Fairhaven herald. [volume] (Fairhaven, Wash.) 1890-????, 1891-06-17
IN SHAKESpeARE'S HOME.
Thoughts of "A TrSveler Writing Near the
Resting Place of the Poet.

Thoughts of "A TrSveler Writing Near the |
Resting Place of the Poet.
A man may take pen and ink and write
of a place as he will, and the page Will
likely enough be pretty honest index to
his own temperament. But never Will 1t
do for another mans reliance So let it be
confessed that for day we searched STRAIT
ford streets and found nothing OF the
Shakespeare that we sought. Neither In
the famous birthplace in Henley street
restored "out of all whooping," crammed
with worthless mementos, and penciled
over with lesser names; nor In the fussy,
inept Memorial theater; nor in the New
place, where certain holes protected with
wire gratings mark what may have been
the foundation Of Shakespeare's house-in
none Of these could we find him.
His name echoed in the market place, on
the lips of guide and sightseer, and shone
on monuments, shops, inns and banking
| houses. His effigies were everywhere-in
| photographs, in statuettes, now doing duty
| as a tobacco box with the bald scalp re
movabe), now as trade mark for beer
| And even while we despised these things
the fault was ours. All the while the
colossus stood high above, while we
walked under his huge legs and peep'd
about" too near to see.
Noruntil we strolled over the meadows
to Aunt Hathaway's cottage at Shottery
did understanding come with the quiet
falling of the day. Rarely enough, and
never but In the while between sunset and
twilight, may a man hear the sky and
earth breathing together, and drawing his
own small breath ambtiously in tune with
them, "feel that he is greater than he
knows" But here and at this hour it hap
pened to us that, our hearts being uplifted,
we could measure Shakespeare for mo
ment: could know him for the puissant in
telligence that held communion with all
earth and sky, and all mortal aspirations
that rise between them, and knew him also
for the Stratford youth treading this very
footpath beside this sweet smelling hedge
toward those elms mile away, where the
red light fingers, and the cottage below
them, where already in the window Ann
, Hathaway trims her lamp.
, You are to believe that our feet trod air
q ily across those meadows and our talk was
4 worth listening to. And at the cottage
. old Mrs. Baker, last living descendant o.
o the Hathaways, was pleased with our rev
erent behavior, and picked for each of us a
parting a sprig of rosemary from her gar
( den for remembrance. God keep her mem
s DRY as green and as fragrant
e 1t was easy now to forgive all that befor
a had seemed unworthy in Stratford; cas-
! next morning, standing before Shake
4 speare's monument, while the sunshine
+ colored by the eastern window, fell on on
II particular slab within the chancel rails, Z
= live back for moment to that April morn
a ing when a Shakespeare had passed fror
B. the earth. and earth must mourn there
for" to follow his coffin on its short joul
it ney from the New place. between the bio
20 soming lines of the Church walk, out {
lie the sunlight into the lasting shadow, u
u the dim nave to this spot, and easy to d
at vine, in the quaint epitaph SO often quote'
es the mans passionate dread lest his bon'
lie might be flung in time to the commo
e. charne house; the passionate longing
y lie here always in this dusky corner, clio
~ to his friends and kin and the familii
10 voices that meant home-the talk of bir'
M in the near elms, the chant of Holy Trini
ne choir, and night and day, but a stone
:. throw from his resting place, the whisp
OF Avon running perpetually.
For even the wayfarer finds Strstford
M hard place to part from. And lookiI
back. as we left her, 30 kindly, 30 full
ID memories, giving her haunted streets, b
elms and riverside to the sunshine, b
guarding always as a mother the shrine
her great son, know she will pardon n
he light words.-A. 7. Quiller Couch
r. Harper's.