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| The Meadows &
Monuments at Runnymede England |
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Magna Carta Island
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The
National Trust states that Magna Carta Island was created artificially
by the Harcourt family in 1834. John Fisher Murray in his book "A
Picturesque Tour of the River Thames In Its Western Course" says "In
the parish of Wyrardsbury is Charter Island, whereon has been erected
by Mr. Harcourt an exceedingly romantic little cottage, where is
preserved the stone whereon, as tradition will have it, were signed the
Magna Charta and the Charta de Foresta".
The Gothic Cottage built by the Harcourts houses a large rough stone with an inscription stating King John signed Magna Carta on that island, and on the stone itself. The National Trust believes the cottage was built at the same time the Harcourts dug a channel to create the island to commemorate the sealing of Magna Carta. Victorian day-trippers created a myth that the Charter was sealed on the island. |
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