to be cut down and cleft into pieces for fire-wood. This was in 1756. The greater part of the wood was, however, bought by Thomas Sharp, a watchmaker of Stratford, who converted it into articles of various kinds-relics of the bard which met a ready and highly profitable sale. Three years later, Mr. Gastrell, who only lived occasionally in New Place, regarding himself as assessed too highly on this house for poor-rates, peevishly declared that it would never be assessed again. In execution of his threat, he razed New Place to the ground in 1759, and as Mr. Wheler relates, "left Stratford in the dead of night, amidst the rage and curses of its inhabitants." No traces of the original building remain. Part of the garden ground is appropriately occupied by a small theatre, erected in 1830. It is only occasionally that a dramatic company makes its appearance on the boards. The drama seems to meet with little patronage in the birth-place of him whom Ben Jonson has truly called

"The applause, delight, the wonder of our stage."

THE TOWN HALL is a short distance from New Place. It is of the Tuscan order of architecture, and was erected in 1768, on the site of an earlier building, which dated from 1633. In 1769, the year of the jubilee, it was dedicated to Shakspere by Garrick, who presented to the Corporation the fine statue of the bard which stands at the north end. Shakspere is represented as leaning on a pillar and pointing to a scroll, on which are engraved his own beautiful lines in "Midsummer Night's Dream," descriptive of the Poet. The pedestal bears the equally well known words from Hamlet

"Take him for all in all,

We shall not look upon his like again."

The interior is adorned with portraits of Shakspere, Garrick, and the Duke of Dorset.

THE CHAPEL OF THE HOLY CROSS, or the GUILDCHAPEL, is opposite New Place, and is a handsome and interesting Gothic structure. In 1269, a chapel and hospital were erected here by Robert de Stratford, who was himself the first master of the Guild. The members were originally of the rule of St. Austin; but Henry IV. granted them the privilege of forming a fraternity “in honour of the Holy Cross and St. John the Baptist." At the dissolution, the Guild and its revenues were granted to the Corporation. Of the original chapel there are no remains. The chancel of the present

edifice was rebuilt about the year 1450, and the rest of the building was erected by Sir Hugh Clopton towards the end of the reign of Henry VII. In 1804, during the repairs which the interior was undergoing, a series of paintings in fresco were discovered upon its walls. These were much injured, and could not be preserved on account of the nature of the repairs.* Those in the chancel represented the "Invention," or finding of the Holy Cross by the Empress Helena, mother of Constantine, and the " Exaltation of the Cross, or Constantine's public entrance with it into Jerusalem. The subjects of the other paintings were, the Resurrection, the Day of Judgment, St. George and the Dragon, and the Death of Thomas à Becket. Adjoining the Chapel is

THE GUILD HALL, a very ancient building, which has, however, undergone many alterations since the date when it was founded, 1269. It was erected for the use of the brethren of the Holy Cross, already alluded to. It is, we believe, used by the Corporation for public business. The room over the hall is

THE GRAMMAR SCHOOL. This institution was founded in the reign of Henry VI. by Thomas Jolepe, a native of Stratford, and a member of the Guild. The only qualifications for admission to this school are, "that the boy be seven years old, able to read, and resident in Stratford." There can be no reasonable doubt that Shakspere received his education here. This being a "royal grammar school," the education would be of the fullest and most advanced kind. The ignorant assertion, that Shakspere was possessed of an inferior education, has been abundantly refuted by those best qualified to pronounce a judgment on the subject.

Besides the buildings we have mentioned, Stratford has a market house, almshouses, a Wesleyan chapel, etc.

THE VICTORIA SPA at BISHOPSTON, about two miles from Stratford, will form to valetudinarians an additional attraction of this interesting locality. Though the virtues of the mineral spring had been long known, an analysis of it having been published in 1744, it was not till the year 1840 that it was prominently brought before public notice. In that year, the pump-room and other buildings having been completed, the well was formally opened to the public. By per

They have been copied in colours, and published in "Fisher's Antiquities of Warwickshire," with descriptions by Nichols.

mission of her Majesty it was named "the Victoria Spa." The following is Professor Daniel's recent analysis of the water of this spring:

Dr. Granville remarks, in his work on the "Midland Spas of England," that "a course of the Stratford waters will be found useful in certain disorders of the stomach, in slighter affections of the liver, in cases of gravel, and those pseudo-rheumatic and gouty pains which persons with long deranged digestion are so apt to have superadded to their other sufferings.'

The position of this spa is pleasant and retired; and the adjoining hotel affords every accommodation and comfort that visitors can desire. The spa is supplied with a range of baths of the usual kinds. A very tastefully laid out garden, in which visitors may promenade, adds to the attractiveness of the place. There is here a modern chapel, erected on the site of a more ancient structure.

