortunes, so that if his former stratagem answered his wishes this did still more so, he now getting seldom less than a guinea a day.

Having raised a considerable booty by these two stratagems he made the best of his way towards Straton in Devonshire where was soon to be held a general meeting of the gypsies.