HIS BIRTHPLACE, HOME, AND GRAVE. A Pilgrimage to Stratford-on-Avon IN THE AUTUMN OF 1863. BY THE REV. J. M. JEPHSON, B.A., F.S.A. WITH PHOTOGRAPHIC ILLUSTRATIONS BY ERNEST EDWARDS, B.A. A Contribution to the Tercentenary Commemoration of the Poet's Birth. LONDON: LOVELL REEVE & CO., 5, HENRIETTA STREET, COVENT GARDEN. 1854. 161973-B PREFACE. ・0 FOUR years ago I was induced to give a very plain, matter-of-fact account of a tour which I took in Brittany. To my great furprise and pleasure it was most indulgently received by my literary friends, the critics. I accomplished, not only my primary object of paffing my fummer holiday with pleasure and profit, but also the secondary one of obtaining much unexpected praise. I have been ever fince projecting another expedition, but fomething always prevented me, till last autumn, when my friend, Mr. Lovell Reeve, fuggested a visit to Stratford-upon-Avon, and a little book à propos of the Tercentenary Festival in honour of Shakespere's birth. A love for the drama, and an especial veneration for the Father of it in England, are, I may say, hereditary in my family. In the last century my grand-uncle, Robert Jephfon, was one of those who endeavoured to revive the romantic drama of the Elizabethan era, and wrote feveral tragedies, amongst which was "The Count of Nar bonne," founded on Walpole's "Castle of Otranto,” and “Julia, or the Italian Lovers," which long held poffeffion of the stage. From my childhood, then, I have heard Shakespere difcuffed, extolled, acted, and quoted; and I was glad of an opportunity of vifiting the place which is especially confecrated to his memory, and of adding my tiny grain to the volume of incenfe which will rife in his honour on his three hundredth birthday. The few facts of his life already known have been published over and over again; but I thought that they might be fo connected with the scene of his youth and the chosen retreat of his mature age, as to make a whole which might be suggestive of thought to those who shall vifit Stratford next spring. I am the more bold to offer this little sketch to lovers of England's greatest poet, because, if, like Mofes, my fpeech be weak and stammering, I am affifted by a coadjutor whofe camera is almost as great a worker of wonders as was Aaron's rod. |