THE STARS AND STRIPES.
[To THE EDITOR or THE " SPECTATOR...1
Sirt,—In reference to the letters of Mr. Marshall Sturge and " B." in the Spectator of July `?rid and 9th, permit me to point out that the remote little church of Wick hamford, near Evesham, contains a tombstone (on the north side of the altar) to Penelope Washington, on which are carved the Washington arms—stars and stripes—with a Latin inscription, of which the translation is as follows :-
" Sacred to the Memory of PENELOPE, daughter of that most distinguished and renowned soldier, Colonel Henry Washington. He was descended from Sir William Washington, Knight, of the County of Northampton, who was high in favour with those most illustrious Princes and best of Kings, Charles the First and Second, on account of his gallant and successful military achievements both in England and in Ireland : he married ELIZABETH, of the ancient and noble stock of the Peck,ngtons of Westwood, a family of untarnished loyalty and patriotism. Sprung from such famous ancestry, PENELOPE was a diligent and devout worshipper of GOD: of her mother (her only surviving parent), she was the great consolation : to the sick and needy she was an exceptionally ready and generous benefactress. Humble and chaste, and wedded to Christ alone, from this transitory life she departed to her Spouse, February 27, Anne Domini, 1697."
No one can see the tombstone without concluding that he has before him the origin of the American flag ; and the verger— or rather vergeress—told me when I was there in the autumn of 1895 that almost the only visitors to the church were Americans, and that most of them went down on their knees at the tombstone and took rubbings of the arms. To discover such a link between England and America in this sleepy hollow of the most rural and least changed English countryside, cannot but thrill even an Englishman. What must it be to an American with an historical imagination P—I am, Sir, &c.,
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