68 



and so the footpath was taken on which Shakespeare himself must often have 

 trodden, when his heart was beating high with love and hope. 



" One touch of nature makes the whole world kin." 



Trcilus and Crcssida, Act. III., Sc. 3. 



" Thou know'st fond heart, Ann hath a way ; 

 She hath a way, 

 Ann Hathaway 

 To make grief bliss, Ann hath a way." 



Ode to A !tn Hathaway. 



The little bridge over the brook was passed, and 



" The rank of osiers by the murmuring stream 

 Left on your right hand, brings you to the place.' 



As Vou Like It, Act IV., Sc. 2. 



The thatched cottage, with its timber frame-work and it.s curious windows, was 

 close at hand, and the house was quickly filled, to the dismay of the old lady who 

 lives there. She chanced to be upstairs, and evidently doubted greatly if she 

 would get her threepences correctly. Here, besides the room and carved oak bed- 

 stead where Ann Hatliaway was born, and the settle where the lovers must often 

 have rested, are also to be seen many heirlooms of the Hathaway family — an old 

 spinning stool, an oak linen chest, the embroidered bed linen of the family, the 

 usual Shakesperean engravings on the walls. The visitors' book contained many 

 names of interest, and had a few more when the Club left the house to look round 

 the garden, gather a few Shakesperean leaves, and sit on the wall where Dickens 

 sat so long to meditate. 



From Shottery, the road was taken direct to the railway station. The tall 

 obelisk, which is so conspicuous, was erected to the memory of the late Mark 

 Phillips ; it shows the site of Welcombe, where Shakespeare owned tithes and 

 property, and is about half way to Snitterfield, the parish in which his father 

 was born. The station was reached a few minutes before time, and the following 

 paper was read by Dr. Bull — 



SHAKESPEABE'S NOTICE OF FLOWERS AND PLANTS. 



" Here are flowers for you." 



IVintet's Tale, Act IV., Sc. 3. 



" Fairies use flowers for their charactery." 



Merry iVtves 0/ Windsor, Act V., Sc. 5. 



The genius of Shakespeare was so many-sided and so wonderful, his observa- 

 tion so minute, his memory so accurate, his mind so acute, and his description so 

 original, so terse and so truthful, that he seemed to comprehend at a glance every 

 object that came under his notice. He makes few mistakes, his sayings admit of 

 quotation on every subject, and there is no writer, apart from Holy Writ, with 

 whom a few minutes may be more profitably spent. 



Shakespeare was neither botanist nor horticulturist, but he was a true lover of 

 the country, and had a great popular knowledge of the plants and flowers of every 

 day life, whether they were the wilding.^ of Nature or the cultivated pets of the 

 rural garden. He no more put himself out of the way to find them or to learn their 

 names and characters than be did to refer to them in his writings. His knowledge 



