diff options
Diffstat (limited to '35105.txt')
| -rw-r--r-- | 35105.txt | 5771 |
1 files changed, 5771 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/35105.txt b/35105.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..69e801b --- /dev/null +++ b/35105.txt @@ -0,0 +1,5771 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Shakespeare's England, by William Winter + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Shakespeare's England + +Author: William Winter + +Release Date: January 28, 2011 [EBook #35105] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SHAKESPEARE'S ENGLAND *** + + + + +Produced by Jim Adcock, Special Thanks to the Internet +Archive, American Libraries. + + + + + + + + SHAKESPEARE'S ENGLAND + BY + WILLIAM WINTER + + New Edition, Revised, with Illustrations + + _New York_ + THE MACMILLAN COMPANY + LONDON: MACMILLAN & CO., LTD. + 1898 + + _All rights reserved_ + + Copyright, 1892, + BY MACMILLAN AND CO. + + ------ + + _Illustrated Edition,_ + COPYRIGHT, 1893, + BY MACMILLAN AND CO. + + ------ + + First published elsewhere. + Set up and electrotyped by Macmillan & Co., April, 1892. + Reprinted November, 1892; January, 1893. + + Illustrated edition, revised throughout, in crown 8v0, set up and + Electrotyped June, 1893. Reprinted October, 1893; August, 1895; + September, 1898. + + _Norwood Press_ + J. S. Cushing & Co.--Berwick & Smith + Norwood Mass. U.S.A. + + + + To _Whitelaw Reid_ + + + IN HONOUR OF EXALTED VIRTUES + ADORNING A LIFE OF + NOBLE ACHIEVEMENT AND PATIENT KINDNESS + AND IN REMEMBRANCE OF + FAITHFUL AND GENTLE FRIENDSHIP + I DEDICATE THIS BOOK + + + ------ + + _"Tum meae, si quid loquar audiendum, + Vocis accedet bona pars"_ + + + + PREFACE TO THE ILLUSTRATED EDITION OF SHAKESPEARE'S ENGLAND + + +_The favour with which this book has been received, alike in Great +Britain and America, is thought to warrant a reproduction of it with +pictorial embellishment, and accordingly it is offered in the present +form. I have revised the text for this reprint, and my friend Mr. George +P. Brett, of the house of Messrs. Macmillan and Company,--at whose +suggestion the pictorial edition was undertaken,--has supervised the +choice of pictures for its adornment. The approval that the work has +elicited is a source of deep gratification. It signifies that my +endeavour to reflect the gentle sentiment of English landscape and the +romantic character of English rural life has not proved altogether +in vain. It also shows that an appeal may confidently be +made,--irrespective of transitory literary fashions and of popular +caprice,--to the love of the ideal, the taste for simplicity, and the +sentiment of veneration. In these writings there is, I hope, a profound +practical deference to the perfect standard of style that is represented +by such illustrious exemplars as Addison, Goldsmith, Sterne, and Gray. +This frail fabric may perish: that standard is immortal; and whatever +merit this book may possess is due to an instinctive and passionate +devotion to the ideal denoted by those shining names. These sketches +were written out of love for the subject. The first book of them, called +_The Trip to England, _reprinted, with changes, from the _New York +Tribune, _was made for me, at the De Vinne Press. The subsequent growth +of the work is traced in the earlier Preface, herewith reprinted. The +title of _Shakespeare's England _was given to it when the first English +edition was published, by Mr. David Douglas, of Edinburgh. It has been +my privilege to make various tours of the British islands, since those +of _1877 _and _1882, _recorded here; and my later books, _Gray Days and +Gold, _and _Old Shrines and Ivy, _should be read in association with +this one, by those persons who care for a wider glimpse of the same +delightful field, in the same companionship, and especially by those who +like to follow the record of exploration and change in Shakespeare's +home. As to the question of accuracy,--and indeed, as to all other +questions,--it is my wish that this book may be judged by the text of +the present edition, which is the latest and the best._ + + + _W. W._ + + June 6, 1893. + + + + PREFACE + + +_Beautiful and storied scenes that have soothed and elevated the mind +naturally inspire a feeling of gratitude. Prompted by that feeling the +present author has written this record of his rambles in England. It was +his wish, in dwelling upon the rural loveliness and the literary and +historical associations of that delightful realm, to afford sympathetic +guidance and useful suggestion to other American travellers who, like +himself, might be attracted to roam among the shrines of the mother +land. There is no pursuit more fascinating or in a high intellectual +sense more remunerative; since it serves to define and regulate +knowledge, to correct misapprehensions of fact, to broaden the mental +vision, to ripen and refine the Judgment and the taste, and to fill the +memory with ennobling recollections. These papers commemorate two visits +to England, the first made in _1877, _the second in _1882; _they +occasionally touch upon the same place or scene as observed at different +times; and especially they describe two distinct journeys, separated by +an interval of five years, through the region associated with the great +name of Shakespeare. Repetitions of the same reference, which now and +then occur, were found unavoidable by the writer, but it is hoped that +they will not be found tedious by the reader. Those who walk twice in +the same pathways should be pleased, and not pained, to find the same +wild-flowers growing beside them. The first American edition of this +work consisted of two volumes, published in _1879, 1881, _and _1884, +_called _The Trip to England _and _English Rambles. _The former book was +embellished with poetic illustrations by Joseph Jefferson, the famous +comedian, my life-long friend. The paper on _Shakespeare's +Home,--_written to record for American readers the dedication of the +Shakespeare Memorial at Stratford,_--_was first printed in _Harper's +Magazine, _in May _1879. _with delicate illustrative pictures from the +graceful pencil of Edwin Abbey. This compendium of the _Trip _and the +_Rambles, _with the title of _Shakespeare's England, _was first +published by David Douglas of Edinburgh. That title was chosen for the +reason that the book relates largely to Warwickshire and because it +depicts not so much the England of fact as the England created and +hallowed by the spirit of her poetry, of which Shakespeare is the soul. +Several months after the publication of _Shakespeare's England _the +writer was told of a work, published many years ago, bearing a similar +title, though relating to a different theme--the physical state of +England in Shakespeare's time. He had never heard of it and has never +seen it. The text for the present reprint has been carefully revised. To +his British readers the author would say that it is neither from lack of +sympathy with the happiness around him nor from lack of faith in the +future of his country that his writings have drifted toward the pathos +in human experience and toward the hallowing associations of an old +historic land. Temperament is the explanation of style: and he has +written thus of England because she has filled his mind with beauty and +his heart with mingled joy and sadness: and surely some memory of her +venerable ruins, her ancient shrines, her rustic glens, her gleaming +rivers, and her flower-spangled meadows will mingle with the last +thoughts that glimmer through his brain, when the shadows of the eternal +night are falling and the ramble of life is done._ + + + _W. W._ + + 1892. + + + + CONTENTS + + + Preface To Illustrated Edition + + Old Preface + + CHAPTER I. + The Voyage + + CHAPTER II. + Beauty Of England + + CHAPTER III. + Great Historic Places + + CHAPTER IV. + Rambles In London + + CHAPTER V. + A Visit To Windsor + + CHAPTER VI. + The Palace Of Westminster. + + CHAPTER VII. + Warwick And Kenilworth + + CHAPTER VIII. + First View Of Stratford-Upon-Avon + + CHAPTER IX. + London Nooks And Corners + + CHAPTER X. + Relics Of Lord Byron + + CHAPTER XI. + Westminster Abbey + + CHAPTER XII. + Shakespeare's Home + + CHAPTER XIII. + Up to London + + CHAPTER XIV. + Old Churches of London + + CHAPTER XV. + Literary Shrines of London + + CHAPTER XVI. + A Haunt Of Edmund Kean + + CHAPTER XVII. + Stoke-Pogis and Thomas Gray + + CHAPTER XVIII. + At The Grave of Coleridge + + CHAPTER XIX. + On Barnet Battle-field + + CHAPTER XX. + A Glimpse Of Canterbury + + CHAPTER XXI. + The Shrines Of Warwickshire + + CHAPTER XXII. + A Borrower of The Night + + + + ILLUSTRATIONS + + + Portrait of William Winter--from a crayon by Arthur Jule Goodman + + The Anchor Inn + + Old House at Bridport + + Restoration House, Rochester + + Charing Cross + + Kensington Palace + + The Tower of London + + Old Water Gate + + Approach to Cheshire Cheese + + St. Mary-le-Strand + + Temple Church + + Gower's Monument + + Andrews's Monument + + Old Tabard Inn, Southwark + + Windsor Castle + + St. George's Chapel, Windsor Castle + + Windsor Forest and Park + + The Curfew Tower + + The Sign of the Swan + + Westminster Hall + + The Mace + + Greenwich Hospital + + Queen Elizabeth's Cradle + + Warwick Castle + + Old Inn + + Washington Irving's Parlour + + From the Warwick Shield + + Holy Trinity Church, Stratford + + The Inglenook + + Approach to Shottery + + Distant View of Stratford + + Whitehall Gateway + + Lambeth Palace + + Dulwich College + + The Crown Inn, Dulwich + + Oriel Window + + From the Triforium, Westminster Abbey + + Chapel of Henry VII. + + Chapel of Edward the Confessor + + The Poets' Corner + + The North Ambulatory + + The Spaniards, Hampstead + + The Dome of St. Paul's + + The Grange + + Shakespeare's Birthplace + + Anne Hathaway's Cottage + + Charlecote + + Meadow Walk by the Avon + + Antique Font + + Monument + + Gable Window + + Peveril Peak + + St. Paul's, from Maiden Lane + + The Charter-house + + St. Giles', Cripplegate + + Sir John Crosby's Monument + + Gresham's Monument + + Goldsmith's House + + A Bit from Clare Court + + Fleet Street in 1780 + + Gray's Inn Square + + Stoke-Pogis Church + + Old Church + + The White Hart + + Column on Barnet Battle-field + + Farm-house + + Falstaff Inn and West Gate, Canterbury + + Butchery Lane, Canterbury + + Flying-horse Inn, Canterbury + + Canterbury Cathedral + + Stratford-upon-Avon + + Stratford Church + + Washington Irving's Chair + + The Stratford Memorial + + Mary Arden's Cottage + + Church of St. Martin + + Westminster Abbey + + Middle Temple Lane + + + + _This royal throne of kings, this sceptred isle,_ + _This earth of majesty, this seat of Mars,_ + _This other Eden, demi-paradise,_ + _This fortress built by Nature for herself, . . ._ + _This precious stone set in the silver sea, . . ._ + _This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England, . . ._ + _This land of such dear souls, this dear, dear land,_ + _Dear for her reputation through the world!_ + + + SHAKESPEARE. + + + ------ + + + _All that I saw returns upon my view;_ + _All that I heard comes back upon my ear;_ + _All that I felt this moment doth renew._ + + _Fair land! by Time's parental love made free,_ + _By Social Order's watchful arms embraced,_ + _With unexampled union meet in thee,_ + _For eye and mind, the present and the past;_ + _With golden prospect for futurity,_ + _If that be reverenced which ought to last._ + + + WORDSWORTH. + + + + +SHAKESPEARE'S ENGLAND + + +CHAPTER I + +THE VOYAGE + +1887 + +The coast-line recedes and disappears, and night comes down upon the +ocean. Into what dangers will the great ship plunge? Through what +mysterious waste of waters will she make her viewless path? The black +waves roll up around her. The strong blast fills her sails and whistles +through her creaking cordage. Overhead the stars shine dimly amid the +driving clouds. Mist and gloom close in the dubious prospect, and a +strange sadness settles upon the heart of the voyager--who has left his +home behind, and who now seeks, for the first time, the land, the homes, +and the manners of the stranger. Thoughts and images of the past crowd +thick upon his remembrance. The faces of absent friends rise before him, +whom, perhaps, he is destined nevermore to behold. He sees their smiles; +he hears their voices; he fancies them by familiar hearth-stones, in the +light of the evening lamps. They are very far away now; and already it +seems months instead of hours since the parting moment. Vain now the +pang of regret for misunderstandings, unkindness, neglect; for golden +moments slighted and gentle courtesies left undone. He is alone upon the +wild sea--all the more alone because surrounded with new faces of +unknown companions--and the best he can do is to seek his lonely pillow +and lie down with a prayer in his heart and on his lips. Never before +did he so clearly know--never again will he so deeply feel--the +uncertainty of human life and the weakness of human nature. Yet, as he +notes the rush and throb of the vast ship and the noise of the breaking +waves around her, and thinks of the mighty deep beneath, and the broad +and melancholy expanse that stretches away on every side, he cannot miss +the impression--grand, noble, and thrilling--of human courage, skill, +and power. For this ship is the centre of a splendid conflict. Man and +the elements are here at war; and man makes conquest of the elements by +using them as weapons against themselves. Strong and brilliant, the +head-light streams over the boiling surges. Lanterns gleam in the tops. +Dark figures keep watch upon the prow. The officer of the night is at +his post upon the bridge. Let danger threaten howsoever it may, it +cannot come unawares; it cannot subdue, without a tremendous struggle, +the brave minds and hardy bodies that are here arrayed to meet it. With +this thought, perhaps, the weary voyager sinks to sleep; and this is his +first night at sea. + +There is no tediousness of solitude to him who has within himself +resources of thought and dream, the pleasures and pains of memory, the +bliss and the torture of imagination. It is best to have few +acquaintances--or none--on shipboard. Human companionship, at some +times, and this is one of them, distracts by its pettiness. The voyager +should yield himself to nature now, and meet his own soul face to face. +The routine of everyday life is commonplace enough, equally upon sea and +land. But the ocean is a continual pageant, filling and soothing the +mind with unspeakable peace. Never, in even the grandest words of +poetry, was the grandeur of the sea expressed. Its vastness, its +freedom, its joy, and its beauty overwhelm the mind. All things else +seem puny and momentary beside the life that this immense creation +unfolds and inspires. Sometimes it shines in the sun, a wilderness of +shimmering silver. Sometimes its long waves are black, smooth, +glittering, and dangerous. Sometimes it seems instinct with a superb +wrath, and its huge masses rise, and clash together, and break into +crests of foam. Sometimes it is gray and quiet, as if in a sullen sleep. +Sometimes the white mist broods upon it and deepens the sense of awful +mystery by which it is forever enwrapped. At night its surging billows +are furrowed with long streaks of phosphorescent fire; or, it may be, +the waves roll gently, under the soft light of stars; or all the waste +is dim, save where, beneath the moon, a glorious pathway, broadening out +to the far horizon, allures and points to heaven. One of the most +exquisite delights of the voyage, whether by day or night, is to lie +upon the deck in some secluded spot, and look up at the tall, tapering +spars as they sway with the motion of the ship, while over them the +white clouds float, in ever-changing shapes, or the starry +constellations drift, in their eternal march. No need now of books, or +newspapers, or talk! The eyes are fed by every object they behold. The +great ship, with all her white wings spread, careening like a tiny +sail-boat, dips and rises, with sinuous, stately grace. The clank of her +engines--fit type of steadfast industry and purpose--goes steadily on. +The song of the sailors--"Give me some time to blow the man down"--rises +in cheery melody, full of audacious, light-hearted thoughtlessness, and +strangely tinged with the romance of the sea. Far out toward the horizon +many whales come sporting and spouting along. At once, out of the +distant bank of cloud and mist, a little vessel springs into view, and +with convulsive movement--tilting up and down like the miniature barque +upon an old Dutch clock--dances across the vista and vanishes into +space. Soon a tempest bursts upon the calm; and then, safe-housed from +the fierce blast and blinding rain, the voyager exults over the stern +battle of winds and waters and the stalwart, undaunted strength with +which his ship bears down the furious floods and stems the gale. By and +by a quiet hour is given, when, met together with the companions of his +journey, he stands in the hushed cabin and hears the voice of prayer and +the hymn of praise, and, in the pauses, a gentle ripple of waves against +the ship, which now rocks lazily upon the sunny deep; and, ever and +anon, as she dips, he can discern through her open ports the shining sea +and the wheeling and circling gulls that have come out to welcome her to +the shores of the old world. + + +The present writer, when first he saw the distant and dim coast of +Britain, felt, with a sense of forlorn loneliness that he was a +stranger; but when last he saw that coast he beheld it through a mist of +tears and knew that he had parted from many cherished friends, from many +of the gentlest men and women upon the earth, and from a land henceforth +as dear to him as his own. England is a country which to see is to love. +As you draw near to her shores you are pleased at once with the air of +careless finish and negligent grace that everywhere overhangs the +prospect. The grim, wind-beaten hills of Ireland have first been +passed--hills crowned, here and there, with dark, fierce towers that +look like strongholds of ancient bandit chiefs, and cleft by dim valleys +that seem to promise endless mystery and romance, hid in their sombre +depths. Passed also is white Queenstown, with its lovely little bay, its +circle of green hillsides, and its valiant fort; and picturesque +Fastnet, with its gaily painted tower, has long been left behind. It is +off the noble crags of Holyhead that the voyager first observes with +what a deft skill the hand of art has here moulded nature's luxuriance +into forms of seeming chance-born beauty; and from that hour, wherever +in rural England the footsteps of the pilgrim may roam, he will behold +nothing but gentle rustic adornment, that has grown with the grass and +the roses--greener grass and redder roses than ever we see in our +western world! In the English nature a love of the beautiful is +spontaneous, and the operation of it is as fluent as the blowing of the +summer wind. Portions of English cities, indeed, are hard and harsh and +coarse enough to suit the most utilitarian taste; yet even in those +regions of dreary monotony the national love of flowers will find +expression, and the people, without being aware of it, will, in many odd +little ways, beautify their homes and make their surroundings pictorial, +at least to stranger eyes. There is a tone of rest and homelike comfort +even in murky Liverpool; and great magnificence is there--as well of +architecture and opulent living as of enterprise and action. "Towered +cities" and "the busy hum of men," however, are soon left behind by the +wise traveller in England. A time will come for those; but in his first +sojourn there he soon discovers the two things that are utterly to +absorb him--which cannot disappoint--and which are the fulfilment of all +his dreams. These things are--the rustic loveliness of the land and the +charm of its always vital and splendid antiquity. The green lanes, the +thatched cottages, the meadows glorious with wildflowers, the little +churches covered with dark-green ivy, the Tudor gables festooned with +roses, the devious footpaths that wind across wild heaths and long and +lonesome fields, the narrow, shining rivers, brimful to their banks and +crossed here and there with gray, moss-grown bridges, the stately elms +whose low-hanging branches droop over a turf of emerald velvet, the +gnarled beech-trees "that wreathe their old, fantastic roots so high," +the rooks that caw and circle in the air, the sweet winds that blow from +fragrant woods, the sheep and the deer that rest in shady places, the +pretty children who cluster round the porches of their cleanly, cosy +homes, and peep at the wayfarer as he passes, the numerous and often +brilliant birds that at times fill the air with music, the brief, light, +pleasant rains that ever and anon refresh the landscape--these are some +of the everyday joys of rural England; and these are wrapped in a +climate that makes life one serene ecstasy. Meantime, in rich valleys or +on verdant slopes, a thousand old castles and monasteries, ruined or +half in ruins, allure the pilgrim's gaze, inspire his imagination, +arouse his memory, and fill his mind. The best romance of the past and +the best reality of the present are his banquet now; and nothing is +wanting to the perfection of the feast. I thought that life could have +but few moments of content in store for me like the moment--never to be +forgotten!--when, in the heart of London, on a perfect June day, I lay +upon the grass in the old Green Park, and, for the first time, looked up +to the towers of Westminster Abbey. + + + +CHAPTER II + +THE BEAUTY OF ENGLAND + + +It is not strange that Englishmen should be--as certainly they +are--passionate lovers of their country; for their country is, almost +beyond parallel, peaceful, gentle, and beautiful. Even in vast London, +where practical life asserts itself with such prodigious force, the +stranger is impressed, in every direction, with a sentiment of repose +and peace. This sentiment seems to proceed in part from the antiquity of +the social system here established, and in part from the affectionate +nature of the English people. Here are finished towns, rural regions +thoroughly cultivated and exquisitely adorned; ancient architecture, +crumbling in slow decay; and a soil so rich and pure that even in its +idlest mood it lights itself up with flowers, just as the face of a +sleeping child lights itself up with smiles. Here, also, are soft and +kindly manners, settled principles, good laws, wise customs--wise, +because rooted in the universal attributes of human nature; and, above +all, here is the practice of trying to live in a happy condition instead +of trying to make a noise about it. Here, accordingly, life is soothed +and hallowed with the comfortable, genial, loving spirit of home. It +would, doubtless, be easily possible to come into contact here with +absurd forms and pernicious abuses, to observe absurd individuals, and +to discover veins of sordid selfishness and of evil and sorrow. But the +things that first and most deeply impress the observer of England and +English society are their potential, manifold, and abundant sources of +beauty, refinement, and peace. There are, of course, grumblers. Mention +has been made of a person who, even in heaven, would complain that his +cloud was damp and his halo a misfit. We cannot have perfection; but the +man who could not be happy in England--in so far, at least, as happiness +depends upon external objects and influences--could not reasonably +expect to be happy anywhere. + +Summer heat is perceptible for an hour or two each day, but it causes no +discomfort. Fog has refrained; though it is understood to be lurking in +the Irish sea and the English channel, and waiting for November, when it +will drift into town and grime all the new paint on the London houses. +Meantime, the sky is softly blue and full of magnificent bronze clouds; +the air is cool, and in the environs of the city is fragrant with the +scent of new-mown hay; and the grass and trees in the parks--those +copious and splendid lungs of London--are green, dewy, sweet, and +beautiful. Persons "to the manner born" were lately calling the season +"backward," and they went so far as to grumble at the hawthorne, as +being less brilliant than in former seasons. But, in fact, to the +unfamiliar sense, this tree of odorous coral has been delicious. We have +nothing comparable with it in northern America, unless, perhaps, it be +the elder, of our wild woods; and even that, with all its fragrance, +lacks equal charm of colour. They use the hawthorne, or some kindred +shrub, for hedges in this country, and hence their fields are seldom +disfigured with fences. As you ride through the land you see miles and +miles of meadow traversed by these green and blooming hedgerows, which +give the country a charm quite incommunicable in words. The green of the +foliage--enriched by an uncommonly humid air and burnished by the +sun--is in perfection, while the flowers bloom in such abundance that +the whole realm is one glowing pageant. I saw near Oxford, on the crest +of a hill, a single ray of at least a thousand feet of scarlet poppies. +Imagine that glorious dash of colour in a green landscape lit by the +afternoon sun! Nobody could help loving a land that woos him with such +beauty. + +English flowers are exceptional for substance and pomp. The roses, in +particular--though some of them, it should be said, are of French +breeds--surpass all others. It may seem an extravagance to say, but it +is certainly true, that these rich, firm, brilliant flowers affect you +like creatures of flesh and blood. They are, in this respect, only to be +described as like nothing in the world so much as the bright lips and +blushing cheeks of the handsome English women who walk among them and +vie with them in health and loveliness. It is easy to perceive the +source of those elements of warmth and sumptuousness that are so +conspicuous in the results of English taste. It is a land of flowers. +Even in the busiest parts of London the people decorate their houses +with them, and set the sombre, fog-grimed fronts ablaze with scarlet and +gold. These are the prevalent colours--radically so, for they have +become national--and, when placed against the black tint with which this +climate stains the buildings, they have the advantage of a vivid +contrast that much augments their splendour. All London wears crape, +variegated with a tracery of white, like lace upon a pall. In some +instances the effect is splendidly pompous. There cannot be a grander +artificial object in the world than the front of St. Paul's cathedral, +which is especially notable for this mysterious blending of light and +shade. It is to be deplored that a climate which can thus beautify +should also destroy; but there can be no doubt that the stones of +England are steadily defaced by the action of the damp atmosphere. +Already the delicate carvings on the palace of Westminster are beginning +to crumble. And yet, if one might judge the climate by this glittering +July, England is a land of sunshine as well as of flowers. Light comes +before three o'clock in the morning, and it lasts, through a dreamy and +lovely gloaming, till nearly ten o'clock at night. The morning sky is +usually light blue, dappled with slate-coloured clouds. A few large +stars are visible then, lingering to outface the dawn. Cool winds +whisper, and presently they rouse the great, sleepy, old elms; and then +the rooks--which are the low comedians of the air in this region--begin +to grumble; and then the sun leaps above the horizon, and we sweep into +a day of golden, breezy cheerfulness and comfort, the like of which is +rarely or never known in northern America, between June and October. +Sometimes the whole twenty-four hours have drifted past, as if in a +dream of light, and fragrance, and music. In a recent moonlight time +there was scarce any darkness at all; and more than once I have lain +awake all night, within a few miles of Charing Cross, listening to a +twitter of birds that is like the lapse and fall of silver water. It +used to be difficult to understand why the London season should begin in +May and last through most of the summer; it is not difficult to +understand the custom now. + +The elements of discontent and disturbance which are visible in English +society are found, upon close examination, to be merely superficial. +Underneath them there abides a sturdy, immutable, inborn love of +England. Those croakings, grumblings, and bickerings do but denote the +process by which the body politic frees itself from the headaches and +fevers that embarrass the national health. The Englishman and his +country are one; and when the Englishman complains against his country +it is not because he believes that either there is or can be a better +country elsewhere, but because his instinct of justice and order makes +him crave perfection in his own. Institutions and principles are, with +him, by nature, paramount to individuals; and individuals only possess +importance--and that conditional on abiding rectitude--who are their +representatives. Everything is done in England to promote the permanence +and beauty of the home; and the permanence and beauty of the home, by a +natural reaction, augment in the English people solidity of character +and peace of life. They do not dwell in a perpetual fret and fume as to +the acts, thoughts, and words of other nations: for the English there is +absolutely no public opinion outside of their own land: they do not live +for the sake of working, but they work for the sake of living; and, as +the necessary preparations for living have long since been completed, +their country is at rest. This is the secret of England's first, and +continuous, and last, and all-pervading charm and power for the +stranger--the charm and power to soothe. + +The efficacy of endeavouring to make a country a united, comfortable, +and beautiful home for all its inhabitants,--binding every heart to the +land by the same tie that binds every heart to the fireside,--is +something well worthy to be considered, equally by the practical +statesman and the contemplative observer. That way, assuredly, lie the +welfare of the human race and all the tranquillity that human +nature--warped as it is by evil--will ever permit to this world. This +endeavour has, through long ages, been steadily pursued in England, and +one of its results--which is also one of its indications--is the vast +accumulation of what may be called home treasures in the city of London. +The mere enumeration of them would fill large volumes. The description +of them could not be completed in a lifetime. It was this copiousness of +historic wealth and poetic association, combined with the flavour of +character and the sentiment of monastic repose, that bound Dr. Johnson +to Fleet Street and made Charles Lamb such an inveterate lover of the +town. Except it be to correct a possible insular narrowness there can be +no need that the Londoner should travel. Glorious sights, indeed, await +him, if he journeys no further away than Paris; but, aside from +ostentation, luxury, gaiety, and excitement, Paris will give him nothing +that he may not find at home. + +The great cathedral of Notre Dame will awe him; but not more than his +own Westminster Abbey. The grandeur and beauty of the Madeleine will +enchant him; but not more than the massive solemnity and stupendous +magnificence of St. Paul's. The embankments of the Seine will satisfy +his taste with their symmetrical solidity; but he will not deem them +superior in any respect to the embankments of the Thames. The Pantheon, +the Hotel des Invalides, the Luxembourg, the Louvre, the Tribunal of +Commerce, the Opera-House,--all these will dazzle and delight his eyes, +arousing his remembrances of history and firing his imagination of great +events and persons; but all these will fail to displace in his esteem +the grand Palace of Westminster, so stately in its simplicity, so strong +in its perfect grace! He will ride through the exquisite Park of +Monceau,--one of the loveliest spots in Paris,--and onward to the Bois +de Boulogne, with its sumptuous pomp of foliage, its romantic green +vistas, its many winding avenues, its hillside hermitage, its cascades, +and its affluent lakes whereon the white swans beat the water with their +joyous wings; but still his soul will turn, with unshaken love and loyal +preference to the sweetly sylvan solitude of the gardens of Kensington +and Kew. He will marvel in the museums of the Louvre, the Luxembourg, +and Cluny; and probably he will concede that of paintings, whether +ancient or modern, the French display is larger and finer than the +English; but he will vaunt the British Museum as peerless throughout the +world, and he will still prize his National Gallery, with its originals +of Hogarth, Reynolds, Gainsborough, and Turner, its spirited, tender, +and dreamy Murillos, and its dusky glories of Rembrandt. He will admire, +at the Theatre Francais, the photographic perfection of French acting; +but he will be apt to reflect that English dramatic art, if it sometimes +lacks finish, often has the effect of nature; and he will certainly +perceive that the playhouse itself is not superior to either Her +Majesty's Theatre or Covent Garden. He will luxuriate in the Champs +Elysees, in the superb Boulevards, in the glittering pageant of precious +jewels that blazes in the Rue de la Paix and the Palais Royal, and in +that gorgeous panorama of shop-windows for which the French capital is +unrivalled and famous; and he will not deny that, as to brilliancy of +aspect, Paris is prodigious and unequalled--the most radiant of +cities--the sapphire in the crown of Solomon. But, when all is seen, +either that Louis the Fourteenth created or Buonaparte pillaged,--when +he has taken his last walk in the gardens of the Tuileries, and mused, +at the foot of the statue of Caesar, on that Titanic strife of monarchy +and democracy of which France has seemed destined to be the perpetual +theatre,--sated with the glitter of showy opulence and tired with the +whirl of frivolous life he will gladly and gratefully turn again to his +sombre, mysterious, thoughtful, restful old London; and, like the Syrian +captain, though in the better spirit of truth and right, declare that +Abana and Pharpar, rivers of Damascus, are better than all the waters of +Israel. + + + +CHAPTER III + +GREAT HISTORIC PLACES + + +There is so much to be seen in London that the pilgrim scarcely knows +where to choose and certainly is perplexed by what Dr. Johnson called +"the multiplicity of agreeable consciousness." One spot to which I have +many times been drawn, and which the mention of Dr. Johnson instantly +calls to mind, is the stately and solemn place in Westminster Abbey +where that great man's ashes are buried. Side by side, under the +pavement of the Abbey, within a few feet of earth, sleep Johnson, +Garrick, Sheridan, Henderson, Dickens, Cumberland, and Handel. Garrick's +wife is buried in the same grave with her husband. Close by, some brass +letters on a little slab in the stone floor mark the last resting-place +of Thomas Campbell. Not far off is the body of Macaulay; while many a +stroller through the nave treads upon the gravestone of that astonishing +old man Thomas Parr, who lived in the reigns of nine princes +(1483-1635), and reached the great age of 152. All parts of Westminster +Abbey impress the reverential mind. It is an experience very strange and +full of awe suddenly to find your steps upon the sepulchres of such +illustrious men as Burke, Pitt, Fox, and Grattan; and you come, with a +thrill of more than surprise, upon such still fresh antiquity as the +grave of Anne Neville, the daughter of Warwick and queen of Richard the +Third. But no single spot in the great cathedral can so enthral the +imagination as that strip of storied stone beneath which Garrick, +Johnson, Sheridan, Henderson, Cumberland, Dickens, Macaulay, and Handel +sleep, side by side. This writer, when lately he visited the Abbey, +found a chair upon the grave of Johnson, and sat down there to rest and +muse. The letters on the stone are fast wearing away; but the memory of +that sturdy champion of thought can never perish, as long as the +votaries of literature love their art and honour the valiant genius that +battled--through hunger, toil, and contumely--for its dignity and +renown. It was a tender and right feeling that prompted the burial of +Johnson close beside Garrick. They set out together to seek their +fortune in the great city. They went through privation and trial hand in +hand. Each found glory in a different way; and, although parted +afterward by the currents of fame and wealth, they were never sundered +in affection. It was fit they should at last find their rest together, +under the most glorious roof that greets the skies of England. + +Fortune gave me a good first day at the Tower of London. The sky +lowered. The air was very cold. The wind blew with angry gusts. The rain +fell, now and then, in a chill drizzle. The river was dark and sullen. +If the spirits of the dead come back to haunt any place they surely come +back to haunt that one; and this was a day for their presence. One dark +ghost seemed near, at every step--the ominous shade of the lonely Duke +of Gloster. The little room in which the princes are said to have been +murdered, by his command, was shown, and the oratory where king Henry +the Sixth is supposed to have met a violent death, and the council +chamber, in which Richard--after listening, in an ambush behind the +arras--denounced the wretched Hastings. The latter place is now used as +an armoury; but the same ceiling covers it that echoed the bitter +invective of Gloster and the rude clamour of his soldiers, when their +frightened victim was plucked forth and dragged downstairs, to be +beheaded on "a timber-log" in the courtyard. The Tower is a place for +such deeds, and you almost wonder that they do not happen still, in its +gloomy chambers. The room in which the princes were killed (if killed +indeed they were) is particularly grisly in aspect. It is an inner room, +small and dark. A barred window in one of its walls fronts a window on +the other side of the passage by which you approach it. This is but a +few feet from the floor, and perhaps the murderers paused to look +through it as they went to their hellish work upon the children of king +Edward. The entrance was indicated to a secret passage by which this +apartment could be approached from the foot of the Tower. In one gloomy +stone chamber the crown jewels are exhibited, in a large glass case. One +of the royal relics is a crown of velvet and gold that was made for poor +Anne Boleyn. You may pass across the courtyard and pause on the spot +where that miserable woman was beheaded, and you may walk thence over +the ground that her last trembling footsteps traversed, to the round +tower in which, at the close, she lived. Her grave is in the chancel of +the little antique church, close by. I saw the cell of Raleigh, and that +direful chamber which is scrawled all over with the names and emblems of +prisoners who therein suffered confinement and lingering agony, nearly +always ending in death; but I saw no sadder place than Anne Boleyn's +tower. It seemed in the strangest way eloquent of mute suffering. It +seemed to exhale grief and to plead for love and pity. Yet--what woman +ever had greater love than was lavished on her? And what woman ever +trampled more royally and recklessly upon human hearts? + +The Tower of London is degraded by being put to commonplace uses and by +being exhibited in a commonplace manner. They use the famous White Tower +now as a store-house for arms, and it contains about one hundred +thousand guns, besides a vast collection of old armour and weapons. The +arrangement of the latter was made by J. R. Planche, the dramatic +author,--famous as an antiquarian and a herald. [That learned, able, +brilliant, and honoured gentleman died, May 29, 1880, aged 84.] Under +his tasteful direction the effigies and gear of chivalry are displayed +in such a way that the observer may trace the changes that war fashions +have undergone, through the reigns of successive sovereigns of England, +from the earliest period until now. A suit of mail worn by Henry the +Eighth is shown, and also a suit worn by Charles the First. The +suggestiveness of both figures is remarkable. In a room on the second +floor of the White Tower they keep many gorgeous oriental weapons, and +they show the cloak in which General Wolfe died, on the Plains of +Abraham. It is a gray garment, to which the active moth has given a +share of his assiduous attention. The most impressive objects to be seen +there, however, are the block and axe that were used in beheading the +Scotch lords, Kilmarnock, Balmerino, and Lovat, after the defeat of the +pretender, in 1746. The block is of ash, and there are big and cruel +dents upon it, showing that it was made for use rather than ornament. It +is harmless enough now, and this writer was allowed to place his head +upon it, in the manner prescribed for the victims of decapitation. The +door of Raleigh's bedroom is opposite to these baleful relics, and it is +said that his _History of the World _was written in the room in which +these implements are now such conspicuous objects of gloom.