England's greatest poet was born in the heart of the land, in "leafy
Warwickshire." His early home, Stratford-on-Avon, lies beside a
pleasant stream, flowing gently through a pleasant country.
Warwickshire has no scenes of wild and striking grandeur to offer to
the traveller; it can boast of no craggy rocks or rushing torrents, but
it is full of quiet loveliness. It is a county of rich meadow-land,
watered by slow-flowing streams and brooks, broken and diversified by
most picturesque woodland scenery, and its highways and byways wend by
splendid parks, and past castles and mansions rich in tradition, quaint
and beautiful in architecture.
Stratford-on-Avon stands to-day, as it stood of old, in "a sweet and
pleasant place of good pasturage and watering." Beside it flows the
clear Avon, and around it spread lovely meadows and fertile corn-lands,
while many a leafy byway or field-path leads to the quaint old-world
villages which lie in the neighbourhood, and with which Shakespeare was
familiar.
In the town itself, the chief centre of interest is the house in which
he was born. It stands in Henley Street--a quaint, half-timbered,
two-storied building, with dormer windows and a wooden porch. The
house has been much altered since Shakespeare's day, for it was used
for more than 200 years as a dwelling-house, and finally came down to
being a butcher's shop. At last, towards the middle of the nineteenth
century, the house was purchased by the nation, and restored as nearly
as possible to the appearance it must have presented when Shakespeare's
home.
After the birthplace comes the burial-place, and this is in the chancel
of Holy Trinity Church, whose tall spire rises so beautifully beside
the placid Avon. The church stands on a terrace beside the river,
almost embosomed in trees, and approached by a pleasant avenue of
limes. Everyone visits it to see the monument and grave of
Shakespeare. A bust of the great poet is placed on the north wall of
the chancel, and his grave lies below, and within the altar-rails.
Here we may read the well-known lines:
"GOOD FREND FOR JESUS SAKE FORBEARE
TO DIGG THE DUST ENCLOASED HEARE
BLESTE BE Y^E MAN Y^T SPARES THES STONES;
AND CURST BE HE Y^E MOVES^S MY BONES.
Why did Shakespeare write these lines? Because in those days graves
were very often disturbed, and he wished his remains to lie at peace in
the grave which, very likely, he had chosen for himself.
A most interesting place is the Guild Hall, a fine old half-timbered
building erected in 1296, and used for hundreds of years as a Town
Hall. With this building Shakespeare was very familiar, and it is
probable that here he became acquainted with plays and players, for
performances were given in it during Shakespeare's boyhood by
travelling companies.
Above the Guild Hall is the famous Grammar School, where Shakespeare
learned the "small Latin and less Greek" of which Ben Jonson spoke.
The desk which he is said to have used now stands in the Museum formed
at the birthplace.
When Shakespeare returned from London to spend his last years in his
native town, he bought a fine house called New Place, and in the garden
he planted a mulberry-tree. Nearly 150 years after the death of
Shakespeare the property came into the hands of a clergyman named
Gastrell, a man of violent and selfish temper. First he became angry
because visitors to the town often asked permission to view the famous
mulberry-tree which the great poet had planted, and he cut the tree
down. But much worse was to follow.
After a time a quarrel arose between Gastrell and the authorities of
Stratford over the payment of rates for New Place. In his anger, the
furious clergyman actually pulled down to the ground Shakespeare's own
home and sold the materials. Now nothing remains but the site and a
few traces of the foundations.
When the visitor has seen the memorials of Shakespeare, he will take a
pleasant walk of about a mile from Stratford to Shottery, to see Anne
Hathaway's cottage there. It is a picturesque, half-timbered, thatched
cottage, in which it is supposed that Shakespeare's wife spent her
maiden days, but the theory is by no means certain. It is known that
in Shakespeare's time the cottage was tenanted by one Richard Hathaway,
who had a daughter Anne or Agnes, and there is some evidence to connect
this Anne with the Anne Hathaway whom the poet married, but of distinct
proof there is none. Still, tradition is in favour of the belief, and
the cottage has now been acquired by the trustees of Shakespeare's
birthplace.
Many days may easily and pleasantly be spent in excursions around
Stratford, visiting one after another of the pretty villages which the
poet knew, and the places with which his name is connected. The best
time of all is in spring or early summer, when
"Daisies pied, and violets blue,
And lady-smocks all silver-white,
And cuckoo-buds of yellow hue,
Do paint the meadows with delight."
Then the way is shaded by the tender foliage of the noble elms, which
flourish so mightily in this deep, strong soil that the elm is
sometimes called the "Warwickshire weed."
About four miles from Stratford stands a fine old Elizabethan
manor-house, Charlecote, in whose deer-park tradition says that
Shakespeare went poaching. Many old accounts of the poet's life state
that he left Stratford and went to London in fear of Sir Thomas Lucy of
Charlecote, whose deer he had stolen from the park. It is not at all
certain that this happened, but that Shakespeare did not like Sir
Thomas Lucy is very plain from his works. In "The Merry Wives of
Windsor" there is a "Mr. Justice Shallow," of whom the poet makes great
fun, and draws in a very ridiculous light. It is clear from many
little touches that Shakespeare had Sir Thomas Lucy in his mind when he
drew this portrait of a pompous country squire.
The mansion of Charlecote is of great interest in itself as a perfect
specimen of an Elizabethan manor-house. Save for a couple of rooms
added to the structure, it stands exactly as Sir Thomas Lucy built it
in 1558. It was built originally with a front and two projecting
wings, and it was visited by Queen Elizabeth in 1572. In honour of
this visit Sir Thomas added a porch and adorned it with the Queen's
arms and monogram. By this addition the plan of the house was made to
exactly resemble a capital E, and thus commemorate the royal visit.
Charlecote is approached from the road through an ancient gatehouse, a
most beautiful and picturesque building which opens upon a courtyard or
walled flower-garden, and the whole place is in most perfect order and
preservation. It is an Elizabethan home lasting unchanged until the
twentieth century.