<p><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:WordDocument> <w:View>Normal</w:View> <w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:PunctuationKerning /> <w:ValidateAgainstSchemas /> <w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:Compatibility> <w:BreakWrappedTables /> <w:SnapToGridInCell /> <w:WrapTextWithPunct /> <w:UseAsianBreakRules /> <w:DontGrowAutofit /> </w:Compatibility> <w:BrowserLevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</w:BrowserLevel> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" LatentStyleCount="156"> </w:LatentStyles> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if !mso]> <span class="mceItemObject" classid="clsid:38481807-CA0E-42D2-BF39-B33AF135CC4D" id=ieooui> </span> <style> st1\:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) } </style> <![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 10]> <style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language:#0400; mso-fareast-language:#0400; mso-bidi-language:#0400;} </style> <![endif]--></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;" align="center"><span style="font-size: 18pt;">A Plum Job</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;" align="center"><span>&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span>Visitors to the Glastonbury Festival probably don&rsquo;t give a thought to the fate of Richard Whiting. As an old man convicted of treason he was hung, drawn and quartered on Glastonbury Tor.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span>&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span>When Henry VIII and Thomas Cromwell set about the dissolution of the monasteries in England the Benedictine Monastery Glastonbury Abbey was the wealthiest Abbey in England.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span>&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span>Supposedly Bishop Richard Whiting tried to bribe the King. His steward was entrusted with a gift of twelve title deeds to English manorial estates. To protect the deeds from thieves they were hidden in a pie. However the steward stole the deeds to the manor of Mells, the &lsquo;plum&rsquo; of the twelve manors.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span>&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span>The jury that found Bishop Whiting guilty included the treacherous steward. Following the destruction of the Abbey the steward moved into the Manor of Mells.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span>&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span>The steward&rsquo;s name was Horner; the family lived at Mells until the 20^th century.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span>&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span>The lyrics to a nursery rhyme were first published in 1725:</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span>&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 27pt; text-align: justify;"><span>Little Jack Horner sat in the corner</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 27pt; text-align: justify;"><span><span>&nbsp;&nbsp; </span>Eating his Christmas pie,</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 27pt; text-align: justify;"><span>He put in his thumb and pulled out a plum</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 27pt; text-align: justify;"><span><span>&nbsp;&nbsp; </span>And said &ldquo;What a good boy am I!&rdquo;</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 27pt; text-align: justify;"><span>&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span>That&rsquo;s an accolade I have earned today when I presented my wife with a bag of plums picked from a tree with the permission of the owner of the garden.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span>&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span>Now my wife has the plum job of baking the pie.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">&nbsp;</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><em>Message to Jeannette and Bloodaxe</em>; the above was copied and pasted direct from MS Word just to see if I had the same problem in posting. I use Firefox, Jeannette.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">Edituing using the edit button works for me as this line shows.</p>