[1] The place +is gloomy and cheerless beyond expression, and great must have been the +fortitude of the man who bore, in that grim solitude, a captivity of +thirteen years--not failing to improve it by producing a book so +excellent for quaintness, philosophy, and eloquence. A "beef-eater," +arrayed in a dark tunic, trousers trimmed with red, and a black velvet +hat adorned with bows of blue and red ribbon, precedes each group of +visitors, and drops information and the letter h, from point to point. +The centre of what was once the Tower green is marked with a brass +plate, naming Anne Boleyn and giving the date when she was there +beheaded. They found her body in an elm-wood box, made to hold arrows, +and it now rests, with the ashes of other noble sufferers, under the +stones of the church of St. Peter, about fifty feet from the place of +execution. The ghost of Anne Boleyn is said to haunt that part of the +Tower where she lived, and it is likewise whispered that the spectre of +Lady Jane Grey was seen, not long ago, on the anniversary of the day of +her execution [Obiit February 12, 1554], to glide out upon a balcony +adjacent to the room in which she lodged during nearly eight months, at +the last of her wasted, unfortunate, but gentle and noble life. [That +room was in the house of Thomas Brydges, brother and deputy of Sir John +Brydges, Lieutenant of the Tower, and its windows command an +unobstructed view of the Tower green, which was the place of the block.] +It could serve no good purpose to relate the particulars of those +visitations; but nobody doubts them--while he is in the Tower. It is a +place of mystery and horror, notwithstanding all that the practical +spirit of to-day has done to make it trivial and to cheapen its grim +glories by association with the commonplace. + +[1] Many of these relics have since been disposed in a different +way.--Raleigh was incarcerated in various parts of the Tower, in the +course of his several imprisonments. + + + +CHAPTER IV + +RAMBLES IN LONDON + + +All old cities get rich in association, as a matter of course and +whether they will or no; but London, by reason of its great extent, as +well as its great antiquity, is richer in association than any modern +place on earth. The stranger scarcely takes a step without encountering +a new object of interest. The walk along the Strand and Fleet Street, in +particular, is continually on storied ground. Old Temple Bar still +stands (July 1877), though "tottering to its fall," and marks the +junction of the two streets. The statues of Charles the First and +Charles the Second on its western front would be remarkable anywhere, as +characteristic portraits. You stand beside that arch and quite forget +the passing throng, and take no heed of the tumult around, as you think +of Johnson and Boswell leaning against the Bar after midnight in the +far-off times and waking the echoes of the Temple Garden with their +frolicsome laughter. The Bar is carefully propped now, and they will +nurse its age as long as they can; but it is an obstruction to +travel--and it must disappear. (It was removed in the summer of 1878.) +They will probably set it up, newly built, in another place. They have +left untouched a little piece of the original scaffolding built around +St. Paul's; and that fragment of decaying wood may still be seen, high +upon the side of the cathedral. The Rainbow, the Mitre, the Cheshire +Cheese, Dolly's Chop-House, the Cock, and the Round Table--taverns or +public-houses that were frequented by the old wits--are still extant +(1877). The Cheshire Cheese is scarcely changed from what it was when +Johnson, Goldsmith, and their comrades ate beefsteak pie and drank +porter there, and the Doctor "tossed and gored several persons," as it +was his cheerful custom to do. The benches in that room are narrow, +incommodious, penitential; mere ledges of well-worn wood, on which the +visitor sits bolt upright, in difficult perpendicular; but there is, +probably, nothing on earth that would induce the owner to alter +them--and he is right. + +Illustration: "Approach to Cheshire Cheese." + +The conservative principle in the English mind, if it has saved some +trash, has saved more treasure. At the foot of Buckingham Street, in the +Strand,--where was situated an estate of George Villiers, first Duke of +Buckingham, assassinated in 1628, whose tomb may be seen in the chapel +of Henry the Seventh in Westminster Abbey,--still stands the slowly +crumbling ruin of the old Water Gate, so often mentioned as the place +where accused traitors were embarked for the Tower. The river, in former +times, flowed up to that gate, but the land along the margin of the +Thames has been redeemed, and the magnificent Victoria and Albert +embankments now border the river for a long distance on both sides. The +Water Gate, in fact, stands in a little park on the north bank of the +Thames. Not far away is the Adelphi Terrace, where Garrick lived and +died (Obiit January 20, 1779, aged 63), and where, on October 1, 1822, +his widow expired, aged 98. The house of Garrick is let in "chambers" +now. If you walk up the Strand towards Charing Cross you presently come +near to the Church of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, which is one of the +works of James Gibbs, a pupil of Sir Christopher Wren, and entirely +worthy of the master's hand. The fogs have stained that building with +such a deft touch as shows the caprice of nature to be often better than +the best design of art. Nell Gwyn's name is connected with St. Martin. +Her funeral occurred in that church, and was pompous, and no less a +person than Tenison (afterwards Archbishop of Canterbury) preached the +funeral sermon.[1] + +[1] This was made the occasion of a complaint against him, to Queen Mary, +who gently expressed her unshaken confidence in his goodness and truth. + +Illustration: "Temple Church." + +That prelate's dust reposes in Lambeth church, which can be seen, across +the river, from this part of Westminster. If you walk down the Strand, +through Temple Bar, you presently reach the Temple; and there is no +place in London where the past and the present are so strangely +confronted as they are here. The venerable church, so quaint with its +cone-pointed turrets, was sleeping in the sunshine when first I saw it; +sparrows were twittering around its spires and gliding in and out of the +crevices in its ancient walls; while from within a strain of organ +music, low and sweet, trembled forth, till the air became a benediction +and every common thought and feeling was purified away from mind and +heart. The grave of Goldsmith is close to the pathway that skirts this +church, on a terrace raised above the foundation of the building and +above the little graveyard of the Templars that nestles at its base. As +I stood beside the resting-place of that sweet poet it was impossible +not to feel both grieved and glad: grieved at the thought of all he +suffered, and of all that the poetic nature must always suffer before it +will utter its immortal music for mankind: glad that his gentle spirit +found rest at last, and that time has given him the crown he would most +have prized--the affection of true hearts. A gray stone, coffin-shaped +and marked with a cross,--after the fashion of the contiguous tombs of +the Templars,--is imposed upon his grave. + +Illustration: "St. Mary-le-Strand--The Strand." + +One surface bears the inscription, "Here lies Oliver Goldsmith"; the +other presents the dates of his birth and death. (Born Nov. 10, 1728; +died April 4, 1774.) I tried to call up the scene of his burial, when, +around the open grave, on that tearful April evening, Johnson, Burke, +Reynolds, Beauclerk, Boswell, Davies, Kelly, Palmer, and the rest of +that broken circle, may have gathered to witness + + "The duties by the lawn-robed prelate paid, + And the last rites that dust to dust conveyed." + +No place could be less romantic than Southwark is now; but there are few +places in England that possess a greater charm for the literary pilgrim. +Shakespeare lived there, and it was there that he wrote for a theatre +and made a fortune. Old London Bridge spanned the Thames at this point, +in those days, and was the only road to the Surrey side of the river. +The theatre stood near the end of the bridge and was thus easy of access +to the wits and beaux of London. No trace of it now remains; but a +public-house called the Globe, which was its name, is standing near, and +the old church of St. Saviour--into which Shakespeare must often have +entered--still braves the storm and still resists the encroachments of +time and change. In Shakespeare's day there were houses on each side of +London Bridge; and as he walked on the bank of the Thames he could look +across to the Tower, and to Baynard Castle, which had been the residence +of Richard, Duke of Gloster, and could see, uplifted high in air, the +spire of old St. Paul's. The borough of Southwark was then but thinly +peopled. Many of its houses, as may be seen in an old picture of the +city, were surrounded by fields or gardens; and life to its inhabitants +must have been comparatively rural. Now it is packed with buildings, +gridironed with railways, crowded with people, and to the last degree +resonant and feverish with action and effort. Life swarms, traffic +bustles, and travel thunders all round the cradle of the British drama. +The old church of St. Saviour alone preserves the sacred memory of the +past. I made a pilgrimage to that shrine, with Arthur Sketchley (George +Rose), one of the kindliest humourists in England. (Obiit November 13, +1882.) We embarked at Westminster Bridge and landed close by the church +in Southwark, and we were so fortunate as to get permission to enter it +without a guide. The oldest part of it is the Lady chapel--which, in +English cathedrals, is almost invariably placed behind the choir. +Through this we strolled, alone and in silence. Every footstep there +falls upon a grave. The pavement is one mass of gravestones; and through +the tall, stained windows of the chapel a solemn light pours in upon the +sculptured names of men and women who have long been dust. In one corner +is an ancient stone coffin--a relic of the Roman days of Britain. This +is the place in which Stephen Gardiner, Bishop of Winchester, in the +days of cruel Queen Mary, held his ecclesiastical court and doomed many +a dissentient devotee to the rack and the fagot. Here was condemned John +Rogers,--afterwards burnt at the stake, in Smithfield. Queen Mary and +Queen Elizabeth may often have entered this chapel. But it is in the +choir that the pilgrim pauses with most of reverence; for there, not far +from the altar, he stands at the graves of Edmund Shakespeare, John +Fletcher, and Philip Massinger. + +Illustration: "Gower's Monument." + +They apparently rest almost side by side, and only their names and the +dates of their death are cut in the tablets that mark their sepulchres. +Edmund Shakespeare, the younger brother of William, was an actor in his +company, and died in 1607, aged twenty-seven. The great poet must have +stood at that grave, and suffered and wept there; and somehow the lover +of Shakespeare comes very near to the heart of the master when he stands +in that place. Massinger was buried there, March 18, 1638,--the parish +register recording him as "a stranger." Fletcher--of the Beaumont and +Fletcher alliance--was buried there, in 1625: Beaumont's grave is in the +Abbey. The dust of Henslowe the manager also rests beneath the pavement +of St. Saviour's. Bishop Gardiner was buried there, with pompous +ceremonial, in 1555,--but subsequently his remains were removed to the +cathedral at Winchester. The great prelate Lancelot Andrews, +commemorated by Milton, found his grave there, in 1626. The royal poet +King James the First, of Scotland, was married there, in 1423, to Jane, +daughter of the Earl of Somerset and niece of Cardinal Beaufort. In the +south transept of the church is the tomb of John Gower, the old +poet--whose effigy, carved and painted, reclines upon it and is not +attractive. A formal, severe aspect he must have had, if he resembled +that image. The tomb has been moved from the spot where it first +stood--a proceeding made necessary by a fire that destroyed part of the +old church. It is said that Gower caused the tomb to be erected during +his lifetime, so that it might be in readiness to receive his bones. The +bones are lost, but the memorial remains--sacred to the memory of the +father of English song. This tomb was restored by the Duke of +Sutherland, in 1832. + +Illustration: "Andrews Monument." + +It is enclosed by a little grill made of iron spears, painted brown and +gilded at their points. I went into the new part of the church, and, +alone, knelt in one of the pews and long remained there, overcome with +thoughts of the past and of the transient, momentary nature of this our +earthly life and the shadows that we pursue. + +One object of merriment attracts a passing glance in that old church. +There is a tomb in a corner of it that commemorates Dr. Lockyer, a maker +of patent physic, in the time of Charles the Second. This elaborate +structure presents an effigy of the doctor, together with a sounding +epitaph which declares that + +"His virtues and his pills are so well known +That envy can't confine them under stone." + +Shakespeare once lived in Clink Street, in the borough of Southwark. +Goldsmith practised medicine there. Chaucer came there, with his +Canterbury Pilgrims, and lodged at the Tabard inn, which has +disappeared. It must have been a romantic region in the old times. It is +anything but romantic now. + +Illustration: "Hanging Lantern" + +Illustration: "Old Tabard Inn, Southwark." + + + +CHAPTER V + +A VISIT TO WINDSOR + + +If the beauty of England were only superficial it would produce only a +superficial effect. It would cause a passing pleasure and would be +forgotten. It certainly would not--as now in fact it does--inspire a +deep, joyous, serene and grateful contentment, and linger in the mind, a +gracious and beneficent remembrance. The conquering and lasting potency +of it resides not alone in loveliness of expression but in loveliness of +character. Having first greatly blessed the British islands with the +natural advantages of position, climate, soil, and products, nature has +wrought their development and adornment as a necessary consequence of +the spirit of their inhabitants. The picturesque variety and pastoral +repose of the English landscape spring, in a considerable measure, from +the imaginative taste and the affectionate gentleness of the English +people. The state of the country, like its social constitution, flows +from principles within, which are constantly suggested, and it steadily +comforts and nourishes the mind with a sense of kindly feeling, moral +rectitude, solidity, and permanence. + +Illustration: "Windsor Castle." + +Thus in the peculiar beauty of England the ideal is made the actual--is +expressed in things more than in words, and in things by which words are +transcended. Milton's "L'Allegro," fine as it is, is not so fine as the +scenery--the crystallised, embodied poetry--out of which it arose. All +the delicious rural verse that has been written in England is only the +excess and superflux of her own poetic opulence: it has rippled from the +hearts of her poets just as the fragrance floats away from her hawthorn +hedges. At every step of his progress the pilgrim through English scenes +is impressed with this sovereign excellence of the accomplished fact, as +contrasted with any words that can be said in its celebration. + +Among representative scenes that are eloquent with this instructive +meaning,--scenes easily and pleasurably accessible to the traveller in +what Dickens expressively called "the green, English summer +weather,"--is the region of Windsor. The chief features of it have often +been described; the charm that it exercises can only be suggested. To +see Windsor, moreover, is to comprehend as at a glance the old feudal +system, and to feel in a profound and special way the pomp of English +character and history. More than this: it is to rise to the ennobling +serenity that always accompanies broad, retrospective contemplation of +the current of human affairs. In this quaint, decorous town--nestled at +the base of that mighty and magnificent castle which has been the home +of princes for more than five hundred years--the imaginative mind +wanders over vast tracts of the past and beholds as in a mirror the +pageants of chivalry, the coronations of kings, the strife of sects, the +battles of armies, the schemes of statesmen, the decay of transient +systems, the growth of a rational civilisation, and the everlasting +march of thought. Every prospect of the region intensifies this +sentiment of contemplative grandeur. As you look from the castle walls +your gaze takes in miles and miles of blooming country, sprinkled over +with little hamlets, wherein the utmost stateliness of learning and rank +is gracefully commingled with all that is lovely and soothing in rural +life. Not far away rise the "antique towers" of Eton-- + + "Where grateful science still adores + Her Henry's holy shade." + +It was in Windsor Castle that her Henry was born; and there he often +held his court; and it is in St. George's chapel that his ashes repose. +In the dim distance stands the church of Stoke-Pogis, about which Gray +used to wander, + + "Beneath those rugged elms, that yew-tree's shade." + +You recognise now a deeper significance than ever before in the "solemn +stillness" of the incomparable Elegy. The luminous twilight mood of that +immortal poem--its pensive reverie and solemn passion--is inherent in +the scene; and you feel that it was there, and there only, that the +genius of its exceptional author--austerely gentle and severely pure, +and thus in perfect harmony with its surroundings--could have been moved +to that sublime strain of inspiration and eloquence. Near at hand, in +the midst of your reverie, the mellow organ sounds from the chapel of +St. George, where, under "fretted vault" and over "long-drawn aisle," +depend the ghostly, mouldering banners of ancient knights--as still as +the bones of the dead-and-gone monarchs that crumble in the crypt below. + +Illustration: "St. George's Chapel, Windsor Castle." + +In this church are many of the old kings and nobles of England. The +handsome and gallant Edward the Fourth here found his grave; and near it +is that of the accomplished Hastings--his faithful friend, to the last +and after. Here lies the dust of the stalwart, impetuous, and savage +Henry the Eighth, and here, at midnight, by the light of torches, they +laid beneath the pavement the mangled body of Charles the First. As you +stand on Windsor ramparts, pondering thus upon the storied past and the +evanescence of "all that beauty, all that wealth e'er gave," your eyes +rest dreamily on green fields far below, through which, under tall elms, +the brimming and sparkling river flows on without a sound, and in which +a few figures, dwarfed by distance, flit here and there, in seeming +aimless idleness; while, warned homeward by impending sunset, the +chattering birds circle and float around the lofty towers of the castle; +and delicate perfumes of seringa and jasmine are wafted up from dusky, +unknown depths at the base of its ivied steep. At such an hour I stood +on those ramparts and saw the shy villages and rich meadows of fertile +Berkshire, all red and golden with sunset light; and at such an hour I +stood in the lonely cloisters of St. George's chapel, and heard the +distant organ sob, and saw the sunlight fade up the gray walls, and felt +and knew the sanctity of silence. Age and death have made this church +illustrious; but the spot itself has its own innate charm of mystical +repose. + + "No use of lanterns; and in one place lay + Feathers and dust to-day and yesterday." + +Illustration: "Windsor Forest and Park." + +The drive from the front of Windsor Castle is through a broad and +stately avenue, three miles in length, straight as an arrow and level as +a standing pool; and this white highway through the green and fragrant +sod is sumptuously embowered, from end to end, with double rows of +magnificent elms and oaks. The Windsor avenue, like the splendid +chestnut grove at Bushey Park, long famous among the pageants of rural +England, has often been described. It is after leaving this that the +rambler comes upon the rarer beauties of Windsor Park and Forest. From +the far end of the avenue--where, in a superb position, the equestrian +statue of King George the Third rises on its massive pedestal of natural +rock,--the road winds away, through shaded dell and verdant glade, past +great gnarled beeches and under boughs of elm, and yew, and oak, till +its silver thread is lost in the distant woods. At intervals a sinuous +pathway strays off to some secluded lodge, half hidden in foliage--the +property of the Crown, and the rustic residence of a scion of the royal +race. In one of those retreats dwelt poor old George the Third, in the +days of his mental darkness; and the memory of the agonising king seems +still to cast a shadow on the mysterious and melancholy house. They show +you, under glass, in one of the lodge gardens, an enormous grapevine, +owned by the Queen--a vine which, from its single stalwart trunk, +spreads its teeming branches, laterally, more than a hundred feet in +each direction. So come use and thrift, hand in hand with romance! Many +an aged oak is passed, in your progress, round which, "at still +midnight," Herne the Hunter might yet take his ghostly prowl, shaking +his chain "in a most hideous and dreadful manner." The wreck of the +veritable Herne's Oak, it is said, was rooted out, together with other +ancient and decayed trees, in the time of George the Third, and in +somewhat too literal fulfilment of his Majesty's misinterpreted command. + +Illustration: "The Curfew Tower." + +This great park is fourteen miles in circumference and contains nearly +four thousand acres, and many of the youngest trees that adorn it are +more than one hundred and fifty years old. Far in its heart you stroll +by Virginia Water--an artificial lake, but faultless in its gentle +beauty--and perceive it so deep and so breezy that a full-rigged +ship-of-war, with armament, can navigate its wind-swept, curling +billows. This lake was made by that sanguinary Duke of Cumberland who +led the English forces at Culloden. In the dim groves that fringe its +margin are many nests wherein pheasants are bred, to fall by the royal +shot and to supply the royal table: those you may contemplate but not +approach. At a point in your walk, sequestered and lonely, they have set +up and skilfully disposed the fragments of a genuine ruined temple, +brought from the remote East--relic perchance of "Tadmor's marble +waste," and certainly a most solemn memorial of the morning twilight of +time. Broken arch, storm-stained pillar, and shattered column are here +shrouded with moss and ivy; and should you chance to see them as the +evening shadows deepen and the evening wind sighs mournfully in the +grass your fancy will not fail to drink in the perfect illusion that one +of the stateliest structures of antiquity has slowly crumbled where now +its fragments remain. + +"Quaint" is a descriptive epithet that has been much abused, but it may, +with absolute propriety, be applied to Windsor. The devious little +streets there visible, and the carved and timber-crossed buildings, +often of great age, are uncommonly rich in the expressiveness of +imaginative character. The emotions and the fancy, equally with the +sense of necessity and the instinct of use, have exercised their +influence and uttered their spirit in the shaping and adornment of the +town. While it constantly feeds the eye--with that pleasing irregularity +of lines and forms which is so delicious and refreshing--it quite as +constantly nurtures the sense of romance that ought to play so large a +part in our lives, redeeming us from the tyranny of the commonplace and +intensifying all the high feelings and noble aspirations that are +possible to human nature. England contains many places like Windsor; +some that blend in even richer amplitude the elements of quaintness, +loveliness, and magnificence. The meaning of them all is the same: that +romance, beauty, and gentleness are forever vital; that their forces are +within our souls, and ready and eager to find their way into our +thoughts, actions, and circumstances, and to brighten for every one of +us the face of every day; that they ought neither to be relegated to the +distant and the past nor kept for our books and day-dreams alone; +but--in a calmer and higher mood than is usual in this age of universal +mediocrity, critical scepticism, and miscellaneous tumult--should be +permitted to flow forth into our architecture, adornments, and customs, +to hallow and preserve our antiquities, to soften our manners, to give +us tranquillity, patience, and tolerance, to make our country loveable +for our own hearts, and so to enable us to bequeath it, sure of love and +reverence, to succeeding ages. + +Illustration: "The Sign of the Swan." + + + +CHAPTER VI + +THE PALACE OF WESTMINSTER + + +The American who, having been a careful and interested reader of English +history, visits London for the first time, half expects to find the +ancient city in a state of mild decay; and consequently he is a little +startled at first, upon realising that the present is quite as vital as +ever the past was, and that London antiquity is, in fact, swathed in the +robes of everyday action and very much alive. When, for example, you +enter Westminster Hall--"the great hall of William Rufus"--you are +beneath one of the most glorious canopies in the world--one that was +built by Richard the Second, whose grave, chosen by himself, is in the +Abbey, just across the street from where you stand. But this old hall is +now only a vestibule to the palace of Westminster. The Lords and the +Commons of England, on their way to the Houses of Parliament, pass every +day over the spot on which Charles the First was tried and condemned, +and on which occurred the trial of Warren Hastings. + +Illustration: "Westminster Hall." + +It is a mere thoroughfare--glorious though it be, alike in structure and +historic renown. The Palace Yard, near by, was the scene of the +execution of Sir Walter Raleigh. In Bishopsgate Street stands Crosby +House; the same to which, in Shakespeare's tragedy, the Duke of Gloster +requests the retirement of Lady Anne. It is a restaurant now, and you +may dine in the veritable throne-room of Richard the Third. The house of +Cardinal Wolsey in Fleet Street is now a shop. Milton once lived in +Golden Lane, and Golden Lane was a sweet and quiet spot. It is a dingy +and dismal street now, and the visitor is glad to get out of it. To-day +makes use of yesterday, all the world over. It is not in London, +certainly, that you find anything--except old churches--mouldering in +silence, solitude, and neglect. + +Those who see every day during the Parliamentary session the mace +that is borne through the lobby of the House of Commons, although they +are obliged, on every occasion, to uncover as it passes, do not, +probably, view that symbol with much interest. Yet it is the same mace +that Oliver Cromwell insulted[1] when he dissolved the Parliament and +cried out, "Take away that bauble!" + +[1] An error. The House of Commons has had three maces. The first one +disappeared after the judicial slaughter of Charles the First. The +Cromwell mace was carried to the island of Jamaica, and is there +preserved in a museum at Kingston. The third is the one now in use. + +Illustration: "The Mace." + +I saw it one day, on its passage to the table of the Commons, and was +glad to remove the hat of respect to what it signifies--the power and +majesty of the free people of England. The Speaker of the House was +walking behind it, very grand in his wig and gown, and the members +trooped in at his heels to secure their places by being present at the +opening prayer. A little later I was provided with a seat, in a dim +corner, in that august assemblage of British senators, and could observe +at ease their management of the public business. The Speaker was on his +throne; the mace was on its table; the hats of the Commons were on their +heads; and over this singular, animated, impressive scene the waning +light of a summer afternoon poured softly down, through the high, +stained, and pictured windows of one of the most symmetrical halls in +the world. It did not happen to be a day of excitement. The Irish +members had not then begun to impede the transaction of business, for +the sake of drawing attention to the everlasting wrongs of Ireland. Yet +it was a lively day. Curiosity on the part of the Opposition and a +respectful incertitude on the part of Her Majesty's ministers were the +prevailing conditions. I had never before heard so many questions +asked--outside of the French grammar--and asked to so little purpose. +Everybody wanted to know, and nobody wanted to tell. Each inquirer took +off his hat when he rose to ask, and put it on again when he sat down to +be answered. Each governmental sphinx bared his brow when he emerged to +divulge, and covered it again when he subsided without divulging. The +superficial respect of these interlocutors for each other steadily +remained, however, of the most deferential and considerate description; +so that--without discourtesy--it was impossible not to think of Byron's +"mildest mannered man that ever scuttled ship or cut a throat." +Underneath this velvety, purring, conventional manner the observer could +readily discern the fires of passion, prejudice, and strong antagonism. +They make no parade in the House of Commons. They attend to their +business. And upon every topic that is brought before their notice they +have definite ideas, strong convictions, and settled purposes. The topic +of Army Estimates upon this day seemed especially to arouse their +ardour. Discussion of this was continually diversified by cries of "Oh!" +and of "Hear!" and of "Order!" and sometimes those cries savoured more +of derision than of compliment. Many persons spoke, but no person spoke +well. An off-hand, matter-of-fact, shambling method of speech would seem +to be the fashion in the British House of Commons. I remembered the +anecdote that De Quincey tells, about Sheridan and the young member who +quoted Greek. It was easy to perceive how completely out of place the +sophomore orator would be, in that assemblage. Britons like better to +make speeches than to hear them, and they will never be slaves to bad +oratory. The moment a windy gentleman got the floor, and began to read a +manuscript respecting the Indian Government, as many as forty Commons +arose and noisily walked out of the House. Your pilgrim likewise hailed +the moment of his deliverance and was glad to escape to the open air. + +Books have been written to describe the Palace of Westminster; but it is +observable that this structure, however much its magnificence deserves +commemorative applause, is deficient, as yet, in the charm of +association. The old Palace of St. James, with its low, dusky walls, its +round turrets, and its fretted battlements, is more impressive, because +history has freighted it with meaning and time has made it beautiful. +But the Palace of Westminster is a splendid structure. It covers eight +acres of ground, on the bank of the Thames; it contains eleven +quadrangles and five hundred rooms; and when its niches for statuary +have been filled it will contain two hundred and twenty-six statues. The +monuments in St. Stephen's Hall--into which you pass from Westminster +Hall, which has been incorporated into the Palace and is its only +ancient and therefore its most interesting feature--indicate, very +eloquently, what a superb art gallery this will one day become. The +statues are the images of Selden, Hampden, Falkland, Clarendon, Somers, +Walpole, Chatham, Mansfield, Burke, Fox, Pitt, and Grattan. Those of +Mansfield and Grattan present, perhaps, the most of character and power, +making you feel that they are indubitably accurate portraits, and +winning you by the charm of personality. There are statues, also, in +Westminster Hall, commemorative of the Georges, William and Mary, and +Anne; but it is not of these you think, nor of any local and everyday +object, when you stand beneath the wonderful roof of Richard the Second. +Nearly eight hundred years "their cloudy wings expand" above that +fabric, and copiously shed upon it the fragrance of old renown. Richard +the Second was deposed there: Cromwell was there installed Lord +Protector of England: John Fisher, Sir Thomas More, and Strafford were +there condemned: and it was there that the possible, if not usual, +devotion of woman's heart was so touchingly displayed by her + + "Whose faith drew strength from death, + And prayed her Russell up to God." + +No one can realise, without personal experience, the number and variety +of pleasures accessible to the resident of London. These may not be +piquant to him who has them always within his reach. I met with several +residents of the British capital who had always intended to visit the +Tower but had never done so. But to the stranger they possess a constant +and keen fascination. The Derby this year [1877] was thought to be +comparatively a tame race; but I know of one spectator who saw it from +the top of the grand stand and who thought that the scene it presented +was wonderfully brilliant. The sky had been overcast with dull clouds +till the moment when the race was won; but just as Archer, rising in his +saddle, lifted his horse forward and gained the goal alone, the sun +burst forth and shed upon the downs a sheen of gold, and lit up all the +distant hills, and all the far-stretching roads that wind away from the +region of Epsom like threads of silver through the green. +Carrier-pigeons were instantly launched off to London, with the news of +the victory of Silvio. There was one winner on the grand stand who had +laid bets on Silvio, for no other reason than because that horse bore +the prettiest name in the list. The Derby, like Christmas, comes but +once a year; but other allurements are almost perennial. + +Illustration: "Greenwich Hospital." + +Greenwich, for instance, with its white-bait dinner, invites the epicure +during the best part of the London season. A favourite tavern is the +Trafalgar--in which each room is named after some magnate of the old +British navy; and Nelson, Hardy, and Rodney are household words. Another +cheery place of resort is The Ship. The Hospitals are at Greenwich that +Dr. Johnson thought to be too fine for a charity; and back of +these--which are ordinary enough now, in comparison with modern +structures erected for a kindred purpose--stands the famous Observatory +that keeps time for Europe. This place is hallowed also by the grave of +Clive and by that of Wolfe--to the latter of whom, however, there is a +monument in Westminster Abbey. Greenwich makes one think of Queen +Elizabeth, who was born there, who often held her court there, and who +often sailed thence, in her barge, up the river to Richmond--her +favourite retreat and the scene of her last days and her pathetic death. +Few spots can compare with Richmond, in brilliancy of landscape. That +place--the Shene of old times--was long a royal residence. The woods and +meadows that you see from the terrace of the Star and Garter +tavern--spread upon a rolling plain as far as the eye can reach--sparkle +like emeralds; and the Thames, dotted with little toy-like boats, shines +with all the deep lustre of the blackest onyx. Richmond, for those who +honour genius and who love to walk in the footsteps of renown, is full +of interest. Dean Swift once had a house there, the site of which is +still indicated. Pope's rural home was in the adjacent village of +Twickenham,--where it may still be seen. Horace Walpole's stately +mansion of Strawberry Hill is not far off. The poet Thomson long resided +at Richmond, in a house now used as an hospital, and there he died. +Edmund Kean and the once famous Mrs. Yates rest beneath Richmond church, +and there also are the ashes of Thomson. As I drove through the sweetly +sylvan Park of Richmond, in the late afternoon of a breezy summer day, +and heard the whispering of the great elms, and saw the gentle, trustful +deer couched at ease in the golden glades, I heard all the while, in the +still chambers of thought, the tender lament of Collins--which is now a +prophecy fulfilled: + + "Remembrance oft shall haunt the shore, + When Thames in summer wreaths is drest; + And oft suspend the dashing oar, + To bid his gentle spirit rest." + +Illustration: "Queen Elizabeth's Cradle." + + + +CHAPTER VII + +WARWICK AND KENILWORTH + + +All the way from London to Warwick it rained; not heavily, but with a +gentle fall. The gray clouds hung low over the landscape and softly +darkened it; so that meadows of scarlet and emerald, the shining foliage +of elms, gray turret, nestled cottage and limpid river were as +mysterious and evanescent as pictures seen in dreams. At Warwick the +rain had fallen and ceased, and the walk from the station to the inn was +on a road--or on a footpath by the roadside--still hard and damp with +the water it had absorbed. A fresh wind blew from the fields, sweet with +the rain and fragrant with the odour of leaves and flowers. The streets +of the ancient town--entered through an old Norman arch--were deserted +and silent. It was Sunday when I first came to the country of +Shakespeare; and over all the region there brooded a sacred stillness +peculiar to the time and harmonious beyond utterance with the sanctity +of the place. As I strive, after many days, to call back and to fix in +words the impressions of that sublime experience, the same awe falls +upon me now that fell upon me then. Nothing else upon earth--no natural +scene, no relic of the past, no pageantry of the present--can vie with +the shrine of Shakespeare, in power to impress, to humble, and to exalt +the devout spirit that has been nurtured at the fountain of his +transcendent genius. + +A fortunate way to approach Stratford-on-Avon is by Warwick and +Kenilworth. Those places are not on a direct line of travel; but the +scenes and associations that they successively present are such as +assume a symmetrical order, increase in interest, and grow to a +delightful culmination. Objects that Shakespeare himself must have seen +are still visible there; and little by little, in contact with these, +the pilgrim through this haunted region is mentally saturated with that +atmosphere of serenity and romance in which the youth of Shakespeare was +passed, and by which his works and his memory are embalmed. No one +should come abruptly upon the poet's home. The mind needs to be prepared +for the impression that awaits it; and in this gradual approach it finds +preparation, both suitable and delicious. The luxuriance of the country, +its fertile fields, its brilliant foliage, its myriads of wild-flowers, +its pomp of colour and of physical vigour and bloom, do not fail to +announce, to every mind, howsoever heedless, that this is a fit place +for the birth and nurture of a great man. But this is not all. As you +stroll in the quaint streets of Warwick, as you drive to Kenilworth, as +you muse in that poetic ruin, as you pause in the old graveyard in the +valley below, as you meditate over the crumbling fragments of the +ancient abbey, at every step of the way you are haunted by a vague sense +of an impending grandeur; you are aware of a presence that fills and +sanctifies the scene. The emotion that is thus inspired is very +glorious; never to be elsewhere felt; and never to be forgotten. + +Illustration: "Warwick Castle." + +The cyclopaedias and the guide-books dilate, with much particularity and +characteristic eloquence, upon Warwick Castle and other great features +of Warwickshire, but the attribute that all such records omit is the +atmosphere; and this, perhaps, is rather to be indicated than described. +The prevailing quality of it is a certain high and sweet solemnity--a +feeling kindred with the placid, happy melancholy that steals over the +mind, when, on a sombre afternoon in autumn, you stand in the +churchyard, and listen, amid rustling branches and sighing grass, to the +low music of distant organ and chanting choir. Peace, haunted by +romance, dwells here, in reverie. The great tower of Warwick, based in +silver Avon and pictured in its slumbering waters, seems musing upon the +centuries over which it has watched, and full of unspeakable knowledge +and thought. The dark and massive gateways of the town and the +timber-crossed fronts of its antique houses live on in the same strange +dream and perfect repose; and all along the drive to Kenilworth are +equal images of rest--of a rest in which there is nothing supine or +sluggish, no element of death or decay, but in which passion, +imagination, beauty, and sorrow, seized at their topmost poise, seem +crystallised in eternal calm. What opulence of splendid life is vital +for ever in Kenilworth's crumbling ruin there are no words to say. What +pomp of royal banners! what dignity of radiant cavaliers! what +loveliness of stately and exquisite ladies! what magnificence of +banquets! what wealth of pageantry! what lustre of illumination! The +same festal music that the poet Gascoigne heard there, three hundred +years ago, is still sounding on, to-day. The proud and cruel Leicester +still walks in his vaulted hall. The imperious face of the Virgin Queen +still from her dais looks down on plumed courtiers and jewelled dames; +and still the moonlight, streaming through the turret-window, falls on +the white bosom and the great, startled, black eyes of Amy Robsart, +waiting for her lover. The gaze of the pilgrim, indeed, rests only upon +old, gray, broken walls, overgrown with green moss and ivy, and pierced +by irregular casements through which the sun shines, and the winds blow, +and the rains drive, and the birds fly, amid utter desolation. But +silence and ruin are here alike eloquent and awful; and, much as the +place impresses you by what remains, it impresses you far more by what +has vanished. Ambition, love, pleasure, power, misery, tragedy--these +are gone; and being gone they are immortal. I plucked, in the garden of +Kenilworth, one of the most brilliant red roses that ever grew; and as I +pressed it to my lips I seemed to touch the lips of that superb, +bewildering beauty who outweighed England's crown (at least in story), +and whose spirit is the everlasting genius of the place. + +There is a row of cottages opposite to the ruins of the castle, in which +contentment seems to have made her home. The ivy embowers them. The +roses cluster around their little windows. The greensward slopes away, +in front, from big, flat stones that are embedded in the mossy sod +before their doors. Down in the valley, hard by, your steps stray +through an ancient graveyard--in which stands the parish church, a +carefully restored building of the eleventh century, with tower, and +clock, and bell--and past a few fragments of the Abbey and Monastery of +St. Mary, destroyed in 1538. At many another point, on the roads betwixt +Warwick and Kenilworth and Stratford, I came upon such nests of cosy, +rustic quiet and seeming happiness. They build their country houses low, +in England, so that the trees overhang them, and the cool, friendly, +flower-gemmed earth--parent, and stay, and bourne of mortal life--is +tenderly taken into their companionship. Here, at Kenilworth, as +elsewhere, at such places as Marlowe, Henley, Richmond, Maidenhead, +Cookham, and the region round about Windsor, I saw many a sweet nook +where tired life might be content to lay down its burden and enter into +its rest. In all true love of country--a passion that seems to be more +deeply felt in England than anywhere else upon the globe--there is love +for the literal soil itself: and surely that sentiment in the human +heart is equally natural and pious which inspires and perpetuates man's +desire that where he found his cradle he may also find his grave. + +Illustration: "Old Inn." + +Under a cloudy sky and through a landscape still wet and shining with +recent rain the drive to Stratford was a pleasure so exquisite that at +last it became a pain. Just as the carriage reached the junction of the +Warwick and Snitterfield roads a ray of sunshine, streaming through a +rift in the clouds, fell upon the neighbouring hillside, scarlet with +poppies, and lit the scene as with the glory of a celestial benediction. +This sunburst, neither growing larger nor coming nearer, followed all +the way to Stratford; and there, on a sudden, the clouds were lifted and +dispersed, and "fair daylight" flooded the whole green countryside. The +afternoon sun was still high in heaven when I alighted at the Red Horse +and entered the little parlour of Washington Irving. They keep the room +much as it was when he left it; for they are proud of his gentle genius +and grateful for his commemorative words. In a corner stands [1877] the +small, old-fashioned haircloth arm-chair in which he sat, on that night +of memory and of musing which he has described in _The Sketch-Book. _A +brass plate is affixed to it, bearing his name; and the visitor +observes, in token of its age and service, that the hair-cloth of its +seat is considerably worn and frayed. Every American pilgrim to +Stratford sits in that chair; and looks with tender interest on the old +fireplace; and reads the memorials of Irving that are hung upon the +walls: and it is no small comfort there to reflect that our illustrious +countryman--whose name will be remembered with honour, as long as +literature is prized among men--was the first, in modern days, to +discover the beauties and to interpret the poetry of the birthplace of +Shakespeare. + +Illustration: "Washington Irving's Parlour." + +Illustration: "From the Warwick Shield." + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +FIRST VIEW OF STRATFORD-ON-AVON + + +Once again, as it did on that delicious summer afternoon which is for +ever memorable in my life, the golden glory of the westering sun burns +on the gray spire of Stratford church, and on the ancient graveyard +below,--wherein the mossy stones lean this way and that, in sweet and +orderly confusion,--and on the peaceful avenue of limes, and on the +burnished water of silver Avon. The tall, pointed, many-coloured windows +of the church glint in the evening light. A cool and fragrant wind is +stirring the branches and the grass. The small birds, calling to their +mates or sporting in the wanton pleasure of their airy life, are +circling over the church roof or hiding in little crevices of its walls. +On the vacant meadows across the river stretch away the long and level +shadows of the pompous elms. Here and there, upon the river's brink, are +pairs of what seem lovers, strolling by the reedy marge, or sitting upon +the low tombs, in the Sabbath quiet. As the sun sinks and the dusk +deepens, two figures of infirm old women, clad in black, pass with slow +and feeble steps through the avenue of limes, and vanish around an angle +of the church--that now stands all in shadow: and no sound is heard but +the faint rustling of the leaves. + +Illustration: "Holy Trinity Church." + +Once again, as on that sacred night, the streets of Stratford are +deserted and silent under the star-lit sky, and I am standing, in the +dim darkness, at the door of the cottage in which Shakespeare was born. +It is empty, dark, and still; and in all the neighbourhood there is no +stir nor sign of life; but the quaint casements and gables of this +haunted house, its antique porch, and the great timbers that cross its +front are luminous as with a light of their own, so that I see them with +perfect vision. I stand there a long time, and I know that I am to +remember these sights for ever, as I see them now. After a while, with +lingering reluctance, I turn away from this marvellous spot, and, +presently passing through a little, winding lane, I walk in the High +Street of the town, and mark, at the end of the prospect, the +illuminated clock in the tower of the chapel of the Holy Cross. A few +chance-directed steps bring me to what was New Place once, where +Shakespeare died; and there again I pause, and long remain in +meditation, gazing into the enclosed garden, where, under screens of +wire, are certain strange fragments of lime and stone. These--which I do +not then know--are the remains of the foundation of Shakespeare's house. +The night wanes; and still I walk in Stratford streets; and by and by I +am standing on the bridge that spans the Avon, and looking down at the +thick-clustering stars reflected in its black and silent stream. At +last, under the roof of the Red Horse, I sink into a troubled slumber, +from which soon a strain of celestial music--strong, sweet, jubilant, +and splendid--awakens me in an instant; and I start up in my bed--to +find that all around me is still as death; and then, drowsily, far-off, +the bell strikes three, in its weird and lonesome tower. + +Every pilgrim to Stratford knows, in a general way, what he will there +behold. Copious and frequent description of its Shakespearean +associations has made the place familiar to all the world. Yet these +Shakespearean associations keep a perennial freshness, and are equally a +surprise to the sight and a wonder to the soul. Though three centuries +old they are not stricken with age or decay. The house in Henley Street, +in which, according to accepted tradition, Shakespeare was born, has +been from time to time repaired; and so it has been kept sound, without +having been materially changed from what it was in Shakespeare's youth. +The kind ladies, Miss Maria and Miss Caroline Chataway, who take care of +it [1877], and with so much pride and courtesy show it to the visitor, +called my attention to a bit of the ceiling of the upper chamber--the +room of Shakespeare's birth--which had begun to droop, and had been +skilfully secured with little iron laths. It is in this room that the +numerous autographs are scrawled over the ceiling and walls. One side of +the chimneypiece here is called "The Actor's Pillar," so richly is it +adorned with the names of actors; Edmund Kean's signature being among +them, and still legible. On one of the window-panes, cut with a diamond, +is the name of "W. Scott"; and all the panes are scratched with +signatures--making you think of Douglas Jerrold's remark on bad +Shakespearean commentators, that they resemble persons who write on +glass with diamonds, and obscure the light with a multitude of +scratches. The floor of this room, uncarpeted and almost snow-white with +much washing, seems still as hard as iron; yet its boards have been +hollowed by wear, and the heads of the old nails that fasten it down +gleam like polished silver. + +Illustration: "The Inglenook." + +You can sit in an antique chair, in a corner of this room, and think +unutterable things. There is, certainly, no word that can even remotely +suggest the feeling with which you are then overwhelmed. You can sit +also in the room below, in the seat, in the corner of the wide +fireplace, that Shakespeare himself must often have occupied. They keep +but a few sticks of furniture in any part of the cottage. One room is +devoted to Shakespearean relics--more or less authentic; one of which is +a schoolboy's desk that was obtained from the old grammar-school in +Church Street in which Shakespeare was once a pupil. At the back of the +cottage, now isolated from contiguous structures, is a pleasant garden, +and at one side is a cosy, luxurious little cabin--the home of order and +of pious decorum--for the ladies who are custodians of the Shakespeare +House. If you are a favoured visitor, you may receive from that garden, +at parting, all the flowers, prettily mounted upon a sheet of paper, +that poor Ophelia names, in the scene of her madness. "There's rosemary, +that's for remembrance: and there is pansies, that's for thoughts: +there's fennel for you, and columbines: there's rue for you: there's a +daisy:--I would give you some violets, but they withered all when my +father died." + +The minute knowledge that Shakespeare had of plants and flowers, and the +loving appreciation with which he describes pastoral scenery, are +explained to the rambler in Stratford, by all that he sees and hears. +There is a walk across the fields to Shottery that the poet must often +have taken, in the days of his courtship of Anne Hathaway. The path to +this hamlet passes through pastures and gardens, necked everywhere with +those brilliant scarlet poppies that are so radiant and so bewitching in +the English landscape. To have grown up amid such surroundings, and, +above all, to have experienced amid them the passion of love, must have +been, for Shakespeare, the intuitive acquirement of ample and specific +knowledge of their manifold beauties. It would be hard to find a sweeter +rustic retreat than Anne Hathaway's cottage is, even now. Tall trees +embower it; and over its porches, and all along its picturesque, +irregular front, and on its thatched roof, the woodbine and the ivy +climb, and there are wild roses and the maiden's blush. For the young +poet's wooing no place could be fitter than this. He would always +remember it with tender-joy. + +Illustration: "Approach to Shottery." + +They show you, in that cottage, an old settle, by the fireside, whereon +the lovers may have sat together: it formerly stood outside the door: +and in the rude little chamber next the roof an antique, carved +bedstead, that Anne Hathaway once owned. This, it is thought, continued +to be Anne's home for several years of her married life--her husband +being absent in London, and sometimes coming down to visit her, at +Shottery. "He was wont," says John Aubrey, the antiquary, writing in +1680, "to go to his native country once a year." The last surviving +descendant of the Hathaway family--Mrs. Baker--lives in the house now, +and welcomes with homely hospitality the wanderers, from all lands, who +seek--in a sympathy and reverence most honourable to human nature--the +shrine of Shakespeare's love. There is one such wanderer who will never +forget the farewell clasp of that kind woman's hand, and who has never +parted with her gift of woodbine and roses from the porch of Anne +Hathaway's cottage. + +In England it is living, more than writing about it, that is esteemed by +the best persons. They prize good writing, but they prize noble living +far more. This is an ingrained principle, and not an artificial habit, +and this principle doubtless was as potent in Shakespeare's age as it is +to-day. Nothing could be more natural than that this great writer should +think less of his works than of the establishment of his home. He would +desire, having won a fortune, to dwell in his native place, to enjoy the +companionship and esteem of his neighbours, to participate in their +pleasures, to help them in their troubles, to aid in the improvement and +embellishment of the town, to deepen his hold upon the affections of all +around him, and to feel that, at last, honoured and lamented, his ashes +would be laid in the village church where he had worshipped-- + + "Among familiar names to rest, + And in the places of his youth." + +It was in 1597, twelve years after he went to London, that the poet +began to buy property in Stratford, and it was about eight years after +his first purchase that he finally settled there, at New Place. [J. O. +Halliwell-Phillips says that it was in 1609: There is a record alleging +that as late as that year Shakespeare still retained a residence in +Clink Street, Southwark.] This mansion was altered by Sir Hugh Clopton, +who owned it toward the middle of the eighteenth century, and +it was destroyed by the Rev. Francis Gastrell, in 1759. The grounds, +which have been reclaimed,--chiefly through the zeal of J. O. +Halliwell-Phillips,--are laid out according to the model they are +supposed to have presented when Shakespeare owned them. His lawn, his +orchard, and his garden are indicated; and a scion of his mulberry is +growing on the spot where that famous tree once flourished. You can see +a part of the foundation of the old house. It was made of brick and +timber, it seems to have had gables, and no doubt it was fashioned with +the beautiful curves and broken lines of the Tudor architecture. They +show, upon the lawn, a stone of considerable size, that surmounted its +door. The site--still a central and commodious one--is on the corner of +Chapel Street and Chapel Lane; and on the opposite corner stands now, as +it has stood for eight hundred years, the chapel of the Holy Cross, with +square, dark tower, fretted parapet, pointed casements, and Norman +porch--one of the most romantic and picturesque little churches in +England. It was easy, when musing on that storied spot, to fancy +Shakespeare, in the gloaming of a summer day, strolling on the lawn, +beneath his elms, and listening to the soft and solemn music of the +chapel organ; or to think of him as stepping forth from his study, in +the late and lonesome hours of the night, and pausing to "count the +clock," or note the "exhalations whizzing in the air." + +The funeral train of Shakespeare, on that dark day when it moved from +New Place to Stratford Church, had but a little way to go. The river, +surely, must have seemed to hush its murmurs, the trees to droop their +branches, the sunshine to grow dim--as that sad procession passed! His +grave is under the gray pavement of the chancel, near the altar, and his +wife and one of his daughters are buried beside him. The pilgrim who +reads upon the gravestone those rugged lines of grievous entreaty and +awful imprecation that guard the poet's rest feels no doubt that he is +listening to his living voice--for he has now seen the enchanting beauty +of the place, and he has now felt what passionate affection it can +inspire. Feeling and not manner would naturally have prompted that +abrupt, agonised supplication and threat. Nor does such a pilgrim doubt, +when gazing on the painted bust, above the grave,--made by Gerard +Jonson, stonecutter,--that he beholds the authentic face of Shakespeare. +It is not the heavy face of the portraits that represent it. There is a +rapt, transfigured quality in it, that those copies do not convey. It is +thoughtful, austere, and yet benign. Shakespeare was a hazel-eyed man, +with auburn hair, and the colours that he wore were scarlet and black. +Being painted, and also being set up at a considerable height on the +church wall, the bust does not disclose what is sufficiently perceptible +in a cast from it--that it is the copy of a mask from the dead face. One +of the cheeks is a little swollen and the tongue, slightly protruded, is +caught between the lips. The idle theory that the poet was not a +gentleman of consideration in his own time and place falls utterly and +for ever from the mind when you stand at his grave. No man could have a +more honourable or sacred place of sepulture; and while it illustrates +the profound esteem of the community in which he lived it testifies to +the religious character by which that esteem was confirmed. "I commend +my soul into the hands of God, my Creator, hoping, and assuredly +believing, through the only merits of Jesus Christ, my Saviour, to be +made partaker of life everlasting." So said Shakespeare, in his last +Will, bowing in humble reverence the mightiest mind--as vast and +limitless in the power to comprehend as to express!--that ever wore the +garments of mortality.[1] + +[1] It ought perhaps to be remarked that this prelude to Shakespeare's +Will may not have been intended by him as a profession of faith, but may +have been signed simply as a legal formula. His works denote a mind of +high and broad spiritual convictions, untrammelled by creed or doctrine. +His inclination, probably, was toward the Roman Catholic church, because +of the poetry that is in it: but such a man as Shakespeare would have +viewed all religious beliefs in a kindly spirit, and would have made no +emphatic professions. The Will was executed on March 25, 1616. It covers +three sheets of paper; it is not in Shakespeare's hand-writing, but each +sheet bears his signature. It is in the British Museum. + +Once again there is a sound of organ music, very low and soft, in +Stratford Church, and the dim light, broken by the richly stained +windows, streams across the dusky chancel, filling the still air with +opal haze and flooding those gray gravestones with its mellow radiance. +Not a word is spoken; but, at intervals, the rustle of the leaves is +audible in a sighing wind. What visions are these, that suddenly fill +the region! What royal faces of monarchs, proud with power, or pallid +with anguish! What sweet, imperial women, gleeful with happy youth and +love, or wide-eyed and rigid in tearless woe! What warriors, with +serpent diadems, defiant of death and hell! The mournful eyes of Hamlet; +the wild countenance of Lear; Ariel with his harp, and Prospero with his +wand! Here is no death! All these, and more, are immortal shapes; and he +that made them so, although his mortal part be but a handful of dust in +yonder crypt, is a glorious angel beyond the stars. + +Illustration: "Distant View of Stratford." + + + +CHAPTER IX + +LONDON NOOKS AND CORNERS + + +Those persons upon whom the spirit of the past has power--and it has not +power upon every mind!--are aware of the mysterious charm that invests +certain familiar spots and objects, in all old cities. London, to +observers of this class, is a never-ending delight. Modern cities, for +the most part, reveal a definite and rather a commonplace design. Their +main avenues are parallel. Their shorter streets bisect their main +avenues. They are diversified with rectangular squares. Their +configuration, in brief, suggests the sapient, utilitarian forethought +of the land-surveyor and civil engineer. The ancient British capital, on +the contrary, is the expression--slowly and often narrowly made--of many +thousands of characters. It is a city that has happened--and the +stroller through the old part of it comes continually upon the queerest +imaginable alleys, courts, and nooks. Not far from Drury Lane Theatre, +for instance, hidden away in a clump of dingy houses, is a dismal little +graveyard--the same that Dickens has chosen, in his novel of _Bleak +House, _as the sepulchre of little Jo's friend, the first love of the +unfortunate Lady Dedlock. It is a doleful spot, draped in the robes of +faded sorrow, and crowded into the twilight of obscurity by the +thick-clustering habitations of men.[1] The Cripplegate church, St. +Giles's, a less lugubrious spot and less difficult of access, is +nevertheless strangely sequestered, so that it also affects the +observant eye as equally one of the surprises of London. I saw it, for +the first time, on a gray, sad Sunday, a little before twilight, and +when the service was going on within its venerable walls. The footsteps +of John Milton were sometimes on the threshold of the Cripplegate, and +his grave is in the nave of that ancient church. A simple flat stone +marks that sacred spot, and many a heedless foot tramples over that +hallowed dust. From Golden Lane, which is close by, you can see the +tower of this church; and, as you walk from the place where Milton lived +to the place where his ashes repose, you seem, with a solemn, +awe-stricken emotion, to be actually following in his funeral train. At +St. Giles's occurred the marriage of Cromwell. squared I remembered--as I stood +there and conjured up that scene of golden joy and hope--the place of +the Lord Protector's coronation in Westminster Hall; the place, still +marked, in Westminster Abbey, where his body was buried; and old Temple +Bar, on which (if not on Westminster Hall) his mutilated corse was +finally exposed to the blind rage of the fickle populace. A little +time--a very little time--serves to gather up equally the happiness and +the anguish, the conquest and the defeat, the greatness and the +littleness of human life, and to cover them all with silence. + +[1] That place has been renovated and is no longer a disgrace. + + squared The church of St. Giles was built in 1117 by Queen Maud. It was +demolished in 1623 and rebuilt in 1731. The tomb of Richard Pendrell, +who saved Charles the Second, after Worcester fight, in 1651, is in the +churchyard. + +But not always with oblivion. Those quaint churches, and many other +mouldering relics of the past, in London, are haunted with associations +that never can perish out of remembrance. In fact the whole of the old +city impresses you as densely invested with an atmosphere of human +experience, dark, sad, and lamentable. Walking, alone, in ancient +quarters of it, after midnight, I was aware of the oppressive sense of +tragedies that have been acted and misery that has been endured in its +dusky streets and melancholy houses. They do not err who say that the +spiritual life of man leaves its influence in the physical objects by +which he is surrounded. Night-walks in London will teach you that, if +they teach you nothing else. I went more than once into Brooke Street, +Holborn, and traced the desolate footsteps of poor Thomas Chatterton to +the scene of his self-murder and agonised, pathetic, deplorable death. +It is more than a century (1770), since that "marvellous boy" was driven +to suicide by neglect, hunger, and despair. They are tearing down the +houses on one side of Brooke Street now (1877); it is doubtful which +house was No. 4, in the attic of which Chatterton died, and doubtful +whether it remains: his grave--a pauper's grave, that was made in a +workhouse burial-ground, in Shoe Lane, long since obliterated--is +unknown; but his presence hovers about that region; his strange and +touching story tinges its commonness with the mystical moonlight of +romance; and his name is blended with it for ever. + +Illustration: "Whitehall Gateway." + +On another night I walked from St. James's Palace to Whitehall (the York +Place of Cardinal Wolsey), and viewed the ground that Charles the First +must have traversed, on his way to the scaffold. The story of the +slaughter of that king, always sorrowful to remember, is very grievous +to consider, when you realise, upon the actual scene of his ordeal and +death, his exalted fortitude and his bitter agony. It seemed as if I +could almost hear his voice, as it sounded on that fateful morning, +asking that his body might be more warmly clad, lest, in the cold +January air, he should shiver, and so, before the eyes of his enemies, +should seem to be trembling with fear. The Puritans, having brought that +poor man to the place of execution, kept him in suspense from early +morning till after two o'clock in the day, while they debated over a +proposition to spare his life--upon any condition they might choose to +make--that had been sent to them by his son, Prince Charles. Old persons +were alive in London, not very long ago, who remembered having seen, in +their childhood, the window, in the end of the Whitehall Banquet +House--now a Chapel Royal and all that remains of the ancient +palace--through which the doomed monarch walked forth to the block. It +was long ago walled up, and the palace has undergone much alteration +since the days of the Stuarts. In the rear of Whitehall stands a bronze +statue of James the Second, by Roubiliac (whose marbles are numerous, in +the Abbey and elsewhere in London, and whose grave is in the church of +St. Martin), one of the most graceful works of that spirited sculptor. +The figure is finely modelled. The face is dejected and full of +reproach. The right hand points, with a truncheon, toward the earth. It +is impossible to mistake the ruminant, melancholy meaning of this +memorial; and equally it is impossible to walk without both thought that +instructs and emotion that elevates through a city which thus abounds +with traces of momentous incident and representative experience. + +The literary pilgrim in London has this double advantage--that while he +communes with the past he may enjoy in the present. Yesterday and to-day +are commingled here, in a way that is almost ludicrous. When you turn +from Roubiliac's statue of James your eyes rest upon the retired house +of Disraeli. If you walk in Whitehall, toward the Palace of Westminster, +some friend may chance to tell you how the great Duke of Wellington +walked there, in the feebleness of his age, from the Horse Guards to the +House of Lords; and with what pleased complacency the old warrior used +to boast of his skill in threading a crowded thoroughfare,--unaware that +the police, acting by particular command, protected his revered person +from errant cabs and pushing pedestrians. As I strolled one day past +Lambeth Palace it happened that the palace gates were suddenly unclosed +and that His Grace the Archbishop of Canterbury came forth, on +horseback, from that episcopal residence, and ambled away towards the +House of Lords. It is the same arched portal through which, in other +days, passed out the stately train of Wolsey. It is the same towered +palace that Queen Elizabeth looked upon as her barge swept past, on its +watery track to Richmond. It is for ever associated with the memory of +Thomas Cromwell. + +Illustration: "Lambeth Palace." + +In the church, hard by, rest the ashes of men distinguished in the most +diverse directions--Jackson, the clown; and Tenison, the archbishop, the +"honest, prudent, laborious, and benevolent" primate of William the +Third, who was thought worthy to succeed in office the illustrious +Tillotson. The cure of souls is sought here with just as vigorous energy +as when Tillotson wooed by his goodness and charmed by his winning +eloquence. Not a great distance from this spot you come upon the college +at Dulwich that Edward Alleyn founded, in the time of Shakespeare, and +that still subsists upon the old actor's endowment. It is said that +Alleyn--who was a man of fortune, and whom a contemporary epigram styles +the best actor of his day--gained the most of his money by the +exhibition of bears. But, howsoever gained, he made a good use of it. +His tomb is in the centre of the college. Here may be seen one of the +best picture-galleries in England. One of the cherished paintings in +that collection is the famous portrait, by Sir Joshua Reynolds, of +Mrs. Siddons as the Tragic Muse--remarkable for its colour, and +splendidly expositive of the boldness of feature, brilliancy of +countenance, and stately grace of posture for which its original was +distinguished. Another represents two renowned beauties of their +day--the Linley sisters--who became Mrs. Sheridan and Mrs. Tickel. You +do not wonder, as you look on those fair faces, sparkling with health, +arch with merriment, lambent with sensibility, and soft with goodness +and feeling, that Sheridan should have fought duels for such a prize as +the lady of his love; or that those fascinating creatures, favoured +alike by the Graces and the Muse, should in their gentle lives have +been, "like Juno's swans, coupled and inseparable." Mary, Mrs. Tickel, +died first; and Moore, in his _Life of Sheridan, _has preserved a lament +for her, written by Eliza, Mrs. Sheridan, which--for deep, true sorrow +and melodious eloquence--is worthy to be named with Thomas Tickel's +monody on Addison or Cowper's memorial lines on his mother's picture:-- + + "Shall all the wisdom of the world combined + Erase thy image, Mary, from my mind, + Or bid me hope from others to receive + The fond affection thou alone couldst give? + Ah no, my best beloved, thou still shalt be + My friend, my sister, all the world to me!" + +Precious also among the gems of the Dulwich gallery are certain +excellent specimens of the gentle, dreamy style of Murillo. The pilgrim +passes on, by a short drive, to Sydenham, and dines at the Crystal +Palace--and still he finds the faces of the past and the present +confronted, in a manner that is almost comic. Nothing could be more +aptly representative of the practical, ostentatious phase of the spirit +of to-day than is this enormous, opulent, and glittering "palace made of +windows." Yet I saw there the carriage in which Napoleon Buonaparte used +to drive, at St. Helena--a vehicle as sombre and ghastly as were the +broken fortunes of its death-stricken master; and, sitting at a table +close by, I saw the son of Buonaparte's fiery champion, William Hazlitt. + +Illustration: "Dulwich College." + +It was a gray and misty evening. The plains below the palace terraces +were veiled in shadow, through which, here and there, twinkled the +lights of some peaceful villa. Far away the spires and domes of London, +dimly seen, pierced the city's nightly pall of smoke. It was a dream too +sweet to last. It ended when all the illuminations were burnt out; when +the myriads of red and green and yellow stars had fallen; and all the +silver fountains had ceased to play. + +Illustration: "The Crown Inn, Dulwich." + + + +CHAPTER X + +RELICS OF LORD BYRON + + +The Byron Memorial Loan Collection, that was displayed at the Albert +Memorial Hall, for a short time in the summer of 1877, did not attract +much attention: yet it was a vastly impressive show of relics. The +catalogue names seventy-four objects, together with thirty-nine designs +for a monument to Byron. The design that has been chosen presents a +seated figure, of the young sailor-boy type. The right hand supports the +chin; the left, resting on the left knee, holds an open book and a +pencil. The dress consists of a loose shirt, open at the throat and on +the bosom, a flowing neckcloth, and wide, marine trousers. Byron's dog, +Boatswain--commemorated in the well-known misanthropic epitaph-- + + "To mark a friend's remains these stones arise, + I never knew but one, and here he lies"-- + +is shown, in effigy, at the poet's feet. The treatment of the subject, +in this model, certainly deserves to be called free, but the general +effect of the work is finical. The statue will probably be popular; but +it will give no adequate idea of the man. Byron was both massive and +intense; and this image is no more than the usual hero of nautical +romance. (It was dedicated in May, 1880, and it stands in Hamilton +Gardens, near Hyde Park Corner, London.) + +It was the treasure of relics, however, and not the statuary, that more +attracted notice. The relics were exhibited in three glass cases, +exclusive of large portraits. It is impossible to make the +reader--supposing him to revere this great poet's genius and to care for +his memory--feel the thrill of emotion that was aroused by actual sight, +and almost actual touch, of objects so intimately associated with the +living Byron. Five pieces of his hair were shown, one of which was cut +off, after his death, by Captain Trelawny--the remarkable gentleman who +says that he uncovered the legs of the corse, in order to ascertain the +nature and extent of their deformity. All those locks of hair are faded +and all present a mixture of gray and auburn. Byron's hair was not, +seemingly, of a fine texture, and it turned gray early in life. Those +tresses were lent to the exhibition by Lady Dorchester, John Murray, H. +M. Robinson, D.D., and E. J. Trelawny. A strangely interesting memorial +was a little locket of plain gold, shaped like a heart, that Byron +habitually wore. Near to this was the crucifix found in his bed at +Missolonghi, after his death. It is about ten inches long and is made of +ebony. A small bronze figure of Christ is displayed upon it, and at the +feet of the figure are cross-bones and a skull, of the same metal. A +glass beaker, that Byron gave to his butler, in 1815, attracted +attention by its portly size and, to the profane fancy, hinted that his +lordship had formed a liberal estimate of that butler's powers of +suction. Four articles of head-gear occupied a prominent place in one of +the cabinets. Two are helmets that Byron wore when he was in Greece, in +1824--and very queer must have been his appearance when he wore them. +One is light blue, the other dark green; both are faded; both are fierce +with brass ornaments and barbaric with brass scales like those of a +snake. A comelier object is the poet's "boarding-cap"--a leather slouch, +turned up with green velvet and studded with brass nails. Many small +articles of Byron's property were scattered through the cases. A +corpulent little silver watch, with Arabic numerals upon its face, and a +meerschaum pipe, not much coloured, were among them. The cap that he +sometimes wore, during the last years of his life,--the one depicted in +a well-known sketch of him by Count D'Orsay,--was exhibited, and so was +D'Orsay's portrait. The cap is of green velvet, not much tarnished, and +is encircled by a gold band and faced by an ugly visor. The face in the +sketch is supercilious and defiant. A better, and obviously truer sketch +is that made by Cattermole, which also was in this exhibition. Strength +in despair and a dauntless spirit that shines through the ravages of +irremediable suffering are the qualities of this portrait; and they make +it marvellously effective. Thorwaldsen's fine bust of Byron, made for +Hobhouse, and also the celebrated Phillips portrait--that Scott said was +the best likeness of Byron ever painted--occupied places in this group. +The copy of the New Testament that Lady Byron gave to her husband, and +that he, in turn, presented to Lady Caroline Lamb, was there, and is a +pocket volume, bound in black leather, with the inscription, "From a +sincere and anxious friend," written in a stiff, formal hand, across the +fly-leaf. A gold ring that the poet constantly wore, and the collar of +his dog Boatswain--a discoloured band of brass, with sharply jagged +edges--should also be named as among the most interesting of the relics. + +But the most remarkable objects of all were the manuscripts. These +comprise the original draft of the third canto of "Childe Harold," +written on odd bits of paper, during Byron's journey from London to +Venice, in 1816; the first draft of the fourth canto, together with a +clean copy of it; the notes to "Marino Faliero"; the concluding stage +directions--much scrawled and blotted--in "Heaven and Earth"; a document +concerning the poet's matrimonial trouble; and about fifteen of his +letters. The passages seen are those beginning "Since my young days of +passion, joy, or pain"; "To bear unhurt what time cannot abate"; and in +canto fourth the stanzas 118 to 129 inclusive. The writing is free and +strong, and it still remains legible although the paper is yellow with +age. Altogether those relics were touchingly significant of the strange, +dark, sad career of a wonderful man. Yet, as already said, they +attracted but little notice. The memory of Byron seems darkened, as with +the taint of lunacy. "He did strange things," one Englishman said to me; +"and there was something queer about him." The London house in which he +was born, in Holies Street, Cavendish Square, is marked with a +tablet,--according to a custom instituted by a society of arts. (It was +torn down in 1890 and its site is now occupied by a shop, bearing the +name of John Lewis & Co.) Two houses in which he lived, No. 8 St. James +Street, near the old palace, and No. 139 Piccadilly, are not marked. The +house of his birth was occupied in 1877 by a descendant of Elizabeth +Fry, the philanthropist. + +The custom of marking the houses associated with great names is +obviously a good one, and it ought to be adopted in other countries. Two +buildings, one in Westminster and one in the grounds of the South +Kensington Museum, bear the name of Franklin; and I also saw memorial +tablets to Dryden and Burke in Gerrard Street, to Dryden in Fetter Lane, +to Mrs. Siddons in Baker Street, to Sir Joshua Reynolds and to Hogarth +in Leicester Square, to Garrick in the Adelphi Terrace, to Louis +Napoleon, and to many other renowned individuals. The room that Sir +Joshua occupied as a studio is now an auction mart. The stone stairs +leading up to it are much worn, but they remain as they were when, it +may be imagined, Burke, Johnson, Goldsmith, Langton, Beauclerk, and +Boswell walked there, on many a festive night in the old times. + +It is a breezy, slate-coloured evening in July. I look from the window +of a London house that fronts a spacious park. Those great elms, which +in their wealth of foliage and irregular and pompous expanse of limb are +finer than all other trees of their class, fill the prospect, and nod +and murmur in the wind. Through a rift in their heavy-laden boughs is +visible a long vista of green field, in which many children are at play. +Their laughter and the rustle of leaves, with now and then the click cf +a horse's hoofs upon the road near by, make up the music of this +hallowed hour. The sky is a little overcast but not gloomy. As I muse +upon this delicious scene the darkness slowly gathers, the stars come +out, and presently the moon rises, and blanches the meadow with silver +light. Such has been the English summer, with scarce a hint of either +heat or storm. + +Illustration: "Oriel Window." + + + +CHAPTER XI + +WESTMINSTER ABBEY + + +It is strange that the life of the past, in its unfamiliar remains and +fading traces, should so far surpass the life of the present, in +impressive force and influence. Human characteristics, although +manifested under widely different conditions, were the same in old times +that they are now. It is not in them, surely, that we are to seek for +the mysterious charm that hallows ancient objects and the historical +antiquities of the world. There is many a venerable, weather-stained +church in London, at sight of which your steps falter and your thoughts +take a wistful, melancholy turn--though then you may not know either who +built it, or who has worshipped in it, or what dust of the dead is +mouldering in its vaults. The spirit which thus instantly possesses and +controls you is not one of association, but is inherent in the place. +Time's shadow on the works of man, like moonlight on a landscape, gives +only graces to the view--tingeing them, the while, with sombre +sheen--and leaves all blemishes in darkness. This may suggest the reason +that relics of bygone years so sadly please and strangely awe us, in the +passing moment; or it may be that we involuntarily contrast their +apparent permanence with our own evanescent mortality, and so are +dejected with a sentiment of dazed helplessness and solemn grief. This +sentiment it is--allied to bereaved love and a natural wish for +remembrance after death--that has filled Westminster Abbey, and many +another holy mausoleum, with sculptured memorials of the departed; and +this, perhaps, is the subtle power that makes us linger beside them, +"with thoughts beyond the reaches of our souls." + +Illustration: "Westminster Abbey, from the Triforium." + +When the gentle angler Izaak Walton went into Westminster Abbey to visit +the grave of Casaubon, he scratched his initials on the scholar's +monument, where the record, "I. W., 1658," may still be read by the +stroller in Poets' Corner. One might well wish to follow that example, +and even thus to associate his name with the great cathedral. And not in +pride but in humble reverence! Here if anywhere on earth self-assertion +is rebuked and human eminence set at nought. Among all the impressions +that crowd upon the mind in this wonderful place that which oftenest +recurs and longest remains is the impression of man's individual +insignificance. This is salutary, but it is also dark. There can be no +enjoyment of the Abbey till, after much communion with the spirit of the +place, your soul is soothed by its beauty rather than overwhelmed by its +majesty, and your mind ceases from the vain effort to grasp and +interpret its tremendous meaning. You cannot long endure, and you never +can express, the sense of grandeur that is inspired by Westminster +Abbey; but, when at length its shrines and tombs and statues become +familiar, when its chapels, aisles, arches, and cloisters are grown +companionable, and you can stroll and dream undismayed "through rows of +warriors and through walks of kings," there is no limit to the pensive +memories they awaken and the poetic fancies they prompt. + +Illustration: "Henry VII. Chapel." + +In this church are buried, among generations of their nobles and +courtiers, fourteen monarchs of England--beginning with the Saxon Sebert +and ending with George the Second. Fourteen queens rest here, and many +children of the royal blood who never came to the throne. Here, +confronted in a haughty rivalry of solemn pomp, rise the equal tombs of +Elizabeth Tudor and Mary Stuart. Queen Eleanor's dust is here, and here, +too, is the dust of the grim Queen Mary. In one little chapel you may +pace, with but half a dozen steps, across the graves of Charles the +Second, William and Mary, and Queen Anne and her consort Prince George. +At the tomb of Henry the Fifth you may see the helmet, shield, and +saddle that were worn by the valiant young king at Agincourt; and close +by--on the tomb of Margaret Woodeville, daughter of Edward the +Fourth--the sword and shield that were borne, in royal state, before the +great Edward the Third, five hundred years ago. The princes who are said +to have been murdered in the Tower are commemorated here by an altar, +set up by Charles the Second, whereon the inscription--blandly and +almost humorously oblivious of the incident of Cromwell--states that it +was erected in the thirtieth year of Charles's reign. Richard the +Second, deposed and assassinated, is here entombed; and within a few +feet of him are the relics of his uncle, the able and powerful Duke of +Gloster, treacherously ensnared and betrayed to death. Here also, huge, +rough, and gray, is the stone sarcophagus of Edward the First, which, +when opened, in 1771, disclosed the skeleton of departed majesty, still +perfect, wearing robes of gold tissue and crimson velvet, and having a +crown on the head and a sceptre in the hand. So sleep, in jewelled +darkness and gaudy decay, what once were monarchs! And all around are +great lords, holy prelates, famous statesmen, renowned soldiers, and +illustrious poets. Burleigh, Pitt, Fox, Burke, Canning, Newton, Barrow, +Wilberforce--names forever glorious!--are here enshrined in the grandest +sepulchre on earth. + +The interments that have been effected in and around the Abbey since the +remote age of Edward the Confessor must number thousands; but only about +six hundred are named in the guide-books. In the south transept, which +is Poets' Corner, rest Chaucer, Spenser, Drayton, Cowley, Dryden, +Beaumont, Davenant, Prior, Gay, Congreve, Rowe, Dr. Johnson, Campbell, +Macaulay, and Dickens. Memorials to many other poets and writers have +been ranged on the adjacent walls and pillars; but these are among the +authors that were actually buried in this place. Ben Jonson is not here, +but--in an upright posture, it is said--under the north aisle of the +Abbey; Addison is in the chapel of Henry the Seventh, at the foot of the +monument of Charles Montague, the great Earl of Halifax; and Bulwer is +in the chapel of St. Edmund. Garrick, Sheridan, Henderson, Cumberland, +Handel, Parr, Sir Archibald Campbell, and the once so mighty Duke of +Argyle are almost side by side; while in St. Edward's chapel sleep Anne +of Cleves, the divorced wife of Henry the Eighth, and Anne Neville, +queen of Richard the Third. + +Illustration: "Chapel of Edward the Confessor." + +Betterton and Spranger Barry are in the cloisters--where may be read, in +four little words, the most touching epitaph in the Abbey: "Jane +Lister--dear child." There are no monuments to either Byron, Shelley, +Swift, Pope, Bolingbroke, Keats, Cowper, Moore, or Young; but Mason and +Shadwell are commemorated; and Barton Booth is splendidly inurned; while +hard by, in the cloisters, a place was found for Mrs. Cibber, Tom Brown, +Anne Bracegirdle, Anne Oldfield, and Aphra Behn. The destinies have not +always been stringently fastidious as to the admission of lodgers to +this sacred ground. The pilgrim is startled by some of the names that he +finds in Westminster Abbey, and pained by reflection on the absence of +some that he will seek in vain. Yet he will not fail to moralise, as he +strolls in Poets' Corner, upon the inexorable justice with which time +repudiates fictitious reputations and twines the laurel on only the +worthiest brows. In well-nigh five hundred years of English literature +there have lived only about a hundred and ten poets whose names survive +in any needed chronicle; and not all of those possess life outside of +the library. To muse over the literary memorials in the Abbey is also to +think upon the seeming caprice of chance with which the graves of the +British poets have been scattered far and wide throughout the land. + +Illustration: "The Poets' Corner." + +Gower, Fletcher, and Massinger (to name but a few of them) rest in +Southwark; Sydney and Donne in St. Paul's cathedral; More (his head, +that is, while his body moulders in the Tower chapel) at Canterbury; +Drummond in Lasswade church; Dorset at Withyham, in Sussex; Waller at +Beaconsfield; Wither, unmarked, in the church of the Savoy; Milton in +the church of the Cripplegate--where his relics, it is said, were +despoiled; Swift at Dublin, in St. Patrick's cathedral; Young at +Welwyn; Pope at Twickenham; Thomson at Richmond; Gray at Stoke-Pogis; +Watts in Bunhill-Fields; Collins in an obscure little church at +Chichester--though his name is commemorated by a tablet in Chichester +cathedral; Cowper in Dereham church; Goldsmith in the garden of the +Temple; Savage at Bristol; Burns at Dumfries; Rogers at Hornsey; Crabbe +at Trowbridge; Scott in Dryburgh abbey; Coleridge at Highgate; Byron in +Hucknall church, near Nottingham; Moore at Bromham; Montgomery at +Sheffield; Heber at Calcutta; Southey in Crossthwaite churchyard, near +Keswick; Wordsworth and Hartley Coleridge side by side in the churchyard +of Grasmere; and Clough at Florence--whose lovely words may here speak +for all of them-- + + "One port, methought, alike they sought, + One purpose held, where'er they fare: + O bounding breeze, O rushing seas. + At last, at last, unite them there!" + +But it is not alone in the great Abbey that the rambler in London is +impressed by poetic antiquity and touching historic association--always +presuming that he has been a reader of English literature and that his +reading has sunk into his mind. Little things, equally with great ones, +commingled in a medley, luxuriant and delicious, so people the memory of +such a pilgrim that all his walks will be haunted. The London of to-day, +to be sure (as may be seen in Macaulay's famous third chapter, and in +Scott's _Fortunes of Nigel), _is very little like even the London of +Charles the Second, when the great fire had destroyed eighty-nine +churches and thirteen thousand houses, and when what is now Regent +Street was a rural solitude in which sportsmen sometimes shot the +woodcock. + +Illustration: "The North Ambulatory." + +Yet, though much of the old capital has vanished and more of it has been +changed, many remnants of its historic past exist, and many of its +streets and houses are fraught with a delightful, romantic interest. It +is not forgotten that sometimes the charm resides in the eyes that see, +quite as much as in the object that is seen. The storied spots of London +may not be appreciable by all who look upon them every day. The +cab-drivers in the region of Kensington Palace Road may neither regard, +nor even notice, the house in which Thackeray lived and died. The +shop-keepers of old Bond Street may, perhaps, neither care nor know that +in this famous avenue was enacted the woeful death-scene of Laurence +Sterne. The Bow Street runners are quite unlikely to think of Will's +Coffee House, and Dryden, or Button's, and Addison, as they pass the +sites of those vanished haunts of wit and revelry in the days of Queen +Anne. The fashionable lounger through Berkeley Square, when perchance he +pauses at the corner of Bruton Street, will not discern Colley Cibber, +in wig and ruffles, standing at the parlour window and drumming with his +hands on the frame. The casual passenger, halting at the Tavistock, will +not remember that this was once Macklin's Ordinary, and so conjure up +the iron visage and ferocious aspect of the first great Shylock of the +British stage, formally obsequious to his guests, or striving to edify +them, despite the banter of the volatile Foote, with discourse upon "the +Causes of Duelling in Ireland." The Barbican does not to every one +summon the austere memory of Milton; nor Holborn raise the melancholy +shade of Chatterton; nor Tower Hill arouse the gloomy ghost of Otway; +nor Hampstead lure forth the sunny figure of Steele and the passionate +face of Keats; nor old Northumberland Street suggest the burly presence +of "rare Ben Jonson"; nor opulent Kensington revive the stately head of +Addison; nor a certain window in Wellington Street reveal in fancy's +picture the rugged lineaments and splendid eyes of Dickens. + +Illustration: "The Spaniards, Hampstead." + +Yet London never disappoints; and for him who knows and feels its +history these associations, and hundreds like to these, make it populous +with noble or strange or pathetic figures, and diversify the aspect of +its vital present with pictures of an equally vital past. Such a +wanderer discovers that in this vast capital there is literally no end +to the themes that are to stir his imagination, touch his heart, and +broaden his mind. Soothed already by the equable English climate and the +lovely English scenery, he is aware now of an influence in the solid +English city that turns his intellectual life to perfect tranquillity. +He stands amid achievements that are finished, careers that are +consummated, great deeds that are done, great memories that are +immortal; he views and comprehends the sum of all that is possible to +human thought, passion, and labour; and then,--high over mighty London, +above the dome of St. Paul's cathedral, piercing the clouds, greeting +the sun, drawing into itself all the tremendous life of the great city +and all the meaning of its past and present,--the golden cross of +Christ! + +Illustration: "Dome of St. Paul's" + + + +CHAPTER XII. + +SHAKESPEARE'S HOME + + +It is the everlasting glory of Stratford-upon-Avon that it was the +birthplace of Shakespeare. Situated in the heart of Warwickshire, which +has been called "the garden of England," it nestles cosily in an +atmosphere of tranquil loveliness and is surrounded with everything that +soft and gentle rural scenery can provide to soothe the mind and to +nurture contentment. It stands upon a plain, almost in the centre of the +island, through which, between the low green hills that roll away on +either side, the Avon flows downward to the Severn. The country in its +neighbourhood is under perfect cultivation, and for many miles around +presents the appearance of a superbly appointed park. Portions of the +land are devoted to crops and pasture; other portions are thickly wooded +with oak, elm, willow, and chestnut; the meadows are intersected by +hedges of fragrant hawthorn, and the region smiles with flowers. Old +manor-houses, half-hidden among the trees, and thatched cottages +embowered with roses are sprinkled through the surrounding landscape; +and all the roads that converge upon this point--from Birmingham, +Warwick, Shipton, Bidford, Alcester, Evesham, Worcester, and other +contiguous towns--wind, in sun and shadow, through a sod of green +velvet, swept by the cool, sweet winds of the English summer. + +Illustration: "The Grange." + +Such felicities of situation and such accessories of beauty, however, +are not unusual in England; and Stratford, were it not hallowed by +association, though it would always hold a place among the pleasant +memories of the traveller, would not have become a shrine for the homage +of the world. To Shakespeare it owes its renown; from Shakespeare it +derives the bulk of its prosperity. To visit Stratford is to tread with +affectionate veneration in the footsteps of the poet. To write about +Stratford is to write about Shakespeare. + +More than three hundred years have passed since the birth of that +colossal genius and many changes have occurred in his native town within +that period. The Stratford of Shakespeare's time was built principally +of timber, and it contained about fourteen hundred inhabitants. To-day +its population numbers more than eight thousand. New dwellings have +arisen where once were fields of wheat, glorious with the shimmering +lustre of the scarlet poppy. Many of the older buildings have been +altered. Manufacture has been stimulated into prosperous activity. The +Avon has been spanned by a new bridge, of iron--a path for pedestrians, +adjacent to Clopton's bridge of stone. (The iron bridge was opened +November 23, 1827. The Clopton Bridge was 376 yards long and about 16 +yards wide. Alterations of the west end of it were made in 1814.) The +streets have been levelled, swept, rolled and garnished till they look +like a Flemish drawing, of the Middle Ages. Even the Shakespeare +cottage, the old Harvard house in High Street, and the two old +churches--authentic and splendid memorials of a distant and storied +past--have been "restored." If the poet could walk again through his +accustomed haunts, though he would see the same smiling country round +about, and hear, as of old, the ripple of the Avon murmuring in its +summer sleep, his eyes would rest on but few objects that once he knew. +Yet, there are the paths that Shakespeare often trod; there stands the +house in which he was born; there is the school in which he was taught; +there is the cottage in which he wooed his sweetheart; there are the +traces and relics of the mansion in which he died; and there is the +church that keeps his dust, so consecrated by the reverence of mankind + + "That kings for such a tomb would wish to die." + +In shape the town of Stratford somewhat resembles a large cross, which +is formed by High Street, running nearly north and south, and Bridge +Street and Wood Street, running nearly east and west. From these, which +are main avenues, radiate many and devious branches. A few of the +streets are broad and straight but many of them are narrow and crooked. +High and Bridge streets intersect each other at the centre of the town, +and there stands the market house, an ugly building, of the period of +George the Fourth, with belfry and illuminated clock, facing eastward +toward the old stone bridge, with fourteen arches,--the bridge that Sir +Hugh Clopton built across the Avon, in the reign of Henry the Seventh. A +cross once stood at the corner of High Street and Wood Street, and near +the cross was a pump and a well. From that central point a few steps +will bring the traveller to the birthplace of Shakespeare. + +Illustration: "Shakespeare's Birthplace in Henley Street." + +It is a little, two-story cottage, of timber and plaster, on the north +side of Henley Street, in the western part of the town. It must have +been, in its pristine days, finer than most of the dwellings in its +neighbourhood. The one-story house, with attic windows, was the almost +invariable fashion of building, in English country towns, till the +seventeenth century. This cottage, besides its two stories, had +dormer-windows, a pent-house over its door, and altogether was built and +appointed in a manner both luxurious and substantial. Its age is +unknown; but the history of Stratford reaches back to a period three +hundred years antecedent to William the Conqueror, and fancy, therefore, +is allowed ample room to magnify its antiquity. It was bought, or +occupied, by Shakespeare's father in 1555, and in it he resided till his +death, in 1601, when it descended by inheritance to the poet. Such is +the substance of the complex documentary evidence and of the emphatic +tradition that consecrate this cottage as the house in which Shakespeare +was born. The point has never been absolutely settled. John Shakespeare, +the father, was the owner in 1564 not only of the house in Henley Street +but of another in Greenhill Street. William Shakespeare might have been +born at either of those dwellings. Tradition, however, has sanctified +the Henley Street cottage; and this, accordingly, as Shakespeare's +cradle, will be piously guarded to a late posterity. + +It has already survived serious perils and vicissitudes. By +Shakespeare's will it was bequeathed to his sister Joan--Mrs. William +Hart--to be held by her, under the yearly rent of twelvepence, during +her life, and at her death to revert to his daughter Susanna and her +descendants. His sister Joan appears to have been living there at the +time of his decease, in 1616. She is known to have been living there in +1639--twenty-three years later,--and doubtless she resided there till +her death, in 1646. The estate then passed to Susanna--Mrs. John +Hall,--from whom in 1649 it descended to her grandchild, Lady Barnard, +who left it to her kinsmen, Thomas and George Hart, grandsons of Joan. +In this line of descent it continued--subject to many of those +infringements which are incidental to poverty--till 1806, when William +Shakespeare Hart, the seventh in collateral kinship from the poet, sold +it to Thomas Court, from whose family it was at last purchased for the +British nation. Meantime the property, which originally consisted of two +tenements and a considerable tract of adjacent land, had, little by +little, been curtailed of its fair proportions by the sale of its +gardens and orchards. The two tenements--two in one, that is--had been +subdivided. A part of the building became an inn--at first called "The +Maidenhead," afterward "The Swan," and finally "The Swan and +Maidenhead." Another part became a butcher's shop. The old +dormer-windows and the pent-house disappeared. A new brick casing was +foisted upon the tavern end of the structure. In front of the butcher's +shop appeared a sign announcing "William Shakespeare was born in this +house: N.B.--A Horse and Taxed Cart to Let." Still later appeared +another legend, vouching that "the immortal Shakespeare was born in this +house." From 1793 till 1820 Thomas and Mary Hornby, connections by +marriage with the Harts, lived in the Shakespeare cottage--now at length +become the resort of literary pilgrims,--and Mary Hornby, who set up to +be a poet and wrote tragedy, comedy, and philosophy, took delight in +exhibiting its rooms to visitors. During the reign of that eccentric +custodian the low ceilings and whitewashed walls of its several chambers +became covered with autographs, scrawled thereon by many enthusiasts, +including some of the most famous persons in Europe. In 1820 Mary Hornby +was requested to leave the premises. She did not wish to go. She could +not endure the thought of a successor. "After me, the deluge!" She was +obliged to abdicate; but she conveyed away all the furniture and relics +alleged to be connected with Shakespeare's family, and she hastily +whitewashed the cottage walls. Only a small part of the wall of the +upper room, the chamber in which "nature's darling" first saw the light, +escaped that act of spiteful sacrilege. On the space behind its door may +still be read many names, with dates affixed, ranging back from 1820 to +1729. Among them is that of Dora Jordan, the beautiful and fascinating +actress, who wrote it there June 2, 1809. Much of Mary Hornby's +whitewash, which chanced to be unsized, was afterward removed, so that +her work of obliteration proved only in part successful. Other names +have been added to this singular, chaotic scroll of worship. Byron, +Scott,[1] Rogers, Thackeray, Kean, Tennyson, and Dickens are among the +votaries there and thus recorded. + +[1] Sir Walter Scott visited Shakespeare's birthplace in August, 1821, and +at that time scratched his name on the window-pane. He had previously, +in 1815, visited Kenilworth. He was in Stratford again in 1828, and on +April 8 he went to Shakespeare's grave, and subsequently drove to +Charlecote. The visit of Lord Byron has been incorrectly assigned to the +year 1816. It occurred on August 28, possibly in 1812. + +The successors of Mary Hornby guarded their charge with pious care. The +precious value of the old Shakespeare cottage grew more and more evident +to the English people. Washington Irving made his pilgrimage to +Stratford and recounted it in his beautiful _Sketch-Book. _Yet it was +not till P. T. Barnum, from the United States, arrived with a +proposition to buy the Shakespeare house and convey it to America that +the literary enthusiasm of Great Britain was made to take a practical +shape, and this venerated and inestimable relic became, in 1847, a +national possession. In 1856 John Shakespeare, of Worthington Field, +near Ashby-de-la-Zouche, gave a large sum of money to restore it; and +within the next two years, under the superintendence of Edward Gibbs and +William Holtom of Stratford, it was isolated by the demolition of the +cottages at its sides and in the rear, repaired wherever decay was +visible, and set in perfect order. + +The builders of this house must have done their work thoroughly well, +for even after all these years of rough usage and of slow but incessant +decline the great timbers remain solid, the plastered walls are firm, +the huge chimney-stack is as permanent as a rock, and the ancient +flooring only betrays by the channelled aspect of its boards, and the +high polish on the heads of the nails which fasten them down, that it +belongs to a period of remote antiquity. The cottage stands close upon +the margin of the street, according to ancient custom of building +throughout Stratford; and, entering through a little porch, the pilgrim +stands at once in that low-ceiled, flag-stoned room, with its wide +fire-place, so familiar in prints of the chimney-corner of Shakespeare's +youthful days. Within the fire-place, on either side, is a seat +fashioned in the brick-work; and here, as it is pleasant to imagine, the +boy-poet often sat, on winter nights, gazing dreamily into the flames, +and building castles in that fairyland of fancy which was his celestial +inheritance. You presently pass from this room by a narrow, well-worn +staircase to the chamber above, which is shown as the place of the +poet's birth. An antiquated chair, of the sixteenth century, stands in +the right-hand corner. At the left is a small fire-place. Around the +walls are visible the great beams which are the framework of the +building--beams of seasoned oak that will last forever. Opposite to the +door of entrance is a threefold casement (the original window) full of +narrow panes of glass scrawled all over with names that their worshipful +owners have written with diamonds. The ceiling is so low that you can +easily touch it with uplifted hand. A portion of it is held in place by +a network of little iron laths. This room, and indeed the whole +structure, is as polished and orderly as any waxen, royal hall in the +Louvre, and it impresses observation much like old lace that has been +treasured up, in lavender or jasmine. These walls, which no one is now +permitted to mar, were naturally the favourite scroll of the Shakespeare +votaries of long ago. Every inch of the plaster bears marks of the +pencil of reverence. Hundreds of names are written there--some of them +famous but most of them obscure, and all destined to perish where they +stand. On the chimney-piece at the right of the fireplace, which is +named The Actor's Pillar, many actors have inscribed their signatures. +Edmund Kean wrote his name there--with what soulful veneration and +spiritual sympathy it is awful even to try to imagine. Sir Walter +Scott's name is scratched with a diamond on the window--"W. Scott." That +of Thackeray appears on the ceiling, and upon the beam across the centre +is that of Helen Faucit. The name of Eliza Vestris is written near the +fireplace. Mark Lemon and Charles Dickens are together on the opposite +wall. Byron wrote his name there, but it has disappeared. The list would +include, among others, Elliston, Buckstone, G. V. Brooke, Charles Kean, +Charles Mathews, and Fanny Fitzwilliam. But it is not of these offerings +of fealty that you think when you sit and muse alone in that mysterious +chamber. As once again I conjure up that strange and solemn scene, the +sunshine rests in checkered squares upon the ancient floor, the motes +swim in the sunbeams, the air is very cold, the place is hushed as +death, and over it all there broods an atmosphere of grave suspense and +mystical desolation--a sense of some tremendous energy stricken dumb and +frozen into silence and past and gone forever. + +Opposite to the birthchamber, at the rear, there is a small apartment, +in which is displayed "the Stratford Portrait" of the poet. This +painting is said to have been owned by the Clopton family, and to have +fallen into the hands of William Hunt, town clerk of Stratford, who +bought the mansion of the Cloptons in 1758. The adventures through which +it passed can only be conjectured. It does not appear to have been +valued, and although it remained in the house it was cast away among +lumber and rubbish. In process of time it was painted over and changed +into a different subject. Then it fell a prey to dirt and damp. There is +a story that the little boys of the tribe of Hunt were accustomed to use +it as a target for their arrows. At last, after the lapse of a century, +the grandson of William Hunt showed it by chance to Simon Collins, an +artist, who surmised that a valuable portrait might perhaps exist +beneath its muddy surface. It was carefully cleaned. A thick beard was +removed, and the face of Shakespeare emerged upon the canvas. It is not +pretended that this portrait was painted in Shakespeare's time. The +close resemblance that it bears,--in attitude, dress, colours, and other +peculiarities,--to the painted bust of the poet in Stratford church +seems to indicate that it is a modern copy of that work. Upon a brass +plate affixed to it is the following inscription: "This portrait of +Shakespeare, after being in the possession of Mr. William Oakes Hunt, +town-clerk of Stratford, and his family, for upwards of a century, was +restored to its original condition by Mr. Simon Collins of London, and, +being considered a portrait of much interest and value, was given by +Mr. Hunt to the town of Stratford-upon-Avon, to be preserved in +Shakespeare's house, 23d April, 1862." There, accordingly, it remains, +and, in association with several other dubious presentments of the poet, +cheerfully adds to the mental confusion of the pilgrim who would form an +accurate image of Shakespeare's appearance. Standing in its presence it +was worth while to reflect that there are only two authentic +representations of Shakespeare in existence--the Droeshout portrait and +the Gerard Jonson bust. They may not be perfect works of art; they may +not do justice to the original; but they were seen and accepted by +persons to whom Shakespeare had been a living companion. The bust was +sanctioned by his children; the portrait was sanctioned by his friend +Ben Jonson, and by his brother actors Heminge and Condell, who prefixed +it, in 1623, to the first folio of his works. Standing among the relics +that have been gathered into a museum in an apartment on the +ground-floor of the cottage it was essential also to remember how often +"the wish is father to the thought" that sanctifies the uncertain +memorials of the distant past. Several of the most suggestive documents, +though, which bear upon the sparse and shadowy record of Shakespeare's +life are preserved in this place. Here is a deed, made in 1596, which +proves that this house was his father's residence. Here is the only +letter addressed to him that is known to exist--the letter of Richard +Quiney (1598) asking for the loan of thirty pounds. Here is a +declaration in a suit, in 1604, to recover the price of some malt that +he had sold to Philip Rogers. Here is a deed, dated 1609, on which is +the autograph of his brother Gilbert, who represented him, at Stratford, +in his business affairs, while he was absent in London, and who, +surviving, it is dubiously said, almost till the period of the +Restoration, talked, as a very old man, of the poet's impersonation of +Adam in _As You Like It._ (Possibly the reference of that legend is not +to Gilbert but to a son of his. Gilbert would have been nearly a century +old when Charles the Second came to the throne.) Here likewise is shown +a gold seal ring, found many years ago in a field near Stratford church, +on which, delicately engraved, appear the letters W. S., entwined with a +true lovers' knot. It may have belonged to Shakespeare. The conjecture +is that it did, and that,--since on the last of the three sheets which +contain his will the word "seal" is stricken out and the word "hand" +substituted,--he did not seal that document because he had only just +then lost this ring. The supposition is, at least, ingenious. It will +not harm the visitor to accept it. Nor, as he stands poring over the +ancient, decrepit school-desk which has been lodged in this museum, from +the grammar-school, will it greatly tax his credulity to believe that +the "shining morning face" of the boy Shakespeare once looked down upon +it, in the irksome quest of his "small Latin and less Greek." They call +it Shakespeare's desk. It is old, and it is known to have been in the +school of the guild three hundred years ago. There are other relics, +more or less indirectly connected with the great name that is here +commemorated. The inspection of them all would consume many days; the +description of them would occupy many pages. You write your name in the +visitors' book at parting, and perhaps stroll forth into the garden of +the cottage, which encloses it at the sides and in the rear, and there, +beneath the leafy boughs of the English lime, while your footsteps press +"the grassy carpet of this plain," behold growing all around you the +rosemary, pansies, fennel, columbines, rue, daisies, and violets, which +make the imperishable garland on Ophelia's grave, and which are the +fragrance of her solemn and lovely memory. + +Thousands of times the wonder must have been expressed that while the +world knows so much about Shakespeare's mind it should know so little +about his life. The date of his birth, even, is established by an +inference. The register of Stratford church shows that he was baptised +there in 1564, on April 26. It was customary to baptise infants on the +third day after their birth. It is presumed that the custom was followed +in this instance, and hence it is deduced that Shakespeare was born on +April 23--a date which, making allowance for the difference between the +old and new styles of reckoning time, corresponds to our third of May. +Equally by an inference it is established that the boy was educated in +the free grammar-school. The school was there; and any boy of the town, +who was seven years old and able to read, could get admission to it. +Shakespeare's father, an alderman of Stratford (elected chief alderman, +October 10, 1571), and then a man of worldly substance, though afterward +he became poor, would surely have wished that his children should grow +up in knowledge. To the ancient school-house, accordingly, and the +adjacent chapel of the guild--which are still extant, at the south-east +corner of Chapel Lane and Church Street--the pilgrim confidently traces +the footsteps of the poet. Those buildings are of singular, picturesque +quaintness. The chapel dates back to about the middle of the thirteenth +century. It was a Roman Catholic institution, founded in 1296, under the +patronage of the Bishop of Worcester, and committed to the pious custody +of the guild of Stratford. A hospital was connected with it in those +days, and Robert de Stratford was its first master. New privileges and +confirmation were granted to the guild by Henry the Sixth, in 1403 and +1429. The grammar-school, established on an endowment of lands and +tenements by Thomas Jolyffe, was set up in association with it in 1482. +Toward the end of the reign of Henry the Seventh the whole of the +chapel, excepting the chancel, was torn down and rebuilt under the +munificent direction of Sir Hugh Clopton, Lord Mayor of London and +Stratford's chief citizen and benefactor. Under Henry the Eighth, when +came the stormy times of the Reformation, the priests were driven out, +the guild was dissolved, and the chapel was despoiled. Edward the Sixth, +however, granted a new charter to this ancient institution, and with +especial precautions reinstated the school. The chapel itself was +occasionally used as a schoolroom when Shakespeare was a boy, and until +as late as the year 1595; and in case the lad did go thither (in 1571) +as a pupil, he must have been from childhood familiar with the series of +grotesque paintings upon its walls, presenting, in a pictorial panorama, +the history of the Holy Cross, from its origin as a tree at the +beginning of the world to its exaltation at Jerusalem. Those paintings +were brought to light in 1804 in the course of a renovation of the +chapel which then occurred, when the walls were relieved of thick +coatings of whitewash, laid on them long before, in Puritan times, +either to spoil or to hide from the spoiler. They are not visible now, +but they were copied and have been engraved. The drawings of them, by +Fisher, are in the collection of Shakespearean Rarities made by J. O. +Halliwell-Phillipps. This chapel and its contents constitute one of the +few remaining spectacles at Stratford that bring us face to face with +Shakespeare. During the last seven years of his life he dwelt almost +continually in his house of New Place, on the corner immediately +opposite to this church. The configuration