intellect most nearly approached the Poet, had the same feature and the same commanding head, The ghastly white paint upon the bust, the high position it occupies in the church, and the bad light that there falls on it, hinders the due appreciation of its merits. The features are regular, nay, handsome and intelligent; but it is evident that such a head depended on its living expression, and that then it must have been eminently gentle and prepossessing. The lower part of the face, though inclined to be fleshy, does not injure the features, which are all delicately formed, and the side-view of the head is very fine; a careful copy adorns our title- -page. An intent study of this bust enforces the belief, that all the manifold peculiarities of feature so characteristic of the Poet, and which no chance could have originated, and no theory account for, must have resulted from its being a transcript of the Man; one that has received the confirmation of his own living relatives and friends, the best and only portrait to be now relied on.

The gravestones of the Shakspere family lie in a row in front of the altar-rails, upon the second step leading to it. His wife's is immediately beneath his tomb. It is a flat stone, the surface injured by time, having a small brass plate let in it with this inscription: here given literally, as are all the other inscriptions. They have been incorrectly printed in most instances.

HEERE LYETH INTERRED THE BODY OF ANNE WIFE

OF WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. WHO DEPTED THIS LIFE THE 6 DAY OF AVG: 1623. BEING OF THE AGE OF 67 YEARES:

Vbera tu mater, tu lac vitamq; dedisti,

Væ mihi pro tanto munere Saxa dabo,

Quam mallem amoveat lapidem bonus Angel' ore'
Exeat Christi corpus imago tua;

Sed nil vota valent, venias cito Christe, resurget,
Clausa licet tumulo mater, et astra petet.

Next comes that placed over the body of the Poet. It is

right here to state that the four lines upon it have been generally printed with an absurd mixture of great and small letters: it is here carefully reduced from a rubbing taken on the stone. The only peculiarity it possesses over ordinary inscriptions is the

abbreviation for the word that, and the grouping together of some of the letters after the fashion of a monogram. Other instances of similar usages are common in inscriptions of the There is traditionary story, bearing date 1693, which says, "His wife and daughters did earnestly desire to be laid in the same grave with him," but that "not one for fear of the curse above said dare touch his gravestone."

same age.

Dr.

Next to that of Shakspere lies a stone commemorating the resting-place of Thomas Nash, who married the only daughter of the Poet's daughter Susanna; this lady afterwards married Sir John Barnard, and died at Abington, near Northampton, in 1670, in whom the direct line of the Poet's issue ceased. John Hall, her father, lies next; and last comes Susanna, his wife. The whole of the rhyming part of her epitaph had been obliterated, and upon the place was cut an inscription to the memory of one Richard Watts. This has in its turn been erased, and the original inscription restored by lowering the surface of the stone and recutting the letters. The tombs of Hall and Nash have also been renovated by deepening the letters and recutting the armorial bearings, which has been done under the judicious and careful superintendence of R. B. Wheler, Esq., of Stratford,

at the sole expense of the Rev. W. Harness, whose public-spirited and honourable act deserves as much praise as Malone's miserable meddling does reprobation.

Such are the relics, genuine and supposititious, and the localities which connect themselves with the history of "the world's Poet" at Stratford. It has been the object of the author of this unpretending hand-book to collect, engrave, and describe all that could be found, and which no work of greater pretensions has yet done so completely. The drawings have all been placed upon the wood by his own hand, and engraved under his superintendence. Several visits to Stratford have enabled him to obtain many drawings and many facts of a local character not elsewhere set down. In this world of change and fancied improvement such records may be useful, particularly when they are connected with one who has most honoured his native land by his writings, and of whom Englishmen have most reason to be proud!

"Triumph, my Britain! thou hast one to shew,
To whom all scenes of Europe homage owe.
He was not of an age, but for all time;
And all the Muses still were in their prime,
When, like Apollo, he came forth to warm
Our ears, or like a Mercury to charm.
Nature herself was proud of his designs,
And joy'd to wear the dressing of his lines."

THE END.

B. JONSON.

Levey, Robson, and Franklyn, Great New Street, Fetter Lane.