Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1891-09-09
ANN nArAAwAY's COTTAGE.


The Only Genuine Relic OF the Immortal
Bard Of Avon.
A man may take pen and ink and
write Of place as he viii, and the page
VIII, likely enough, be pretty honest
index to his own temperament But
never win 1t do for another mans reli-
ance. So let it be confessed that for q
day we searched Stratford streets and
found nothing Of the Shakespeare that
we sought Neither in the famous
birthplace In Henley street-restored
tout Of all whooping," crammed with
worthless mementos and pencilled over
with lesser names; nor in the fussy,
inept Memorial theater; nor In the New
place, where certain holes, protected
with wire grating, mark what may
have been the foundations of Shake
speare's house; in none Of these could
we find him. His name echoed in the
ma1ket place, on the lips of guide and
sight-Seer, and shone ON monuments,
shops. inns and banking houses. His
e6gies were everywhere-in photo
graphs, In statuettes, now doing duty
as a tobacco box with the bald scalp
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.
Nor until we strolled over the mead
ows to Ann Hathaway's cottage at
Shottery did understanding come with
the quiet falling Of the day. Rarely
enough, and never but in the while be-
tween sunset and twilight, may a man
hear the sky and earth breathing to-
gether, and drawing his own small
breath mbitiously in tune with them,
feel that he is greater than he knows"
But here and at this hour It happened
to US that, our hearts being uplifted,
we could measure Shal1espear for a mo-
ment; could know him for the puissant
intelligence that held communion with
all earth and sky, and all mortal aspira-
tions that rise between them; and knew
him also for the Stratford youth tread
ing this very foot-path 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
believe that our feet trod airily across
those meadows and our talk was worth
listening to. And at the cottage, old
Mrs. Baker, last living descendant Of
the Hathaways, was pleased with our
reverent behavior, and picked for each
OF us at parting a sprig of rosemary
from her garden for remembrance.
God keep her memory as green and as
fragrant
1t was easy now to forgive all that
before seemed unworthy in Stratford;
easy next morning, standing before
Shakespeare monument while the
sunshine. colored by the eastern win
dow. fell on ono particular slab within
the chancel rails. to live back for
moment to that April morning when a
Shakespeare had passed from the earth,
and earth must mourn therefore" to
follow his coffin on its short journey
from the New Place, between the bios
soming lines Of the Church Walk, out
Of the sunlight into the lasting shadow,
up the dim nave to this spot; and easy
to divine, in the quaint epitaph so often
quoted, the mans passionate dread lest
his bones might be flung In time to the
common charnel-house, the passionate
longing to lie here always in this dusky
corner. close to his friends and kin and
the familiar voices that meant home
the talk Of birds In the near elms, the
chant of holy Trinity choir. and, night
and day. but q stones throw from his
restinR-place. the whisper of Avon rum
ming psrpetually.
For even tho wayfarer finds Stratford
hard placo to part from. And look
Ing back Is We left her, so kindly, so
full Of memories, giving her haunted
streets, her elms and riverside to the
sunshine, but guarding always as q
mother the shrine of her great son,
know she will pardon my light words. -
A. T. CUTLER Couch, in Harper's Maya