of the excavated foundations +of that house indicates what would now be called a deep bay-window in +its southern front. There, probably, was Shakespeare's study; and +through that casement, many and many a time, in storm and in sunshine, +by night and by day, he must have looked out upon the grim, square +tower, the embattled stone wall, and the four tall Gothic windows of +that mysterious temple. The moment your gaze falls upon it, the +low-breathed, horror-stricken words of Lady Macbeth murmur in your +memory:-- + + "The raven himself is hoarse + That croaks the fatal entrance of Duncan + Under my battlements." + +New Place, Shakespeare's home at the time of his death and the house in +which he died, stood on the north-east corner of Chapel Street and +Chapel Lane. Nothing now remains of it but a portion of its +foundations--long buried in the earth, but found and exhumed in +comparatively recent days. Its gardens have been redeemed, through the +zealous and devoted exertions of J. O. Halliwell-Phillipps and have been +restored to what is thought to have been almost their condition when +Shakespeare owned them. The crumbling fragments of the foundation are +covered with screens of wood and wire. A mulberry-tree, a scion of the +famous mulberry that Shakespeare is known to have planted, is growing on +the lawn. There is no authentic picture in existence that shows New +Place as it was when Shakespeare left it, but there is a sketch of it as +it appeared in 1740. The house was made of brick and timber, and was +built by Sir Hugh Clopton nearly a century before it became by purchase +the property of the poet. Shakespeare bought it in 1597, and in it he +passed, intermittently, a considerable part of the last nineteen years +of his life. It had borne the name of New Place before it came into his +possession. The Clopton family parted with it in 1563, and it was +subsequently owned by families of Bott and Underhill. At Shakespeare's +death it was inherited by his eldest daughter, Susanna, wife of Dr. John +Hall. In 1643, Mrs. Hall, then seven years a widow, being still its +owner and occupant, Henrietta Maria, queen to Charles the First, who had +come to Stratford with a part of the royal army, resided for three days +at New Place, which, therefore, must even then have been the most +considerable private residence in the town. (The queen arrived at +Stratford on July 11 and on July 13 she went to Kineton.) Mrs. Hall, +dying in 1649, aged sixty-six, left it to her only child, Elizabeth, +then Mrs. Thomas Nashe, who afterward became Lady Barnard, wife to Sir +John Barnard, of Abingdon, and in whom the direct line of Shakespeare +ended. After her death the estate was purchased by Sir Edward Walker, in +1675, who ultimately left it to his daughter's husband, Sir John Clopton +(1638-1719), and so it once more passed into the hands of the family of +its founder. A second Sir Hugh Clopton (1671-1751) owned it at the +middle of the eighteenth century, and under his direction it was +repaired, decorated, and furnished with a new front. That proved the +beginning of the end of this old structure, as a relic of Shakespeare; +for this owner, dying in 1751, bequeathed it to his son-in-law, Henry +Talbot, who in 1753 sold it to the most universally execrated iconoclast +of modern times, the Rev. Francis Gastrell, vicar of Frodsham, in +Cheshire, by whom it was destroyed. Mr. Gastrell was a man of fortune, +and he certainly was one of insensibility. He knew little of +Shakespeare; but he knew that the frequent incursion, into his garden, +of strangers who came to sit beneath "Shakespeare's mulberry" was a +troublesome annoyance. He struck, therefore, at the root of the vexation +and cut down the tree. That was in 1756. The wood was purchased by +Thomas Sharp, a watchmaker of Stratford, who subsequently made the +solemn declaration that he carried it to his home and converted it into +toys and kindred memorial relics. The villagers of Stratford, meantime, +incensed at the barbarity of Mr. Gastrell, took their revenge by +breaking his windows. In this and in other ways the clergyman was +probably made to realise his local unpopularity. It had been his custom +to reside during a part of each year in Lichfield, leaving some of his +servants in charge of New Place. The overseers of Stratford, having +lawful authority to levy a tax, for the maintenance of the poor, on +every house in the town valued at more than forty shillings a year, did +not neglect to make a vigorous use of their privilege in the case of +Mr. Gastrell. The result of their exactions in the sacred cause of +charity was significant. In 1759 Mr. Gastrell declared that the house +should never be taxed again, pulled down the building, sold the +materials of which it had been composed, and left Stratford forever. He +repaired to Lichfield and there died. In the house adjacent to the site +of what was once Shakespeare's home has been established a museum of +Shakespearean relics. Among them is a stone mullion, found on the site, +which may have belonged to a window of the original mansion. This +estate, bought from different owners and restored to its Shakespearean +condition, became on April 17, 1876, the property of the corporation of +Stratford. The tract of land is not large. The visitor may traverse the +whole of it in a few minutes, although if he obey his inclination he +will linger there for hours. The enclosure is an irregular rectangle, +about two hundred feet long. The lawn is perfect. The mulberry is extant +and tenacious, and wears its honours in contented vigour. Other trees +give grateful shade to the grounds, and the voluptuous red roses, +growing all around in rich profusion, load the air with fragrance. +Eastward, at a little distance, flows the Avon. Not far away rises the +graceful spire of the Holy Trinity. A few rooks, hovering in the air and +wisely bent on some facetious mischief, send down through the silver +haze of the summer morning their sagacious yet melancholy caw. The +windows of the gray chapel across the street twinkle, and keep their +solemn secret. On this spot was first waved the mystic wand of Prospero. +Here Ariel sang of dead men's bones turned into pearl and coral in the +deep caverns of the sea. Here arose into everlasting life Hermione, "as +tender as infancy and grace." Here were created Miranda and Perdita, +twins of heaven's own radiant goodness,-- + + "Daffodils + That come before the swallow dares, and take + The winds of March with beauty; violets dim, + But sweeter than the lids of Juno's eyes + Or Cytherea's breath." + +To endeavour to touch upon the larger and more august aspect of +Shakespeare's life--when, as his wonderful sonnets betray, his great +heart had felt the devastating blast of cruel passions and the deepest +knowledge of the good and evil of the universe had been borne in upon +his soul--would be impious presumption. Happily to the stroller in +Stratford every association connected with him is gentle and tender. His +image, as it rises there, is of smiling boyhood or sedate and benignant +maturity; always either joyous or serene, never passionate, or +turbulent, or dark. The pilgrim thinks of him as a happy child at his +father's fireside; as a wondering school-boy in the quiet, venerable +close of the old guild chapel, where still the only sound that breaks +the silence is the chirp of birds or the creaking of the church vane; as +a handsome, dauntless youth, sporting by his beloved river or roaming +through field and forest many miles around; as the bold, adventurous +spirit, bent on frolic and mischief, and not averse to danger, leading, +perhaps, the wild lads of his village in their poaching depredations on +the chace of Charlecote; as the lover, strolling through the green lanes +of Shottery, hand in hand with the darling of his first love, while +round them the honeysuckle breathed out its fragrant heart upon the +winds of night, and overhead the moonlight, streaming through rifts of +elm and poplar, fell on their pathway in showers of shimmering silver; +and, last of all, as the illustrious poet, rooted and secure in his +massive and shining fame, loved by many, and venerated and mourned by +all, borne slowly through Stratford churchyard, while the golden bells +were tolled in sorrow and the mourning lime-trees dropped their blossoms +on his bier, to the place of his eternal rest. Through all the scenes +incidental to this experience the worshipper of Shakespeare's genius may +follow him every step of the way. + +Illustration: "Anne Hathaway's Cottage." + +The old foot-path across the fields to Shottery remains accessible. +Wild-flowers are blooming along its margin. The gardens and meadows +through which it winds are sprinkled with the gorgeous scarlet of the +poppy. The hamlet of Shottery is less than a mile from Stratford, +stepping toward the sunset; and there, nestled beneath the elms, and +almost embowered in vines and roses, stands the cottage in which Anne +Hathaway was wooed and won. This is even more antiquated in appearance +than the birthplace of Shakespeare, and more obviously a relic of the +distant past. It is built of wood and plaster, ribbed with massive +timbers, and covered with a thatch roof. It fronts southward, presenting +its eastern end to the road. Under its eaves, peeping through embrasures +cut in the thatch, are four tiny casements, round which the ivy twines +and the roses wave softly in the wind of June. The western end of the +structure is higher than the eastern, and the old building, originally +divided into two tenements, is now divided into three. In front of it is +a straggling garden. There is a comfortable air of wildness, yet not of +neglect, in its appointments and surroundings. The place is still the +abode of labour and lowliness. Entering its parlour you see a stone +floor, a wide fireplace, a broad, hospitable hearth, with cosy +chimney-corners, and near this an old wooden settle, much decayed but +still serviceable, on which Shakespeare may often have sat, with Anne at +his side. The plastered walls of this room here and there reveal +portions of an oak wainscot. The ceiling is low. This evidently was the +farm-house of a substantial yeoman, in the days of Henry the Eighth. The +Hathaways had lived in Shottery for forty years prior to Shakespeare's +marriage. The poet, then undistinguished, had just turned eighteen, +while his bride was nearly twenty-six, and it has been foolishly said +that she acted ill in wedding her boy-lover. They were married in +November, 1582, and their first child, Susanna, came in the following +May. Anne Hathaway must have been a wonderfully fascinating woman, or +Shakespeare would not so have loved her; and she must have loved him +dearly--as what woman, indeed, could help it?--or she would not thus +have yielded to his passion. There is direct testimony to the beauty of +his person; and in the light afforded by his writings it requires no +extraordinary penetration to conjecture that his brilliant mind, +sparkling humour, tender fancy, and impetuous spirit must have made him, +in his youth, a paragon of enchanters. It is not known where they lived +during the first years after their marriage. Perhaps in this cottage at +Shottery. Perhaps with Hamnet and Judith Sadler, for whom their twins, +born in 1585, were named Hamnet and Judith. Her father's house assuredly +would have been chosen for Anne's refuge, when presently (in 1585-86), +Shakespeare was obliged to leave his wife and children, and go away to +London to seek his fortune. He did not buy New Place till 1597, but it +is known that in the meantime he came to his native town once every +year. It was in Stratford that his son Hamnet died, in 1596. Anne and +her children probably had never left the town. They show a bedstead and +other bits of furniture, together with certain homespun sheets of +everlasting linen, that are kept as heirlooms in the garret of the +Shottery cottage. Here is the room that may often have welcomed the poet +when he came home from his labours in the great city. It is a homely and +humble place, but the sight of it makes the heart thrill with a strange +and incommunicable awe. You cannot wish to speak when you are standing +there. You are scarcely conscious of the low rustling of the leaves +outside, the far-off sleepy murmur of the brook, or the faint fragrance +of woodbine and maiden's-blush that is wafted in at the open casement +and that swathes in nature's incense a memory sweeter than itself. + +Associations may be established by fable as well as by fact. There is +but little reason to believe the legendary tale, first recorded by Rowe, +that Shakespeare, having robbed the deer-park of Sir Thomas Lucy of +Charlecote (there was not a park at Charlecote then, but there was one +at Fullbrooke), was so severely persecuted by that magistrate that he +was compelled to quit Stratford and shelter himself in London. Yet the +story has twisted itself into all the lives of Shakespeare, and whether +received or rejected has clung to the house of Charlecote. That noble +mansion--a genuine specimen, despite a few modern alterations, of the +architecture of Queen Elizabeth's time--is found on the west bank of the +Avon, about three miles north-east from Stratford. It is a long, +rambling, three-storied palace--as finely quaint as old St. James's in +London, and not altogether unlike that edifice, in general +character--with octagon turrets, gables, balustrades, Tudor casements, +and great stacks of chimneys, so closed in by elms of giant growth that +you can scarce distinguish it, through the foliage, till you are close +upon it. + +Illustration: "Charlecote." + +It was erected in 1558 by Thomas Lucy, who in 1578 was Sheriff of +Warwickshire, who was elected to the Parliaments of 1571 and 1584, and +who was knighted by Queen Elizabeth in 1565. The porch to this building +was designed by John of Padua. There is a silly ballad in existence, +idly attributed to Shakespeare, which, it is said, was found affixed to +Lucy's gate, and gave him great offence. He must have been more than +commonly sensitive to low abuse if he could have been annoyed by such a +manifestly scurrilous ebullition of the blackguard and the +blockhead,--supposing, indeed, that he ever saw it. The ballad, +proffered as the work of Shakespeare, is a forgery. There is but one +existing reason to think that the poet ever cherished a grudge against +the Lucy family, and that is the coarse allusion to the "luces" which is +found in the _Merry Wives of Windsor. _There was apparently, a second +Sir Thomas Lucy, later than the Sheriff, who was more of the Puritanic +breed, while Shakespeare evidently was a Cavalier. It is possible that +in a youthful frolic the poet may have poached on Sheriff Lucy's +preserves. Even so, the affair was trivial. It is possible, too, that in +after years he may have had reason to dislike the ultra-Puritanical +neighbour. Some memory of the tradition will, of course, haunt the +traveller's thoughts as he strolls by Hatton Rock and through the +villages of Hampton and Charlecote. But this discordant recollection is +soon smoothed away by the peaceful loveliness of the ramble--past aged +hawthorns that Shakespeare himself may have seen, and under the boughs +of beeches, limes, and drooping willows, where every footstep falls on +wild-flowers, or on a cool green turf that is softer than Indian silk +and as firm and elastic as the sand of the sea-beaten shore. Thought of +Sir Thomas Lucy will not be otherwise than kind, either, when the +stranger in Charlecote church reads the epitaph with which the old +knight commemorated his wife: "All the time of her Lyfe a true and +faithfull servant of her good God; never detected of any crime or vice; +in religion most sound; in love to her husband most faithfull and true. +In friendship most constant. To what in trust was committed to her most +secret; in wisdom excelling; in governing her House and bringing up of +Youth in the feare of God that did converse with her most rare and +singular; a great maintainer of hospitality; greatly esteemed of her +betters; misliked of none unless the envious. When all is spoken that +can be said, a Woman so furnished and garnished with Virtue as not to be +bettered, and hardly to be equalled of any; as she lived most +virtuously, so she dyed most godly. Set down by him that best did know +what hath been written to be true. Thomas Lucy." A narrow formalist he +may have been, and a severe magistrate in his dealings with scapegrace +youths, and perhaps a haughty and disagreeable neighbour; but there is a +touch of manhood, high feeling, and virtuous and self-respecting +character in those lines, that instantly wins the response of sympathy. +If Shakespeare really shot the deer of Thomas Lucy the injured gentleman +had a right to feel annoyed. Shakespeare, boy or man, was not a saint, +and those who so account him can have read his works to but little +purpose. He can bear the full brunt of his faults. He does not need to +be canonised. + +The ramble to Charlecote--one of the prettiest walks about +Stratford--was, it may surely be supposed, often taken by Shakespeare. +Many another ramble was possible to him and no doubt was made. He would +cross the mill bridge (new in 1599), which spans the Avon a little way +to the south of the church. A quaint, sleepy mill no doubt it +was--necked with moss and ivy--and the gaze of Shakespeare assuredly +dwelt on it with pleasure. + +Illustration: "Meadow Walk by the Avon." + +His footsteps may be traced, also, in fancy, to the region of the old +college building, demolished in 1799, which stood in the southern part +of Stratford, and was the home of his friend John Combe, factor of Fulke +Greville, Earl of Warwick. Still another of his walks must have tended +northward through Welcombe, where he was the owner of land, to the +portly manor of Clopton, or to the home of William, nephew of +John-a-Combe, which stood where the Phillips mansion stands now. On what +is called the Ancient House, which stands on the west side of High +Street, he may often have looked, as he strolled past to the Red Horse. +That picturesque building, dated 1596, survives, notwithstanding some +modern touches of rehabilitation, as a beautiful specimen of Tudor +architecture in one at least of its most charming traits, the carved and +timber-crossed gable. It is a house of three stories, containing +parlour, sitting-room, kitchen, and several bedrooms, besides cellars +and brew-shed; and when sold at auction, August 23, 1876, it brought +L400. In that house was born John Harvard, who founded Harvard +University. There are other dwellings fully as old in Stratford, but +they have been covered with stucco and otherwise changed. This is a +genuine piece of antiquity and it vies with the grammar-school and the +hall of the Guild, under the pent-house of which the poet would pass +whenever he went abroad from New Place. Julius Shaw, one of the five +witnesses to his will, lived in the house next to the present New Place +Museum, and there, it is reasonable to think, Shakespeare would often +pause, for a word with his friend and neighbour. In the little streets +by the riverside, which are ancient and redolent of the past, his image +seems steadily familiar. In Dead Lane (once also called Walker Street, +now called Chapel Lane) he owned a cottage, bought of Walter Getley in +1602, and only destroyed within the present century. These and kindred +shreds of fact, suggesting the poet as a living man and connecting him, +however vaguely, with our everyday experience, are seized with peculiar +zest by the pilgrim in Stratford. Such a votary, for example, never +doubts that Shakespeare was a frequenter, in leisure or convivial hours, +of the ancient Red Horse inn. It stood there, in his day, as it stands +now, on the north side of Bridge Street, westward from the Avon. There +are many other taverns in the town--the Shakespeare, a delightful +resort, the Falcon, the Rose and Crown, the old Red Lion, and the Swan's +Nest, being a few of them,---but the Red Horse takes precedence of all +its kindred, in the fascinating because suggestive attribute of +antiquity. Moreover it was the Red Horse that harboured Washington +Irving, the pioneer of American worshippers at the shrine of +Shakespeare; and the American explorer of Stratford would cruelly +sacrifice his peace of mind if he were to repose under any other roof. +The Red Horse is a rambling, three-story building, entered through an +archway that leads into a long, straggling yard, adjacent to offices and +stables. On one side of the entrance is found the smoking-room; on the +other is the coffee-room. Above are the bed-rooms. It is a thoroughly +old-fashioned inn--such a one as we may suppose the Boar's Head to have +been, in the time of Prince Henry; such a one as untravelled Americans +only know in the pages of Dickens. The rooms are furnished in neat, +homelike style, and their associations readily deck them with the +fragrant garlands of memory. When Drayton and Jonson came down to visit +"gentle Will" at Stratford they could scarcely have omitted to quaff the +humming ale of Warwickshire in that cosy parlour. When Queen Henrietta +Maria was ensconced at New Place the general of the royal forces +quartered himself at the Red Horse, and then doubtless there was enough +and to spare of revelry within its walls. A little later the old house +was soundly peppered by Roundhead bullets and the whole town was overrun +with the close-cropped, psalm-singing soldiers of the Commonwealth. In +1742 Garrick and Macklin lodged in the Red Horse, and thither again came +Garrick in 1769, to direct the Shakespeare Jubilee, which was then most +dismally accomplished but which is always remembered to the great +actor's credit and honour. Betterton, no doubt, lodged there when he +came to Stratford in quest of reminiscences of Shakespeare. The visit of +Washington Irving, supplemented with his delicious chronicle, has led to +what might be called almost the consecration of the parlour in which he +sat and the chamber (No. 15) in which he slept. They still keep the +poker--now marked "Geoffrey Crayon's sceptre"--with which, as he sat +there in long, silent, ecstatic meditation, he prodded the fire in the +narrow, tiny grate. They keep also the chair in which he sat--a plain, +straight-backed arm-chair, with a haircloth seat, marked, on a brass +plate, with his renowned and treasured name. Thus genius can sanctify +even the humblest objects, + + "And shed a something of celestial light + Round the familiar face of every day." + +To pass rapidly in review the little that is known of Shakespeare's life +is, nevertheless, to be impressed not only by its incessant and amazing +literary fertility but by the quick succession of its salient incidents. +The vitality must have been enormous that created in so short a time +such a number and variety of works of the first class. The same quick +spirit would naturally have kept in agitation all the elements of his +daily experience. Descended from an ancestor who had fought for the Red +Rose on Bosworth Field, he was born to repute as well as competence, and +during his early childhood he received instruction and training in a +comfortable home. He escaped the plague that was raging in Stratford +when he was an infant, and that took many victims. He went to school +when seven years old and left it when about fourteen. He then had to +work for his living--his once opulent father having fallen into +misfortune--and he became an apprentice to a butcher, or else a lawyer's +clerk (there were seven lawyers in Stratford at that time), or else a +schoolteacher. Perhaps he was all three--and more. It is conjectured +that he saw the players who from time to time acted in the Guildhall, +under the auspices of the corporation of Stratford; that he attended the +religious entertainments that were customarily given in the not distant +city of Coventry; and that in particular he witnessed the elaborate and +sumptuous pageants with which in 1575 the Earl of Leicester welcomed +Queen Elizabeth to Kenilworth Castle. He married at eighteen; and, +leaving a wife and three children in Stratford, he went up to London at +twenty-two. His entrance into theatrical life followed--in what capacity +it is impossible to say. One dubious account says that he held horses +for the public at the theatre door; another that he got employment as a +prompter to the actors. It is certain that he had not been in the +theatrical business long before he began to make himself known. At +twenty-eight he was a prosperous author. At twenty-nine he had acted +with Burbage before Queen Elizabeth; and while Spenser had extolled him +in the "Tears of the Muses," the hostile Greene had disparaged him in +the "Groat's-worth of Wit." At thirty-three he had acquired wealth +enough to purchase New Place, the principal residence in his native +town, where now he placed his family and established his home,--himself +remaining in London, but visiting Stratford at frequent intervals. At +thirty-four he was heard of as the actor of Knowell in Ben Jonson's +comedy of _Every Man in his Humour_[1] and he received the glowing +encomium of Meres in _Wits Treasury. _At thirty-eight he had written +_Hamlet _and _As You Like It, _and moreover he had now become the owner +of more estate in Stratford, costing L320. At forty-one he made his +largest purchase, buying for L440 the "unexpired term of a moiety of the +interest in a lease granted in 1554 for ninety-two years of the tithes +of Stratford, Bishopton, and Welcombe." In the meantime he had smoothed +the declining years of his father and had followed him with love and +duty to the grave. Other domestic bereavements likewise befell him, and +other worldly cares and duties were laid upon his hands, but neither +grief nor business could check the fertility of his brain. Within the +next ten years he wrote, among other great plays, _Othello, Lear, +Macbeth, _and _Coriolanus._ + +[1] Jonson's famous comedy was first acted in 1598, "By the then Lord +Chamberlain his servants." Knowell is designated as "an old gentleman." +The Jonson Folio of 1692 names as follows the principal comedians who +acted in that piece: "Will. Shakespeare. Aug. Philips. Hen. Condel. +Will. Slye. Will. Kempe. Ric. Burbadge. Joh. Hemings. Tho. Pope. Chr. +Beston. Joh. Duke." + + +At about forty-eight he seems to have disposed of his interest in the +two London theatres with which he had been connected, the Blackfriars +and the Globe, and shortly afterwards, his work as we possess it being +well-nigh completed, he retired finally to his Stratford home. That he +was the comrade of many bright spirits who glittered in "the spacious +times" of Elizabeth several of them have left personal testimony. That +he was the king of them all is shown in his works. The Sonnets seem to +disclose that there was a mysterious, almost a tragical, passage in his +life, and that he was called to bear the burden of a great and perhaps a +calamitous personal grief--one of those griefs, which, being caused by +sinful love, are endless in the punishment they entail. Happily, +however, no antiquarian student of Shakespeare's time has yet succeeded +in coming near to the man. While he was in London he used to frequent +the Falcon Tavern, in Southwark, and the Mermaid, and he lived at one +time in St. Helen's parish, Aldersgate, and at another time in Clink +Street, Southwark. As an actor his name has been associated with his +characters of Adam, Friar Lawrence, and the Ghost of King Hamlet, and a +contemporary reference declared him "excellent in the quality he +professes." Some of his manuscripts, it is possible, perished in the +fire that consumed the Globe theatre in 1613. He passed his last days in +his home at Stratford, and died there, somewhat suddenly, on his +fifty-second birthday. That event, it may be worth while to observe, +occurred within thirty-three years of the execution of Charles the +First, under the Puritan Commonwealth of Oliver Cromwell. The Puritan +spirit, intolerant of the play-house and of all its works, must then +have been gaining formidable strength. His daughter Susanna, aged +thirty-three at the time of his death, survived him thirty-three years. +His daughter Judith, aged thirty-one at the time of his death, survived +him forty-six years. The whisper of tradition says that both were +Puritans. If so the strange and seemingly unaccountable disappearance of +whatever play-house papers he may have left at Stratford should not be +obscure. This suggestion is likely to have been made before; and also it +is likely to have been supplemented with a reference to the great fire +in London in 1666--(which in consuming St. Paul's cathedral burned an +immense quantity of books and manuscripts that had been brought from all +the threatened parts of the city and heaped beneath its arches for +safety)--as probably the final and effectual holocaust of almost every +piece of print or writing that might have served to illuminate the +history of Shakespeare. In his personality no less than in the +fathomless resources of his genius he baffles scrutiny and stands for +ever alone. + + "Others abide our question; thou art free: + We ask, and ask; thou smilest and art still-- + Out-topping knowledge." + +It is impossible to convey an adequate suggestion of the prodigious and +overwhelming sense of peace that falls upon the soul of the pilgrim in +Stratford church. All the cares and struggles and trials of mortal life, +all its failures, and equally all its achievements, seem there to pass +utterly out of remembrance. It is not now an idle reflection that "the +paths of glory lead but to the grave." No power of human thought ever +rose higher or went further than the thought of Shakespeare. No human +being, using the best weapons of intellectual achievement, ever +accomplished so much. Yet here he lies--who was once so great! And here +also, gathered around him in death, lie his parents, his children, his +descendants, and his friends. For him and for them the struggle has long +since ended. Let no man fear to tread the dark pathway that Shakespeare +has trodden before him. Let no man, standing at this grave, and seeing +and feeling that all the vast labours of that celestial genius end here +at last in a handful of dust, fret and grieve any more over the puny and +evanescent toils of to-day, so soon to be buried in oblivion! In the +simple performance of duty and in the life of the affections there may +be permanence and solace. The rest is an "insubstantial pageant." It +breaks, it changes, it dies, it passes away, it is forgotten; and though +a great name be now and then for a little while remembered, what can the +remembrance of mankind signify to him who once wore it? Shakespeare, +there is reason to believe, set precisely the right value alike upon +contemporary renown and the homage of posterity. Though he went forth, +as the stormy impulses of his nature drove him, into the great world of +London, and there laid the firm hand of conquest upon the spoils of +wealth and power, he came back at last to the peaceful home of his +childhood; he strove to garner up the comforts and everlasting treasures +of love at his hearthstone; he sought an enduring monument in the hearts +of friends and companions; and so he won for his stately sepulchre the +garland not alone of glory but of affection. Through the high eastern +window of the chancel of Holy Trinity church the morning sunshine, +broken into many-coloured light, streams in upon the grave of +Shakespeare and gilds his bust upon the wall above it. He lies close by +the altar, and every circumstance of his place of burial is eloquent of +his hold upon the affectionate esteem of his contemporaries. The line of +graves beginning at the north wall of the chancel and extending across +to the south seems devoted entirely to Shakespeare and his family, with +but one exception.[1] The pavement that covers them is of that blue-gray +slate or freestone which in England is sometimes called black marble. In +the first grave under the north wall rests Shakespeare's wife. The next +is that of the poet himself, bearing the world-famed words of blessing +and imprecation. Then comes the grave of Thomas Nashe, husband to +Elizabeth. Hall, the poet's granddaughter, who died April 4, 1647. Next +is that of Dr. John Hall (obiit November 25, 1635), husband to his +daughter Susanna, and close beside him rests Susanna herself, who was +buried on July 11, 1649. The gravestones are laid east and west, and all +but one present inscriptions. That one is under the south wall, and +possibly it covers the dust of Judith--Mrs. Thomas Quiney--the youngest +daughter of Shakespeare, who, surviving her three children and thus +leaving no descendants, died in 1662. Upon the gravestone of Susanna an +inscription has been intruded commemorative of Richard Watts, who is +not, however, known to have had any relationship with either Shakespeare +or his descendants. + +[1] "The poet knew," says J. O. Halliwell-Phillipps, "that as a tithe-owner +he would necessarily be buried in the chancel." + +Shakespeare's father, who died in 1601, and his mother, Mary Arden, who +died in 1608, were buried in or near this church. (The register says, +under Burials, "September 9, 1608, Mayry Shaxspere, wydowe.") His infant +sisters Joan, Margaret, and Anne, and his brother Richard, who died, +aged thirty-nine, in 1613, may also have been laid to rest in this +place. Of the death and burial of his brother Gilbert there is no +record. His sister Joan, the second--Mrs. Hart--would naturally have +been placed with her relatives. His brother Edmund, dying in 1607, aged +twenty-seven, is under the pavement of St. Saviour's church in +Southwark. The boy Hamnet, dying before his father had risen into local +eminence, rests, probably, in an undistinguished grave in the +churchyard. (The register records his burial on August 11, 1596.) The +family of Shakespeare seems to have been short-lived and it was soon +extinguished. He himself died at fifty-two. Judith's children perished +young. Susanna bore but one child--Elizabeth--who became successively +Mrs. Nashe and Lady Barnard, and she, dying in 1670, was buried at +Abingdon, near Oxford. She left no children by either husband, and in +her the race of Shakespeare became extinct. That of Anne Hathaway also +has nearly disappeared, the last living descendant of the Hathaways +being Mrs. Baker, the present occupant of Anne's cottage at Shottery. +Thus, one by one, from the pleasant gardened town of Stratford, they +went to take up their long abode in that old church, which was ancient +even in their infancy, and which, watching through the centuries in its +monastic solitude on the shore of Avon, has seen their lands and houses +devastated by flood and fire, the places that knew them changed by the +tooth of time, and almost all the associations of their lives +obliterated by the improving hand of destruction. + +One of the oldest and most interesting Shakespearean documents in +existence is the narrative, by a traveller named Dowdall, of his +observations in Warwickshire, and of his visit, on April 10, 1693, to +Stratford church. He describes therein the bust and the tombstone of +Shakespeare, and he adds these remarkable words: "The clerk that showed +me this church is above eighty years old. He says that not one, for fear +of the curse above said, dare touch his gravestone, though his wife and +daughter did earnestly desire to be laid in the same grave with him." +Writers in modern days have been pleased to disparage that inscription +and to conjecture that it was the work of a sexton and not of the poet; +but no one denies that it has accomplished its purpose in preserving the +sanctity of Shakespeare's rest. Its rugged strength, its simple pathos, +its fitness, and its sincerity make it felt as unquestionably the +utterance of Shakespeare himself, when it is read upon the slab that +covers him. There the musing traveller full well conceives how dearly +the poet must have loved the beautiful scenes of his birthplace, and +with what intense longing he must have desired to sleep undisturbed in +the most sacred spot in their bosom. He doubtless had some premonition +of his approaching death. Three months before it came he made his will. +A little later he saw the marriage of his younger daughter. Within less +than a month of his death he executed the will, and thus set his affairs +in order. His handwriting in the three signatures to that paper +conspicuously exhibits the uncertainty and lassitude of shattered +nerves. He was probably quite worn out. Within the space, at the utmost, +of twenty-five years, he had written thirty-seven plays, one hundred and +fifty-four sonnets, and two or more long poems; had passed through much +and painful toil and through bitter sorrow; had made his fortune as +author and actor; and had superintended, to excellent advantage, his +property in London and his large interests in Stratford and its +neighbourhood. The proclamation of health with which the will begins was +doubtless a formality of legal custom. The story that he died of +drinking too hard at a merry meeting with Drayton and Ben Jonson is idle +gossip. If in those last days of fatigue and presentiment he wrote the +epitaph that has ever since marked his grave, it would naturally have +taken the plainest fashion of speech. Such is its character; and no +pilgrim to the poet's shrine could wish to see it changed:-- + +"Good frend for Iesvs sake forbeare, +To digg the dvst encloased heare; +Blese be ye man yt spares thes stones +And cvrst be he yt moves my bones." + +It was once surmised that the poet's solicitude lest his bones might be +disturbed in death grew out of his intention to take with him into the +grave a confession that the works which now follow him were written by +another hand. Persons have been found who actually believe that a man +who was great enough to write _Hamlet _could be little enough to feel +ashamed of it, and, accordingly, that Shakespeare was only hired to play +at authorship, as a screen for the actual author. It might not, perhaps, +be strange that a desire for singularity, which is one of the worst +literary crazes of this capricious age, should prompt to the rejection +of the conclusive and overwhelming testimony to Shakespeare's genius +that has been left by Shakespeare's contemporaries, and that shines +forth in all that is known of his life. It is strange that a doctrine +should get itself asserted which is subversive of common reason and +contradictory to every known law of the human mind. This conjectural +confession of poetic imposture has never been exhumed. The grave is +known to have been disturbed, in 1796, when alterations were made in the +church,[1] and there came a time in the present century when, as they were +making repairs in the chancel pavement (the chancel was renovated in +1835), a rift was accidently made in the Shakespeare vault. Through +this, though not without misgiving, the sexton peeped in upon the poet's +remains. He saw nothing but dust. + +[1] It was the opinion--not conclusive but interesting--of the late J. O. +Halliwell-Phillipps that at one or other of these "restorations" the +original tombstone of Shakespeare was removed and another one, from the +yard of a modern stone-mason, put in its place. Dr. Ingleby, in his book +on _Shakespeare's Bones, _1883, asserts that the original stone was +removed. I have compared Shakespeare's tombstone with that of his wife, +and with others in the chancel, but I have not found the discrepancy +observed by Mr. Halliwell-Phillipps, and I think there is no reason to +believe that the original tombstone has ever been disturbed. The letters +upon it were, probably, cut deeper in 1835. + +The antique font from which the infant Shakespeare may have received the +water of Christian baptism is still