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SUMMER DAYS IN SHAKESPEARE LAND
SUMMER DAYS IN SHAKESPEARE LAND
SOME DELIGHTS OF THE ANCIENT TOWN OF STRATFORD-UPON-AVON AND THE COUNTRY ROUND ABOUT; TOGETHER WITH A SKETCH OF THE LIFE OF MR. WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE IN WHICH MANY THINGS BOTH NEW AND ENTER- TAINING ARE TO BE FOUND, PRETTILY SET FORTH FOR THE PLEASURE OF THE GENTLE READER; AND WHEREIN CERTAIN FANATICS ARE HANDSOMELY CONFUTED. WRITTEN BY CHARLES G. HARPER , AND FOR THE MOST PART ALSO ILLUSTRATED BY HIM WITH A PEN OTHER ILLUSTRATIONS ARE FROM PHOTOGRAPHS Logo New York JAMES POTT & COMPANY Lo
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PREFACE
PREFACE
By “Shakespeare Land,” as used in these pages, Stratford-on-Avon and the country within a radius of from twelve to twenty miles are meant; comprising parts of Warwickshire and Gloucestershire, and some portions of Worcestershire which are mentioned by Shakespeare, or must have been familiar to him. So many thousands annually visit Stratford-on-Avon that the town, and in some lesser degree the surrounding country, are thought to be hackneyed and spoilt for the more intellectual and leisured visi
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CHAPTER I
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
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CHAPTER II
CHAPTER II
The Shakespeares—John Shakespeare, Glover, Wool-merchant—Birth of William Shakespeare—Rise and Decline of John Shakespeare—Early Marriage of William. A MODERN man who now chanced to own the name of “Shakespeare” would feel proud, even of that fortuitous and remote association with the greatest figure in English literature. He might even try to live up to it, although the probabilities are that he would quite early forgo the attempt and become a backslider to commonplace. But available records
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CHAPTER III
CHAPTER III
Anne Hathaway, Shakespeare’s bride—The hasty marriage—Shakespeare’s wild young days—He leaves for London—Grendon Underwood. William Shakespeare was but eighteen and a half years of age when he married. Legally, he was an “infant.” His wife was by almost eight years his senior, but if we agree with Bacon’s saying, that a man finds himself ten years older the day after his marriage, the disparity became at once more than rectified. She was one Anne, or Agnes, Hathaway; her father, Richard, bein
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CHAPTER IV
CHAPTER IV
Continued decline in the affairs of John Shakespeare—William Shakespeare’s success in London—Death of Hamnet, William Shakespeare’s only son—Shakespeare buys New Place—He retires to Stratford—Writes his last play, The Tempest —His death. That Shakespeare left his wife and family at home at Stratford-on-Avon every one takes for granted. He “deserted his family,” says a rabid Baconian, who elsewhere complains of the lack of evidence to support believers in the dramatist; forgetting that there is
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CHAPTER V
CHAPTER V
Stratford-on-Avon—It has its own life, quite apart from Shakespearean associations—Its people and its streets—Shakespeare Memorials. Stratford-on-Avon would be an extremely interesting town, both historically and scenically, even without its Shakespearean interest. It does not need association with its greatest son to stand forth easily among other towns of its size and command admiration. It is remarkably unlike the mind’s eye picture formed of it by almost every stranger. You expect to see
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CHAPTER VI
CHAPTER VI
Shakespeare’s Birthplace—Restoration, of sorts—The business of the Showman—The Birthplace Museum—The Shakespearean garden. To Henley Street most visitors to Stratford-on-Avon first turn their steps; a little disappointed to discover that it is by no means the best street in the town and must have been rather a poor outskirt at the time when John Shakespeare came in from Snitterfield, to set up business in a small way. There is, as the sentimental pilgrim will very soon discover for himself, a p
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CHAPTER VII
CHAPTER VII
Church Street—The “Castle” inn—The Guild Chapel, Guild Hall, and Grammar School—New Place. Church Street is the most likeable of all the streets of Stratford. There you do not, in point of fact, actually see the church, which is out away beyond the end of it. The features of this quiet and yet not dull thoroughfare are the few and scattered shops in among private houses, and a quaint old inn of unusual design, the “Windmill.” It is illustrated here, and so the effective frontage, with its row
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CHAPTER VIII
CHAPTER VIII
The Church of the Holy Trinity, Stratford-on-Avon. The parish church of Stratford-on-Avon is a building larger, more lofty, and far more stately than most towns of this size can boast. There is reason for this exceptional importance, first in the patronage of the Bishops of Worcester, on whose manor it was situated, but chiefly in the benefactions of John of Stratford, one of three remarkable persons born here in the thirteenth or fourteenth centuries. John, Robert, and Ralph, who took their d
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CHAPTER IX
CHAPTER IX
