Visit To Stratford-On-Avon And Its Vicinage.

last line of this epitaph , and from several passages in our poet ' s plays , particularly in Hamlet , and in liomco anil Juliet , there is little doubt but Shakspere held the custom of removing the bones of the dead from the grave to the charnel-house in great horror . Of this practice he might perhaps have had ocular demonstration ; and . in viewing

such a melancholy scene of human mortality , Shakspere might naturally have suggested an appreheusion that his relics would probably be added to the immense pile of human boues deposited in that gloomy receptacle . " For nearly tivo centuries and a-half has the concise inscription been as a sleepless sentinel over Shakspere ' s mortal

remains to guard them from profanity , and blighted be the baud that would willingly or knowingly obliterate one letter of this so-called dot / f / rel . " Cheek by jowl " with her gifted ( and , I have no doubt , loving ) husband , lies the once buxom Anne Hathaway , of Shottery , ivho was buried on tlie eight of August 1023—rather more

, than seven years after the funeral of her distinguished husband . Her grave is immediately adjoining , and in a line with that of the bard , between his grave and his monument on the north wall . On a brass plate , let into Mrs . Shakcspere ' s gravestone , is the following inscription : —

"HEF . RK 1 . YETII INTERRED THE BODY 01 ? ANNE , WIPE OP Jill WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE , AA - HO DEITICD . THIS LIPE THE GTH DAYOP AVGA ' ST , 1023 , BEING OP THE AGE OE G' 7 YEARS . "Vbera , tu mater , tu lac vifcamq . dedisfci , Voo mihi ; pro tau to muncrc Saxa dabo 1 Qnam malleni , ainoucat hipidem , bonus Angel' ore ' Exeat ut Christi Corpus , imago tua

Sed nil vota valcnt , vonias oito Chrisfco rcsni-got , G'lausa licet tuinulo mater , et astrapetefc . " On another flat stone , bearing the arms of Dr . John Hall ( Three Talbols ' ' Heads erased ) impaled with those of Shakspere , is the following inscri ption .- — "UEERE LYETH YE . BODY OP . 1011 N HALL , GEXT . HEE MAKE :

3 VSAXNA , YE . DAUGHTER AM COHEIR OP WILL . SHAKESPEARE , GEXT . HEE DECEASED XOA'ER . 25 , Ail . 1 G 35 , AGED GO . "Hallius hie situs est medica celebei-rinms arte , Expeetans regni gnadia heta Dei ; Dig-mis erat mentis ( jut Nestora 1 inceret minis , In ten-is omnes , soil rapid airjiia dies ; Ne tuinulo , quid desifc adesfc fidissima conjnx , Et vita ; coiiiitctu initio qttoq . mortis hab ' ofc . "

On another flat stone , wifch the arms of Hall impaling those of Shakspere on a lozenge , is inscribed" HEERE LYETH YE . BODY OP SA'SAXXA , WIPE TO JOHX HALL , GEXT ., YE . DAVCIllTEU OP WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE , GEXT . SUE DECEASED YE lllTI OP JVLY , AO . 1 G 10 , AGED CG . "Witty above her sexe , but that ' s not all ,

Wise to Salvation was good Alisfciiss Hall , Something of Shakespeare was in that , but this Wholy of Iii J 11 ivith whom she ' s noiv iii blisse . Then , passenger , ha ' sfc ne ' ro a teare , To weepo ivith her that wept wifcli all ? That wept , yet set bersell ' e to chore Them up ivith comforts cordiall . Her love shall lii-e , hor mercy spread . "When thou hast ue ' re a teare to shed . "

These lines , which luckil y were preserved by Dugdale , were alloived to be obliterated many years " ago , that another inscription mi ght be carved " on " the same stone for one Richard " \ V atts , of Eh yon Clifford , who had no connection ivith the Shakspere famil y , and whom one charitabl y hopes ivas not buried in this Thanks

grave . to the Re A " . W . Harness , the inscription lias been restored , at that reverend gentlemen ' a own cost . I need scarcely remind the reader , that-it was to this Mi's . Hall Shakspere bequeathed tlie principal part of his propertv . as a reference to his will at once proves .