preserved in this church. It was +thrown aside and replaced by a new one about the middle of the +seventeenth century. Many years afterward it was found in the +charnel-house. When that was destroyed, in 1800, it was cast into the +churchyard. In later times the parish clerk used it as a trough to his +pump. It passed then through the hands of several successive owners, +till at last, in days that had learned to value the past and the +associations connected with its illustrious names, it found its way back +again to the sanctuary from which it had suffered such a rude expulsion. +It is still a handsome stone, though broken, soiled, and marred. + +Illustration: "Remains of the Old Font at which, probably, Shakespeare +was christened, now in the Nave of Stratford Church." + +On the north wall of the chancel, above his grave and near to "the +American window," is placed Shakespeare's monument. It is known to have +been erected there within seven years after his death. It consists of a +half-length effigy, placed beneath a fretted arch, with entablature and +pedestal, between two Corinthian columns of black marble, gilded at base +and top. Above the entablature appear the armorial bearings of +Shakespeare--a pointed spear on a bend sable and a silver falcon on a +tasselled helmet supporting a spear. Over this heraldic emblem is a +death's-head, and on each side of it sits a carved cherub, one holding a +spade, the other an inverted torch. In front of the effigy is a cushion, +upon which both hands rest, holding a scroll and a pen. Beneath is an +inscription in Latin and English, supposed to have been furnished by the +poet's son-in-law, Dr. Hall. The bust was cut by Gerard Jonson, a native +of Amsterdam and by occupation a "tomb-maker," who lived in Southwark +and possibly had seen the poet. The material is a soft stone, and the +work, when first set up, was painted in the colours of life. Its +peculiarities indicate that it was copied from a mask of the features +taken after death. Some persons believe (upon slender and dubious +testimony) that this mask has since been found, and busts of Shakespeare +have been based upon it, by W. R. O'Donovan and by William Page. In +September, 1764, John Ward, grandfather of Mrs. Siddons, having come to +Stratford with a theatrical company, gave a performance of _Othello, _in +the Guildhall, and devoted its proceeds to reparation of the Gerard +Jonson effigy, then somewhat damaged by time. + +Illustration: "Shakespeare's Monument." + +The original colours were then carefully restored and freshened. In +1793, under the direction of Malone, this bust, together with the image +of John-a-Combe--a recumbent statue upon a tomb close to the east wall +of the chancel--was coated with white paint. From that plight it was +extricated, in 1861, by the assiduous skill of Simon Collins, who +immersed it in a bath which took off the white paint and restored the +colours. The eyes are painted light hazel, the hair and pointed beard +auburn, the face and hands flesh-tint. The dress consists of a scarlet +doublet, with a rolling collar, closely buttoned down the front, worn +under a loose black gown without sleeves. The upper part of the cushion +is green, the lower part crimson, and this object is ornamented with +gilt tassels. The stone pen that used to be in the right hand of the +bust was taken from it, toward the end of the last century, by a young +Oxford student, and, being dropped by him upon the pavement, was broken. +A quill pen has been put in its place. This is the inscription beneath +the bust:-- + + Ivdicio Pylivm, genio Socratem, arte Maronem, + Terra tegit, popvlvs maeret, Olympvs habet. + + Stay, passenger, why goest thov by so fast? + Read, if thov canst, whom enviovs Death hath plast + Within this monvment: SHAKSPEARE: with whome + Qvick Natvre dide; whose name doth deck ys tombe + Far more than cost; sieth all yt he hath writt + Leaves living art bvt page to serve his witt. + + Obiit Ano. Doi. 1616. AEtatis 53. Die. 23. Ap. + +The erection of the old castles, cathedrals, monasteries, and churches +of England was accomplished, little by little, with laborious toil +protracted through many years. Stratford church, probably more than +seven centuries old, presents a mixture of architectural styles, in +which Saxon simplicity and Norman grace are beautifully mingled. +Different parts of the structure were built at different times. It is +fashioned in the customary crucial form, with a square tower, an octagon +stone spire, (erected in 1764, to replace a more ancient one, made of +oak and covered with lead), and a fretted battlement all around its +roof. Its windows are diversified, but mostly Gothic. The approach to it +is across a churchyard thickly sown with graves, through a lovely green +avenue of lime-trees, leading to a porch on its north side. This avenue +of foliage is said to be the copy of one that existed there in +Shakespeare's day, through which he must often have walked, and through +which at last he was carried to his grave. Time itself has fallen asleep +in that ancient place. The low sob of the organ only deepens the awful +sense of its silence and its dreamless repose. Yews and elms grow in the +churchyard, and many a low tomb and many a leaning stone are there, in +the shadow, gray with moss and mouldering with age. Birds have built +their nests in many crevices in the timeworn tower, round which at +sunset you may see them circle, with chirp of greeting or with call of +anxious discontent. Near by flows the peaceful river, reflecting the +gray spire in its dark, silent, shining waters. In the long and lonesome +meadows beyond it the primroses stand in their golden ranks among the +clover, and the frilled and fluted bell of the cowslip, hiding its +single drop of blood in its bosom, closes its petals as the night comes +down. + +Northward, at a little distance from the Church of the Holy Trinity, +stands, on the west bank of the Avon, the building that will always be +famous as the Shakespeare Memorial. The idea of the Memorial was +suggested in 1864, incidentally to the ceremonies which then +commemorated the three-hundredth anniversary of the poet's birth. Ten +years later the site for this structure was presented to the town by +Charles Edward Flower, one of its most honoured inhabitants. +Contributions of money were then asked, and were given. Americans as +well as Englishmen contributed. On April 23, 1877, the first stone of +the Memorial was laid. On April 23, 1880, the building was dedicated. +The fabric comprises a theatre, a library, and a picture-gallery. In the +theatre the plays of Shakespeare are annually represented, in a manner +as nearly perfect as possible. In the library and picture-gallery are to +be assembled all the books upon Shakespeare that have been published, +and all the choice paintings that can be obtained to illustrate his life +and his works. As the years pass this will naturally become a principal +depository of Shakespearean objects. A dramatic college may grow up, in +association with the Shakespeare theatre. The gardens that surround the +Memorial will augment their loveliness in added expanse of foliage and +in greater wealth of floral luxuriance. The mellow tinge of age will +soften the bright tints of the red brick that mainly composes the +building. On its cone-shaped turrets ivy will clamber and moss will +nestle. When a few generations have passed, the old town of Stratford +will have adopted this now youthful stranger into the race of her +venerated antiquities. The same air of poetic mystery that rests now +upon his cottage and his grave will diffuse itself around his Memorial; +and a remote posterity, looking back to the men and the ideas of to-day, +will remember with grateful pride that English-speaking people of the +nineteenth century, although they could confer no honour upon the great +name of Shakespeare, yet honoured themselves in consecrating this votive +temple to his memory. + +Illustration: "Gable Window" + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +UP TO LONDON 1882 + + +About the middle of the night the great ship comes to a pause, off the +coast of Ireland, and, looking forth across the black waves and through +the rifts in the rising mist, we see the low and lonesome verge of that +land of trouble and misery. A beautiful white light flashes now and then +from the shore, and at intervals the mournful booming of a solemn bell +floats over the sea. Soon is heard the rolling click of oars, and then +two or three dusky boats glide past the ship, and hoarse voices hail and +answer. A few stars are visible in the hazy sky, and the breeze from the +land brings off, in fitful puffs, the fragrant balm of grass and clover, +mingled with the salt odours of sea-weed and slimy rocks. There is a +sense of mystery over the whole wild scene; but we realise now that +human companionship is near, and that the long and lonely ocean voyage +is ended. + +Illustration: "Peveril Peak." + +Travellers who make the run from Liverpool to London by the Midland +Railway pass through the vale of Derby and skirt around the stately Peak +that Scott has commemorated in his novel of Peveril. It is a more rugged +country than is seen in the transit by the Northwestern road, but not +more beautiful. You see the storied mountain, in its delicacy of outline +and its airy magnificence of poise, soaring into the sky--its summit +almost lost in the smoky haze--and you wind through hillside pastures +and meadow-lands that are curiously intersected with low, zigzag stone +walls; and constantly, as the scene changes, you catch glimpses of green +lane and shining river; of dense copses that cast their cool shadow on +the moist and gleaming emerald sod; of long white roads that stretch +away like cathedral aisles and are lost beneath the leafy arches of elm +and oak; of little church towers embowered in ivy; of thatched cottages +draped with roses; of dark ravines, luxuriant with a wild profusion of +rocks and trees; and of golden grain that softly waves and whispers in +the summer wind; while, all around, the grassy banks and glimmering +meadows are radiant with yellow daisies, and with that wonderful scarlet +of the poppy that gives an almost human glow of life and loveliness to +the whole face of England. After some hours of such a pageant--so novel, +so fascinating, so fleeting, so stimulative of eager curiosity and +poetic desire--it is a relief at last to stand in the populous streets +and among the grim houses of London, with its surging tides of life, and +its turmoil of effort, conflict, exultation, and misery. How strange it +seems--yet, at the same time, how homelike and familiar! There soars +aloft the great dome of St. Paul's cathedral, with its golden cross that +flashes in the sunset! There stands the Victoria tower--fit emblem of +the true royalty of the sovereign whose name it bears. And there, more +lowly but more august, rise the sacred turrets of the Abbey. It is the +same old London--the great heart of the modern world--the great city of +our reverence and love. As the wanderer writes these words he hears the +plashing of the fountains in Trafalgar Square and the evening chimes +that peal out from the spire of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, and he knows +himself once more at the shrine of his youthful dreams. + +Illustration: "St. Paul's from Maiden Lane." + +To the observant stranger in London few sights can be more impressive +than those that illustrate the singular manner in which the life of the +present encroaches upon the memorials of the past. Old Temple Bar has +gone,--a sculptured griffin, at the junction of Fleet Street and the +Strand, denoting where once it stood. (It has been removed to Theobald's +Park, near Waltham, and is now the lodge gate of the grounds of Sir +Henry Meux.) The Midland Railway trains dash over what was once St. +Pancras churchyard--the burial-place of Mary Wollstonecraft and William +Godwin, and of many other British worthies--and passengers looking from +the carriages may see the children of the neighbourhood sporting among +the few tombs that yet remain in that despoiled cemetery. Dolly's +Chop-House, intimately associated with the wits of the reign of Queen +Anne, has been destroyed. The ancient tavern of The Cock, immortalised +by Tennyson, in his poem of Will Waterproof's Monologue, is soon to +disappear,--with its singular wooden vestibule that existed before the +time of the Plague and that escaped the great fire of 1666. On the site +of Northumberland House stands the Grand Hotel. The gravestones that +formerly paved the precinct of Westminster Abbey have been removed, to +make way for grassy lawns intersected with pathways. In Southwark, +across the Thames, the engine-room of the brewery of Messrs. Barclay & +Perkins occupies the site of the Globe Theatre, in which most of +Shakespeare's plays were first produced. One of the most venerable and +beautiful churches in London, that of St. Bartholomew the Great,--a +gray, mouldering temple, of the twelfth century, hidden away in a corner +of Smithfield,--is desecrated by the irruption of an adjacent shop, the +staircase hall of which breaks cruelly into the sacred edifice and +impends above the altar. On July 12, 1882, the present writer, walking +in the churchyard of St. Paul's, Covent Garden,--the sepulchre of +William Wycherley, Robert Wilks, Charles Macklin, Joseph Haines, Thomas +King, Samuel Butler, Thomas Southerne, Edward Shuter, Dr. Arne, Thomas +Davies, Edward Kynaston, Richard Estcourt, William Havard, and many +other renowned votaries of literature and the stage,--found workmen +building a new wall to sustain the enclosure, and almost every stone in +the cemetery uprooted and leaning against the adjacent houses. Those +monuments, it was said, would be replaced; but it was impossible not to +consider the chances of error in a new mortuary deal--and the grim +witticism of Rufus Choate, about dilating with the wrong emotion, came +then into remembrance, and did not come amiss. + +Illustration: "The Charter House." + +Facts such as these, however, bid us remember that even the relics of +the past are passing away, and that cities, unlike human creatures, may +grow to be so old that at last they will become new. It is not wonderful +that London should change its aspect from one decade to another, as the +living surmount and obliterate the dead. Thomas Sutton's Charter-House +School, founded in 1611, when Shakespeare and Ben Jonson were still +writing, was reared upon ground in which several thousand corses were +buried, during the time of the Indian pestilence of 1348; and it still +stands and nourishes--though not as vigorously now as might be wished. +Nine thousand new houses, it is said, are built in the great capital +every year, and twenty-eight miles of new street are thus added to it. +On a Sunday I drove for three hours through the eastern part of London +without coming upon a single trace of the open fields. On the west, all +the region from Kensington to Richmond is settled for most part of the +way; while northward the city is stretching its arms toward Hampstead, +Highgate, and tranquil and blooming Finchley. Truly the spirit of this +age is in strong contrast with that of the time of Henry the Eighth when +(1530), to prevent the increasing size of London, all new buildings were +forbidden to be erected "where no former hath been known to have been." +The march of improvement nowadays carries everything before it: even +British conservatism is at some points giving way: and, noting the +changes that have occurred here within only five years, I am persuaded +that those who would see what remains of the London of which they have +read and dreamed--the London of Dryden and Pope, of Addison, Sheridan, +and Byron, of Betterton, Garrick, and Edmund Kean--will, as time passes, +find more and more difficulty both in tracing the footsteps of fame, and +in finding that sympathetic, reverent spirit which hallows the relics of +genius and renown. + +Illustration: "Church Steeple Centered on Moon" + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +OLD CHURCHES OF LONDON + + +Sight-seeing, merely for its own sake, is not to be commended. Hundreds +of persons roam through the storied places of England, carrying nothing +away but the bare sense of travel. It is not the spectacle that +benefits, but the meaning of the spectacle. In the great temples of +religion, in those wonderful cathedrals that are the glory of the old +world, we ought to feel, not merely the physical beauty but the perfect, +illimitable faith, the passionate, incessant devotion, which alone made +them possible. The cold intellect of a sceptical age, like the present, +could never create such a majestic cathedral as that of Canterbury. Not +till the pilgrim feels this truth has he really learned the lesson of +such places,--to keep alive in his heart the capacity of self-sacrifice, +of toil and of tears, for the grandeur and beauty of the spiritual life. +At the tombs of great men we ought to feel something more than a +consciousness of the crumbling clay that moulders within,--something +more even than knowledge of their memorable words and deeds: we ought, +as we ponder on the certainty of death and the evanescence of earthly +things, to realise that art at least is permanent, and that no creature +can be better employed than in noble effort to make the soul worthy of +immortality. The relics of the past, contemplated merely because they +are relics, are nothing. You tire, in this old land, of the endless +array of ruined castles and of wasting graves; you sicken at the thought +of the mortality of a thousand years, decaying at your feet, and you +long to look again on roses and the face of childhood, the ocean and the +stars. But not if the meaning of the past is truly within your sympathy; +not if you perceive its associations as feeling equally with knowledge; +not if you truly know that its lessons are not of death but of life! +To-day builds over the ruins of yesterday, as well in the soul of man as +on the vanishing cities that mark his course. There need be no regret +that the present should, in this sense, obliterate the past. + +Much, however, as London has changed, and constantly as it continues to +change, many objects still remain, and long will continue to remain, +that startle and impress the sensitive mind. Through all its wide +compass, by night and day, flows and beats a turbulent, resounding tide +of activity, and hundreds of trivial and vacuous persons, sordid, +ignorant, and commonplace tramp to and fro amid its storied antiquities, +heedless of their existence. Through such surroundings, but finding here +and there a sympathetic guide or a friendly suggestion, the explorer +must make his way,--lonely in the crowd, and walking like one who lives +in a dream. Yet he never will drift in vain through a city like this. I +went one night into the cloisters of Westminster Abbey--that part, the +South Walk, which is still accessible after the gates have been closed. +The stars shone down upon the blackening walls and glimmering windows of +the great cathedral; the grim, mysterious arches were dimly lighted; the +stony pathways, stretching away beneath the venerable building, seemed +to lose themselves in caverns of darkness; not a sound was heard but the +faint rustling of the grass upon the cloister green. Every stone there +is the mark of a sepulchre; every breath of the night wind seemed the +whisper of a gliding ghost. There, among the crowded graves, rest Anne +Oldfield and Anne Bracegirdle,--in Queen Anne's reign such brilliant +luminaries of the stage,--and there was buried the dust of Aaron Hill, +poet and dramatist, once manager of Drury Lane, who wrote _The Fair +Inconstant_ for Barton Booth, and some notably felicitous love-songs. +There, too, are the relics of Susanna Maria Arne (Mrs. Theo. Cibber), +Mrs. Dancer, Thomas Betterton, and Spranger Barry. Sitting upon the +narrow ledge that was the monks' rest, I could touch, close at hand, the +tomb of a mitred abbot, while at my feet was the great stone that covers +twenty-six monks of Westminster who perished by the Plague nearly six +hundred years ago. It would scarcely be believed that the doors of +dwellings open upon that gloomy spot; that ladies may sometimes be seen +tending flowers upon the ledges that roof those cloister walks. Yet so +it is; and in such a place, at such a time, you comprehend better than +before the self-centred, serious, ruminant, romantic character of the +English mind,--which loves, more than anything else in the world, the +privacy of august surroundings and a sombre and stately solitude. It +hardly need be said that you likewise obtain here a striking sense of +the power of contrast. I was again aware of this, a little later, when, +seeing a dim light in St. Margaret's church near by, I entered that old +temple and found the men of the choir at their rehearsal, and presently +observed on the wall a brass plate which announces that Sir Walter +Raleigh was buried here, in the chancel,--after being decapitated for +high treason in the Palace Yard outside. Such things are the surprises +of this historic capital. This inscription begs the reader to remember +Raleigh's virtues as well as his faults,--a plea, surely, that every man +might well wish should be made for himself at last. I thought of the +verses that the old warrior-poet is said to have left in his Bible, when +they led him out to die-- + + "Even such is time; that takes in trust + Our youth, our joys, our all we have, + And pays us nought but age and dust; + Which, in the dark and silent grave, + When we have wandered all our ways, + Shuts up the story of our days.-- + But from this earth, this grave, this dust, + My God shall raise me up, I trust." + +This church contains a window commemorative of Raleigh, presented by +Americans, and inscribed with these lines, by Lowell-- + + "The New World's sons, from England's breast we drew + Such milk as bids remember whence we came; + Proud of her past, wherefrom our future grew, + This window we inscribe with Raleigh's name." + +It also contains a window commemorative of Caxton, presented by the +printers and publishers of London, which is inscribed with these lines +by Tennyson-- + + "Thy prayer was Light--more Light--while Time shall last, + Thou sawest a glory growing on the night, + But not the shadows which that light would cast + Till shadows vanish in the Light of Light." + +In St. Margaret's--a storied haunt, for shining names alike of nobles +and poets--was also buried John Skelton, another of the old bards (obiit +1529), the enemy and satirist of Cardinal Wolsey and Sir Thomas More, +one of whom he described as "madde Amaleke," and the other as "dawcock +doctor." Their renown has managed to survive those terrific shafts; but +at least this was a falcon who flew at eagles. Here the poet Campbell +was married,--October 11, 1803. Such old churches as this--guarding so +well their treasures of history--are, in a special sense, the +traveller's blessings. At St. Giles's, Cripplegate, the janitor is a +woman; and she will point out to you the lettered stone that formerly +marked the grave of Milton. It is in the nave, but it has been moved to +a place about twelve feet from its original position,--the remains of +the illustrious poet being, in fact, beneath the floor of a pew, on the +left of the central aisle, about the middle of the church: albeit there +is a story, possibly true, that, on an occasion when this church was +repaired, in August, 1790, the coffin of Milton suffered profanation, +and his bones were dispersed. + +Illustration: "St. Giles', Cripplegate." + +Among the monuments hard by is a fine marble bust of Milton, placed +against the wall, and it is said, by way of enhancing its value, that +George the Third came here to see it.[1] Several of the neighbouring +inscriptions are of astonishing quaintness. The adjacent churchyard--an +eccentric, sequestered, lonesome bit of grassy ground, teeming with +monuments, and hemmed in with houses, terminates, at one end, in a piece +of the old Roman wall of London (A.D. 306),--an adamantine structure of +cemented flints--which has lasted from the days of Constantine, and +which bids fair to last forever. I shall always remember that strange +nook with the golden light of a summer morning shining upon it, the +birds twittering among its graves, and all around it such an atmosphere +of solitude and rest as made it seem, though in the heart of the great +city, a thousand miles from any haunt of man. (It was formally opened as +a garden for public recreation on July 8, 1891.) + +[1] This memorial bears the following inscription: "John Milton. Author of +'Paradise Lost.' Born, December 1608. Died, November 1674. His father, +John Milton, died, March 1646. They were both interred in this church." + +St. Helen's, Bishopsgate, an ancient and venerable temple, the church of +the priory of the nuns of St. Helen, built in the thirteenth century, is +full of relics of the history of England. The priory, which adjoined +this church, has long since disappeared and portions of the building +have been restored; but the noble Gothic columns and the commemorative +sculpture remain unchanged. Here are the tombs of Sir John Crosby, who +built Crosby Place (1466), Sir Thomas Gresham, who founded both Gresham +College and the Royal Exchange in London, and Sir William Pickering, +once Queen Elizabeth's Minister to Spain and one of the amorous +aspirants for her royal hand; and here, in a gloomy chapel, stands the +veritable altar at which, it is said, the Duke of Gloster received +absolution, after the disappearance of the princes in the Tower. +Standing at that altar, in the cool silence of the lonely church and the +waning light of afternoon, it was easy to conjure up his slender, +slightly misshapen form, decked in the rich apparel that he loved, his +handsome, aquiline, thoughtful face, the drooping head, the glittering +eyes, the nervous hand that toyed with the dagger, and the stealthy +stillness of his person, from head to foot, as he knelt there before the +priest and perhaps mocked both himself and heaven with the form of +prayer. + +Illustration: "Sir John Crosby's Monument." + +Every place that Richard touched is haunted by his magnetic presence. In +another part of the church you are shown the tomb of a person whose will +provided that the key of his sepulchre should be placed beside his body, +and that the door should be opened once a year, for a hundred years. It +seems to have been his expectation to awake and arise; but the allotted +century has passed and his bones are still quiescent. + +Illustration: "Gresham's Monument." + +How calmly they sleep--those warriors who once filled the world with the +tumult of their deeds! If you go into St. Mary's, in the Temple, you +will stand above the dust of the Crusaders and see the beautiful copper +effigies of them, recumbent on the marble pavement, and feel and know, +as perhaps you never did before, the calm that follows the tempest. St. +Mary's was built in 1240 and restored in 1828. It would be difficult to +find a lovelier specimen of Norman architecture--at once massive and +airy, perfectly simple, yet rich with beauty, in every line and scroll. + +Illustration: "Goldsmith's House." + +There is only one other church in Great Britain, it is said, which has, +like this, a circular vestibule. The stained glass windows, both here +and at St. Helen's, are very glorious. The organ at St. Mary's was +selected by Jeffreys, afterwards infamous as the wicked judge. The +pilgrim who pauses to muse at the grave of Goldsmith may often hear its +solemn, mournful tones. I heard them thus, and was thinking of Dr. +Johnson's tender words, when he first learned that Goldsmith was dead: +"Poor Goldy was wild--very wild--but he is so no more." The room in +which he died, a heart-broken man at only forty-six, was but a little +way from the spot where he sleeps.[1] The noises of Fleet Street are heard +there only as a distant murmur. But birds chirp over him, and leaves +flutter down upon his tomb, and every breeze that sighs around the gray +turrets of the ancient Temple breathes out his requiem. + +[1] No. 2 Brick Court, Middle Temple.--In 1757-58 Goldsmith was employed +by a chemist, near Fish Street Hill. When he wrote his Inquiry into the +Present State of Polite Learning in Europe he was living in Green Arbour +Court, "over Break-neck Steps." At a lodging in Wine Office Court, Fleet +Street, he wrote The Vicar of Wakefield. Afterwards he had lodgings at +Canonbury House, Islington, and in 1764, in the Library Staircase of the +Inner Temple. + +Illustration: "A Bit from Clare Court" + + + +CHAPTER XV + +LITERARY SHRINES OF LONDON + + +The mind that can reverence historic associations needs no explanation +of the charm that such associations possess. There are streets and +houses in London which, for pilgrims of this class, are haunted with +memories and hallowed with an imperishable light--that not even the +dreary commonness of everyday life can quench or dim. Almost every great +author in English literature has here left behind him some personal +trace, some relic that brings us at once into his living presence. In +the time of Shakespeare,--of whom it may be noted that wherever you find +him at all you find him in select and elegant neighbourhoods,--St. +Helen's parish was a secluded and peaceful quarter of the town; and +there the poet had his residence, convenient to the theatre in +Blackfriars, in which he is known to have owned a share. It is said that +he dwelt at number 134 Aldersgate Street (the house has been +demolished), and in that region,--amid all the din of traffic and all +the strange adjuncts of a new age,--those who love him are in his +company. Milton was born in a court adjacent to Bread Street, Cheapside, +and the explorer comes upon him as a resident in St. Bride's +churchyard,--where the poet Lovelace was buried,--and at the house which +is now No. 19 York Street, Westminster (in later times occupied by +Bentham and by Hazlitt), and in Jewin Street, Aldersgate. When secretary +to Cromwell he lived in Scotland Yard, where now is the headquarters of +the London police. His last home was in Artillery Walk, Bunhill Fields, +but the visitor to that spot finds it covered by the Artillery barracks. +Walking through King Street, Westminster, you will not forget Edmund +Spenser, who died there, in grief and destitution, a victim to the same +inhuman spirit of Irish ruffianism that is still disgracing humanity and +troubling the peace of the world. Everybody remembers Ben Jonson's terse +record of that calamity: "The Irish having robbed Spenser's goods and +burnt his house and a little child new-born, he and his wife escaped, +and after he died, for lack of bread, in King Street." Jonson himself is +closely and charmingly associated with places that may still be seen. He +passed his boyhood near Charing Cross--having been born in Hartshorn +Lane, now Northumberland Street--and went to the parish school of St. +Martin-in-the-Fields; and those who roam around Lincoln's Inn will call +to mind that this great poet helped to build it--a trowel in one hand +and Horace in the other. His residence, in his days of fame, was just +outside of Temple Bar--but all that neighbourhood is new at the present +time. + +The Mermaid, which he frequented--with Shakespeare, Fletcher, Herrick, +Chapman, and Donne--was in Bread Street, but no trace of it remains; and +a banking-house stands now on the site of the Devil Tavern, in Fleet +Street, where the Apollo Club, which he founded, used to meet. The +famous inscription, "O rare Ben Jonson," is three times cut in the +Abbey--once in Poets' Corner and twice in the north aisle where he was +buried, the smaller of the two slabs marking the place of his vertical +grave. + +Illustration: "A Bit from Clare Market." + +Dryden once dwelt in a narrow, dingy, quaint house, in Fetter Lane,--the +street in which Dean Swift has placed the home of Gulliver, and where +now (1882) the famous Doomsday Book is kept,--but later he removed to a +finer dwelling, in Gerrard Street, Soho, which was the scene of his +death. Both buildings are marked with mural tablets and neither of them +seems to have undergone much change. (The house in Fetter Lane is +gone--1891.) Edmund Burke's house, also in Gerrard Street, is a +beer-shop; but his memory hallows the place, and an inscription upon it +proudly announces that here he lived. Dr. Johnson's house in Gough +Square bears likewise a mural tablet, and, standing at its time-worn +threshold, the visitor needs no effort of fancy to picture that uncouth +figure shambling through the crooked lanes that lead into this queer, +sombre, melancholy retreat. In that house he wrote the first Dictionary +of the English language and the immortal letter to Lord Chesterfield. In +Gough Square lived and died Hugh Kelly, dramatist, author of _The School +of Wives_ and _The Man of Reason_, and one of the friends of Goldsmith, +at whose burial he was present. The historical antiquarian society that +has marked many of the literary shrines of London has rendered a great +service. The houses associated with Reynolds and Hogarth, in Leicester +Square, Byron, in Holies Street, Benjamin Franklin and Peter the Great, +in Craven Street, Campbell, in Duke Street, St. James's, Garrick, in the +Adelphi Terrace, Michael Farraday, in Blandford Street, and +Mrs. Siddons, in Baker Street, are but a few of the historic spots which +are thus commemorated. Much, however, remains to be done. One would like +to know, for instance, in which room in "The Albany" it was that Byron +wrote _Lara_[1] in which of the houses of Buckingham Street Coleridge had +his lodging while he was translating _Wallenstein;_ whereabouts in +Bloomsbury Square was the residence of Akenside, who wrote _The +Pleasures of Imagination,_ and of Croly, who wrote _Salathiel;_ or where +it was that Gray lived, when he established himself close by Russell +Square, in order to be one of the first--as he continued to be one of +the most constant--students at the then newly opened British Museum +(1759). + +[1] Byron was born at No. 34 Holies Street, Cavendish Square. While he was +at school in Dulwich Grove his mother lived in a house in Sloane +Terrace. Other houses associated with him are No. 8 St. James Street; a +lodging in Bennet Street; No. 2 "The Albany"--a lodging that he rented +of Lord Althorpe, and entered on March 28, 1814; and No. 139 Piccadilly, +where his daughter, Ada, was born, and where Lady Byron left him. This, +at present, is the home of the genial scholar Sir Algernon Borthwick +(1893). John Murray's house, where Byron's fragment of Autobiography was +burned, is in Albemarle Street. Byron's body, when brought home from +Greece, lay in state at No. 25 Great George Street, Westminster, before +being taken north, to Hucknall-Torkard church, in Nottinghamshire, for +burial. + +These, and such as these, may seem trivial things; but Nature has denied +an unfailing source of innocent happiness to the man who can find no +pleasure in them. For my part, when rambling in Fleet Street it is a +special delight to remember even so slight an incident as that recorded +of the author of the _Elegy in a Country Churchyard_,--that he once saw +there his satirist, Dr. Johnson, rolling and puffing along the sidewalk, +and cried out to a friend, "Here comes Ursa Major." For the true lovers +of literature "Ursa Major" walks oftener in Fleet Street to-day than any +living man. + +A good thread of literary research might be profitably followed by him +who should trace the footsteps of all the poets that have held, in +England, the office of laureate. John Kay was laureate in the reign of +Edward IV.; Andrew Bernard in that of Henry VII.; John Skelton in that +of Henry VIII.; and Edmund Spenser in that of Elizabeth. + +Illustration: "Fleet Street in 1780." + +Since then the succession has included the names of Samuel Daniel, +Michael Drayton, Ben Jonson, Sir William Davenant, John Dryden, Thomas +Shadwell, Nahum Tate, Nicholas Rowe, Lawrence Eusden, Colley Cibber, +William Whitehead, Thomas Wharton, Henry James Pye, Robert Southey, +William Wordsworth, and Alfred Tennyson--who, until his death, in 1892, +wore, in spotless renown, that + + "Laurel greener from the brows + Of him that utter'd nothing base." + +Most of those bards were intimately associated with London, and several +of them are buried in the Abbey. It is, indeed, because so many storied +names are written upon gravestones that the explorer of the old churches +of London finds so rich a harvest of impressive association and lofty +thought. Few persons visit them, and you are likely to find yourself +comparatively alone in rambles of this kind. I went one morning into St. +Martin--once "in the fields," now in one of the busiest thoroughfares at +the centre of the city--and found there only a pew-opener preparing for +the service, and an organist playing an anthem. It is a beautiful +structure, with its graceful spire and its columns of weather-beaten +stone, curiously stained in gray and sooty black, and it is almost as +famous for theatrical names as St. Paul's, Covent Garden, or St. +George's, Bloomsbury, or St. Clement Danes. Here, in a vault beneath the +church, was buried the bewitching and affectionate Nell Gwyn; here is +the grave of James Smith, joint author with his brother Horace--who was +buried at Tunbridge Wells--of _The Rejected Addresses;_ here rests +Yates, the original Sir Oliver Surface; and here were laid the ashes of +the romantic and sprightly Mrs. Centlivre, and of George Farquhar, whom +neither youth, genius, patient labour, nor sterling achievement could +save from a life of misfortune and an untimely and piteous death. A +cheerier association of this church is with Thomas Moore, the poet of +Ireland, who was here married. + +Illustration: "Gray's Inn Square." + +At St. Giles-in-the-Fields, again, are the graves of George Chapman, who +translated Homer, Andrew Marvel, who wrote such lovely lyrics of love, +Rich, the manager, who brought out Gay's _Beggar's Opera_, and James +Shirley, the fine old dramatist and poet, whose immortal couplet has +been so often murmured in such solemn haunts as these-- + + "Only the actions of the just + Smell sweet and blossom in the dust." + +Shirley lived in Gray's Inn when he was writing his plays, and he was +fortunate in the favour of queen Henrietta Maria, wife to Charles the +First; but when the Puritan times arrived he fell into misfortune and +poverty and became a school-teacher in Whitefriars. In 1666 he was +living in or near Fleet Street, and his home was one of the many +dwellings that were destroyed in the great fire. Then he fled, with his +wife, into the parish of St. Giles-in-the-Fields, where, overcome with +grief and terror, they both died, within twenty-four hours of each +other, and were buried in the same grave. + +Illustration: "Shield with Gargoyle Head" + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +A HAUNT OF EDMUND KEAN + + +To muse over the dust of those about whom we have read so much--the +great actors, thinkers, and writers, the warriors and statesmen for whom +the play is ended and the lights are put out--is to come very near to +them, and to realise more deeply than ever before their close +relationship with our own humanity; and we ought to be wiser and better +for this experience. It is good, also, to seek out the favourite haunts +of our heroes, and call them up as they were in their lives. One of the +happiest accidents of a London stroll was the finding of the Harp +Tavern,[1] in Russell Street, Covent Garden, near the stage door of Drury +Lane theatre, which was the accustomed resort of Edmund Kean. + +[1] An account of the Harp, in the _Victuallers' Gazette_, says that this +tavern has had within its doors every actor of note since the days of +Garrick, and many actresses, also, of the latter part of the eighteenth +century; and it mentions, as visitants there, Dora Jordan, Nance +Oldfield, Anne Bracegirdle, Kitty Clive, Harriet Mellon, Barton Booth, +Quin, Cibber, Macklin, Grimaldi, Eliza Vestris, and Miss Stephens--who +became Countess of Essex. + +Carpenters and masons were at work upon it when I entered, and it was +necessary almost to creep amid heaps of broken mortar and rubbish +beneath their scaffolds, in order to reach the interior rooms. Here, at +the end of a narrow passage, was a little apartment, perhaps fifteen +feet square, with a low ceiling and a bare floor, in which Kean +habitually took his pleasure, in the society of fellow-actors and boon +companions, long ago. A narrow, cushioned bench against the walls, a few +small tables, a chair or two, a number of churchwarden pipes on the +mantlepiece, and portraits of Disraeli and Gladstone, constituted the +furniture. A panelled wainscot and dingy red paper covered the walls, +and a few cobwebs hung from the grimy ceiling. By this time the old room +has been made neat and comely; but then it bore the marks of hard usage +and long neglect, and it seemed all the more interesting for that +reason. + +Kean's seat is at the right, as you enter, and just above it a mural +tablet designates the spot,--which is still further commemorated by a +death-mask of the actor, placed on a little shelf of dark wood and +covered with glass. No better portrait could be desired; certainly no +truer one exists. In life this must have been a glorious face. The eyes +are large and prominent, the brow is broad and fine, the mouth wide and +obviously sensitive, the chin delicate, and the nose long, well set, and +indicative of immense force of character. The whole expression of the +face is that of refinement and of great and desolate sadness. Kean, as +is known from the testimony of one who acted with him,[1] was always at +his best in passages of pathos. + +[1] The mother of Jefferson, the comedian, described Edmund Kean in this +way. She was a member of the company at the Walnut Street Theatre, +Philadelphia, when he acted there, and it was she who sang for him, when +he acted The Stranger, the well-known lines, by Sheridan,-- + + "I have a silent sorrow here, + A grief I'll ne'er impart; + It breathes no sigh, it sheds no tear, + But it consumes my heart." + +To hear him speak Othello's farewell was to hear the perfect music of +heart-broken despair. To see him when, as The Stranger, he listened to +the song, was to see the genuine, absolute reality of hopeless sorrow. +He could, of course, thrill his hearers in the ferocious outbursts-of +Richard and Sir Giles, but it was in tenderness and grief that he was +supremely great; and no one will wonder at that who looks upon his noble +face--so eloquent of self-conflict and suffering--even in this cold and +colourless mask of death. It is easy to judge and condemn the sins of a +weak, passionate humanity; but when we think of such creatures of genius +as Edmund Kean and Robert Burns, we ought to consider what demons in +their own souls those wretched men were forced to fight, and by what +agonies they expiated their vices and errors. This little tavern-room +tells the whole mournful story, with death to point the moral, and pity +to breathe its sigh of unavailing regret. + +Many of the present frequenters of the Harp are elderly men, whose +conversation is enriched with memories of the stage and with ample +knowledge and judicious taste in literature and art. They naturally +speak with pride of Kean's association with their favourite resort. +Often in that room the eccentric genius has put himself in pawn, to +exact from the manager of Drury Lane theatre the money needed to relieve +the wants of some brother actor. Often his voice has been heard there, +in the songs that he sang with so much feeling and sweetness and such +homely yet beautiful skill. In the circles of the learned and courtly he +never was really at home; but here he filled the throne and ruled the +kingdom of the revel, and here no doubt every mood of his mind, from +high thought and generous emotion to misanthropical bitterness and +vacant levity, found its unfettered expression. They show you a broken +panel in the high wainscot, which was struck and smashed by a pewter pot +that he hurled at the head of a person who had given him offence; and +they tell you at the same time,--as, indeed, is historically true,--that +he was the idol of his comrades, the first in love, pity, sympathy, and +kindness, and would turn his back, any day, for the least of them, on +the nobles who sought his companionship. There is no better place than +this in which to study the life of Edmund Kean. Old men have been met +with here who saw him on the stage, and even acted with him. The room is +the weekly meeting-place and habitual nightly tryst of an ancient club, +called the City of Lushington, which has existed since the days of the +Regency, and of which these persons are members. The City has its Mayor, +Sheriff, insignia, record-book, and system of ceremonials; and much of +wit, wisdom, and song may be enjoyed at its civic feasts. The names of +its four wards--Lunacy, Suicide, Poverty, and Juniper--are written up in +the four corners of the room, and whoever joins must select his ward. +Sheridan was a member of it, and so was the Regent; and the present +landlord of the Harp (Mr. M'Pherson) preserves among his relics the +chairs in which those gay companions sat, when the author presided over +the initiation of the prince. It is thought that this club grew out of +the society of The Wolves, which was formed by Kean's adherents, when +the elder Booth arose to disturb his supremacy upon the stage. But there +is no malice in it now. Its purposes are simply convivial and literary, +and its tone is that of thorough good-will.