The Church of the Holy Trinity, Stratford-on-Avon ( continued )—The Shakespeare grave and monument. We now pass beneath the arches of the central tower, under the organ and past the transepts, into the chancel. The chief interest is, quite frankly, the Shakespeare monument and the graves of his family; although even were it not for them, the building itself and the curious carvings of the miserere seats would attract many a visitor. It is with feelings of something at last accomplished, some ne
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CHAPTER X
CHAPTER X
The Church of the Holy Trinity, Stratford-on-Avon ( concluded )—The Shakespeare grave and monument—The Miserere Seats. The Baconians are so extravagant that it becomes scarce worth while to refute their wild statements; but when they are carried to these extremities we may well note them, for the enjoyment of a laugh. But perhaps Sir Edwin Durning-Lawrence gives us the better entertainment when he tells us that Bacon wrote the preface to the Authorised Version of the Bible, and was in fact the
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CHAPTER XI
CHAPTER XI
Shottery and Anne Hathaway’s Cottage. The hamlet of Shottery, now growing a considerable village, is but one mile from the centre of Stratford. You come to it most easily by way of Rother Street, and at the end of that thoroughfare will observe a signpost marked “Footpath to Shottery.” The spot is not inspiring, and one could well wish Shottery, the home of Anne Hathaway and the scene of Shakespeare’s wooing, had not been so near the town. Stratford is a pleasant place, and as little bedevill
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CHAPTER XII
CHAPTER XII
Charlecote. To Charlecote, four miles east of Stratford, is an expedition rarely ever omitted by the Shakespearean tourist, for it is associated with one of the most romantic traditions of the poet’s life; that of the famous poaching incident, which may well have been the disposing cause of his leaving his native town and seeking fortune in London. The balance of opinion is strongly in favour of accepting the story, which comes down to us by way of Archdeacon Davis, Vicar of the Gloucestershire
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CHAPTER XIII
CHAPTER XIII
Shakespeare the countryman. We have abundant evidence of Shakespeare the countryman in his works, and of the Warwickshire man some evidences, too. In the splendid speech of the Duke of Burgundy, in Henry the Fifth , he makes the Frenchman talk with an appreciation of agricultural disaster which only an English farmer, and a Warwickshire or Gloucestershire farmer, too, could show. In the miseries of France, worsted by war, the Duke speaks thus— “Her vine, the merry cheerer of the heart, Unprunè
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CHAPTER XIV
CHAPTER XIV
The ‘Eight Villages’—‘Piping’ Pebworth and ‘Dancing’ Marston. No one who has ever sojourned in Shakespeare land can remain in ignorance of what are the “Eight Villages.” The older rhymes upon them are printed upon picture-postcards, and on fancy chinaware, and reprinted in every local guide-book; and now I propose to repeat them, not only for their own sake and for the alleged Shakespearean authorship, but because the pilgrimage of those villages offers many points of interest. One need offer
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CHAPTER XV
CHAPTER XV
The ‘Eight Villages’ ( concluded ). ‘Haunted’ Hillborough, ‘Hungry’ Grafton, ‘Dodging’ Exhall, ‘Papist’ Wixford, ‘Beggarly’ Broom, and ‘Drunken’ Bidford. “ Haunted Hillborough,” which comes next in order in this rhymed survey, is geographically remote from Long Marston, not so much in mere mileage, for it is not quite three miles distant, measured in a straight line, but it is situated on the other, and Warwickshire, side of the Avon, at a point where the river is not bridged. In short, the tra
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CHAPTER XVI
CHAPTER XVI
The ‘Swan’s Nest’—Haunted?—Clifford Chambers—Wincot—Quinton, and its club day. Twelve miles south of Stratford, across the level lands of the Feldon, you come to Chipping Campden, perched upon the outlying hills of the Cotswold country. The inevitable way southward out of Stratford town lies over the Clopton Bridge, and then, having crossed the Avon, the roads diverge. To the left you proceed for Charlecote and Kineton; straight ahead for Banbury and London; and to the right for Chipping Campd
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CHAPTER XVII
CHAPTER XVII
Chipping Campden. Campden’s position as a market town dates back to Saxon times, when the verb “ceapan,” to buy, gave the prefix “Chipping” to it. The town rose to greater prosperity when the ancient wool-growing wealth of the Cotswolds was doubled by the manufacture in these same districts of the cloth from those wealth-bringing fleeces; and great fortunes were amassed by both wool-merchants and clothiers. The rise of England from an agricultural and a wool-growing country, such as Australia
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CHAPTER XVIII
CHAPTER XVIII
A Deserted Railway—Villages of the Stour Valley—Ettington and Squire Shirley—Shipston-on-Stour—Brailes—Compton Wynyates. There is not an uninteresting road among the eight that lead out of Stratford, and all are beautiful. But none has more beauty than that which runs southward to Shipston-on-Stour. This way, or by the route leading through Ettington and Sunrising Hill, you go to Compton Wynyates, that wonderfully picturesque old mansion of the Comptons, Marquises of Northampton, which has rem
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CHAPTER XIX
CHAPTER XIX
