Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-10-10
INOLD,TOWE In MODERN SETTING
KNEELIEG4IN THE OLD CHURCHYARD

Narrative of Dreams, think it will be
found thatoone of the most frequently re-
curing experiences of dreamers is that they
seem to lack the power of close and genial
companionship with the yoiceless person.
ages whom they meet in sleep. There is
ever flmy veil of unrecognition even
where recognition seems most complete:
and at@waking, there is always the sadden-
ing longing'to have seen clearer, to have
got closer, and-to have more firmly trod or
clasped the outstretched hand.
Something akin to this tender feeling of
unrest and vague consciousness of unful-
fllment possesses you in this sweet old
town of Strstford-on-Avon. From first to
last the entire experience is tinged with the
nature and wrought in the very tissue of
dreams. 1t has been your dream to some
time know this greatest of all literary
shrines. While you are within its strange
influence, you wander and dream as in the
actual region of dreams, among dream-born
folk who are themselves dreaming within
the dream.
OLD AND NEW -INCoSGRUITIES.
If YOU come to this shrine by railway
and its interminable changes, giving you
glimpses of all sorts of midland towns, from
ancient Warwick with its stately battle
ments TO bennington with its modern gilt
ter. you have reached a pleasing state of
confusion not remote from the vagaries of
dreams If YOU have como TO the place on
the box of one of those famous coaches
which spin TO various points of interest
throughout the shire, You will have seen in
q few hours a countless succession of the
most beautiful and dreamful countryside
pictures in England. And if you should
come on foot for the II miles, as did, along
the hard. white highway from Warwick,
underneath an almost unbroken archway of
elms, through the crisp vet drowsy atmos-
phere of an English midland autumnal
morning, there is still surrounding you the
glamor of bewitching unreality you cannot
and would not dispeL
Tramping over this witching way, what
q food of historic memories sweeps in with
the breath of the rosy morning Here
upon this noble eminence, with historic
Clopton House TO the right and Hampton
Lucy to the left, beneath the arching elms
Is caught the first glimpse of the valley of
the Avon.
THE RIVER, TOWN AND TOMB.
From away in the northeast winds a
thread of silver 1t hroadens as it disap-
pears and reappears in its course toward
the Severn, and is finally lost completely,
where, above mass of elms and lines and
red-tiled roofs, rises a slender srire. The
silvery thread is the Avon. The mass of
elms and lines and red-tiled roofs is STRAIT
ford The slender spire of its Holy Trinity
Church marks the tomb and shrine of the
worlds immortal bard
Lettering here the old davs places and
stirring scenes fit quickly into the wide
horizon rim. The three spires of ancient
Coventry can almost be seen, not far away
10 the north; Coventry with its legends of
pilgrimages and the deed of fair Godiva
which brought freedom from the oppression
Of her fierce, grim lord 10 the people of her
well-beloved town. The grand ruin of Ken
ilworth, with its memories of iousts, tourna- |
meurS and revelries of Elizabeth and her |
tavorites are nearer still. GRAY old War |
wick. with its walls still as mighty as in the |
furious times of the third Henry, is Just be- |
hind you TO the north. Over to the west |
Fvesham and Tewksbury recall a grewsome |
tale. ONLY - miles TO the north Just at the |
edge of Oxfordshire, the first great battle |
between the Kings and Parliamentary |
forces was fought.
WHERE THE QUEEN OF SCOTS DIED.
Not far away, in Northamptonshire, is |
Fotheringay, notably connected with the |
lives and fates Of princes, and famous and |
Infamous as the place of execution of Mary |
Queen Of Scots.
Below Edge Hill is Banbury of cherished |
nursery-rhyme memory, to whose tooth |
some cheese Shakespeare likened Falstaff, |
for his rich and uncIious habit. It is but a |
few miles away, Just over there in North
ampton, beyond the ivy-hid Rugby of Tom |
Browns School DAYS" that the Avon
springs from the hills about Naseby, where
Cromwell and Fairfax drove the hapless
Charles from his throne and kingdom.
SiZty-four great seats with their castles or
halls. from AlleSley Park to Wroxall
House, beside many fine cathedrals and su-
perb monastic and castle ruins, cluster close
within the shire. The chimnevs and NINA
rated turrets Of one rise above primeval
trees down there 10 the east in the dreamful
Avon valley. They mark old CharlecOte
scene Of a certain rhyming poacher's esca-
1ade. And this same Charlecote once stood
IN the greatest of all British forests. the
forest of Arden. whose name and fame can
lever grow old, so long as the fair and tep-
Ter RoSd2iRd and all the other winsome brood
"As You Like It. shall repeat their wise
and wondrous human truths to those who
1wn and love the English thought and
ongue.
NOT A BUSTING TOWN.
As YOU descend into the old town every
thing is strangely still. On the way Won
see a few blaekbirds hopping sagely among
the stubble, close TO the sheltering hedge,
Here and there wary pheasant that has
scaped the annual autumnal slaughter
whisks into the road, trots along its grassy
order for a little, and then as suddenly and |
ilently disappears. The kline are sleepily
hewing their cuds against the farmhouse
,vres. A few ''stooks" of late-gathered
rain are huddled in the little fields. The
smolze ascends family from the chimnevs of
,Ottage and hall. They are late risers,
hese English folk, and the low sun is far
10 in its slender arc before dwellers give
ign of being sstir. Even the sable rocks
hat haunt the dead trees and high, wide
himnevs of ancient demesnes rise slug
ishlv from their hiding, wheel lazly about
[. and settle down quietly again, not yet
esdy to unloOse their saucy, chattering
ougues.
You know, as everybody knows. when
-ou have come to the little closely-hedged,
lied houses, where the open highway has
lerged into a long, picturesque though
umble street, that were you to remain in
tratford for a months time there could be
My just the half dozen places Immediately
lentifed with Shakespeare, to yisit-the
ouse
WHERE He WAS BORN,
he vacant site of the house where he lived
Z New Place, the church where he is
Uried, Ann Hathaway's cottage, and the
Iemorial fountain and theater. And while
on could see these in an hours time, the
nPulse, now that they are so near your
en- is TO avoid them. tn wander awav |