Visit To Stratford-On-Avon And Its Vicinage.

been drawn here , as to the Mecca of their inmost desires . It is a poor , plain-looking room ; but would probably hai e appeared to much greater advantage had the house been allowed to retain its ancient quaint aspect , as sliOAvn in the engraving at page 143 of THE MAGAZINE . In its time , and for its time , the hoYise of Maister John Shakspere was AA'hatiu the literature of an auctioneer ' s

, placard , would be called " all that desirable messuage , or dAvelling-house , situated in Henley-street ; " but , unfortunately , it has beeu so divided , and sub-divided , and barbarously modernised , that unless ( as I believe ) the spirits of the departed do know ivhat is going on upon this sublunary globe , I am sure none of the Shaksperes

would know the place for the same . There was a sort of garret iuto Aidiich I would have liked to look , but the seemingly intelligent young woman who had taken her mother ' s j ) lace as guide assured me that it Avas positively unsafe for me to enter until some repairs ivere finished which were then in progress .

I bought sei r eral very neat little views of places of Sliaksperiau interest , which were ranged for sale in the room in Avhich the poet is said ( I have no doubt correctly ) to have been born . Copies of the works of Shakspere were also there for sale . ITaiung often been disgusted at the extortionate prices charged under similar

circumstances , I am very happy to say that one cannot , in the ordinary Avay of trade , buy such things as are here disposed of at a more reasonable rate from the booksellers ; and , as the profit helps to keep the birth place open for pilgrims like myself , * I sincerely Avish the committee a

good run of trade . If many of the managers of bazaars for religious and charitable purposes would follow the good example set them , by having a proper sense of shame , so as only to ask a fair price for their articles , we should uot find thousands of sensible people shunning them as they Avould a gaming-table ; for if people mean to give , they will give ; if they mean to buythey like to see fair

, dealing . Some small coloured views , on stiff cardboard , which I purchased in Shakspere ' s birthroom , for sixpence each , have been much admired , and every one ivho sees them considers them very reasonable in price ; so , reader , if thou shouldst ever visit the good town of Stratfordupon-Avon , I would advise thee to bring a few of these

sixpenny views aAvay with thee for presents , and they Avill be all the more A'alued for coming from the birthroom of William Shakspere . Pity _ that the legacy so nobly left for keeping this house in repair , paying a custodian , aud forming here a Shaksperian Museum , should have been lost to the nation .

A married man may forsake his lawful wife and children , and live in open adultery ivith another man ' s wife ; and at liia death , to please his harlot , may rob her whom he lias solemnly sworn , " for better , for worse : for richer , for poorer ; in sickness and in health , to love and to cherish" aud the law will respect the rascal ' s

willbut-, ; let him ivho has no one particularly having claims upon him leave his ivealth to a good institution , ten to one but a brood of harpy relatives—perhaps sixty-third cousins—will upset the will : it may be , as being opposed to the statute of mortmain ! Is there not a screiv loose is these matters somewhere ?

" Chameleons feed on li ght and air : Poet ' s food is love and fame . " So sings that true poet , Percy Bysslie Shelley ; and , as he means it , it is quite true . But the chameleon preys on insects just as his ancient relatives , tlie iehthyosaur , the plesiosaur , and the rest of the saurian animals , did 011 the smaller creatures in the oolitic age . The poet , too , finds , sometimes by bitter experience , that " praise is not pudding . " The brain cannot Avork if the stomach is not

supplied ivith food ; and , baling had nothing more substantial than a cigar and a bottle or tivo of ginger-pop since breakfast , I just step doAvn to mine host ' s of the G-olden Lion , to refresh the ' * ' inner man " with a bit of his cold ham and bread , to that most refreshing of all beA erages , especially when travelling , a cup of good tea . May the earth rest light on their ashes who first

introduced it into this country , for they were benefactors of their race ! Tea and coffee ivere luxuries William Shakspere , and , indeed , the entire people of England in his day , nei-er kneAV ; so that a late Canon of St . Paul ' s * remarks : —

" How our ancestors managed to do without too , I must fairly confess is a mystery to me ; Yet your Lydgates and Chaucers Had no cups and saucers ; Their breakfast , in fact , aud the best they could get , AA as a sort of dejeuner a la fourchette ; Instead of our slops

They had cutlets and chops , And sack , possets , and ale , in stoups , tankards , and pots ; And they Avound up the meal ivithrumpsteaks and 'schalofcs . " —Inglesby Legends . Notwithstanding the boasted " Boast Beef of Old England , " ! I fear that the people generally got but little of it ; hence the joy they shoived at feasts and festivals .

Much later than the times of Shakspere , the bulk of the population had not begun to use Avheaten bread , although William Cohbett would fain have persuaded us that previous to the Protestant Reformation they all lived like fighting cocks ! But it AA'on't do . In all ages the bulk of the people haA e had to ivork hard and fare hard ; and , though the social condition of the toiler lias not kept

pace ivith the immense increase of national u-ealth , yet there is no period of the bygone in Avhich the working men were so favourably aiUuited us ut present , despite our many social wrongs . Our ancient brethren seem to have been the onl y body of men in the Avorld who trul y felt the dignity of labour ; and much of the " neiv light " Avhich seems only of late to have dawned upon the Avorld

has been taught and practised in the Dark Ages by the then operative brethren of the mystic tie , vrhose skill . and learning , necessarily migratory habits , and marvellous organisation as a Craft , made their lodges the sacred repositories of the immortal principles of freedom . Hence the despot has always dreaded Freemasonry .

Unless he could see our solemn rites divindle into garbled and hollow mockeries , our glorious symbols become the tinselled playthings of full-grouTi children , the brethren , Avith no stronger tie between them than boon-companionship , and Freemasonry itself—Avith all its time-honoured traditions , its holy precepts , and its Avorld-wide blessings—sink into one sickening system of emasculated iliiiikeyisni .