Saying this, Gertrude led to the street, and the party drove to Shottery, a pretty village a mile away, where is Ann Hathaway's thatched cottage. "Here the beardless William often came," said Gertrude, "and told his love to the English maiden. Ann Hathaway was older than William, she was twenty-six, but they were married, and had three children.
"When Shakespeare was twenty-five he was part owner of the Blackfriar's Theatre in London. There he spent his literary life, and there he was actor, dramatist, and manager. He became rich and returned occasionally to Stratford where he bought lands and built houses.
"If we can trust statues and paintings and writers, William Shakespeare had a kingly physique, light hazel eyes and auburn hair."
"What about his death?" inquired Colonel Harris.
"Of his death," said Gertrude, "we know little, save that the Vicar of Stratford wrote that Shakespeare, Drayton, and Ben Johnson had a merry meeting, possibly drank too much, and that Shakespeare died of a fever then contracted, on the anniversary of his birth, when he was fifty-two years old."
"And where was he buried?" inquired Lucille.
"In the Stratford church," answered Gertrude, and the carriages were driven up an avenue of arching lime trees. The old church, with its tall and graceful spire, reflected in the waters of the Avon, is a restful place for the body that contains the mightiest voice in literature. Near by also lie buried his wife and their children. A plain slab in the floor covers his remains.
Recently a new grave was dug near Shakespeare's and the intervening wall fell in. A workman ventured to hold a lighted taper in death's chamber, which revealed that the ashes of the immortal Shakespeare could be held in the palm of the hand. The Harris party drove back to Leamington to spend the night.