In comparing the Stratford of Shakespeare with its modern representative, as great a change may be observed in the complexion of its society as in the appearance of the town. Many of the leading men, in the olden time, held property in land, and had a considerably different social and political position from the citizens of a modern burgh. We must keep this in view in studying the characteristics of that society which educated the youth of the great dramatist, and in the bosom of which he spent his years of retirement.

The modern town is a clean and pleasant place, without much stir or traffic, and with little that would strike the eye of a stranger as remarkable, did he not know that this was the birth-place of William Shakespeare; that to it he returned, when he had done with the cares and toils of life, to live over again in remembrance the happy days of his youth, and to enjoy rest in retirement and amid the society of his friends.

CHAPTER II.

SHAKESPEARE'S BIRTH-PLACE.

Old house in Henley Street-Purchased by his father in 1575-The history of this property-The house a good one in the sixteenth centuryDescription of the interior-The butcher's shop, and the kitchenRoom in which the Poet was born-Plaster cast of bust-Associations.

To the pilgrim who travels to Stratford to visit the memorable spots associated with the "myriad-minded" man, the poet "for all time," the first object of attention is his birth-place. Tradition and concurrent evidence point to an old tenement on the north side of Henley Street, as the house in which he was born; and at least it must have been the home of his boyhood. It was not, certainly, till 1575, eleven years after his birth, that his father became proprietor of this and the adjoining house. The property is described as consisting of two messuages (dwelling-houses), two gardens, and two orchards, with their appurtenances; and was purchased of Edward and Emma Hall for £40. It is believed, however, that John Shakespeare had occupied one of the houses in lease previous to his purchase. He had also a copyhold tenement in the same street, purchased in 1556 from Edward West, but this has never been proved to have been his residence. The history of the two messuages may here be given in brief. In a deed of sale dated 1591, the tenement of John Shakespeare is named as bounding the property sold;

and in 1597 he sells a portion of his ground for £2. There is every reason to think this was his residence till his death. As John Shakespeare died intestate, the Henley Street property descended to his eldest son William, as heir-at-law. In his last will the poet devises to his sister Joan, married to a man named Hart, one of the houses in which she lived, as a residence for life, under a rent of 12 pence, and bequeaths the whole property to his daughter, Susanna Hall. It accordingly fell into the hands of her daughter, Mrs. Nash, afterwards Lady Barnard, who left both houses to her kinsmen, Thomas and George Hart, the grandsons of Joan Hart, Shakespeare's sister. At the date of her will, 1669, one of the houses was the Maidenhead Inn. This afterwards became the Swan Inn, and subsequently the Swan and Maidenhead. The house in which Mrs. Hart had lived was divided into two tenements, the lower portion of one of them being used as a butcher's shop. Although the property annexed became gradually alienated, the houses did not pass out of the Hart family till 1806, when they were bought by Mr. Thomas Court. They have now been purchased from his family by the Stratford and London Shakespeare Committees, on behoof of the nation, for £3000, and an additional portion of the original property has been acquired for £820.

The old oak-framed house in which the immortal poet was born, is a humble edifice, with nothing of interest about it save its air of antiquity. It was unquestionably, however, a highly respectable house in the sixteenth century; and in looking at it we must

divest our minds of the associations which would be connected with such a dwelling in our own day, and judge of it rather from the social status of the family which then occupied it. The basement floor now consists of a butcher's shop in front, with a kitchen behind. Entering by the doorway, we observe a dilapidated, cheerless apartment, with its broken stone pavement, its open window, a sill-board still spread out, and the hooks sticking in its walls. It was here one of the Harts had plied the trade of a butcher. The gloomy place back from this is the old kitchen. Doubtless the dreamy boy would often sit by its glowing hearth, and hear many a tale of the olden time. In his youthful days books had not become common, and few could read; in consequence of which, the people were thrown back on the unwritten literature of story and tradition. The bygone history of England was rich in events that would tell by a fireside, from the days of Robin Hood and his merry men in Sherwood Forest, down to the murder of the young princes in the Tower by the hired villains of Richard III. By this kitchen hearth, the sitting-place of some portion of the household at least, now cold and deserted, Shakespeare, as a boy, had often listened to these old tales, as they plied the busy task in the long winter evenings; and many an old ballad had he heard sung or recited about Douglas and Percy, and other heroes, as he sat on the chair in one of those ample chimney corners, and gazed into the gleaming embers, or looked up the wide chimney for some passing star. In the window of this apartment there existed at one time a pane of stained glass, having

on it the arms of the Merchants of the Woolstaple. This was supposed to favour the idea that John Shakespeare was a wool merchant; but probably the pane had been transferred from one of the chapel windows by one of the Harts, while engaged in repairing them. There was, moreover, on the wall a representation in relief of the combat between David and Goliath, with the inscription,

"Goliath comes with sword and speare,

And David with a sling;

Although Goliath rage and sweare,

Down David doth him bring.

SAMUEL, XVII., A.D. 1606.

Ascending by a dark and narrow staircase, we enter the chamber where the immortal bard was born. It is a rather low room. The old ceiling is covered with lath and plaster, but the antique oaken floor still remains, though much worn at the seams. The whole surface of the walls, and even the ceiling, is covered with the names of visitors, among which may be seen the autographs of Scott and Byron. These inscriptions made a narrow escape from destruction on the occasion of a quarrel, having been brushed over with whitewash; but as the important article of size had been omitted in its preparation, this coating was carefully washed off, and the names were restored. Washington Irving speaking of them says: "The walls of its squalid chamber are covered with names and inscriptions in every language, by pilgrims of all nations, ranks, and conditions, from the prince to the peasant; and present a simple but striking instance of the spontaneous and universal