132 Four-in-Hand in B^'itain. 



Stratford-on-Avon, June 23. 

 Our resting-place was the Red Horse Inn, of which 

 Washington Irving has written so dehghtfully. One 

 can hardly say that he comes into Shakespeare's coun- 

 try, for one is always there, so deeply and widely has 

 his influence reached. We live in his land always ; but, 

 as we approached the quiet little village where he ap- 

 peared on earth, we could not help speculating upon the 

 causes which produced the prodigy. One almost expects 

 nature herself to present a different aspect to enable us 

 to account in some measure for the apparition of a being 

 so far beyond all others ; but it is not so — we see only 

 the quiet beauty which characterizes almost every part 

 of England. His sweet sonnets seem the natural out- 

 birth of the land. Where met he the genius of tragedy, 

 think you ? Surely not on the cultivated banks of the 

 gentle Avon, where all is so tame. But as Shakespeare 

 resembled other burghers of Stratford so much, not 

 showing upon the surface that he was that 



" largest son of time 

 Who wandering sang to a listening world," 



our search for external conditions as to his environment 

 need not be continued. Ordinary laws are inapplica- 

 ble — he was a law unto himself. How or why Shake- 

 speare was Shakespeare will be settled when there shall 

 be few problems of the race left to settle. It is well 

 that he lies on the banks of the Avon, for that requires 



