Summer Days in Shakespeare Land

by Charles G. Harper

CONTENTS

	PAGE
Chapter I	[1]
The Beginnings ofStratford-on-Avon.
Chapter II	[6]
The Shakespeares—JohnShakespeare, Glover, Woolmerchant—Birth of WilliamShakespeare—Rise and Decline of JohnShakespeare—Early Marriage of William.
Chapter III	[12]
Anne Hathaway,Shakespeare’s bride—The hastymarriage—Shakespeare’s wild young days—Heleaves for London—Grendon Underwood.
Chapter IV	[22]
Continued decline in theaffairs of John Shakespeare—William Shakespeare’ssuccess in London—Death of Hamnet, WilliamShakespeare’s only son—Shakespeare buys NewPlace—He retires to Stratford—Writes his last play,The Tempest—His death.
Chapter V	[34]
Stratford-on-Avon—Ithas its own life, quite apart from Shakespeareanassociations—Its people and its streets—ShakespeareMemorials.
Chapter VI	[49]
Shakespeare’sBirthplace—Restoration, of sorts—The business of theShowman—The Birthplace Museum—The ShakespeareanGarden.
Chapter VII	[60]
Church Street—The“Castle” Inn—The Guild Chapel, Guild Hall andGrammar School—New Place.
Chapter VIII	[75]
The Church of the HolyTrinity, Stratford-on-Avon.
Chapter IX	[85]
The Church of the HolyTrinity, Stratford-on-Avon (continued)—TheShakespeare grave and monument.
Chapter X	[92]
The Church of the HolyTrinity, Stratford-on-Avon (concluded)—TheShakespeare grave and monument—The Miserere Seats.
Chapter XI	[101]
Shottery and AnneHathaway’s Cottage.
Chapter XII	[114]
Charlecote.
Chapter XIII	[127]
Shakespeare thecountryman.
Chapter XIV	[136]
The ‘EightVillages’—‘Piping’ Pebworth and‘Dancing’ Marston.
Chapter XV	[147]
The ‘EightVillages’ (concluded).
Chapter XVI	[164]
The ‘Swan’sNest’—Haunted?—CliffordChambers—Wincot—Quinton, and its club day.
Chapter XVII	[174]
Chipping Campden.
Chapter XVIII	[186]
A DesertedRailway—Villages of the Stour Valley—Ettington andSquireShirley—Shipston-on-Stour—Brailes—ComptonWynyates.
Chapter XIX	[195]
Luddington—Welford—Weston-on-Avon—CleevePriors—Salford Priors.
Chapter XX	[201]
Evesham.
Chapter XXI	[211]
Broadway—Winchcombe—ShakespeareanAssociations—Bishop’s Cleeve.
Chapter XXII	[219]
Tewkesbury.
Chapter XXIII	[230]
CloptonHouse—Billesley—The Home of Shakespeare’sMother, Wilmcote—Aston Cantlow—WoottonWawen—Shakespeare Hall, Rowington.
Chapter XXIV	[238]
Welcombe—Snitterfield—Warwick—Leicester’sHospital—St. Mary’s Church and the BeauchampChapel.
Chapter XXV	[254]
Warwick Castle.
Chapter XXVI	[266]
Guy’s Cliff—TheLegend of Guy—Kenilworth and itsWatersplash—Kenilworth Castle.
Chapter XXVII	[283]
Coventry.
Index	[291]

