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8
1912
Mention has been made of a shrine at Muswell Hill. In those days there
were of course many shrines in England. There were local shrines in London
and there was one at Greenwich, that of "Our Lady of Crome's Hill, Greenwich."
At Bermondsey one of the " Holy Rood," of "Our Lady of Willesden"
or that of " Our Lady of Muswell." There was also that of " Our Lady that
standeth in the Oke," which place of pilgrimage, it is stated, was situated
somewhere between Highgate and lsledon. The shrines at these places were
much frequented by persons attracted thereto by religious or other reasons,
for unfortunately a religious spirit was not the only inducement to visit them.
A modern writer says that the three shrines north of London lay in the heart
of the great Middlesex Forest. Each of the miraculous images was probably
a " Lady of the Oak." There was " Our Lady of the Oak " all over Europe ;
the miraculous figure is always found in an oak, and is always, it is said, black.
The local shrines were near enough for a single day's journey, a pleasant
summer's ride through the gardens and orchards of lsledon where the forest
began, and so over the greensward and under the branches of the wood to the
clearing at the top of Muswell Hill, where now stands Alexandra Palace, and
there stood the chapel containing the black image, swathed with linen,
crowned, decked with gold and jewels, before which stood the altar and
burned the lamp day and night. It was here the pilgrims came daily, sick
people, and those jovial pilgrims who only wanted a plea for indulgence, and
who, when they knelt at the shrine and went round it on their knees and
prayed, came happily away. Unfortunately, in the neighbourhood of this
shrine there were also taverns and merry making places, and consequently it
is to be feared, in the words of Sir Walter Besant, that "the religious act
finished, there was pleasure and merriment, which only ceased when, having
passed through lsledon, they again found themselves in their homes."
One could desire to pursue more fully this most interesting study of old
Islington, which is only mentioned here as an inducement to Islingtonians to
take a deeper interest in the old parish in which they live, and also to study
the history, the topography and archaeology of the place, as well as the various
authors, poets and playwrights, who from time to time have mentioned it in
their writings. Perhaps, at another time, this latter aspect of the old parish
may be touched on, for it is full of interest.