

This ebook was transcribed by Les Bowler.

                             [Picture: Cover]

               [Picture: The Guild Chapel and Nash’s House]





                              SUMMER DAYS IN
                             SHAKESPEARE LAND


  SOME DELIGHTS OF THE ANCIENT TOWN OF
  STRATFORD-UPON-AVON AND THE COUNTRY ROUND
  ABOUT; TOGETHER WITH A SKETCH OF THE LIFE
  OF MR. WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

  IN WHICH MANY THINGS BOTH NEW AND ENTER-
  TAINING ARE TO BE FOUND, PRETTILY SET FORTH
  FOR THE PLEASURE OF THE GENTLE READER; AND
  WHEREIN CERTAIN FANATICS ARE HANDSOMELY
  CONFUTED.

  WRITTEN BY CHARLES G. HARPER, AND
  FOR THE MOST PART ALSO ILLUSTRATED BY HIM
  WITH A PEN
  OTHER ILLUSTRATIONS ARE FROM PHOTOGRAPHS

                             [Picture: Logo]

                                 NEW YORK
                           JAMES POTT & COMPANY
                       LONDON: CHAPMAN & HALL, LTD.

                                   1913

                                * * * * *

                      RICHARD CLAY & SONS, LIMITED,
                 BRUNSWICK STREET, STAMFORD STREET, S.E.,
                           AND BUNGAY, SUFFOLK.




PREFACE


BY “Shakespeare Land,” as used in these pages, Stratford-on-Avon and the
country within a radius of from twelve to twenty miles are meant;
comprising parts of Warwickshire and Gloucestershire, and some portions
of Worcestershire which are mentioned by Shakespeare, or must have been
familiar to him.  So many thousands annually visit Stratford-on-Avon that
the town, and in some lesser degree the surrounding country, are thought
to be hackneyed and spoilt for the more intellectual and leisured
visitor; but that is very far from being the case.  Apart from such
acknowledged centres of Shakespearean interest as the Birthplace at
Stratford-on-Avon, the parish church, and Anne Hathaway’s Cottage at
Shottery; and excepting such great show-places as Kenilworth and Warwick
castles, Shakespeare Land is by no means overrun, and is in every way
charming and satisfying.  Stratford town itself, the very centre of
interest, is unspoiled; and the enterprise of the majority of
Shakespearean pilgrims is of such a poor quality, and their intellectual
requirements as a rule so soon satisfied, that the real beauties of the
Warwickshire villages and the towns and villages of the Cotswolds are to
them a sealed hook.  Except these byways be explored, such an essential
side of Shakespeare as that I have touched upon in the chapter
“Shakespeare the Countryman” will be little understood.

It is thus entirely a mistaken idea to think the Shakespeare Country
overdone.  On the contrary, it is much less known than it ought to be,
and would be, were it in any other land than our own.  And Stratford
itself has not done so much as might have been expected in exploiting
possible Shakespearean interest.  Ancient house-fronts that the poet must
have known still await the removal of the plaster which for two centuries
or more has covered them; and the Corporation archives have not yet been
thoroughly explored.

Incidentally these pages may serve to expose some of the Baconian
heresies.  If there be many whose judgment is overborne by the
tub-thumping of the Baconians, let them turn to some of the extravagances
of Donnelly and others mentioned here, and then note the many local
allusions which Shakespeare and none other could have written.

The Bacon controversy, which since 1857 has offered considerable
employment for speculative minds, and is still in progress, is now
responsible for some six hundred books and pamphlets, monuments of
perverted ingenuity and industrious research misapplied; of evidence
misunderstood, and of judgment biased by a clearly proclaimed intention
to place Bacon where Shakespeare stands.  These exceedingly well-read
gentlemen, profited in strange concealments, have produced a deal of
skimble-skamble stuff that galls our good humours.  The veriest antics,
they at first amuse us, but in a longer acquaintance they are, as Hotspur
says of Glendower, “as tedious as a tired horse, a railing wife; Worse
than a smoky house.”

This is no place to fully enter the discussion, but we may here note the
opinion of Harvey, the great contemporary man of science, on Bacon, the
amateur of science.  “My Lord Chancellor,” he said, “writes about Science
like a Lord Chancellor.”  Any one who reads Bacon’s poetry will notice
that the poets might have applied the same taunt to his lines.

Yet they tell us now, these strange folk, eager for a little cheap
notoriety, not only that “Bacon wrote the Greene, Marlowe, and
Shakespeare plays,” but that his is the pen that gives the Authorised
Version of the Bible its literary grace.  Well, well.  They say the owl
was a baker’s daughter; a document in madness.

                                                        CHARLES G. HARPER.

_Ealing_, _August_ 24, 1912.




