Imatges de pàgina
PDF
EPUB

tion, a long avenue of noble trees, pleasantly ushers you into the charming village of Charlecote, in passing through which, the large and good oldfashioned mansion of the Lucy family boldly presents itself to view, from several points. This mansion was built in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, by Sir Thomas Lucy, rendered infamously famous as the prosecutor and persecutor of Shakespeare. Adjoining Lucy Park, (the scene of the youthful follies of the immortal bard, and very probably, the spot in which the first images of those wondrous scenes flashed upon his fancy, which have since so astonished and delighted every suc ceeding generation) stands the church, rustic in its exterior appearance, but adorned within by several handsome monuments of the Lucy Family.

A pleasant writer in an article on "The Stratford Jubilee" in the 5th No. of the Album, page 128, speaking of this place says,-" As Shallow is known to be meant to shadow forth Sir Thomas Lucy, so, I conclude, Charlcot to have given the outline of the Justice's abode. It is, indeed a goodly dwelling, and a rich. The 'lands' are still fair and broad spreading, and the 'beeves' thickly studded and sleek. The park is remarkably well wooded, abounding with avenues of trees of an age evidently far beyond Shakespeare's time. It is, indeed, the boast of the present possessor,

[ocr errors]

that every thing remains in exactly the same state as then. I gazed on the tall ancient trees, and the swelling undulations of ground which were before me, presenting, in the sameness of slowchanging nature, the very scene upon which Shakespeare had looked. I thought of him and his companions coming in the summer nights, with their quaint-looking cross-bows, their picturesque doublets and hose, and the stately stag for their game" "Two miles this side Stratford, stands Alveston, containing several handsome villas, and of so pure and healthful an air, that a celebrated physician, Dr. Perry, has pronounced it to be the Montpelier of England; possessing, as it does, a Spa in its vicinity to Leamington. The entrance to Stratford from Alveston, is over a handsome stone bridge, containing fourteen arches, and of very ancient architecture, which was erected across the Avon in the reign of Henry the Eighth, at the sole expense of the spirited Sir Hugh Clopton, a native of Stratford, and Lord Mayor of London. This bridge was during the civil wars of Charles the First, in part broken down and destroyed, by command of Parliament; in order to secure the pass over the Avon, and impede the progress of the royal army, but it was restored to its former state, in 1652; and has latterly been considerably

[ocr errors]

widened, by a very ingenious expansion of the angular or breakwater buttresses.

Stratford on Avon, the memorable spot where

«His first infant lays, sweet SHAKESPEARE sung,
Where the last accents trembled on his tongue."

t

[ocr errors]

is a town of great antiquity, so ancient indeed, that the exact period cannot be accurately ascertained. But the fact of its existence A. D. 750, nearly 300 years prior to the Norman conquest, is established beyond all doubt; a monastery having been proved to have stood there, in the time of St. Egwin, the third bishop of Worcester; our heathen Saxon forefathers having, about that period, forsook their thousand senseless idols, and entered the mild pale of christianity. Stratford is a corporate town, and its municipal government is vested in, a Mayor, Recorder, High Steward, twelve aldermen, and twelve capital Burgesses. Charters have been granted to its inhabitants, by several of our kings, for establishing their fairs and markets, paving the streets, and for the internal government of the town itself; also by several bishops of the diocese: The lordship of Stratford continuing in spite of revolutions and distractions, in the possession of the successive bishops of Worcester, from Egwin, till the dis

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]
[graphic][subsumed][subsumed]

THE CHURCH. STRATFORD ON AVON. Published by Mess? Elliston 1824.

« AnteriorContinua »