CHAPTER V. NEW PLACE. Shakespeare's residence-New Place built by Sir Hugh Clopton-"The great house "Shakespeare's desire to found a family-Curious notice regarding a Reformed preacher-Property bequeathed to Mrs. Hall and her heirs male-Queen Henrietta Maria-House ultimately sold to Rev. Francis Gastrell - Barbarous destruction of the mulberry-tree and house The wood of the mulberry, how disposed of. THIS "fair house," with its gardens, its lawns, its beautiful shrubberies and pleasant walks, was the home of Shakespeare, to which he retired in 1610 to spend the remainder of his life in ease and rest amid the happy scenes of his youth and the friends he loved so well. Unfortunately nothing of New Place remains but the site, and even it is cut up and built upon. The house was originally built by Sir Hugh Clopton, the munificent benefactor of Stratford, in the reign of Henry VII.; and here, after having been Lord Mayor of London, he spent his last days. In his will it is termed "the great house," and was no doubt then one of the best houses in the place. From the Cloptons it passed into the hands of William Underhill, Esq., from whom it was purchased by Shakespeare in 1597, It is not known when it was first termed New Place, although it certainly went by that name before Shakespeare bought it. This appears from a survey made in 1590, quoted by Mr. Halliwell, in which William Underhill, Gent., is said to occupy a certain house called the New Place. The property sold to the dramatist is described as consisting of one messuage (dwelling-house), two barns, and two gardens, with their appurtenances. Shakespeare's purchase took place only about ten years after he left Stratford with hardly a groat in his purse, and probably too having just been bearded by that formal and pompous dignitary, Squire Lucy. We make no doubt Shakespeare felt the indignity keenly, the more because he was the eldest son of his family; and he too had gentle blood in his veins, through his mother, Mary Arden, a daughter of an old house,-the Ardens of Wellingcote. It is not necessary to suppose, however, that he had any of these unpleasant recollections before his mind in purchasing a mansion and lands in Stratford. He clearly had an ambition to found a family,—a much deeper and more permanent motive, which also explains better why he procured a coat-of-arms through his father in 1599. We have few facts about New Place as connected with Shakespeare, but with it we associate his period of retirement, for notices of which we refer to his Life.* We mention here only a single incident. The following extract from the Chamberlain's accounts for 1614 refers to New Place in an interesting connection: "Item, for on quart of sack and on quart of clarrett winne, given to a preacher at the Newe Place,........ ........................................................ xxd." This took place two years before the poet's death. We infer from it that the Reformed preacher was entertained * Page 54, &c. at New Place, and that in all probability he was the guest of good Mrs. Hall, who may have been living with her father. It is not likely that a guest of the dramatist, who had a cellar of his own, would be receiving compliments of wine. The religious tendencies of the time are not obscurely indicated by this trifling item in the Chamberlain's accounts. Shakespeare, dying here in 1616, left the house and grounds to his eldest daughter, Susanna, Mrs. Hall, with remainder to her heirs male, or, failing them, to those of her daughter Elizabeth; in default of whom, to the heirs male of Shakespeare's second daughter, Judith. Dr. Hall died here in 1635, and in 1643 it is probable Mrs. Hall occupied the house, when Queen Henrietta Maria, wife of Charles I., came to Stratford, during the civil war, with a large army, and took up her residence in New Place for three weeks. After the death of Mrs. Hall, which took place in 1649, the property passed into the hands of her daughter Elizabeth, first Mrs. Nash, and afterwards Lady Barnard; and as the latter died without family, the house was sold in 1675, and ultimately came once more into the possession of the Clopton family. The sequel of its history remains to be told. In the middle of last century it was sold to the Rev. Francis Gastrell, vicar of Frodsham, in Cheshire,—a wealthy man, and one of those narrowminded, ignorant, and conceited mortals, who could not comprehend why people made such an ado about Shakespeare. He began by cutting down the poet's mulberry-tree, and sold it for fire-wood, in consequence of being bothered by visitors. The wood was purchased by Mr. Thomas Sharp, clock and watchmaker, of Stratford, who made an almost incredible number of curious toys and useful articles out of it, and afterwards gave the assurance of their genuineness by making a solemn affidavit that he used no other wood but that of the mulberry for the purpose. Cowper alludes to the prominence given to the mulberry during the jubilee, in the well-known lines: "The mulberry-tree was hymned with dulcet airs; Still sacred, and preserves with pious care." To which we may join the chorus sung by Garrick :- "All shall yield to the mulberry-tree, Bend to thee, Blest mulberry. Matchless was he Who planted thee; And thou like him immortal be." The house itself shared the same fate as the mulberry-tree. As it was assessed for poor's-rates, and, Mr. Gastrell thought, too highly, since, forsooth, he lived part of the year at Lichfield, though his servants occupied the house in his absence, in 1759 he pulled down the building in spite, and sold the materials. Shakespeare's garden, too, has unfortunately been broken up and built on. CHAPTER VI. THE TOWN HALL-THE JUBILEE. Original Town Hall built in 1633-The present structure in 1768-Shakespeare's monument-The Hall-Portraits of Shakespeare and Garrick -Of Queen Anne and the Duke of Dorset-Occasion of the Jubilee -Annual birth-day festival. THE Guild Hall was the place of meeting for the Corporation in Shakespeare's time. In 1633 the first Town Hall was erected, which lasted for more than a century. The present structure, in High Street, was built on the site of the former, in 1768. It is a rather handsome building of stone, and contains several paintings which are worthy of attention. The town arms appear on the west front; and at the north end, in a niche, there is a statue of Shakespeare, which was presented to the Corporation by Garrick, the famous actor. The poet is figured in an attitude similar to that in his monument in Westminster Abbey, resting on some volumes placed on a pedestal, on which appear the busts of Henry V., Richard III., and Queen Elizabeth. He points to a scroll, on which are inscribed those grand lines from "Midsummer Night's Dream," Act v., Scene 1: "The poet's eye, in a fine frenzy rolling, Doth glance from heaven to earth, from earth to heaven"; And, as imagination bodies forth The forms of things unknown, the poet's pen Turns them to shapes, and gives to airy nothing A local habitation and a name." |