CONTENTS

                     PAGE
CHAPTER I               1
  The Beginnings of
  Stratford-on-Avon.
CHAPTER II              6
  The Shakespeares—John
  Shakespeare, Glover,
  Woolmerchant—Birth of
  William
  Shakespeare—Rise and
  Decline of John
  Shakespeare—Early
  Marriage of William.
CHAPTER III            12
  Anne Hathaway,
  Shakespeare’s
  bride—The hasty
  marriage—Shakespeare’s
  wild young days—He
  leaves for
  London—Grendon
  Underwood.
CHAPTER IV             22
  Continued decline in
  the affairs of John
  Shakespeare—William
  Shakespeare’s success
  in London—Death of
  Hamnet, William
  Shakespeare’s only
  son—Shakespeare buys
  New Place—He retires
  to Stratford—Writes
  his last play, _The
  Tempest_—His death.
CHAPTER V              34
  Stratford-on-Avon—It
  has its own life,
  quite apart from
  Shakespearean
  associations—Its
  people and its
  streets—Shakespeare
  Memorials.
CHAPTER VI             49
  Shakespeare’s
  Birthplace—
  Restoration, of
  sorts—The business of
  the Showman—The
  Birthplace Museum—The
  Shakespearean Garden.
CHAPTER VII            60
  Church Street—The
  “Castle” Inn—The Guild
  Chapel, Guild Hall and
  Grammar School—New
  Place.
CHAPTER VIII           75
  The Church of the Holy
  Trinity,
  Stratford-on-Avon.
CHAPTER IX             85
  The Church of the Holy
  Trinity,
  Stratford-on-Avon
  (_continued_)—The
  Shakespeare grave and
  monument.
CHAPTER X              92
  The Church of the Holy
  Trinity,
  Stratford-on-Avon
  (_concluded_)—The
  Shakespeare grave and
  monument—The Miserere
  Seats.
CHAPTER XI            101
  Shottery and Anne
  Hathaway’s Cottage.
CHAPTER XII           114
  Charlecote.
CHAPTER XIII          127
  Shakespeare the
  countryman.
CHAPTER XIV           136
  The ‘Eight
  Villages’—‘Piping’
  Pebworth and ‘Dancing’
  Marston.
CHAPTER XV            147
  The ‘Eight Villages’
  (_concluded_).
CHAPTER XVI           164
  The ‘Swan’s
  Nest’—Haunted?—
  Clifford
  Chambers—Wincot—
  Quinton, and its club
  day.
CHAPTER XVII          174
  Chipping Campden.
CHAPTER XVIII         186
  A Deserted
  Railway—Villages of
  the Stour
  Valley—Ettington and
  Squire
  Shirley—Shipston-on-
  Stour—Brailes—Compton
  Wynyates.
CHAPTER XIX           195
  Luddington—Welford—
  Weston-on-Avon—Cleeve
  Priors—Salford Priors.
CHAPTER XX            201
  Evesham.
CHAPTER XXI           211
  Broadway—Winchcombe—
  Shakespearean
  Associations—Bishop’s
  Cleeve.
CHAPTER XXII          219
  Tewkesbury.
CHAPTER XXIII         230
  Clopton
  House—Billesley—The
  Home of Shakespeare’s
  Mother, Wilmcote—Aston
  Cantlow—Wootton
  Wawen—Shakespeare
  Hall, Rowington.
CHAPTER XXIV          238
  Welcombe—Snitterfield—
  Warwick—Leicester’s
  Hospital—St. Mary’s
  Church and the
  Beauchamp Chapel.
CHAPTER XXV           254
  Warwick Castle.
CHAPTER XXVI          266
  Guy’s Cliff—The Legend
  of Guy—Kenilworth and
  its
  Watersplash—Kenilworth
  Castle.
CHAPTER XXVII         283
  Coventry.
INDEX                 291

