STONELEIGH AND CHARLECOTE
In driving from Warwick to Stratford the traveler obtains a distant glimpse of Stoneleigh Abbey, one of the fine baronial homes of England, the residence of Lord Leigh, and at a certain stile, near Charlecote House, the carriage is halted, so that the spacious park of Charlecote can be crossed on foot by a passenger who may wish to see the place where, as legend has long affirmed, Shakespeare killed the deer of Sir Thomas Lucy, thereby incurring enmity and punishment. The story lacks proof. No deer were kept by Sir Thomas at Charlecote,—though now they are numerous there,—but they were kept by him at Fullbrook, a park that he owned, not very far from Charlecote, and it is not impossible that Shakespeare and his comrades, in the wildness of frolicsome youth, did poach upon his preserves. Tradition, in all old English country places, has, when tested, often been found entirely worthy of credence.