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

	PAGE
The Guild Chapel and Nash’s House	Frontispiece
“Shakespeare’s Farm,” formerly the “Ship” Inn, Grendon Underwood	[19]
Chapel Street, Stratford-on-Avon	[37]
The Harvard House To face	[42]
The Harvard House: Panel Room	[44]
Holy Trinity Church, Stratford-on-Avon	[46]
The Memorial Theatre To face	[48]
Shakespeare’s Birthplace	[50]
The Kitchen, Shakespeare’s Birthplace	[54]
The Room in which Shakespeare was born	[56]
Shakespeare’s Signet-ring	[58]
The “Windmill” Inn	[61]
The Guild Chapel, Guild Hall, Grammar School and Almshouses	[65]
The Schoolmaster’s House and Guild Chapel	[69]
The Head Master’s Desk, Stratford-on-Avon Grammar School To face	[70]
Ancient Knocker, Stratford-on-Avon Church	[80]
Shakespeare’s Monument To face	[86]
Inscription on Shakespeare’s Grave	[89]
The Chancel, Holy Trinity Church, with Shakespeare’s Monument To face	[92]
A Stratford Miserere: The Legend of the Unicorn	[100]
Shottery	[103]
Anne Hathaway’s Cottage	[106]
The Living-room, Anne Hathaway’s Cottage	[109]
Anne Hathaway’s Bedroom	[112]
Lucy Shield of Arms	[120]
The “Tumbledown Stile,” Charlecote To face	[120]
The Gatehouse, Charlecote	[123]
Charlecote	[125]
“Piping Pebworth”	[140]
“Dancing Marston”	[142]
Dining-Room, formerly the Kitchen, King’s Lodge	[145]
“Drunken Bidford”	[149]
The “Falcon,” Bidford	[150]
“Haunted Hillborough” (1)	[151]
“Haunted Hillborough” (2)	[153]
“Hungry Grafton”	[154]
The Hollow Road, Exhall	[156]
“Papist Wixford”	[157]
Brass to Thomas de Cruwe and wife, Wixford	[159]
“Beggarly Broom”	[162]
Clopton Bridge, and the “Swan’s Nest”	[166]
Clifford Chambers	[168]
Old Houses, Chipping Campden To face	[174]
The Market House, Chipping Campden ,,	[174]
Grevel’s House	[177]
Interior of the Market House, Chipping Campden To face	[178]
Chipping Campden Church	[182]
Brass to William Grevel and wife, Chipping Campden	[184]
Compton Wynyates	[192]
Boat Lane, Welford	[198]
Bell Tower, Evesham	[204]
The Almonry, Evesham	[206]
Abbey Gateway, Evesham	[209]
High Street, Tewkesbury	[223]
The “Bear” Inn and Bridge, Tewkesbury	[227]
The Arden House, Home of Shakespeare’s mother, Wilmcote	[233]
Wootton Wawen Church To face	[234]
Shakespeare Hall, Rowington	[236]
Leicester’s Hospital, Warwick	[239]
Leicester’s Hospital: the Courtyard To face	[240]
Leicester’s Hospital: one of the Brethren ,,	[244]
The Beauchamp Chapel, Warwick	[246]
The Crypt of St. Mary’s, Warwick	[248]
Cæsar’s Tower, Warwick Castle	[263]
Kenilworth Castle: Ruins of the Banquetting Hall	[278]
Stained Glass Window Inscription	[289]

CHAPTER I

The Beginnings of Stratford-on-Avon.

Ninety-five miles from the City of London, in the southern part of Warwickshire, and on the left, or northern bank of the Avon, stands a famous town. Not a town famed in ancient history, nor remarkable in warlike story, nor great in affairs of commerce. It was never a strong place, with menacing castle or defensive town walls with gates closed at night. It stood upon a branch road, in a thinly-peopled forest-district, and in every age the wars and tumults and great social and political movements which constitute what is called “history” have passed it by.

Such is, and has been from the beginning, the town of Stratford-on-Avon, whose very name, although now charged with a special significance as the birthplace of Shakespeare, takes little hold upon the imagination when we omit the distinguishing “on Avon.” For there are other Stratfords to be found upon the map of England, as necessarily there must be when we consider the origin of the name, which means merely the ford where the “street”—generally a paved Roman road—crossed a river. And as fords of this kind must have been very numerous along the ancient roads of this country before bridges were built, we can only be astonished that there are not more Stratfords than the five or six that are found in the gazetteers.

The Roman road that came this way was a vicinal route from the Watling Street where Birmingham now stands, through Henley-in-Arden and Alcester, the Roman station of Alauna. Passing over the ford of the Avon, it went to London by way of Ettington, Sunrising Hill, and Banbury. Other Roman roads, the Fosse Way and Ryknield Street, remodelled on the lines of ancient British track-ways, passed east and west of Stratford at an equal distance of six miles.

All the surrounding district north of the Avon was woodland, the great Forest of Arden; and to the south of the river stretched a more low-lying country as far as the foot of the Cotswold Hills, much less thickly wooded. In the reign of Queen Elizabeth, when the Forest of Arden was greatly diminished, these districts owned two distinctive names: the forest being called “the Wooland,” and the southward pasture-lands “the Feldon.”