of our third plate. The dormer windows and gable had been removed; the bay window beneath the gable had given place to an ordinary flat lattice-window of four lights; the porch in front of that portion of the building in which Shakspere was born was removed, and a butcher's shop-front constructed. At this time there lived here a descendant of Joan Hart, sister to the Poet, who pursued the humble occupation of a butcher. The other half of the house was at this time converted into an inn, and ultimately sunk into a low public-house. It had been known as the Maidenhead Inn in 1642; and when, in 1806, the house was disposed of to Mr. Thomas Court, who became "mine host" thereof, he combined that name with the one it then held of the Swan. About 1820, excited by a desire for "improvement," he destroyed the original appearance of this portion of the building by constructing a new red-brick front, exactly of the approved fashion in which rows of houses are built in small towns, and which consists generally of an alternate door and window, repeated at regular intervals below, while a monotonous range of windows above effectually repulses attention. This brings us to its present aspect, delineated in the lower cut of Plate 3. The house is now divided into three tenements; the central one is the portion set apart for exhibition, in the back rooms of which live the proprietors; the shop, the room above, and the kitchen, are sacred to visitors. When the lower part of the central tenement was made to serve for a butcher's shop, its window was removed, and has not been replaced; and when the butcher's trade ceased, a few years since, no attempt at restoration was made, and the shop still retains the signs of its late occupation. The old window in the upper story, originally a lattice of three lights, had been altered into one of four; and modern squares of glass usurped the place of the old leaded diamond-panes. A board for flower-pots was erected in front of the window; but more recently a large, obtrusive, rudely-painted sign-board pro

jects from the front to tell us "the immortal Shakspeare was born in this house." Such is its present external aspect: 66 it is a small, mean-looking edifice," says Irving; it was not so in Shakspere's time.

Ascending the step, we pass into the shop. The door is divided into a hatch, and we look back into the street above the lower half, and through the open window of the shop, with its projecting stall for meat, and its wooden roof above. The walls of this room are of plaster, and the solid oak beams rest on the stone foundation. On entering, the visitor looks towards the kitchen, through the open door communicating with the shop. On the right is a roomy fireplace, the sides built of brick, and having the chimney-piece above cut with a lowpointed arch out of a massive beam of oak. To the left of the door is a projection in the wall, which forms a recess "bacon cupboard," the door of which opens in the side of the kitchen chimney of the adjoining room. The floor is covered with flag-stones, broken into fifty varied shapes; the

or

roof displays the bare timbers upon which the upper story

rests.

A raised step leads from the shop to the kitchen; it is a small square room, with a stone floor and a roof of massive timbers. A door opposite the shop leads to an inner room, inhabited by the person who shews the house. The fireplace here is large and roomy, the mantel-tree a solid beam of oak. Within the fireplace, on one side, is a hatch, opening to the "bacon cupboard" already spoken of; on the opposite side, is a small arched recess for a chair here often sat John Shakspere; and here his young son William passed his earliest days. Ireland compares the kitchen to the subjects which "so frequently employed the rare talents of Ostade. In the corner of the chimney stood an old oak chair, which had for a number of years received nearly as many adorers as the celebrated shrine of the Lady of Loretto. This relic was purchased in July 1790 by the Princess Czartoryska, who made a journey to this place, in order to obtain intelligence relative to Shakspere; and being told he had often sat in this chair, she placed herself in it, and expressed an ardent wish to become a purchaser; but being informed that it was not to be sold at any price, she left a handsome gratuity to old Mrs. Harte, and left the place with apparent regret. About four months after, the anxiety of the princess could no longer be withheld, and her secretary was despatched express, as the fit agent, to purchase this treasure at any rate: the sum of twenty guineas was the price fixed on, and the secretary and chair, with a proper certificate of its authenticity on stamped paper, set off in a chaise for London."

With that anxiety to supply relic-hunters who visit Stratford, and who sometimes feel disappointed with the little which remains there connected with the Poet, the absence of the genuine chair was not long felt. A very old chair is still in the place; and Washington Irving thus speaks of the chair he saw in 1820: