STRATFORD-ON-AVON
This far-famed country town on the banks of the Avon presents a general appearance of prosperity, the well-built houses, wide streets, and prevailing aspect of cleanliness giving this impression. Everything in the town, however, lapses into insignificance in face of the paramount interest attaching to the town as the birthplace of Shakespeare. Whether the 'Bard of Avon' was nothing more than an Elizabethan play-actor or the author of the plays now so widely attributed to the great scholar and statesman, Francis Bacon, is a question which now cools the spirit of devotion of many a pilgrim; but however keen a Baconian may be the visitor to Stratford, he cannot fail to appreciate the charm of the carefully-restored Elizabethan houses associated with Shakespeare.
Shakespeare's Birthplace is in Henley Street, a half-timbered, unpretentious house of two rooms and a kitchen on the ground-floor, with the room overhead in which he was born. The adjoining cottage has been converted into a museum, in which documents and relics bearing in a direct or remote manner with the poet—and some, it must be confessed, are very remote—are preserved. The birthplace was in possession of the members of the family for two centuries after the death of Shakespeare in 1616; in 1847 it was purchased by subscription for £3,000 and carefully restored. (Admission 1s.—6d. for the birthroom and 6d. for the museum.)
The Town Hall is in the High Street; on the front is a statue of Shakespeare, presented by Garrick.
New Place stood close by, but of the house occupied by the poet during the last nineteen years of his life there is nothing left but the site. In it lived Dr. Hall, who married Shakespeare's daughter Susannah. The house was pulled down in 1702 by Sir John Clopton, and the new building on its site, together with the famous mulberry-tree, were destroyed by the Rev. Francis Gastrell in 1759, 'because he was pestered by visitors'! In 1861 the site of New Place and its gardens were purchased by public subscription. A Shakespeare Library and Museum have been established there, open daily except Saturday and Sunday; admission 6d. On Saturday the Gardens are free.
STRATFORD-ON-AVON.
Holy Trinity Church contains the tomb of Shakespeare.
At the opposite corner, Chapel Lane, stands the Grammar School, founded in 1553, where the poet is reputed to have been educated. It is a delightful old timber-framed house standing near the Guild Chapel, a Perpendicular building which is conspicuous in the High Street.
The Shakespeare Memorial Theatre occupies a pleasant position on the banks of the Avon. The old theatre was demolished in 1872, and the present building erected at a cost of £30,000.