I looked in vain for inscriptions to the memory of the bard ' s only son , IJamnet , who was buried August llth , 1596 , in his twelfth year , and for Judith Quiney , the second daughter of Shakspere , buried February 9 th , 1 G 61-2 . For none of the poet's grandchildren could I find a line , though there is an inscrip tion , with armorial bearings , for Thomas Nashe , Esq ., who married the Elizabeth Hall mentioned in Shakspere ' s will .- —•

" lIEERE RESTETH YE . BODY OP THOMAS XASHE , ESQ . HE MAB . ELIZABETH , THE DAYG . & 11 E 1 IUJ OP JOHX HALLE , GEXT . HE DIED APP . ILE 4- A . 1 G 17 , AGED 53 . " Fata nianent omnes , litinc non virfcufco carontcm Vfc neque divifciis , absfculifc atra dies;—Absfculit ; afc refcrefc lux vifcima ; sistc viator , Si peritura paras , per male pavta peris . "

The church , of Stratford abounds in monuments and monumental inscriptions , but 1 had not time to examine a tithe of them properly . The monument of Shakspere was the thing which took me there , and nothing else particularly interested me further than I could in some way connect it with my favourite bard . It is thus that

another monument in the north-cast corner ofthe chancel had much interest for me , and I trust for the reader also . It is thafc of Shakspere ' s usurious acquaintance , John a-Combe , whose effigy , habited in a long gown , with a book in his hand , lies pillowed beneath an ornamental arch , supported by Corinthian columns , and cherubimed as

though he were some saint or martyr . Besides the armorial bearings of his family , Johnny ' s tomb bears the following inscription . - —• " TCERP . 1 XEYH INTERRED YE . BODY OP JOHX COMBE , ESQR ; WHO , DEPART 1 XG THIS LIFE Y"E lOTH DAY" OP JULY , AO . DXI . 1614 BEQUEATHED BY HIS LAST WILL & TESTAMENT , TO PIOYS AND CHARITABLE VSES , THESE SV . 1 IE 8 IXSVXXG , AXYALLY TO BE PAID POK

EVER ; VIZ . XXS . POR TWO SERMOXS TO BE PREACHED IX THIS CHURCH ; SIX P 01 VXDES , XIIIS . & is PEXCE , TO BUI' TEX GOTODES , POR TEX POORE PEOPLE , WITH . IX YE . BOROUGH OP SXRATPORDE ; AXD OXE HVXDRED POWXDES , TO BE LENT VNTO 15 POORE TRADESMEX OP YE SAME BORROVGII PP . OM 3 YEARES TO 3 YEAEES , CIIANGIXGE THE MIES . El ERY THIRD YEARE , AT YE . RATE OE ril'TIE S 1 IJLL 1 XGS P . AXV-11 . YE WICII IXCUEASE Uli APOYXTED TO BE

DI 3 TK 1 BVTE 11 TOWAHDES THE RELll-PE OP YE ALMES-PEOPLE THEME . MORE , HE GAVE TO THE I'OOP . E OP STHATPORD TAA'EXTY LI . "VlRTYS POST PVXERA YIVAT . " It was from this John Combe , aud his relative William Combe , that the poet purchased , in 1602 , a hundred and seven acres of land , adjoining to his then recently purchased residence of IXew Placefor the sum of * three

, hundred and twenty pounds . It was this John Combe ( formerly of Welcombe Lodge , but in his latter years a resident at the college of Stratford ) with whom tradition states Shakspere to have made the impromptu but stinging epitaph ; and the manner of it was as follows . But I cannot better relate it than iu the words of WILLIAM

Ho WITT : — " It is said that during Shakspere ' s residence iu the latter years of his life at Stratford , John Combe and he were on very sociable terms , and Combe , presuming on Shakspere ' s good nature and his own monied importance , frequently importuned the poet to write him an epitaph , which , to the old gentleman ' s vast indignation , he did thus : —

" 'Ten in the hundred lies here engraved , Tis a hundred to ten if his soul ' be saved . If any one asks ' Who lies in this tomb r " ' 0 , ho ! ' quoth the devil , " 'tis my John a-Combe ' " As if to obviate the effect of the witty sarcasm of the inexorable poetwho would not give him auy other

-, pass port to posterity than what lie justly dcsciwed , we find emblazoned not only on John a .-Combe ' s tomb , but on the gold-lettered tablets of the church , that he left by will annually to be paid for ever one pound for two sermons to be preached in this church ; £ G 13 s . M . to