VICINITY OF STRATFORD.

THE AVON, independently of the associations which have made it world-famous, possesses features of quiet loveliness that would entitle it to notice. Seldom rapid, and never impetuous, it winds along through a rich and beautiful country, often expanding into broad glassy pools, and again gathering its waters into a narrower stream when it washes the base of some gentle but picturesquely wooded acclivity. Above Stratford it is particularly remarkable for its aspect of peaceful beauty. Shakspere seems to have been referring to this, his native stream, in the following lines in “The Two

Gentlemen of Verona," so accurately do they note the characteristics of the Avon :

"The current, that with gentle murmur glides,

Thou know'st, being stopped, impatiently doth rage;
But, when his fair course is not hindered,

He makes sweet music with the enamelled stones,
Giving a gentle kiss to every sedge

He overtaketh in his pilgrimage;

And so, by many winding nooks he strays,
With willing sport to the wild ocean.
Then let me go, and hinder not my course:
I'll be as patient as a gentle stream,
And make a pastime of each weary step,

Till the last step hath brought me to my love;
And there I'll rest, as, after much turmoil,

A blessed soul doth in Elysium."-(Act ii. scene 7.)

The banks of the stream are here shaded by fine old willows, which were doubtless alluded to by the poet in his account of the death of Ophelia, beginning

"There is a willow grows ascaunt the brook,

That shows his hoar leaves in the glassy stream."
(Hamlet, Act iv. scene 7).

"All the great natural features of the river," says Mr. Charles Knight, "must have suffered little change since the time of Shakspere. Inundations in some places may have widened the channel; osier islands may have grown up where there was once a broad stream. But we here look upon the same scenery upon which he looked, as truly as we gaze upon the same blue sky, and see its image in the same glassy

water.

The Avon rises at Naseby, in Northamptonshire. It flows, with many windings, in a south-westerly direction through Warwickshire and Worcestershire, till it joins the Severn at Tewksbury, on the northern border of Gloucestershire. In its course through this county, the Avon, besides the numerous picturesque villages which are scattered on its banks, flows through the noble park of Stoneleigh, expands into a beautiful lake-like pool at Guy's Cliff, washes the base of Warwick Castle, winds through the grounds of Charlecote, for ever classic from its associations with Shakspere; then, after many a turning, it flows into a broad and placid stream past Stratford, lingeringly skirting the site of the poet's grave; and, before passing from the county, wanders beside some pleasant hamlets and secluded country nooks, which tradition connects with the poet's name. The Avon and its associations have ever afforded a favourite theme for the poets. We can find

room for only a few brief quotations. It was Ben Jonson who styled our poet the "Sweet Swan of Avon"—

"Sweet Swan of Avon, what a sight it were,

To see thee in our waters yet appear,

And make those flights upon the banks of Thames,
That so did take Eliza and our James!"

The lines of Gray, in his "Progress of Poesy," have been much and deservedly admired:

"Far from the sun and summer gale,

In thy green lap was Nature's darling laid,
What time, where lucid Avon strayed,
To him the mighty mother did unveil
Her awful face: the dauntless child

Stretched forth his little arms and smiled.
"This pencil take,' she said, 'whose colours clear,
Richly paint the vernal year:

Thine, too, these golden keys, immortal boy!
This can unlock the gates of joy;

Of horror that, and thrilling fears,

Or ope the sacred source of sympathetic tears.""

One more extract must suffice. It is from Thomas Warton :

"Avon, thy rural views, thy pastures wild,

The willows that o'erhang thy twilight edge,

Their boughs entangling with the embattled sedge;
Thy brink with watery foliage quaintly fringed,
Thy surface with reflected verdure tinged;
Soothe me with many a pensive pleasure mild.
But while I muse that here the bard divine,
Whose sacred dust yon high-arched aisles enclose,
Where the tall windows rise in stately rows
Above the embowering shade,

Here first, at fancy's fairy-circled shrine,
Of daisies pied his infant offering made;
Here, playful yet, in stripling years unripe,
Framed of thy reeds a shrill and artless pipe:
Sudden thy beauties, Avon, all are fled,
As at the waving of some magic wand;
An holy trance my charmed spirit wings,
And awful shapes of leaders and of kings
People the busy mead,

Like spectres swarming to the wizard's hall;
And slowly pace, and point with trembling hand
The wounds ill cover'd by the purple pall.

Before me pity seems to stand,

A weeping mourner, smote with anguish sore
To see misfortune rend, in frantic mood,

His robe, with regal woes embroidered o'er.
Pale terror leads the visionary band,

And sternly shakes his sceptre, dropping blood."