itial support in
London, for arms were assigned with the least possible delay. Garter
King-of-Arms referred to certain (and probably apocryphal) services
rendered "to that most prudent prince King Henry the Seventh of famous
memory," and stated, without any recorded blush, that the Shakespeare
family had continued since those days to live in Warwickshire, in good
reputation and credit! He went on to record the undoubted fact that the
applicant had married Mary Arden, daughter and heiress of Robert Arden
of Wilmcote, who is described as a gentleman. In view of these
qualifications, arms were assigned to the applicant, a shield described
in the quaint jargon of heraldry, "Gold, on a bend sable, a spear of the
first, and for crest or cognizance a falcon, his wings displayed argent
standing on a wreath of his colours, supporting a spear gold steeled as
aforesaid." The motto chosen was "Non Sans Droict."

But though the grant was assigned, the assignment was not completed for
three years, the claim to relationship with the Ardens of Park Hall,
through John Shakespeare's wife, being disallowed, as was indeed
inevitable. Even then the grant was criticised in many quarters, but
William Shakespeare's eminence tended to render all criticism nugatory;
nor was he the first eminent actor to enjoy a coat of arms. It is quite
easy to understand the significance of the application if we turn to
regard the poet as a purchaser of real estate. Some two years before the
assignment was completed, he had impressed upon his fellow townsmen of
Stratford the truth that the period of strained finances had passed.

New Place, the century-old seat of Sir Hugh Clopton, a man who had done
much for Stratford, his birthplace, and had thriven in London, was now
dismantled and in bad repair; but remained the most imposing house in
the town. It was on the market, and William Shakespeare bought it, with
outbuildings and garden, for the equivalent of about four hundred and
fifty pounds, a large sum in that place and in those days. Some years
passed before the transaction was completed, and then the poet planted
an orchard which contained a famous mulberry tree, that flourished for
more than a hundred and fifty years, and was cut down by the Rev.
Francis Gastrell, whose name and memory are anathema to lovers of
Shakespeare. The poet did not take up his residence at New Place until
he had retired from London, and by that time the repairs were completed
and