dressed to Shakespeare known to exist;"* look at the initial gold seal ring said to be Shakespeare's, and which Mr. Halliwell has little doubt about ;-at Gilbert Shakespeare's autograph attached to a deed of 1609;—at the autographs of William and Johnnie Combe; at the tall glass jug, said to have been Shakespeare's, out of which Garrick sipped wine at the Jubilee in 1769. Let him look at the ribbons and medals struck for that Jubilee; at Garrick's letters to Town Clerk Hunt; at the mulberry tree wood; at the "extremely rare" 12mo edition of Hamlet, dated 1723, and at the magnificent modern folio edition of Shakespeare by J. O. Halliwell. These are but a few of the things to be seen on this hallowed ground. Days, weeks, months, could be spent there; material for thought, culture, learned leisure, lies on all sides, encased in a shrine which I trust may be found standing while taste, thought, and time continue. * Catalogue of the Shakespeare Museum, privately printed for the Shakespeare fund, p. 33. Halliwell's Life of Shakespeare, pp. 178, 179. ANNE HATHAWAY'S COTTAGE. "The hinds how blest, who ne'er beguiled Warton. NCE upon a time there lived one Richard O Hathaway, a yeoman of good account, at the hamlet of Shottery, about a mile from Stratford. But it was before 1582, for in that year he died, and left behind him a family, including Anne Hathaway, who became in the end of that same 1582, "Anne Shakespeare, wyfe unto William Shakespeare." The cottage where she was born and lived is one of the links of Shakespeare's life, and, therefore, famous. Permit me to give a sketch of what it is like. There is no lovelier walk in Warwickshire than from Stratford to Shottery. Striking off the high road near the Railway Station, the visitor finds himself pursuing a rustic path through fields where the sounds are confined to the ploughboy's whistle, the song of birds, or the bleating of sheep. Wild flowers in every variety grow thick by the pathway, and children start out from beneath hawthorn hedges and offer you nosegays for nothing if you will, but for something if you please. The children are clean and well-bred, a salute or a curtsey being the introduction in every case; they ask nothing for their wayside flower, but the smile with which they give it commands sixpence at the least. Always secure a child's smile when you can, because you can trust IT; but beware of the smiles of Belgravia; of the people who drive in carriages, and dine with, and visit each other, and criticise each other behind backs. A child's smile means what it shows, and is the expression of a happy heart. Belgravia, with few exceptions, is a simulacrum,-its smile is that of a hollow heart. The wood of Warwickshire is a sight of itself. Oaks, elms, "hash," pine, poplar, centuries old, are so common that, unless of extra size, they are not marked as anything extraordinary. In the walk to Shottery, the poplars are abundant, and the elm and oak come in here and there and preach a sermon to the passer-by; the lark leads the psalmody of praise to Him who creates and sustains all things. This is no fancy picture. I saw it in early spring, and again in all the glory of a June day, and I confess I cannot do the landscape half the justice it deserves; every stile I got over brought me to something new,-something to awaken thought, to publish purity and peace, to instil quiet into the soul. There is no more secluded and primitive hamlet than Shottery. Most of the houses are thatched; pretty gardens are numerous, with beehives behind. Plenty of little folks point out the cottage which stands in a lane by itself. It is a long timber-framed thatched building, with flat latticed windows set in deep gables. Creeping plants run over its front; and many of the flowers mentioned in Shakespeare are growing in wild luxuriance in the garden before the door, as well as in the apple orchard behind. The house is divided into three; but, in the days of the Hathaways, it was all one tenement. The centre door, which is reached by a few rough stone steps, leads to the chief rooms which must have been occupied by Anne and her parents. When you lift the latch, which is curious and cumbrous, you are in a passage which leads to the room used as the kitchen, the roof of which is low, the beams overhead immense, the floor flagged. By the fireside stands a high-backed chair or settle, which is called, by way of courtesy (for it never saw Anne and William) Shakespeare's Courting Chair. It is old, and is worth looking at because it stands in the place it does, but to say that it saw Shakespeare's days is romance. The fireplace is both wide and deep, and the light streams down the chimney in an uninterrupted current, for the sky can be seen when you stand on the hearth. |