Summer Days in Shakespeare Land

This ebook was transcribed by Les Bowler.
SOME DELIGHTS OF THE ANCIENT TOWN OF STRATFORD-UPON-AVON AND THE COUNTRY ROUND ABOUT; TOGETHER WITH A SKETCH OF THE LIFE OF MR. WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
IN WHICH MANY THINGS BOTH NEW AND ENTER- TAINING ARE TO BE FOUND, PRETTILY SET FORTH FOR THE PLEASURE OF THE GENTLE READER; AND WHEREIN CERTAIN FANATICS ARE HANDSOMELY CONFUTED.
WRITTEN BY CHARLES G. HARPER, AND FOR THE MOST PART ALSO ILLUSTRATED BY HIM WITH A PEN OTHER ILLUSTRATIONS ARE FROM PHOTOGRAPHS
New York JAMES POTT & COMPANY London: CHAPMAN & HALL, Ltd.
1913
Richard Clay & Sons, Limited, BRUNSWICK STREET, STAMFORD STREET, S.E., AND BUNGAY, SUFFOLK.
By “Shakespeare Land,” as used in these pages, Stratford-on-Avon and the country within a radius of from twelve to twenty miles are meant; comprising parts of Warwickshire and Gloucestershire, and some portions of Worcestershire which are mentioned by Shakespeare, or must have been familiar to him. So many thousands annually visit Stratford-on-Avon that the town, and in some lesser degree the surrounding country, are thought to be hackneyed and spoilt for the more intellectual and leisured visitor; but that is very far from being the case. Apart from such acknowledged centres of Shakespearean interest as the Birthplace at Stratford-on-Avon, the parish church, and Anne Hathaway’s Cottage at Shottery; and excepting such great show-places as Kenilworth and Warwick castles, Shakespeare Land is by no means overrun, and is in every way charming and satisfying. Stratford town itself, the very centre of interest, is unspoiled; and the enterprise of the majority of Shakespearean pilgrims is of such a poor quality, and their intellectual requirements as a rule so soon satisfied, that the real beauties of the Warwickshire villages and the towns and villages of the Cotswolds are to them a sealed hook. Except these byways be explored, such an essential side of Shakespeare as that I have touched upon in the chapter “Shakespeare the Countryman” will be little understood.