Hospitality is a trademark of the English. The public house, or pub for short, is an institution that no visitor to England should overlook. Many are community hubs where friends gather for conversation and games with neighbors over a pint of stout. Pub food might be considered the culinary ancestor to fast foods. Fish and chips, shepherd s pie and ploughman s sandwiches all provide hearty refreshment.
Many pubs date back several centuries, and their names often refer to historic events.
For centuries, the town has been the destination of pilgrimages by students of history and theater and those simply moved by the words of the immortal Bard. Stratford has expended great effort to preserve and restore Shakespeare s haunts. Visitors year-round make the pilgrimage to Glebe Farm, believed to be the home of Shakespeare s mother, Mary Arden. The childhood home of Anne Hathaway, Shakespeare s wife, represents a typical home of a yeoman, an individual who cultivated his own land. An Elizabethan-style knot garden and the Guild Chapel are both near the site where Shakespeare spent his retirement.