THE COUNTRY ROUND ABOUT
Indeed, there is scarce an end to the variety of pleasant walks feasible in the Shakespeare Country, and I have found it specially suggestive of agreeable thoughts and feelings to stroll in many directions and for many miles around Stratford, and to fancy the presence of Shakespeare himself rambling, as probably his custom was, over all the countryside. How else could he have gained the minute knowledge that is manifested in his plays of Warwickshire names, localities, characters, customs, and the many peculiarities of foliage and flower that distinguish the Warwickshire clime? The “palm” that Orlando finds in the Forest of Arden in “As You Like It” is not an oriental palm, but a tree so named that grows now and has always grown on the banks of the Avon. “Christopher Sly, of Burton Heath” and “Marian Hacket, the fat ale-wife of Wincot” are types of Warwickshire peasantry, which no doubt Shakespeare saw. Barton Heath and Wincot are places not distant from his home.
To trace the course of Shakespeare from his birth to his death, is to gain knowledge and wisdom. It is wisely written by the poet Tennyson that “Things seen are mightier than things heard.”