lowing paper at the
meeting of the British Archaeological Association at Warwick in 1847:--

ON THE PROBABILITY OF THE GOLDEN LION INN, AT FULHAM, HAVING BEEN
FREQUENTED BY SHAKESPEARE ABOUT THE YEARS 1595 AND 1596.

It is certainly extraordinary that of the personal history of a man
whose writings are of so high an order of genius that they may almost
be considered as works of inspiration, we should know so little, and
that conjecture should have to supply so much, as in the biography of
William Shakespeare.

Pilgrims as are we at this moment to the birth-place and the tomb of
the highest name in the literature of this country, we all feel that
we now tread the classic ground of England--ground too rich in
unquestionable memories of Shakespeare, to admit of any feeling of
jealousy in an attempt to connect his fame by circumstantial evidence
with any other locality. I therefore venture to call attention to
the two following entries in the parish records of Fulham, a village
in the county of Middlesex, on the Thames, about four miles west of
London, and where the Bishop of London has a seat.

In an assessment made on the 12th October, 1625, for the relief of
the poor of Fulham side, John Florio, Esq., was rated at six
shillings, for his house in Fulham Street.

And in the same assessment upon the "Northend" of the parish, the
name of Robert Burbage occurs.

Meagre as this appears to be, and wide of the date at which I aim by
thirty years, it is all that I can produce in the shape of novel
documentary evidence for an attempt to connect the name of
Shakespeare with Fulham; the other points which I have to offer in
evidence being admitted facts, although no result has been deduced
from them.

In the High Street of Fulham stands a cleanly-looking brick house,
square in form and newly built, called the Golden Lion, where any
suburban traveller requiring refreshment may be supplied with a mug
of excellent ale and bread and cheese, in a parlour having a sanded
floor, the room, it must be confessed, smelling rather strongly of
tobacco smoke:--

"You may break, you may ruin the vase if you will--
But the scent of the roses will hang round it still;"--

And so it is, to my mind, with the tobacco smoke of the Golden Lion,
which stands upon the site of an old hostelry