Luddington—Welford—Weston-on-Avon—Cleeve Priors—Salford Priors. The way from Stratford to Evesham is a main road, the road through Bidford, that already described in the chapters on the “Eight Villages,” and hardly to be mentioned again except that by making some variations here and there, two or three villages not otherwise to be visited may be included. The first is Luddington, two and a half miles from the town, on a duly sign-posted road to the left, an excellent road, although not marked s
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CHAPTER XX
CHAPTER XX
Evesham. The legendary story of Evesham’s origin takes us back to the year 701, when one of the Bishop of Worcester’s swineherds, seeking a strayed sow, penetrated the forest that then covered this site, and here found his sow and also a ruined chapel, relic of an ancient and forgotten church. A modern discoverer of ruins would find shattered walls and nothing else, but Eof, the swineherd, beheld a vision of the Virgin and attendant saints singing there. Instead of worshipping, he ran, almost
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CHAPTER XXI
CHAPTER XXI
Broadway—Winchcombe—Shakespearean Associations—Bishop’s Cleeve. “ An Eden of fertility,” says an old writer, dwelling with satisfaction upon the Vale of Evesham. The neat orchards of to-day, with their long perspectives, and with bush-fruit planted in between the lines of plum and apple-trees, to economise every inch of this wonderful soil, would seem to him even more of an Eden, neater and more extended than in his day. It is not, you will say, the most picturesque form of cultivation, but it
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CHAPTER XXII
CHAPTER XXII
Tewkesbury. The little town of Tewkesbury, which numbers about 5500 inhabitants, and is one of the most cheerful and bustling, and withal one of the most picturesque towns in England, occupies a remarkable situation. Not remarkable in the scenic way, for a more nearly level stretch of very often flooded meadow lands you will not see for miles. The site of Tewkesbury is close upon, but not actually on, the confluence of England’s greatest river, the broad and turbid and rather grim Severn, with
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CHAPTER XXIII
CHAPTER XXIII
Clopton House—Billesley—The Home of Shakespeare’s Mother, Wilmcote—Aston Cantlow—Wootton Wawen—Shakespeare Hall, Rowington. There is a mansion of much local fame rather more than a mile out of Stratford, off the Henley road: the manor-house of Clopton, for long past the seat of the Hodgson family, but formerly that of one of the ancient families of Clopton, who are found not only in Warwickshire and Gloucestershire, but in Suffolk as well. Widespread as they once were, I believe that the very n
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CHAPTER XXIV
CHAPTER XXIV
Welcombe—Snitterfield—Warwick—Leicester’s Hospital—St. Mary’s Church and the Beauchamp Chapel. The distance between Stratford and Warwick is eight miles, and the road, the broad highway, runs direct. It is an excellent road, but for those who do not care overmuch for main routes, however beautiful, in these times, a more excellent way, for a portion of the journey at any rate, is by Snitterfield. You turn off to the left from the tree-bordered main road at a point a mile and a half from Stratf
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CHAPTER XXV
CHAPTER XXV
Warwick Castle. The great Castle of Warwick, now the seat of the Earl and Countess of Warwick, who formed themselves into a Limited Liability Company some fifteen years ago, under the title of the “Warwick Estates Co., Ltd.,” has been the seat of the Grevilles since 1605. The origin of Warwick Castle goes back to Ethelfleda, daughter of Alfred the Great and wife of the then Earl of Mercia, a strenuous and warlike lady, to whom are attributed many ancient works. She is credited with building the
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CHAPTER XXVI
CHAPTER XXVI
Guy’s Cliff—The legend of Guy—Kenilworth and its watersplash—Kenilworth Castle. Leamington will scarcely interest the holiday-maker in Shakespeare land. From Warwick to Kenilworth is the more natural transition, and it is one of much interest. A mile and a half out of the town is that famous place of popular legend, Guy’s Cliff, where the great mansion, standing beside the river and built in 1822, looks so ancient, and where, on the opposite shore of Avon, stands that mill whose highly picture
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CHAPTER XXVII
CHAPTER XXVII
Coventry. Coventry originated, according to tradition, in a convent established here as early as the sixth century. Canute is said to have been the founder of another. Whatever may be the truth of the matter, it is certain that the great Saxon Earl Leofric and his wife Godifu in 1043 founded that Benedictine Monastery whose Priory church afterwards became the Cathedral, whose scanty ruins alone remain. These real and legendary religious houses, together with the Monastery of the Carmelites, o
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NOTES.
NOTES.
[21] He should have said Much Ado About Nothing . [213] As these pages go to press a singularly full confirmation of these remarks appears in one of the September 1912 issues of the Birmingham Post : “Evesham District Council have decided to build sixty cottages at Broadway under the Housing of the Working Classes Act, and the Local Government Board have sanctioned the borrowing of £10,000.” Thus, a number of brand-new dwellings are to be built, to rehouse those villagers whose ancient home
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