Litchfield enquirer., 1851-03-06
Visit to the Homo of Shakespeare.
BY HENRY WARD BEECuER.

ON.~
 we copy from the New York Independ- ent, was written in Stratfordson> Avon, in August last, when the Rev. gentleman was on visit to Europe. We never remember to have read anything that breathes- so pure spirit of true enthu- siasm, and the whole letter glows with that eloquence for which Mr. Beecher is so celebrated. The utter intoxication of delight experienced by sensitive mind on visiting the scenes of Old England, which he has dreamed about from child hood, cannot be explained except to those who need no explanation. If one cannot imagine it, or has not felt it, no words will help him:
 August 5th, 1850.
 My Dear -: If you have read. or will read my letter to -, you will see what wonderful day was Saturday. Coventry, famous for the legend of Go diva, of which Tennyson has q pretty version the Kennilworth Castle, the stately Castle of Warwick and its Park, and Stratford, on Avon, all in one day Do you wonder that my brain was hot and my sleep itful that night? 1 tossed from side, and dreamed dreams; long af;el midnight began to rest free from dreams, but the sleep was thin, and l broke through it into waking. every half hour.
 It was broad daylight when I rose; i; the sun shone out in spots masses of soft, Aeecy clouds rolled about in the heavens, making the day even finer than if it had been all blue. I purposed att teading church in the morning, where Shakespeare was buried; in the after- noon at Shattery, mile across the fields, where the cottage in which lived Anne Hathaway, his wife, still stands. and in the evening, at the church of the Holy Cross, adjoining the Grammar School, in which, as the school about that time was open. and for period kept, it is probable that Shakespeare studied.
 Never in all the labors of life not wont to be idle oh tke Sabbath, have known such excitement or such exhaus- ton. The scenes of Saturday has filed me with such tide of feeling, the every visit to various pointsiin Stratford upon Avon, had so added to the intoxication, that as saliied forth to church, I seem- ed not to have a body. could hardly feel my feet striking agalnst the stones it was as if l were numb. But my soul was clear, penetrating, and exquisitely susceptible.
 You may suppose that everything would so breathe of the matchess poet, that should be insensible to religious influences. But 1 was stage beyond that. The first effect last night of be- ing here, was to bring up suggestions of Shakespeare from every thing; said to myself, this is the street he lived in, this the door he passed through. here he leaned, he wandered on these banks, he looked on these slopes and rounded hills. But had become full of these suggestions, and acting as stimulus, they had wrought such an ccstatic state, that my soul became sensitively alive to every influence, whether of things seen, or heard or thought. The children going to church, how beautiful they seemed bow good it seemed to walk among so many dccorous people to the house Of God how full of music the trees were, music not only of binds, but of winds waving the leaves and the bells as they were ringing rolled thlorgh the sir as a deep dapason to all other sounds.
 As l approached the church, the churchyard was to be passed, and an avenue of lime trees meeting overhead formed beautiful way, and my soul exulted to go thus up to the house of God. The interior was stately and beautiful; it was to me, and am not describing any thing to you as it was. but am describing myself while in the presence of scenes with which you are familiar. As 1 sat down in pew close by the reading desk and pulpit, looked along to the chancel, which stretched some fifty or sixty feet back of the pull pit and desk, and saw upon tho wall the we'll known bust of Shakespeare. and l 1 knew that beneath the pavement un der that, his dust reposed.
 In q few minutes a little fat man with a red collar and red cuffs advanced from a side room behind the pulpi: and led the way for the rector,a man about fifty ; bald, except on the sides of his head, which were covered with white hair. l had been anxious lest some CoWper's ministerial flop should officiate. and the sight of this aged man was good. The form of his face and head indicated firm ness, but they were suffused with an