[1] + +[1] A coloured print of this room may be found in that eccentric book _The +Life of an Actor,_ by Pierce Egan: 1825. + +One of the gentlest and most winning traits in the English character is +its instinct of companionship as to literature and art. Since the days +of the Mermaid the authors and actors of London have dearly loved and +deeply enjoyed such odd little fraternities of wit as are typified, not +inaptly, by the City of Lushington. There are no rosier hours in my +memory than those that were passed, between midnight and morning, in the +cosy clubs in London. And when dark days come, and foes harass, and the +troubles of life annoy, it will be sweet to think that in still another +sacred retreat of friendship, across the sea, the old armour is gleaming +in the festal lights, where one of the gentlest spirits that ever wore +the laurel of England's love smiles kindly on his comrades and seems to +murmur the charm of English hospitality-- + + "Let no one take beyond this threshold hence + Words uttered here in friendship's confidence." + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +STOKE-POGIS AND THOMAS GRAY + + +It is a cool afternoon in July, and the shadows are falling eastward on +fields of waving grain and lawns of emerald velvet. Overhead a few light +clouds are drifting, and the green boughs of the great elms are gently +stirred by a breeze from the west. Across one of the more distant fields +a flock of sable rooks--some of them fluttering and cawing--wings its +slow and melancholy flight. There is the sound of the whetting of a +scythe, and, near by, the twittering of many birds upon a cottage roof. +On either side of the country road, which runs like a white rivulet +through banks of green, the hawthorn hedges are shining and the bright +sod is spangled with all the wild-flowers of an English summer. An odour +of lime-trees and of new-mown hay sweetens the air for many miles +around. Far off, on the horizon's verge, just glimmering through the +haze, rises the imperial citadel of Windsor. And close at hand a little +child points to a gray spire[1] peering out of a nest of ivy, and tells me +that this is Stoke-Pogis church. + +[1] In Gray's time there was no spire on the church--nor is the spire an +improvement to the tower. + +If peace dwells anywhere upon the earth its dwelling-place is here. You +come into this little churchyard by a pathway across the park and +through a wooden turnstile; and in one moment the whole world is left +behind and forgotten. Here are the nodding elms; here is the yew-tree's +shade; here "heaves the turf in many a mouldering heap." All these +graves seem very old. The long grass waves over them, and some of the +low stones that mark them are entirely shrouded with ivy. Many of the +"frail memorials" are made of wood. None of them is neglected or +forlorn, but all of them seem to have been scattered here, in that sweet +disorder which is the perfection of rural loveliness. There never, of +course, could have been any thought of creating this effect; yet here it +remains, to win your heart forever. And here, amid this mournful beauty, +the little church itself nestles close to the ground, while every tree +that waves its branches around it, and every vine that clambers on its +surface, seems to clasp it in the arms of love. Nothing breaks the +silence but the sighing of the wind in the great yew-tree at the church +door,--beneath which was the poet's favourite seat, and where the brown +needles, falling, through many an autumn, have made a dense carpet on +the turf. Now and then there is a faint rustle in the ivy; a fitful +bird-note serves but to deepen the stillness; and from a rose-tree near +at hand a few leaves flutter down, in soundless benediction on the dust +beneath. + +Illustration: "Stoke-Pogis Church." + +Gray was laid in the same grave with his mother, "the careful, tender +mother of many children, one alone of whom," as he wrote upon her +gravestone, "had the misfortune to survive her." Their tomb--a low, +oblong, brick structure, covered with a large slab--stands a few feet +away from the church wall, upon which is a small tablet to denote its +place. The poet's name has not been inscribed above him. There was no +need here of "storied urn or animated bust." The place is his monument, +and the majestic Elegy--giving to the soul of the place a form of +seraphic beauty and a voice of celestial music--is his immortal epitaph. + + "There scatter'd oft, the earliest of ye Year, + By hands unseen are showers of vi'lets found; + The Redbreast loves to build & warble there, + And little Footsteps lightly print the ground." + +There is a monument to Gray in Stoke Park, about two hundred yards from +the church; but it seems commemorative of the builder rather than the +poet. They intend to set a memorial window in the church, to honour him, +and the visitor finds there a money-box for the reception of +contributions in aid of this pious design. Nothing will be done amiss +that serves to direct closer attention to his life. It was one of the +best lives ever recorded in the history of literature. It was a life +singularly pure, noble, and beautiful. In two qualities, sincerity and +reticence, it was exemplary almost beyond a parallel; and those are +qualities that literary character in the present day has great need to +acquire. Gray was averse to publicity. He did not sway by the censure of +other men; neither did he need their admiration as his breath of life. +Poetry, to him, was a great art, and he added nothing to literature +until he had first made it as nearly perfect as it could be made by the +thoughtful, laborious exertion of his best powers, superadded to the +spontaneous impulse and flow of his genius. More voluminous writers, +Charles Dickens among the rest, have sneered at him because he wrote so +little. The most colossal form of human complacency is that of the +individual who thinks all other creatures inferior who happen to be +unlike himself. This reticence on the part of Gray was, in fact, the +emblem of his sincerity and the compelling cause of his imperishable +renown. There is a better thing than the great man who is always +speaking; and that is the great man who only speaks when he has a great +word to say. Gray has left only a few poems; but of his principal works +each is perfect in its kind, supreme and unapproachable. He did not test +merit by reference to ill-formed and capricious public opinion, but he +wrought according to the highest standards of art that learning and +taste could furnish. His letters form an English classic. There is no +purer prose in existence; there is not much that is so pure. But the +crowning glory of Gray's nature, the element that makes it so +impressive, the charm that brings the pilgrim to Stoke-Pogis church to +muse upon it, was the self-poised, sincere, and lovely exaltation of its +contemplative spirit. He was a man whose conduct of life would, first of +all, purify, expand, and adorn the temple of his own soul, out of which +should afterward flow, in their own free way, those choral harmonies +that soothe, guide, and exalt the human race. He lived before he wrote. +The soul of the Elegy is the soul of the man. It was his thought--which +he has somewhere expressed in better words than these--that human beings +are only at their best while such feelings endure as are engendered when +death has just taken from us the objects of our love. That was the point +of view from which he habitually looked upon the world; and no man who +has learned the lessons of experience can doubt that he was right. + +Gray was twenty-six years old when he wrote the first draft of the +Elegy. He began that poem in 1742, at Stoke-Pogis, and he finished and +published it in 1751. No visitor to this churchyard can miss either its +inspiration or its imagery. The poet has been dead more than a hundred +years, but the scene of his rambles and reveries has suffered no +material change. One of his yew-trees, indeed, much weakened with age, +was some time since blown down, in a storm, and its fragments have been +carried away. The picturesque manor house not far distant was once the +home of Admiral Penn, father of William Penn the famous Quaker.[1] + +[1] William Penn and his children are buried in the little Jordans +graveyard, not many miles away. The visitor to Stoke-Pogis should not +omit a visit to Upton church, Burnham village, and Binfield. Pope lived +at Binfield when he wrote his poem on Windsor Forest. Upton claims to +have had a share in the inspiration of the Elegy, but Stoke-Pogis was +unquestionably his place of residence when he wrote it. Langley Marish +ought to be visited also, and Horton--where Milton wrote "L'Allegro," +"II Penseroso," and "Comus." Chalfont St. Peter is accessible, where +still is standing the house in which Milton finished _Paradise Lost_ and +began _Paradise Regained;_ and from there a short drive will take you to +Beaconsfield, where you may see Edmund Burke's tablet, in the church, +and the monument to Waller, in the churchyard. + +All the trees of the region have, of course, waxed and expanded,--not +forgetting the neighbouring beeches of Burnham, among which he loved to +wander, and where he might often have been found, sitting with his book, +at some gnarled wreath of "old fantastic roots." But in its general +characteristics, its rustic homeliness and peaceful beauty, this +"glimmering landscape," immortalised in his verse, is the same on which +his living eyes have looked. There was no need to seek for him in any +special spot. The house in which he once lived might, no doubt, be +discovered; but every nook and vista, every green lane and upland lawn +and ivy-mantled tower of this delicious solitude is haunted with his +presence. + +The night is coming on and the picture will soon be dark; but never +while memory lasts can it fade out of the heart. What a blessing would +be ours, if only we could hold forever that exaltation of the spirit, +that sweet, resigned serenity, that pure freedom from all the passions +of nature and all the cares of life, which comes upon us in such a place +as this! Alas, and again alas! Even with the thought this golden mood +begins to melt away; even with the thought comes our dismissal from its +influence. Nor will it avail us anything now to linger at the shrine. +Fortunate is he, though in bereavement and regret, who parts from beauty +while yet her kiss is warm upon his lips,--waiting not for the last +farewell word, hearing not the last notes of the music, seeing not the +last gleams of sunset as the light dies from the sky. It was a sad +parting, but the memory of the place can never now be despoiled of its +loveliness. As I write these words I stand again in the cool and dusky +silence of the poet's church, with its air of stately age and its +fragrance of cleanliness, while the light of the western sun, broken +into rays of gold and ruby, streams through the painted windows and +softly falls upon the quaint little galleries and decorous pews; and, +looking forth through the low, arched door, I see the dark and +melancholy boughs of the dreaming yew-tree, and, nearer, a shadow of +rippling leaves in the clear sunshine of the churchway path. And all the +time a gentle voice is whispering, in the chambers of thought-- + + "No farther seek his merits to disclose, + Or draw his frailties from their dread abode: + (There they alike in trembling hope repose), + The bosom of his Father and his God." + +Illustration: "Old Church." + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +AT THE GRAVE OF COLERIDGE + + +Among the deeply meditative, melodious, and eloquent poems of Wordsworth +there is one---about the burial of Ossian--that glances at the question +of fitness in a place of sepulchre. Not always, for the illustrious +dead, has the final couch of rest been rightly chosen. We think with +resignation, and with a kind of pride, of Keats and Shelley in the +little Protestant burial-ground at Rome. Every heart is touched at the +spectacle of Garrick and Johnson sleeping side by side in Westminster +Abbey. It was right that the dust of Dean Stanley should mingle with the +dust of poets and of kings; and to see--as the present writer did, only +a little while ago--fresh flowers on the stone that covers him, in the +chapel of Henry the Seventh, was to feel a tender gladness and solemn +content. Shakespeare's grave, in the chancel of Stratford church, +awakens the same ennobling awe and melancholy pleasure; and it is with +kindred feeling that you linger at the tomb of Gray. But who can be +content that poor Letitia Landon should sleep beneath the pavement of a +barrack, with soldiers trampling over her dust? One might almost think, +sometimes, that the spirit of calamity, which follows certain persons +throughout the whole of life, had pursued them even in death, to haunt +about their repose and to mar all the gentleness of association that +ought to hallow it. Chatterton, a pauper and a suicide, was huddled into +a workhouse graveyard, the very place of which--in Shoe Lane, covered +now by Farringdon Market--has disappeared. Otway, miserable in his love +for Elizabeth Barry, the actress, and said to have starved to death in +the Minories, near the Tower of London, was laid in a vault of St. +Clement Danes, in the middle of the Strand, where never the green leaves +rustle, but where the roar of the mighty city pours on in continual +tumult. That church holds also the remains of William Mountfort, the +actor, slain in a brawl by Lord Mohun; of Nat Lee, "the mad poet"; of +George Powell, the tragedian, of brilliant and deplorable memory; and of +the handsome Hildebrand Horden, cut off by a violent death in the +springtime of his youth. Hildebrand Horden was the son of a clergyman of +Twickenham and lived in the reign of William and Mary. Dramatic +chronicles say that he was possessed of great talent as an actor, and of +remarkable personal beauty. He was stabbed, in a quarrel, at the Rose +Tavern; and after he had been laid out for the grave, such was the +lively feminine interest in his handsome person, many ladies came, some +masked and others openly, to view him in his shroud. This is mentioned +in Colley Cibber's _Apology._ Charles Coffey, the dramatist, author of +_The Devil upon Two Sticks,_ and other plays, lies in the vaults of St. +Clement; as likewise does Thomas Rymer, historiographer for William +III., successor to Shadwell, and author of Foedera, in seventeen +volumes. In the church of St. Clement you may see the pew in which Dr. +Johnson habitually sat when he attended divine service there. It was his +favourite church. The pew is in the gallery; and to those who honour the +passionate integrity and fervent, devout zeal of the stalwart old +champion of letters, it is indeed a sacred shrine. Henry Mossop, one of +the stateliest of stately actors, perishing, by slow degrees, of penury +and grief,--which he bore in proud silence,--found a refuge, at last, in +the barren gloom of Chelsea churchyard. Theodore Hook, the cheeriest +spirit of his time, the man who filled every hour of life with the +sunshine of his wit and was wasted and degraded by his own brilliancy, +rests, close by Bishop Sherlock, in Fulham churchyard,--one of the +dreariest spots in the suburbs of London. Perhaps it does not much +signify, when once the play is over, in what oblivion our crumbling +relics are hidden away. Yet to most human creatures these are sacred +things, and many a loving heart, for all time to come, will choose a +consecrated spot for the repose of the dead, and will echo the tender +words of Longfellow,--so truly expressive of a universal and reverent +sentiment-- + + "Take them, O Grave, and let them lie + Folded upon thy narrow shelves, + As garments by the soul laid by + And precious only to ourselves." + +One of the most impressive of the many literary pilgrimages that I have +made was that which brought me to the house in which Coleridge died, and +the place where he was buried. The student needs not to be told that +this poet, born in 1772, the year after Gray's death, bore the white +lilies of pure literature till 1834, when he too entered into his rest. +The last nineteen years of the life of Coleridge were spent in a house +at Highgate; and there, within a few steps of each other, the visitor +may behold his dwelling and his tomb. The house is one in a block of +dwellings, situated in what is called the Grove--a broad, embowered +street, a little way from the centre of the village. There are gardens +attached to these houses, both in the front and the rear, and the smooth +and peaceful roadside walks in the Grove itself are pleasantly shaded by +elms of noble size and abundant foliage. These were young trees when +Coleridge saw them, and all this neighbourhood, in his day, was but +thinly settled. Looking from his chamber window he could see the dusky +outlines of sombre London, crowned with the dome of St. Paul's on the +southern horizon, while, more near, across a fertile and smiling valley, +the gray spire of Hampstead church would bound his prospect, rising +above the verdant woodland of Caen.[1] In front were beds of flowers, and +all around he might hear the songs of birds that filled the fragrant air +with their happy, careless music. Not far away stood the old church of +Highgate, long since destroyed, in which he used to worship, and close +by was the Gate House inn, primitive, quaint, and cosy, which still is +standing, to comfort the weary traveller with its wholesome hospitality. + +[1] "Come in the first stage, so as either to walk, or to be driven in +Mr. Gilman's gig, to Caen wood and its delicious groves and alleys, the +finest in England, a grand cathedral aisle of giant lime-trees, Pope's +favourite composition walk, when with the old Earl."--_Coleridge to +Crabb Robinson. Highgate, June_ 1817 + +Illustration: "The White Hart." + +Highgate, with all its rural peace, must have been a bustling place in +the old times, for all the travel went through it that passed either +into or out of London by the great north road,--that road in which +Whittington heard the prophetic summons of the bells, and where may +still be seen, suitably and rightly marked, the site of the stone on +which he sat to rest. Here, indeed, the coaches used to halt, either to +feed or to change horses, and here the many neglected little taverns +still remaining, with their odd names and their swinging signs, testify +to the discarded customs of a bygone age. Some years ago a new road was +cut, so that travellers might wind around the hill, and avoid climbing +the steep ascent to the village; and since then the grass has begun to +grow in the streets. But such bustle as once enlivened the solitude of +Highgate could never have been otherwise than agreeable diversion to its +inhabitants; while for Coleridge himself, as we can well imagine, the +London coach was welcome indeed, that brought to his door such +well-loved friends as Charles Lamb, Joseph Henry Green, Crabb Robinson, +Wordsworth, or Talfourd. + +To this retreat the author of _The Ancient Mariner_ withdrew in 1815, to +live with his friend James Gilman, a surgeon, who had undertaken to +rescue him from the demon of opium, but who, as De Quincey intimates, +was lured by the poet into the service of the very fiend whom both had +striven to subdue. It was his last refuge, and he never left it till he +was released from life. As you ramble in that quiet neighbourhood your +fancy will not fail to conjure up his placid figure,--the silver hair, +the pale face, the great, luminous, changeful blue eyes, the somewhat +portly form clothed in black raiment, the slow, feeble walk, the sweet, +benignant manner, the voice that was perfect melody, and the +inexhaustible talk that was the flow of a golden sea of eloquence and +wisdom. Coleridge was often seen walking there, with a book in his hand; +and the children of the village knew him and loved him. His presence is +impressed forever upon the place, to haunt and to hallow it. He was a +very great man. The wings of his imagination wave easily in the opal air +of the highest heaven. The power and majesty of his thought are such as +establish forever in the human mind the conviction of personal +immortality. Yet how forlorn the ending that this stately soul was +enforced to make! For more than thirty years he was the slave of opium. +It blighted his home; it alienated his wife; it ruined his health; it +made him utterly wretched. "I have been, through a large portion of my +later life," he wrote, in 1834, "a sufferer, sorely afflicted with +bodily pains, languor, and manifold infirmities." But behind all +this,--more dreadful still and harder to bear,--was he not the slave of +some ingrained perversity of the mind itself, some helpless and hopeless +irresolution of character, some enervating spell of that sublime yet +pitiable dejection of Hamlet, which kept him forever at war with +himself, and, last of all, cast him out upon the homeless ocean of +despair, to drift away into ruin and death? There are shapes more awful +than his, in the records of literary history,--the ravaged, agonising +form of Swift, for instance, and the wonderful, desolate face of Byron; +but there is no figure more forlorn and pathetic. + +This way the memory of Coleridge came upon me, standing at his grave. He +should have been laid in some wild, free place, where the grass could +grow above him and the trees could wave their branches over his head. +They placed him in a ponderous tomb, of gray stone, in Highgate +churchyard, and in later times they have reared a new building above +it,--the grammar-school of the village,--so that now the tomb, fenced +round with iron, is in a cold, barren, gloomy crypt, accessible indeed +from the churchyard, through several arches, but grim and doleful in all +its surroundings; as if the evil and cruel fate that marred his life +were still triumphant over his ashes. + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +ON BARNET BATTLE-FIELD + + +In England, as elsewhere, every historic spot is occupied; and of course +it sometimes happens, at such a spot, that its association is marred and +its sentiment almost destroyed by the presence of the persons and the +interests of to-day. The visitor to such places must carry with him not +only knowledge and sensibility but imagination and patience. He will not +find the way strewn with roses nor the atmosphere of poetry ready-made +for his enjoyment. That atmosphere, indeed, for the most +part--especially in the cities--he must himself supply. Relics do not +robe themselves for exhibition. The Past is utterly indifferent to its +worshippers. All manner of little obstacles, too, will arise before the +pilgrim, to thwart him in his search. The mental strain and +bewilderment, the inevitable physical weariness, the soporific influence +of the climate, the tumult of the streets, the frequent and +disheartening spectacle of poverty, squalor, and vice, the capricious +and untimely rain, the inconvenience of long distances, the ill-timed +arrival and consequent disappointment, the occasional nervous sense of +loneliness and insecurity, the inappropriate boor, the ignorant, +garrulous porter, the extortionate cabman, and the jeering +bystander--all these must be regarded with resolute indifference by him +who would ramble, pleasantly and profitably, in the footprints of +English history. Everything depends, in other words, upon the eyes with +which you observe and the spirit which you impart. Never was a keener +truth uttered than in the couplet of Wordsworth-- + + "Minds that have nothing to confer + Find little to perceive." + +To the philosophic stranger, however, even this prosaic occupancy of +historic places is not without its pleasurable, because humorous, +significance. Such an observer in England will sometimes be amused as +well as impressed by a sudden sense of the singular incidental position +into which--partly through the lapse of years, and partly through a +peculiarity of national character--the scenes of famous events, not to +say the events themselves, have gradually drifted. I thought of this one +night, when, in Whitehall Gardens, I was looking at the statue of James +the Second, and a courteous policeman came up and silently turned the +light of his bull's-eye upon the inscription. A scene of more +incongruous elements, or one suggestive of a more serio-comic contrast, +could not be imagined. I thought of it again when standing on the +village green near Barnet, and viewing, amid surroundings both pastoral +and ludicrous, the column which there commemorates the defeat and death +of the great Earl of Warwick, and, consequently, the final triumph of +the Grown over the last of the Barons of England. + +It was toward the close of a cool summer day, and of a long drive +through the beautiful hedgerows of sweet and verdurous Middlesex, that I +came to the villages of Barnet and Hadley, and went over the field of +King Edward's victory,--that fatal glorious field, on which Gloster +showed such resolute valour, and where Neville, supreme and magnificent +in disaster, fought on foot, to make sure that himself might go down in +the stormy death of all his hopes. More than four hundred years have +drifted by since that misty April morning when the star of Warwick was +quenched in blood, and ten thousand men were slaughtered to end the +strife between the Barons and the Crown; yet the results of that +conflict are living facts in the government of England now, and in the +fortunes of her inhabitants. If you were unaware of the solid simplicity +and proud reticence of the English character,--leading it to merge all +its shining deeds in one continuous fabric of achievement, like jewels +set in a cloth of gold,--you might expect to find this spot adorned with +a structure of more than common splendour. What you actually do find +there is a plain monument, standing in the middle of a common, at the +junction of several roads,--the chief of which are those leading to +Hatfield and St. Albans, in Hertfordshire,--and on one side of this +column you may read, in letters of faded black, the comprehensive +statement that "Here was fought the famous battle between Edward the +Fourth and the Earl of Warwick, April 14th, anno 1471, in which the Earl +was defeated and slain."[1] + +[1] The words "stick no bills" have been intrusively added, just below +this inscription. + +Illustration: "Column on Barnet Battle-Field." + +In my reverie, standing at the foot of this humble, weather-stained +monument, I saw the long range of Barnet hills, mantled with grass and +flowers and with the golden haze of a morning in spring, swarming with +gorgeous horsemen and glittering with spears and banners; and I heard +the vengeful clash of arms, the horrible neighing of maddened steeds, +the furious shouts of onset, and all the nameless cries and groans of +battle, commingled in a thrilling yet hideous din. Here rode King +Edward, intrepid, handsome, and stalwart, with his proud, cruel smile +and his long, yellow hair. There Warwick swung his great two-handed +sword, and mowed his foes like grain. And there the fiery form of +Richard, splendid in burnished steel, darted like the scorpion, dealing +death at every blow; till at last, in fatal mischance, the sad star of +Oxford, assailed by its own friends, was swept out of the field, and the +fight drove, raging, into the valleys of Hadley. How strangely, though, +did this fancied picture contrast with the actual scene before me! At a +little distance, all around the village green, the peaceful, embowered +cottages kept their sentinel watch. Over the careless, straggling grass +went the shadow of the passing cloud. Not a sound was heard, save the +rustle of leaves and the low laughter of some little children, playing +near the monument. Close by and at rest was a flock of geese, couched +upon the cool earth, and, as their custom is, supremely contented with +themselves and all the world. + +And at the foot of the column, stretched out at his full length, in +tattered garments that scarcely covered his nakedness, reposed the +British labourer, fast asleep upon the sod. No more Wars of the Roses +now; but calm retirement, smiling plenty, cool western winds, and sleep +and peace-- + + "With a red rose and a white rose + Leaning, nodding at the wall." + +Illustration: "Farm-house." + + + +CHAPTER XX + +A GLIMPSE OF CANTERBURY + + +One of the most impressive spots on earth, and one that especially +teaches--with silent, pathetic eloquence and solemn admonition--the +great lesson of contrast, the incessant flow of the ages and the +inevitable decay and oblivion of the past, is the ancient city of +Canterbury. Years and not merely days of residence there are essential +to the adequate and right comprehension of that wonderful place. Yet +even an hour passed among its shrines will teach you, as no printed word +has ever taught, the measureless power and the sublime beauty of a +perfect religious faith; while, as you stand and meditate in the shadow +of the gray cathedral walls, the pageant of a thousand years of history +will pass before you like a dream. The city itself, with its bright, +swift river (the Stour), its opulence of trees and flowers, its narrow +winding streets, its numerous antique buildings, its many towers, its +fragments of ancient wall and gate, its formal decorations, its air of +perfect cleanliness and thoughtful gravity, its beautiful, umbrageous +suburbs,--where the scarlet of the poppies and the russet red of the +clover make one vast rolling sea of colour and of fragrant +delight,--and, to crown all, its stately character of wealth without +ostentation and industry without tumult, must prove to you a deep and +satisfying comfort. But, through all this, pervading and surmounting it +all, the spirit of the place pours in upon your heart, and floods your +whole being with the incense and organ music of passionate, jubilant +devotion. + +Illustration: "Falstaff Inn and West Gate, Canterbury." + +It was not superstition that reared those gorgeous fanes of worship +which still adorn, even while they no longer consecrate, the +ecclesiastic cities of the old world. In the age of Augustine, Dunstan, +and Ethelnoth humanity had begun to feel its profound and vital need of +a sure and settled reliance on religious faith. The drifting spirit, +worn with sorrow, doubt, and self-conflict, longed to be at +peace--longed for a refuge equally from the evils and tortures of its +own condition and the storms and perils of the world. In that longing it +recognised its immortality and heard the voice of its Divine Parent; and +out of the ecstatic joy and utter abandonment of its new-born, +passionate, responsive faith, it built and consecrated those stupendous +temples,--rearing them with all its love no less than all its riches and +all its power. There was no wealth that it would not give, no toil that +it would not perform, and no sacrifice that it would not make, in the +accomplishment of its sacred task. It was grandly, nobly, terribly in +earnest, and it achieved a work that is not only sublime in its poetic +majesty but measureless in the scope and extent of its moral and +spiritual influence. It has left to succeeding ages not only a legacy of +permanent beauty, not only a sublime symbol of religious faith, but an +everlasting monument to the loveliness and greatness that are inherent +in human nature. No creature with a human heart in his bosom can stand +in such a building as Canterbury cathedral without feeling a greater +love and reverence than he ever felt before, alike for God and man. + +Illustration: "Butchery Lane, Canterbury." + +On a day (July 27, 1882) when a class of the boys of the King's School +of Canterbury was graduated the present writer chanced to be a listener +to the impressive and touching sermon that was preached before them, in +the cathedral; wherein they were tenderly admonished to keep unbroken +their associations with their school-days and to remember the lessons of +the place itself. That counsel must have sunk deep into every mind. It +is difficult to understand how any person reared amid such scenes and +relics could ever cast away their hallowing influence. Even to the +casual visitor the bare thought of the historic treasures that are +garnered in this temple is, by itself, sufficient to implant in the +bosom a memorable and lasting awe. For more than twelve hundred years +the succession of the Archbishops of Canterbury has remained +substantially unbroken. There have been ninety-three "primates of all +England," of whom fifty-three were buried in the cathedral, and here the +tombs of fifteen of them are still visible. Here was buried the +sagacious, crafty, inflexible, indomitable Henry the Fourth,--that +Hereford whom Shakespeare has described and interpreted with matchless, +immortal eloquence,--and here, cut off in the morning of his greatness, +and lamented to this day in the hearts of the English people, was laid +the body of Edward the Black Prince, who to a dauntless valour and +terrible prowess in war added a high-souled, human, and tender +magnanimity in conquest, and whom personal virtues and shining public +deeds united to make the ideal hero of chivalry. In no other way than by +personal observance of such memorials can historic reading be invested +with a perfect and permanent reality. Over the tomb of the Black Prince, +with its fine recumbent effigy of gilded brass, hang the gauntlets that +he wore; and they tell you that his sword formerly hung there, but that +Oliver Cromwell--who revealed his iconoclastic and unlovely character in +making a stable of this cathedral--carried it away. Close at hand is the +tomb of the wise, just, and gentle Cardinal Pole, simply inscribed +"Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord"; and you may touch a +little, low mausoleum of gray stone, in which are the ashes of John +Morton, that Bishop of Ely from whose garden in Holborn the strawberries +were brought for the Duke