buildings of Stratford are small and low, as is the rule, rather than
the exception, in English towns and villages. Many are covered with tiles,
but the thatch roof is also very common here. This consists of a mixture
of straw and earth, often more than a foot in thickness, and covered with
moss and grass. Notwithstanding this, both the houses and the streets are
kept remarkably clean and inviting; so much so, that I felt nowhere else
so soon and so perfectly at home as here. Its people seem to be possessed
of every virtue, and preeminent among them all, is that of hospitality
which seems to be blooming in the hearts of all its citizens to-day, as
did poetry in the mind of Shakespeare three hundred years ago.

The streets of this town are kept as clean as a floor, by sweepers
watching the streets all day long, collecting and carrying away all the
refuse matter. One day, I felt ill at ease about a small piece of paper
that had become a superfluity in my pocket, but which I was afraid to
throw upon the street, as it would there seem as much out of place as if I
should drop it upon the carpet in a parlor. I passed along the pavement
with it, until I met a street-sweeper, and there threw it upon his heap
with a nod, which he reciprocated with a bow.

On entering Stratford, my foot first tended toward

Shakespeare's Birthplace,

a large two-story house, about fifty feet long, having three large
dormer-windows and two chimneys, one of them running up on the outside of
the house.

The custodian takes the visitor through every apartment of it, giving the
history of the same and of numerous articles of furniture and Shakesperian
relics, &c., which constitute a considerable museum.

When William Shakespeare's father was a "well-to-do" man, he occupied the
whole house; but after he had become poor, the east end was rented to a
hotel-keeper, and he lived in the middle part only, which has later been
used as a butcher-shop.

"On the 16th of September, 1847, it (the building) was put up for sale by
the magniloquent Mr. George Robins, and in consequence of a strong appeal
to the feelings of the people, made through the public press, by which a
_National Subscription_ was raised for the purpose; this house was bought
at the bidding of Mr. Peter Cunningham, for something more than 3,000
pounds sterling, and was placed under Trustees on behalf of the Nation."

Space will not permit me to make mention of more than a few of t