Visit To Stratford-On-Avon And Its Vicinage.

the pedestal is very appropriately inscribed the words of his own "Hamlet : "" - Take him for all in all , AVe shall not look upon his like again . " Upon a scroll to which the poet points is inscribed the fine description of poetic imagination ancl inspiration

which Shakspere has put into the mouth of the Athenian Duke , Theseus , in the commencement of the fifth act of the " Midsummer Ni g ht ' s Dream : ""The poet ' s eye , in a fine frenzy rolling , Doth glance from heaven to earth , from earth to heaven ; And , as imagination bodies forth The forms of things unknown , the poet ' s pen Turns them to shapes , and gives to airy nothings A local habitation , and a name . "

This statue of Shakspere was presented to the town of Stratford b y the great actor , David Garrick , in 1769 , the year of the Shakspere jubilee . * As well as I can judge from memory , I should say that it is altogether , or partially , at least , a copy of Kent ' s and Scheemaker ' s statue ; but I have no engraving of either bme to

y enable me to write positively on the subject . The inscription on the scroll I know is different ; the one in Westminster Abbey bearing the ever-to-be-remembered words of Prospero , in the first scene of the fourth act of " The Tempest , " words which every Mason should ever have in mind : —

"The cloud capp'd towers , the gorgeous palaces , The solemn temples , the great globe itself , Yea , all which it inherits , shall dissolve , And , like the baseless fabric of a vision , Leave not a wrack behind . "

The Town-hall is in the Tuscan order of architecture , and was erected in the years 1767-S , and opened the year following , by Mr . Garrick , at the Shakspere jubilee . An older building , erected in 1633 , had stood on the same spot , and at the commencement of the great struggle between Charles I . and the Parliament , was used

as a store-room for arms and ammunition . In 1642 , a barrel of powder exploded in the building , and did considerable mischief both to this and the adjoiniug building . Had it not exploded , that gunpowder would have been used by countryman against countryman , by neighbour against nei ghbour , perhaps by brother against

brother . The arms of the corporation ( for Stratford lias had its mayor since the reign of Charles II . ) are on the front of the building—a chevron between three leopard ' s faces . On enterin g the great room upstairs—which is sixty feet long by thirty wide—I found the place crammed , with the exception of a few seats reserved for the honorary members , and mine being an "honorary member ' s ticket , " on presenting it , I was at once shown tomy

plaee . The room is ornamented with a few good fulllength portraits ; there is John Frederick , third Duke of Dorset , presented by his Duchess ; David Garrick , leaning on a pedestal , on which stands a bust of Shakspere , painted by Gainsborough ; and a painting of Shakspere , hy AVilson , in which the painter has thrown the face into strong shadeand represented the bard

, seated on an old-fashioned chair , with HolingshecVs Chronicles , Sir Thomas North ' s Translation of Plutarch , ancl Cynthia ' s Novels , at his feet—works from which the great dramatist drew the p lots and speeches of some of his inimitable plays , casting over all the halo of his own incomparable genius . The two latter paintings were

presented to the corporation by David Garrick , along with the statue before mentioned , in 1769 , when he opened the Town-hall , and dedicated it to Shakspere , speaking an ode which he had written for the occasion , and which the reader will find in his collected works . To render this name . Shakspere ' s Hall , more appropriate ,

I would humbly but earnestly recommend the corporation , of Stratford-on-Avon to form a good Shaksperian library in one of the rooms , for the free use of the inhabitants of the borough , and to have lectures on the life , times , and genius of the greatest of all bards , given by the most talented men they can obtainto all who

, will go and listen to them in the large room or hall ; for I have good reasons for believing that the works of him to whom pilgrims from the east , the west , the north , and the south , journey to Stratford to do honour at the shrine of genius , are not " read , marked , learned , and inwardly digested " as they ought to be by his

fellow-townsmen , and their immediate neighbours . This would indeed make it Shakspere ' s Hall , and the good which would result from such a step would be incalculable . For , as Garrick well observed at the jubilee ,

" Shakspere is , above all others , allowed to be the poet of nature ; and therefore , as an author , he stands hi ghest in the hi ghest Class . The beings exhibited by the poet of nature are men ; they are not creatures of 'the imagination , acting from principles by which human actions were never produced , and suffering distress which human beings never sufferedbut partakers of

; the same nature with ourselves , to whose hearts our own sensations are a clue ; beings of like passions , impelled by the same hopes and fears , and sacrificing virtue to interest , or interest to virtue , as circumstances concur with disposition , and opinion connects present and immediate good and evil with futureeither by necessary

, consequence or judicial determination . " " I will get you the history of the Beecher Club b y the time you arrive here . Lord Lei gh has promised to preside at the club dinner on " Whit-Monday . " Such was a passage in a letter which I had received from Mark Philips , Esq ., dated Snitterfield , Stratford-on-Avon , May

18 th , 1859 . I had therefore calculated on seeing and hearing one of our Masonic chiefs . In this , however , I was disappointed . Our E . AV . Brother was prevented being present by other engagements ; but I bad the p leasure of continually hearing " the tongue of Good " . Report" in his favour ; and I was told that his residence

, Stonelei gh Abbe }' , is a deli ghtful spot . Our noble Brother ' s place was well supplied by my friend , Mr . Philips , who filled the chair to every one ' s satisfaction . His fine flow of spirits seemed to act as a talisman on the whole company , and his speeches , like his actions , showed strong sympathy with the human race . He

comes , indeed , of a noble-hearted family , with whom benevolence seems to run in the blood ; and should ever one claiming their lineage turn a- deaf ear to the cry of distress , I for one would not believe that one single "ruddy drojj" of the blood of the Philipses circulated in