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

                                                                  PAGE
The Guild Chapel and Nash’s House                       _Frontispiece_
“Shakespeare’s Farm,” formerly the “Ship” Inn,                      19
Grendon Underwood
Chapel Street, Stratford-on-Avon                                    37
The Harvard House                         _To face_                 42
The Harvard House: Panel Room                                       44
Holy Trinity Church, Stratford-on-Avon                              46
The Memorial Theatre                      _To face_                 48
Shakespeare’s Birthplace                                            50
The Kitchen, Shakespeare’s Birthplace                               54
The Room in which Shakespeare was born                              56
Shakespeare’s Signet-ring                                           58
The “Windmill” Inn                                                  61
The Guild Chapel, Guild Hall, Grammar School and                    65
Almshouses
The Schoolmaster’s House and Guild Chapel                           69
The Head Master’s Desk, Stratford-on-Avon Grammar                   70
School                                    _To face_
Ancient Knocker, Stratford-on-Avon Church                           80
Shakespeare’s Monument                    _To face_                 86
Inscription on Shakespeare’s Grave                                  89
The Chancel, Holy Trinity Church, with Shakespeare’s                92
Monument                    _To face_
A Stratford Miserere: The Legend of the Unicorn                    100
Shottery                                                           103
Anne Hathaway’s Cottage                                            106
The Living-room, Anne Hathaway’s Cottage                           109
Anne Hathaway’s Bedroom                                            112
Lucy Shield of Arms                                                120
The “Tumbledown Stile,” Charlecote        _To face_                120
The Gatehouse, Charlecote                                          123
Charlecote                                                         125
“Piping Pebworth”                                                  140
“Dancing Marston”                                                  142
Dining-Room, formerly the Kitchen, King’s Lodge                    145
“Drunken Bidford”                                                  149
The “Falcon,” Bidford                                              150
“Haunted Hillborough” (1)                                          151
“Haunted Hillborough” (2)                                          153
“Hungry Grafton”                                                   154
The Hollow Road, Exhall                                            156
“<DW7> Wixford”                                                   157
Brass to Thomas de Cruwe and wife, Wixford                         159
“Beggarly Broom”                                                   162
Clopton Bridge, and the “Swan’s Nest”                              166
Clifford Chambers                                                  168
Old Houses, Chipping Campden              _To face_                174
The Market House, Chipping Campden          ,,                    174
Grevel’s House                                                     177
Interior of the Market House, Chipping Campden   _To               178
face_
Chipping Campden Church                                            182
Brass to William Grevel and wife, Chipping Campden                 184
Compton Wynyates                                                   192
Boat Lane, Welford                                                 198
Bell Tower, Evesham                                                204
The Almonry, Evesham                                               206
Abbey Gateway, Evesham                                             209
High Street, Tewkesbury                                            223
The “Bear” Inn and Bridge, Tewkesbury                              227
The Arden House, Home of Shakespeare’s mother,                     233
Wilmcote
Wootton Wawen Church                      _To face_                234
Shakespeare Hall, Rowington                                        236
Leicester’s Hospital, Warwick                                      239
Leicester’s Hospital: the Courtyard       _To face_                240
Leicester’s Hospital: one of the Brethren   ,,                    244
The Beauchamp Chapel, Warwick                                      246
The Crypt of St. Mary’s, Warwick                                   248
Cæsar’s Tower, Warwick Castle                                      263
Kenilworth Castle: Ruins of the Banquetting Hall                   278
Stained Glass Window Inscription                                   289




CHAPTER I


                   The Beginnings of Stratford-on-Avon.

NINETY-FIVE miles from the City of London, in the southern part of
Warwickshire, and on the left, or northern bank of the Avon, stands a
famous town.  Not a town famed in ancient history, nor remarkable in
warlike story, nor great in affairs of commerce.  It was never a strong
place, with menacing castle or defensive town walls with gates closed at
night.  It stood upon a branch road, in a thinly-peopled forest-district,
and in every age the wars and tumults and great social and political
movements which constitute what is called “history” have passed it by.

Such is, and has been from the beginning, the town of Stratford-on-Avon,
whose very name, although now charged with a special significance as the
birthplace of Shakespeare, takes little hold upon the imagination when we
omit the distinguishing “on Avon.”  For there are other Stratfords to be
found upon the map of England, as necessarily there must be when we
consider the origin of the name, which means merely the ford where the
“street”—generally a paved Roman road—crossed a river.  And as fords of
this kind must have been very numerous along the ancient roads of this
country before bridges were built, we can only be astonished that there
are not more Stratfords than the five or six that are found in the
gazetteers.

The Roman road that came this way was a vicinal route from the Watling
Street where Birmingham now stands, through Henley-in-Arden and Alcester,
the Roman station of _Alauna_.  Passing over the ford of the Avon, it
went to London by way of Ettington, Sunrising Hill, and Banbury.  Other
Roman roads, the Fosse Way and Ryknield Street, remodelled on the lines
of ancient British track-ways, passed east and west of Stratford at an
equal distance of six miles.

All the surrounding district north of the Avon was woodland, the great
Forest of Arden; and to the south of the river stretched a more low-lying
country as far as the foot of the Cotswold Hills, much less thickly
wooded.  In the reign of Queen Elizabeth, when the Forest of Arden was
greatly diminished, these districts owned two distinctive names: the
forest being called “the Wooland,” and the southward pasture-lands “the
Feldon.”

The travellers who came this way in early Saxon times, and perhaps even
later, came to close grips with the true inwardness of things.  They
looked death often in the face as they went the lonely road.  The wild
things in the forest menaced them, floods obscured the fords, lawless men
no less fierce than the animals which roamed the tangled brakes lurked
and slew.  “Now am I in Arden,” the wayfarer might have