fons of that village, and got worsted in the contest. There are alfo here other fouvenirs of that Bacchanalian frolic, which ftrongly reminds one of the conteft for the whistle of Loda. "A bard was selected to witness the fray, And tell future ages the feats of the day; A bard who detested all sadness and spleen, And wished that Parnassus a vineyard had been." The bard, however, as the ftory goes, was fo overpowered, not with the juice of the grape, but with "jolly good ale and old," that he had to lie down on the roadfide under the shade of a crab tree, and there fleep off his drunken bout. "Men's evil manners live in brass, Their virtues we write in water;" and in that spirit-for it could not be out of respect for the memory of the man-some persons have been illnatured enough to perpetuate the ftory, apocryphal in itself, by preserving pieces of the crab tree both in block and in manufacture. There is alfo in this museum a baffo-relievo model illuftrative of the fame piece of scandal, which, with very questionable taste, had been intended for a mantelpiece, which was to have been put up in one of the rooms in Blenheim. It is related of him that when he awoke he lafhed his rivals in the following epigram, they being natives of the places mentioned in it : : Piping Pebworth, dancing Marston, Beggarly Broom, and drunken Bidford." Thefe villages lie in a circle, of which the crab tree may be supposed to have been the centre, and may, notwithstanding the grave doubt which exists of the accuracy of the story, be visited with interest on the present occafion. There are some perfons who think that it is to this incident we are indebted for the prelude to the " Taming of the Shrew," and the fun of Chriftopher Sly's double transformation. However, be the legend of the crab tree true or false, there is no doubt with respect to the mulberry tree which he planted. It has now, however, entirely disappeared; but there is fcarcely a garden in the town which is not graced with one lineally defcended from it, and the fnuffboxes and other articles in the museum, manufactured out of the timber of the original, are far more pleafing to be contemplated than are those articles made out of that crab tree of four reminifcence. Leaving Henley Street, and croffing the Bridge Street, the vifitor enters HIGH STREET, a noble thoroughfare leading to New Place; but, as he croffes he ought to paule a moment to gaze upon a roundfronted building, which is the present borough Market House. The fite on which this ftructure ftands was in olden times occupied by the Market Crofs, which equalled in beauty those in Chichester and Malmesbury. It has, however, long fince difappeared, and its succeffor, the Market House, is about to follow it, to make way for the NATIONAL MEMORIAL to Shakespeare. The fite is not, indeed, fo fine as that graced by the ftatue of Erafmus, at Rotterdam; but still, as will be seen by the subjoined extract from the report of the Committee of Selection, is not by any means an inappropriate pofition for the National Memorial : The Bridge Street site feems to your Sub-Committee to unite all the conditions required. It is eminently central, being situate at the intersection of four of the principal streets of the town. It is the most accessible point in Stratford-on-Avon. A memorial placed there would satisfy all the conditions of effect, being approached in front by a gradual afcent, along the broad space of Bridge Street, with side views from both east and west, while at the back it might be combined with the Market Houfe which would have to be fubstituted for the present one, should this site be appropriated to the Memorial. Your Sub-Committee believe that every aid towards the acquisition of this site might be expected from the corporation, and from the owners of most of the property between the Market House and the lane from Wood Street to Henley Street, all which would have to be demolished. On the space thus cleared might be erected an elegant and effective loggia (in the Elizabethan style, with terra cotta ornamentation), of from fifty to sixty feet long, by twenty-five to thirty feet wide. In its rear there would be room for a new Market House, which might be made to harmonife in design with the Memorial. Into the details of the design your Sub-Committee do not consider it within their prefent province to enter: they would only submit that there is nothing irreverent or inappropriate in placing the Memorial of Shakespeare in the midst of the bustle of Stratford market. Indeed, fuch a place feems singularly fuitable to fuch a purpose. Not only is the art of Shakespeare eminent for its healthy humanity and its intenfe sympathy with the realities of life, but the man himself was content to retire from the capital to his quiet native town, to set himself down among his schoolfellows, early acquaintance, and neighbours, to cultivate his own land, sell his own beeves and sheep, wool, wheat, and malt, in the very market to be a commonplace burgess of Stratford-on-Avon, while he was giving every year some immortal play to the world. A Stratford-on-Avon Memorial, we think, may well symbolise both sides of this double existence. We would wish to see his statue here, surrounded on the one hand with illustrations of the marvellous creations of his mind, on the other with the everyday life and business of the town, at its busiest. The site we have indicated is the only one which admits of the realisation of this idea, while it satisfies all the other conditions required for such a memorial as we contemplate. At a meeting of the Committee, held March 2nd, 1864, on the motion of A. H. Layard, M.P., seconded by C. Buxton, M.P., this report was adopted. A certain proportion of whatever profits may accrue from the commemoration will be devoted towards defraying the cost of this work of art. TOWN HALL. Paffing down the High Street, the first object that attracts notice is a houfe to the right, highly decorated with oak carving, now in the occupation of a glover, and which may be taken as a favourable specimen of the house architecture of Stratford at the time of the birth of the poet, and prior to the ravages of those deftructive conflagrations already referred to. On the left is the Town Hall, inaugurated by Garrick on the occafion of the laft jubilee. This building, which is in the Tufcan. order, has been re-decorated for the prefent occafion. Over the entrance is a statue of Shakespeare, a copy of that in Westminster Abbey, prefented to the Corporation of Stratford by that inimitable actor, who was probably the most accurate interpreter of the works of their illuftrious fellow-townfman that ever graced the ftage. The council room is adorned with several elegant paintings, and among them are the portraits of both these worthies-that of the poet by Wilfon and that of the actor by Gainsborough, both being the gifts of Garrick to the Corporation of Stratford. A collection of paintings connected with Shakespeare and his works, generously lent for the purpose by the proprietors, will be exhibited in this hall, and is likely to prove one of the most attractive features of the commemoration. NEW PLACE. Farther on, upon the same side of the street, is the fite of New Place, the house in which the great master of the human heart breathed his last "Where the last accents faltered on his tongue." Shakespeare, no doubt, when carried along in the bustle of London life, ever felt, like Goldsmith, a defire to return to his native place. "I still had hopes, my long vexations past, Here to return, and die at home at last" an aspiration which, unlike poor Goldy, he was fortunately able to realise; for fo foon as he became a man of worldly means, he returned to Stratford, purchased these premises-then known as the "Great House," and the most imposing edifice in the townfrom the Clopton family, named the manfion "New Place," and there spent the last seven years of his life. It was in the gardens attached to this mansion he planted the world-famed mulberry tree. It is fad to relate that this property having, in course of time, paffed into the poffeffion of a clergyman named Gastrell, that Goth, deserving all the ignominy heaped upon the memory of Zoilus-who was the first infidel as regards the individuality of Homer-rooted up the tree, to rid himself of the importunities of thofe who, on vifiting the town, wished to behold an object so interestingly connected with the man who has made the name of Stratford-upon-Avon a household word wherever the English language is, or ever will be spoken. This Gaftrell, too, that he might escape from the payment of a paltry parochial rate, had the barbarity to pull down the house itself. If the Church has. among her ceremonies any ceremony oppofite to canonisation which might carry excommunication beyond the grave, and perpetuate the infamy of the facrilegious, the ought to have long fince exer |