of Gloster, on the day when he condemned the +accomplished Hastings, and who "fled to Richmond," in good time, from +the standard of the dangerous Protector. Standing there, I could almost +hear the resolute, scornful voice of Richard, breathing out, in clear, +implacable accents-- + + "Ely with Richmond troubles me more near + Than Buckingham and his rash-levied strength." + +The astute Morton, when Bosworth was over and Richmond had assumed the +crown and Bourchier had died, was made Archbishop of Canterbury; and as +such, at a great age, he passed away. + +Illustration: "Flying Horse Inn, Canterbury." + +A few hundred yards from his place of rest, in a vault beneath the +Church of St. Dunstan, is the head of Sir Thomas More (the body being in +St. Peter's, at the Tower of London), who in his youth had been a member +of Morton's ecclesiastical household, and whose greatness that prelate +had foreseen and prophesied. Did no shadow of the scaffold ever fall +across the statesman's thoughts, as he looked upon that handsome, manly +boy, and thought of the troublous times that were raging about them? +Morton, aged ninety, died in 1500; More, aged fifty-five, in 1535. +Strange fate, indeed, was that, and as inscrutable as mournful, which +gave to those who in life had been like father and son such a ghastly +association in death![1] They show you the place where Becket was +murdered, and the stone steps, worn hollow by the thousands upon +thousands of devout pilgrims who, in the days before the Reformation, +crept up to weep and pray at the costly, resplendent shrine of St. +Thomas. The bones of Becket, as all the world knows, were, by command of +Henry the Eighth, burnt, and scattered to the winds, while his shrine +was pillaged and destroyed. Neither tomb nor scutcheon commemorates him +here,--but the cathedral itself is his monument. + +[1] St. Dunstan's church was connected with the Convent of St. Gregory. +The Roper family, in the time of Henry the Fourth, founded a chapel in +it, in which are two marble tombs, commemorative of them, and underneath +which is their burial vault. Margaret Roper, Sir Thomas More's daughter, +obtained her father's head, after his execution, and buried it here. The +vault was opened in 1835,--when a new pavement was laid in the chancel +of this church,--and persons descending into it saw the head, in a +leaden box shaped like a beehive, open in front, set in a niche in the +wall, behind an iron grill. + +Illustration: "Canterbury Cathedral." + +There it stands, with its grand columns and glorious arches, its towers +of enormous size and its long vistas of distance, so mysterious and +awful, its gloomy crypt where once the silver lamps sparkled and the +smoking censers were swung, its tombs of mighty warriors and statesmen, +its frayed and crumbling banners, and the eternal, majestic silence with +which it broods over the love, ambition, glory, defeat, and anguish of a +thousand years, dissolved now and ended in a little dust! As the organ +music died away I looked upward and saw where a bird was wildly flying +to and fro, through the vast spaces beneath its lofty roof, in the vain +effort to find some outlet of escape. Fit emblem, truly, of the human +mind which strives to comprehend and to utter the meaning of this +marvellous fabric! + +Illustration: "Alladin's Lamp" + + + +CHAPTER XXI + +THE SHRINES OF WARWICKSHIRE 1882 + + +Night, in Stratford-upon-Avon--a summer night, with large, solemn stars, +a cool and fragrant breeze, and the stillness of perfect rest. From this +high and grassy bank I look forth across the darkened meadows and the +smooth and shining river, and see the little town where it lies asleep. +Hardly a light is anywhere visible. A few great elms, near by, are +nodding and rustling in the wind, and once or twice a drowsy bird-note +floats up from the neighbouring thicket that skirts the vacant, lonely +road. There, at some distance, are the dim arches of Clopton's Bridge. +In front--a graceful, shapely mass, indistinct in the starlight--rises +the fair Memorial, Stratford's honour and pride. Further off, glimmering +through the tree-tops, is the dusky spire of Trinity, keeping its sacred +vigil over the dust of Shakespeare. Nothing here is changed. The same +tranquil beauty, as of old, hallows this place; the same sense of awe +and mystery broods over its silent shrines of everlasting renown. Long +and weary the years have been since last I saw it; but to-night they are +remembered only as a fleeting and troubled dream. Here, once more, is +the highest and noblest companionship this world can give. Here, once +more, is the almost visible presence of the one magician who can lift +the soul out of the infinite weariness of common things and give it +strength and peace. The old time has come back, and the bloom of the +heart that I thought had all faded and gone. I stroll again to the +river's brink, and take my place in the boat, and, trailing my hand in +the dark waters of the Avon, forget every trouble that ever I have +known. + +Illustration: "Stratford-upon-Avon." + +It is often said, with reference to memorable places, that the best view +always is the first view. No doubt the accustomed eye sees blemishes. No +doubt the supreme moments of human life are few and come but once; and +neither of them is ever repeated. Yet frequently it will be found that +the change is in ourselves and not in the objects we behold. Scott has +glanced at this truth, in a few mournful lines, written toward the close +of his heroic and beautiful life. Here at Stratford, however, I am not +conscious that the wonderful charm of the place is in any degree +impaired. The town still preserves its old-fashioned air, its +quaintness, its perfect cleanliness and order. At the Shakespeare +cottage, in the stillness of the room where he was born, the spirits of +mystery and reverence still keep their imperial state. At the ancient +grammar-school, with its pent-house roof and its dark, sagging rafters, +you still may see, in fancy, the unwilling schoolboy gazing upward +absently at the great, rugged timbers, or looking wistfully at the +sunshine, where it streams through the little lattice windows of his +prison. New Place, with its lovely lawn, its spacious garden, the +ancestral mulberry and the ivy-covered well, will bring the poet before +you, as he lived and moved, in the meridian of his greatness. +_Cymbeline, The Tempest,_ and _A Winter's Tale,_ the last of his works, +undoubtedly were written here; and this alone should make it a hallowed +spot. Here he blessed his young daughter on her wedding day; here his +eyes closed in the long last sleep; and from this place he was carried +to his grave in the chancel of Stratford church. I pass once again +through the fragrant avenue of limes, the silent churchyard with its +crumbling monuments, the dim porch, the twilight of the venerable +temple, and kneel at last above the ashes of Shakespeare. What majesty +in this triumphant rest! All the great labour accomplished. The +universal human heart interpreted with a living voice. The memory and +the imagination of mankind stored forever with words of sublime +eloquence and images of immortal beauty. The noble lesson of +self-conquest--the lesson of the entire adequacy of the resolute, +virtuous, patient human will--set forth so grandly that all the world +must see its meaning and marvel at its splendour. And, last of all, +death itself shorn of its terrors and made a trivial thing. + +Illustration: "Stratford Church." + +There is a new custodian at New Place, and he will show you the little +museum that is kept there--including the shovel-board from the old +Falcon tavern across the way, on which the poet himself might have +played--and he will lead you through the gardens, and descant on the +mulberry and on the ancient and still unforgiven vandalism of the Rev. +Francis Gastrell, by whom the Shakespeare mansion was destroyed (1759), +and will pause at the well, and at the fragments of the foundation, +covered now with stout screens of wire. There is a fresh and fragrant +beauty all about these grounds, an atmosphere of sunshine, life, comfort +and elegance of state, that no observer can miss. This same keeper also +has the keys of the guild chapel, opposite, on which Shakespeare looked +from his windows and his garden, and in which he was the holder of two +sittings. You will enter it by the same porch through which he walked, +and see the arch and columns and tall, mullioned windows on which his +gaze has often rested. The interior is cold and barren now, for the +scriptural wall-paintings, discovered there in 1804, under a thick +coating of whitewash, have been obliterated and the wooden pews, which +are modern, have not yet been embrowned by age. Yet this church, known +beyond question as one of Shakespeare's personal haunts, will hold you +with the strongest tie of reverence and sympathy. At his birthplace +everything remains unchanged. The gentle ladies who have so long guarded +and shown it still have it in their affectionate care. The ceiling of +the room in which the poet was born--the room that contains "the Actor's +Pillar" and the thousands of signatures on walls and windows--is slowly +crumbling to pieces. Every morning little particles of the plaster are +found upon the floor. The area of tiny, delicate iron laths, to sustain +this ceiling, has more than doubled (1882) since I first saw it, in +1877. It was on the ceiling that Lord Byron wrote his name, but this has +flaked off and disappeared. In the museum hall, once the Swan inn, they +are forming a library; and there you may see at least one Shakespearean +relic of extraordinary interest. This is the MS. letter of Richard +Quiney--whose son Thomas became, in 1616, the husband of Shakespeare's +youngest daughter, Judith--asking the poet for the loan of thirty +pounds. It is enclosed between plates of glass in a frame, and usually +kept covered with a cloth, so that the sunlight may not fade the ink. +The date of this letter is October 25, 1598, and thirty English pounds +then was a sum equivalent to about six hundred dollars of American money +now. This is the only letter known to be in existence that Shakespeare +received. Miss Caroline Chataway, the younger of the ladies who keep +this house, will recite to you its text, from memory--giving a delicious +old-fashioned flavour to its quaint phraseology and fervent spirit, as +rich and strange as the odour of the wild thyme and rosemary that grow +in her garden beds. This antique touch adds a wonderful charm to the +relics of the past. I found it once more when sitting in the +chimney-corner of Anne Hathaway's kitchen; and again in the lovely +little church at Charlecote, where a simple, kindly woman, not ashamed +to reverence the place and the dead, stood with me at the tomb of the +Lucys, and repeated from memory the tender, sincere, and eloquent +epitaph with which Sir Thomas Lucy thereon commemorates his wife. The +lettering is small and indistinct on the tomb, but having often read it +I well knew how correctly it was then spoken. Nor shall I ever read it +again without thinking of that kindly, pleasant voice, the hush of the +beautiful church, the afternoon sunlight streaming through the oriel +window, and--visible through the doorway arch--the roses waving among +the churchyard graves. + +In the days of Shakespeare's courtship, when he strolled across the +fields to Anne Hathaway's cottage at Shottery, his path, we may be sure, +ran through wild pasture-land and tangled thicket. A fourth part of +England at that time was a wilderness, and the entire population of that +country did not exceed five millions of persons. The Stratford-upon-Avon +of to-day is still possessed of some of its ancient features; but the +region round about it then must have been rude and wild in comparison +with what it is at present. If you walk in the foot-path to Shottery now +you will pass between low fences and along the margin of gardens,--now +in the sunshine, and now in the shadow of larch and chestnut and elm, +while the sweet air blows upon your face and the expeditious rook makes +rapid wing to the woodland, cawing as he flies. In the old cottage, with +its roof of thatch, its crooked rafters, its odorous hedges and climbing +vines, its leafy well and its tangled garden, everything remains the +same. Mrs. Mary Taylor Baker, the last living descendant of the +Hathaways, born in this house, always a resident here, and now an +elderly woman, still has it in her keeping, and still displays to you +the ancient carved bedstead in the garret, the wooden settle by the +kitchen fireside, the hearth at which Shakespeare sat, the great +blackened chimney with its adroit iron "fish-back" for the better +regulation of the tea-kettle, and the brown and tattered Bible, with the +Hathaway family record. Sitting in an old arm-chair, in the corner of +Anne Hathaway's bedroom, I could hear, in the perfumed summer stillness, +the low twittering of birds, whose nest is in the covering thatch and +whose songs would awaken the sleeper at the earliest light of dawn. A +better idea can be obtained in this cottage than in either the +birthplace or any other Shakespearean haunt of what the real life +actually was of the common people of England in Shakespeare's day. The +stone floor and oak timbers of the Hathaway kitchen, stained and +darkened in the slow decay of three hundred years, have lost no particle +of their pristine character. The occupant of the cottage has not been +absent from it more than a week during upward of half a century. In such +a nook the inherited habits of living do not alter. "The thing that has +been is the thing that shall be," and the customs of long ago are the +customs of to-day. + +The Red Horse inn is now in the hands of William Gardner Colbourne, who +has succeeded his uncle Mr. Gardner, and it is brighter than of +old--without, however, having parted with either its antique furniture +or its delightful antique ways. The old mahogany and wax-candle period +has not ended yet in this happy place, and you sink to sleep on a +snow-white pillow, soft as down and fragrant as lavender. One important +change is especially to be remarked. They have made a niche in a corner +of Washington Irving's parlour, and in it have placed his arm-chair, +re-cushioned and polished, and sequested from touch by a large sheet of +plate-glass. The relic may still be seen, but the pilgrim can sit upon +it no more. Perhaps it might be well to enshrine "Geoffrey Crayon's +Sceptre" in a somewhat similar way. It could be fastened to a shield, +displaying the American colours, and placed in this storied room. At +present it is the tenant of a starred and striped bag, and keeps its +state in the seclusion of a bureau; nor is it shown except upon +request--like the beautiful marble statue of Donne, in his shroud, +niched in the chancel wall of St. Paul's cathedral.[1] + +[1] A few effigies are all that remain of old St. Paul's. The most +important and interesting of them is that shrouded statue of the poet +John Donne, who was Dean of St. Paul's from 1621 to 1631, dying in the +latter year, aged 58. This is in the south aisle of the chancel, in a +niche in the wall. You will not see it unless you ask the privilege. The +other relics are in the crypt and in the churchyard. There is nothing to +indicate the place of the grave of John of Gaunt or that of Sir Philip +Sidney. Old St. Paul's was burned September 2, 1666. + +Illustration: "Washington Irving's Chair." + +One of the strongest instincts of the English character is the instinct +of permanence. It acts involuntarily, it pervades the national life, +and, as Pope said of the universal soul, it operates unspent. +Institutions seem to have grown out of human nature in this country, and +are as much its expression as blossoms, leaves, and flowers are the +expression of inevitable law. A custom, in England, once established, is +seldom or never changed. The brilliant career, the memorable +achievement, the great character, once fulfilled, takes a permanent +shape in some kind of outward and visible memorial, some absolute and +palpable fact, which thenceforth is an accepted part of the history of +the land and the experience of its people. England means stability--the +fireside and the altar, home here and heaven hereafter; and this is the +secret of the power that she wields in the affairs of the world, and the +charm that she diffuses over the domain of thought. Such a temple as St. +Paul's cathedral, such a palace as Hampton Court, such a castle as that +of Windsor or that of Warwick, is the natural, spontaneous expression of +the English instinct of permanence; and it is in memorials like these +that England has written her history, with symbols that can perish only +with time itself. At intervals her latent animal ferocity breaks +loose--as it did under Henry the Eighth, under Mary, under Cromwell, and +under James the Second,--and for a brief time ramps and bellows, +striving to deface and deform the surrounding structure of beauty that +has been slowly and painfully reared out of her deep heart and her sane +civilisation. But the tears of human pity soon quench the fire of +Smithfield, and it is only for a little while that the Puritan soldiers +play at nine-pins in the nave of St. Paul's. This fever of animal +impulse, this wild revolt of petulant impatience, is soon cooled; and +then the great work goes on again, as calmly and surely as before--that +great work of educating mankind to the level of constitutional liberty, +in which England has been engaged for well-nigh a thousand years, and in +which the American Republic, though sometimes at variance with her +methods and her spirit, is, nevertheless, her follower and the +consequence of her example. Our Declaration was made in 1776: the +Declaration to the Prince of Orange is dated 1689, and the Bill of +Rights 1628, while Magna Charta was secured in 1215. + +Throughout every part of this sumptuous and splendid domain of +Warwickshire the symbols of English stability and the relics of historic +times are numerous and deeply impressive. At Stratford the reverence of +the nineteenth century takes its practical, substantial form, not alone +in the honourable preservation of the ancient Shakespearean shrines, but +in the Shakespeare Memorial. That fabric, though mainly due to the +fealty of England, is also, to some extent, representative of the +practical sympathy of America. Several Americans--Edwin Booth, Herman +Vezin, M. D. Conway, and W. H. Reynolds among them--were contributors to +the fund that built it, and an American gentlewoman, Miss Kate Field, +has worked for its cause with excellent zeal, untiring fidelity, and +good results. (Miss Mary Anderson acted--1885--in the Memorial Theatre, +for its benefit, presenting for the first time in her life the character +of Rosalind.) It is a noble monument. It stands upon the margin of the +Avon, not distant from the church of the Holy Trinity, which is +Shakespeare's grave; so that these two buildings are the conspicuous +points of the landscape, and seem to confront each other with +sympathetic greeting, as if conscious of their sacred trust. The vacant +land adjacent, extending between the road and the river, is a part of +the Memorial estate, and is to be converted into a garden, with +pathways, shade-trees, and flowers,--by means of which the prospect will +be made still fairer than now it is, and will be kept forever unbroken +between the Memorial and the Church. Under this ample roof are already +united a theatre, a library, and a hall of pictures. The drop-curtain, +illustrating the processional progress of Queen Elizabeth when "going to +the Globe Theatre," is gay but incorrect. The divisions of seats are in +conformity with the inconvenient arrangements of the London theatre of +to-day. Queen Elizabeth heard plays in the hall of the Middle Temple, +the hall of Hampton Palace, and at Greenwich and at Richmond; but she +never went to the Globe Theatre. In historic temples there should be no +trifling with historic themes; and surely, in a theatre of the +nineteenth century, dedicated to Shakespeare, while no fantastic regard +should be paid to the usages of the past, it would be tasteful and +proper to blend the best of ancient ways with all the luxury and +elegance of these times. It is much, however, to have built what can +readily be made a lovely theatre; and meanwhile, through the +affectionate generosity of friends in all parts of the world, the +library shelves are continually gathering treasures, and the hall of +paintings is growing more and more the imposing expository that it was +intended to be, of Shakespearean poetry and the history of the English +stage. + +Illustration: "The Stratford Memorial." + +Many faces of actors appear upon those walls--from Garrick to Edmund +Kean, from Macready to Henry Irving, from Kemble to Edwin Booth, from +Mrs. Siddons to Ellen Terry, Ada Rehan, and Mary Anderson. Prominent +among the pictures is a spirited portrait of Garrick and his wife, +playing at cards, wherein the lovely, laughing lady archly discloses +that her hands are full of hearts. Not otherwise, truly, is it with +sweet and gentle Stratford herself, where peace and beauty and the most +hallowed and hallowing of poetic associations garner up, forever and +forever, the hearts of all mankind. + +In previous papers upon this subject I have tried to express the +feelings that are excited by personal contact with the relics of +Shakespeare--the objects that he saw and the fields through which he +wandered. Fancy would never tire of lingering in this delicious region +of flowers and of dreams. From the hideous vileness of the social +condition of London in the time of James the First, Shakespeare must +indeed have rejoiced to depart into this blooming garden of rustic +tranquillity. Here also he could find the surroundings that were needful +to sustain him amid the vast and overwhelming labours of his final +period. No man, however great his powers, can ever, in this world, +escape from the trammels under which nature enjoins and permits the +exercise of the brain. Ease, in the intellectual life, is always +visionary. The higher a man's faculties the higher are his +ideals,--toward which, under the operation of a divine law, he must +perpetually strive, but to the height of which he will never absolutely +attain. So, inevitably, it was with Shakespeare. + +Illustration: "Mary Arden Cottage." + +But, although genius cannot escape from itself and is no more free than +the humblest toiler in the vast scheme of creation, it may--and it +must--sometimes escape from the world: and this wise poet, of all men +else, would surely recognise and strongly grasp the great privilege of +solitude amid the sweetest and most soothing adjuncts of natural beauty. +That privilege he found in the sparkling and fragrant gardens of +Warwick, the woods, fields and waters of the Avon, where he had played +as a boy, and where love had laid its first kiss upon his lips and +poetry first opened upon his inspired vision the eternal glories of her +celestial world. It still abides there, for every gentle soul that can +feel its influence--to deepen the glow of noble passion, to soften the +sting of grief, and to touch the lips of worship with a fresh sacrament +of patience and beauty. + + ------ + + THE ANNE HATHAWAY COTTAGE. + +_April,_ 1892.--A record that all lovers of the Shakespeare shrines have +long wished to make can at last be made. The Anne Hathaway Cottage has +been bought for the British Nation, and that building will henceforth be +one of the Amalgamated Trusts that are guarded by the corporate +authorities of Stratford. The other Trusts are the Birthplace, the +Museum, and New Place. The Mary Arden Cottage, the home of Shakespeare's +mother, is yet to be acquired. + + + +CHAPTER XXII + +A BORROWER OF THE NIGHT + + + _"I must become a borrower of the night, + For a dark hour or twain."_--MACBETH. + +Midnight has just sounded from the tower of St. Martin. It is a peaceful +night, faintly lit with stars, and in the region round about Trafalgar +Square a dream-like stillness broods over the darkened city, now slowly +hushing itself to its brief and troubled rest. This is the centre of the +heart of modern civilisation, the middle of the greatest city in the +world--the vast, seething alembic of a grand future, the stately +monument of a deathless past. Here, alone, in my quiet room of this old +English inn, let me meditate a while on some of the scenes that are near +me--the strange, romantic, sad, grand objects that I have seen, the +memorable figures of beauty, genius, and renown that haunt this classic +land. + +Illustration: "Church of St. Martin." + +How solemn and awful now must be the gloom within the walls of the +Abbey! A walk of only a few minutes would bring me to its gates--the +gates of the most renowned mausoleum on earth. No human foot to-night +invades its sacred precincts. The dead alone possess it. I see, upon its +gray walls, the marble figures, white and spectral, staring through the +darkness. I hear the night-wind moaning around its lofty towers and +faintly sobbing in the dim, mysterious spaces beneath its fretted roof. +Here and there a ray of starlight, streaming through the sumptuous rose +window, falls and lingers, in ruby or emerald gleam, on tomb, or pillar, +or dusky pavement. Rustling noises, vague and fearful, float from those +dim chapels where the great kings lie in state, with marble effigies +recumbent above their bones. At such an hour as this, in such a place, +do the dead come out of their graves? The resolute, implacable Queen +Elizabeth, the beautiful, ill-fated Queen of Scots, the royal boys that +perished in the Tower, Charles the Merry and William the Silent--are +these, and such as these, among the phantoms that fill the haunted +aisles? What a wonderful company it would be, for human eyes to behold! +And with what passionate love or hatred, what amazement, or what haughty +scorn, its members would look upon each other's faces, in this +miraculous meeting? Here, through the glimmering, icy waste, would pass +before the watcher the august shades of the poets of five hundred years. +Now would glide the ghosts of Chaucer, Spenser, Jonson, Beaumont, +Dryden, Cowley, Congreve, Addison, Prior, Campbell, Garrick, Burke, +Sheridan, Newton, and Macaulay--children of divine genius, that here +mingled with the earth. The grim Edward, who so long ravaged Scotland; +the blunt, chivalrous Henry, who conquered France; the lovely, +lamentable victim at Pomfret, and the harsh, haughty, astute victor at +Bosworth; James with his babbling tongue, and William with his +impassive, predominant visage--they would all mingle with the spectral +multitude and vanish into the gloom. Gentler faces, too, might here once +more reveal their loveliness and their grief--Eleanor de Bohun, +brokenhearted for her murdered lord; Elizabeth Claypole, the meek, +merciful, beloved daughter of Cromwell; Matilda, Queen to Henry the +First, and model of every grace and virtue; and sweet Anne Neville, +destroyed--if his enemies told the truth--by the politic craft of +Gloster. Strange sights, truly, in the lonesome Abbey to-night! + +In the sombre crypt beneath St. Paul's cathedral how thrilling now must +be the heavy stillness! No sound can enter there. No breeze from the +upper world can stir the dust upon those massive sepulchres. Even in +day-time that shadowy vista, with its groined arches and the black tombs +of Wellington and Nelson and the ponderous funeral-car of the Iron Duke, +is seen with a shudder. How strangely, how fearfully the mind would be +impressed, of him who should wander there to-night! What sublime +reflections would be his, standing beside the ashes of the great +admiral, and thinking of that fiery, dauntless spirit--so simple, +resolute, and true--who made the earth and the sea alike resound with +the splendid tumult of his deeds. Somewhere beneath this pavement is the +dust of Sir Philip Sidney--buried here before the destruction of the old +cathedral, in the great fire of 1666--and here, too, is the nameless +grave of the mighty Duke of Lancaster, John of Gaunt. Shakespeare was +only twenty-two years old when Sidney fell, at the battle of Zutphen, +and, being then resident in London, he might readily have seen, and +doubtless did see, the splendid funeral procession with which the +body of that heroic gentleman--radiant and immortal example of +perfect chivalry--was borne to the tomb. Hither came Henry of +Hereford--returning from exile and deposing the handsome, visionary, +useless Richard--to mourn over the relics of his father, dead of sorrow +for his son's absence and his country's shame. Here, at the venerable +age of ninety-one, the glorious brain of Wren found rest at last, +beneath the stupendous temple that himself had reared. The watcher in +the crypt tonight would see, perchance, or fancy that he saw, those +figures from the storied past. Beneath this roof--the soul and the +perfect symbol of sublimity!--are ranged more than fourscore monuments +to heroic martial persons who have died for England, by land or sea. +Here, too, are gathered in everlasting repose the honoured relics of men +who were famous in the arts of peace. Reynolds and Opie, Lawrence and +West, Landseer, Turner, Cruikshank, and many more, sleep under the +sculptured pavement where now the pilgrim walks. For fifteen centuries a +Christian church has stood upon this spot, and through it has poured, +with organ strains and glancing lights, an endless procession of +prelates and statesmen, of poets and warriors and kings. Surely this is +hallowed and haunted ground! Surely to him the spirits of the mighty +dead would be very near, who--alone, in the darkness--should stand +to-night 'within those sacred walls, and hear, beneath that awful dome, +the mellow thunder of the bells of God. + +Illustration: "Westminster Abbey." + +How looks, to-night, the interior of the chapel of the Foundling +hospital? Dark and lonesome, no doubt, with its heavy galleries and +sombre pews, and the great organ--Handel's gift--standing there, mute +and grim, between the ascending tiers of empty seats. But never, in my +remembrance, will it cease to present a picture more impressive and +touching than words can say. Scores of white-robed children, rescued +from shame and penury by this noble benevolence, were ranged around that +organ when I saw it, and, with artless, frail little voices, singing a +hymn of praise and worship. Well-nigh one hundred and fifty years have +passed since this grand institution of charity--the sacred work and +blessed legacy of Captain Thomas Coram--was established in this place. +What a divine good it has accomplished, and continues to accomplish, and +what a pure glory hallows its founder's name! Here the poor mother, +betrayed and deserted, may take her child and find for it a safe and +happy home and a chance in life--nor will she herself be turned adrift +without sympathy and help. The poet and novelist George Croly was once +chaplain of the Foundling hospital, and he preached some noble sermons +there; but these were thought to be above the comprehension of his usual +audience, and he presently resigned the place. Sidney Smith often spoke +in this pulpit, when a young man. It was an aged clergyman who preached +there within my hearing, and I remember he consumed the most part of an +hour in saying that a good way in which to keep the tongue from speaking +evil is to keep the heart kind and pure. Better than any sermon, though, +was the spectacle of those poor children, rescued out of their +helplessness and reared in comfort and affection. Several fine works of +art are owned by this hospital and shown to visitors--paintings by +Gainsborough and Reynolds, and a portrait of Captain Coram, by Hogarth. +May the turf lie lightly on him, and daisies and violets deck his +hallowed grave! No man ever did a better deed than he, and the darkest +night that ever was cannot darken his fame. + +Illustration: "Middle Temple Lane." + +How dim and silent now are all those narrow and dingy little streets and +lanes around Paul's churchyard and the Temple, where Johnson and +Goldsmith loved to ramble! More than once have I wandered there, in the +late hours of the night, meeting scarce a human creature, but conscious +of a royal company indeed, of the wits and poets and players of a +far-off time. Darkness now, on busy Smithfield, where once the frequent, +cruel flames of bigotry shed forth a glare that sickened the light of +day. Murky and grim enough to-night is that grand processional walk in +St. Bartholomew's church, where the great gray pillars and splendid +Norman arches of the twelfth century are mouldering in neglect and +decay. Sweet to fancy and dear in recollection, the old church comes +back to me now, with the sound of children's voices and the wail of the +organ strangely breaking on its pensive rest. Stillness and peace over +arid Bunhill Fields---the last haven of many a Puritan worthy, and +hallowed to many a pilgrim as the resting-place of Bunyan and of Watts. +In many a park and gloomy square the watcher now would hear only a +rustling of leaves or the fretful twitter of half-awakened birds. Around +Primrose Hill and out toward Hampstead many a night-walk have I taken, +that seemed like rambling in a desert--so dark and still are the walled +houses, so perfect is the solitude. In Drury Lane, even at this late +hour, there would be some movement; but cold and dense as ever the +shadows are resting on that little graveyard behind it, where Lady +Dedlock went to die. To walk in Bow Street now,--might it not be to meet +the shades of Waller and Wycherley and Betterton, who lived and died +there; to have a greeting from the silver-tongued Barry; or to see, in +draggled lace and ruffles, the stalwart figure and flushed and +roystering countenance of Henry Fielding? Very quiet now are those grim +stone chambers in the terrible Tower of London, where so many tears have +fallen and so many noble hearts been split with sorrow. Does Brackenbury +still kneel in the cold, lonely, vacant chapel of St. John; or the sad +ghost of Monmouth hover in the chancel of St. Peter's? How sweet tonight +would be the rustle of the ivy on the dark walls of Hadley church, where +late I breathed the rose-scented air and heard the warbling thrush, and +blessed, with a grateful heart, the loving kindness that makes such +beauty in the world! Out there on the hillside of Highgate, populous +with death, the starlight gleams on many a ponderous tomb and the white +marble of many a sculptured statue, where dear and famous names will +lure the traveller's footsteps for years to come. There Lyndhurst rests, +in honour and peace, and there is hushed the tuneful voice of +Dempster--never to be heard any more, either when snows are flying or +"when green leaves come again." Not many days have passed since I stood +there, by the humble gravestone of poor Charles Harcourt, that fine +actor, and remembered all the gentle enthusiasm with which (1877) he +spoke to me of the character of Jaques--which he loved--and how well he +repeated the immortal lines upon the drama of human life. For him the +"strange, eventful history" came early and suddenly to an end. + +Illustration: "The Castle Inn." + +In that ground, too, I saw the sculptured medallion of the well-beloved +George Honey--"all his frolics o'er" and nothing left but this. Many a +golden moment did we have, old friend, and by me thou art not forgotten! +The lapse of a few years changes the whole face of life; but nothing can +ever take from us our memories of the past. Here, around me, in the +still watches of the night, are the faces that will never smile again, +and the voices that will speak no more--Sothern, with his silver hair +and bright and kindly smile, from the spacious cemetery of Southampton; +and droll Harry Beckett and poor Adelaide Neilson from dismal Brompton. +And if I look from yonder window I shall not see either the lions of +Landseer or the homeless and vagrant wretches who sleep around them; but +high in her silver chariot, surrounded with all the pomp and splendour +that royal England knows, and marching to her coronation in Westminster +Abbey, the beautiful figure of Anne Boleyn, with her dark eyes full of +triumph and her torrent of golden hair flashing in the sun. On this spot +is written the whole history of a mighty empire. Here are garnered up +such loves and hopes, such memories and sorrows, as can never be spoken. +Pass, ye shadows! Let the night wane and the morning break. + + + +THE END + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Shakespeare's England, by William Winter + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SHAKESPEARE'S ENGLAND *** + +***** This file should be named 35105.txt or 35105.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/5/1/0/35105/ + +Produced by Jim Adcock, Special Thanks to the Internet +Archive, American Libraries. + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do +practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution. + + + +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at +https://gutenberg.org/license). + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy +all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement +and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" +or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from +copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative +works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg +are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project +Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by +freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of +this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with +the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work +with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the +work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 +through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the +Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or +1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than +"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided +that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set +forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from +both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael +Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the +Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm +collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain +"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual +property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a +computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by +your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with +your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with +the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. +To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 +and the Foundation web page at https://www.pglaf.org. + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at +https://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at +809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email +business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact +information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official +page at https://pglaf.org + +For additional contact information: + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To +SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any +particular state visit https://pglaf.org + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including including checks, online payments and credit card +donations. To donate, please visit: https://pglaf.org/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + https://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. |