File:Shakespeare's England (1910) (14778081601).jpg

Identifier: shakespearesengl00win (find matches)
Title: Shakespeare's England
Year: 1910 (1910s)
Authors: Winter, William, 1836-1917
Subjects: Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616
Publisher: New York, Moffat, Yard and Company
Contributing Library: The Library of Congress
Digitizing Sponsor: Sloan Foundation

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te tragedy, comedy, and philosophy,took delight in exhibiting its rooms to visitors.During the reign of that eccentric custodianthe low ceilings and whitewashed walls of itsseveral chambers became covered with auto-graphs, scrawled thereon by manjr enthusiasts,including some of the most famous persons inEurope. In 1820 Mary Hornby was requestedto leave the premises. She did not wish to go.She could not endure the thought of a suc-cessor. After me, the deluge! She wasobliged to abdicate; but she conveyed away allthe furniture and relics alleged to be connectedwith Shakespeares family, and she hastilywhitewashed the cottage walls. Only a smallpart of the wall of that upper room, the cham-ber in which natures darling first saw thelight, escaped that act of spiteful resentment.On the space behind its door can still be readmany names, with dates affixed, ranging backfrom 1820 to 1729. Among those names isthat of Dora Jordan, the fascinating actress,who wrote it there, June 2, 1809. Much of
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H -=: • to El.I ri 2 £- \n ? a a a t> v< 5 „ 3 ^-s u H g ° HOME OF SHAKESPEARE 173 Mary Hornbys whitewash, which chanced tobe unsized, was afterward removed, so thather work of obliteration proved successful onlyin part. Other names have been added to thatsingular, chaotic scroll of worshippers. SirWalter Scott, Rogers, Charles Kean, Thack-eray, Tennyson, and Dickens are among thevotaries of genius who there and thus recordedtheir presence. Scott visited the cottage inAugust, 1821, and at that time scratched hisname on the window-pane. He had previously,in 1815, visited Kenilworth. He was in Strat-ford again in 1828, and on April 8, that year,he went to Shakespeares grave, and subse-quently drove to Charlecote. The visit ofByron has been incorrectly assigned to theyear 1816. It occurred on August 28, prob-ably in 1812. The successors of Mary Hornby guardedtheir charge with pious care. The value of theold Shakespeare cottage slowly grew moreevident to the English people. Wa

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