67 



The company then broke up, for strict obedience was the rule of the day. 



" Stand not on the order of your going 

 But go at once." 



Macbeth, Act III., So. 4. 



Thus, after a somewhat hurried dinner, as the programme suggested, lest 



" You waste the treasure of your time." 



Twelfth Night, Act II., Sc. 5. 



the visitors proceeded through the open, clean, and pleasant streets of the town, 

 towards the church. The almshouses founded by Edward VI. were passed, and 

 so, too, was the house of Mr. Wheeler, the historian of Stratford, marked by a row 

 of pollard trees. From the church-yard gate, an avenue of leafy lime trees makes 

 an excellent and picturesque approach to the church itself, beautifully situated on 

 the banks of the river. Here the Avon 



"Makes sweet music with th' enamel'd stones, 

 Giving a gentle kiss to every sedge 

 He overtaketh in his pilgrimage." 



Two Gentlemen of Verona, Act II., Sc. 7. 



It was said by Washington Irving that at Stratford on- Avon " the mind re- 

 fuses to dwell on anything that is not connected with Shakespeare, " and certainly 

 the interest culminates in the church. A spire has been added since that day, but 

 the main building remains the same. Here he was baptised three days after his 

 birth, and on the vellum leaves of the register, under the date of April 26th, 15G4, 

 is shown the entry, " Gulielmus filius Johannis Shakespeare." Here, in the 

 vestry, is shown the remnant of the font itself in which he is believed to have 

 been baptised. Here, within these very walls, beyond question, he worshipped 

 and was buried. His tomb, between those of his wife and daughter, lies within 

 the altar rails on the left side of the chancel, and on the wall above, is his coloured 

 bust, with this inscription beneath it — 



"Judicio Pylium, genio Socratem, arte Masonem, 

 Terra tegit, populus maeret, Olympus habet." 

 (A Nestor in judgment, a Socrates in genius, a Virgil in art. 

 The earth covers him, the people mourn him, Olympus has him.) 



The church itself is Early English in architecture, and spacious, from the nave, 

 side aisles, chancel, and transept all being open, and the peculiarity of the chancel 

 not being in the same line as the nave is thus very striking. The chancel inclines 

 to the left, as it does in many other churches, and is thus supposed to typify the 

 inclination of our Saviour's head on His body. There is much to be seen within 

 the church, as the inscriptions on the tombs, many of them curious and interesting, 

 the old oak work, the carved roof and the sedilia, the American window, and other 

 points of interest, but time was short. 



The visitors walked along the teiTace by the river, and then started to visit 

 the cottage at Shottery, where Ann Hathaway was born and lived until her mar- 

 riage to Shakespeare. It lies about a mile west of Stratford, through pleasant 

 fields, as the programme said, 



"The fields are fragrant." 



Titus Anu'rv/iicui, Act II., Sc. 2. 



