dicated to the blessed Virgin, which has for some ages been the burial place of the Cloptons, a family that receives its name from a manor about one mile and half from Stratford. This was granted by Peter de Montford to James de Clopton, in the reign of Henry VIII. since when it has been enjoyed by the lineal descendants of the ori ginal possessor to the present time.

The memory of some of these worthi es is still held in respect by Stratford, for instances of their munificence towards the town. To Sir Hugh Clopton, who lived in the latter end of the 15th century, it is indebted for the remarkable bridge and causeway over the Avon, which stretch three hundred and eighty yards, and connect the town with the opposite side of the river by nineteen arches. The remains of this knight were deposited in the city of London, where he had been lord-mayor, and for which he had always a strong predeliction; but a great many of his successors found their last home in the church of Stratford. These, however, did not long detain us from the monument of Shakespeare, which is fixed in the north wall of the chancel, and consists of an ornamented arch, forming a recess, within which is placed the half-length bust of the poet, holding a pen in his right hand and a scroll in his left. At present the whole of the

sculpture is painted white, which, it seems, was done a few years since by the direction of Mr. Malone, who preferred this uniform colour to the various tints which then covered the different parts of the bust. The story of the alteration is this:The bust had been originally coloured as near to nature and reality in the complexion, hair, and dress, as possible; but time having faded the colours considerably, the manager of a company of comedians, which were performing in Stratford about fifty-five years ago, in the enthusiasm of his zeal for the memory of the bard, determined to rescue his Apollo from the dinginess of his appearance, and to dress him out in fresh decorations. He accordingly dedicated one night towards raising a fund for the purpose; the house was well attended, and a pretty large surplus remained for the adornment of the bust. But as the vanity of this Thespis was not inferior to his admiration of Shakespeare, he resolved to make the projected improvements commemorative of himself, as well as the poet; and accordingly directed Pallet to accommodate his colours to the dress and hair, eyes and complexion, of himself. Cruel Mr. Malone! who could thus obliterate the only vestiges by which this poor son of the buskin might hope to hand

himself down to posterity. The inscriptions are

as follow:

"Judicio Pylium, genio Socatem, arte Maronem,
"Terra teget, populus moret, Olympus habet."

"Stay, Passenger! why go'st thou by so fast? "Read, if thou canst, whom envious death has plac'd "Within this monument; SHAKESPEARE with whom "Quite nature died, whose name doth deck this tombe"Far more than cost; sich all that he hath writt, "Leaves living art but page to serve his witt.

"Obiit A. D. 1616, Etatis 53, die 23d April."

A flat stone, lying on the pavement over the place of his interment, has this inscription, said to have been written by Shakespeare for his own monument:

"Good friend for Jesus' sake forbeare

"To digg the dust encloased heare;

"Blest be the man that spares these stones,
“And curst be he that moves my bones."

Near the remains of Shakespeare lie those of Anne his wife, who died the 6th of August 1628, aged 67; of Susannah Hall, (his daughter) the wife of John Hall, gent. who died the 2d day of July 1649, aged 66; and of John Coomb, esq; the object of Shakespeare's severe epitaph, a joke he never forgot or forgave. Like most other misers, he was generous enough of his money when he no

longer retained the power of enjoying it; and left several sums to charity by his will, though during his life no art could extort a single shilling from his gripe without the expectation of a return. His heir, or executor, has had the modesty to terminate a long English inscription with this very applicable motto--Virtus post funera vivit.

cester.

The chapel of the guild is a fabric built in imitation of the chancel of the church, by Sir Hugh Clopton, knight, lord-mayor of London, about the year 1496. Still more ancient is the Guildhall, which Robert de Stratford obtained permission to erect in 1296, of Godfrey Gifford Bishop of WorHe appropriated it to the guild of the Holy Cross, an ecclesiastical fraternity, which had subsisted at Stratford from very high antiquity. This was dissolved in the seventh of Edward VI. and the hall granted to the corporation, which has ever since transacted its business in it. A chauntry also was established here in 1331, by John de Stratford Archbishop of Canterbury, for a warden and four priests, who were to celebrate divine service in the chapel dedicated to the martyr Thomas a Becket, built by the founder on the south side of the church. The establishment was swept away by the Reformation, and its endowments transmitted to lay hands; but the residence of the

priests is still seen in the large fabric adjoining to the church-yard.

Shortly after passing over the long bridge of Stratford, we found ourselves in a part of Worcestershire, which by a singular separation is divided from its parent county, and pushed into the southern extremity of Warwickshire.

A series of beautiful villages and rural pictures succeeded each other for six or seven miles, till we reached the pleasing little hamlet of Halford, on the road from Warwick to Stow-on-the-Wold. Close to the inn at this place runs the great Roman road, called the Fosse, in a direction N. N. E. and S. S. W. crossing the river at the bottom of the hill towards the latter point, and pushing on to Cirencester and Bath. Here we had it very visible in many parts, and with the assistance of our landlord, a very decent antiquary, ascertained its structure, which consisted of a layer of stones at the bottom and a stratum of gravel upon it; he had more than once had occasion to overturn its foundation in different places, and found many skeletons placed about fourteen inches under its lower stratum. One of them, which he had dug up about five years ago, measured six feet three inches in height; it lay in a direction north and south, and was accompanied by the remains of a