VICTORIA SPA.

An elegant Pump Room has been erected at the Springs, which are about a mile from the town.

Stratford enjoys one very strong recommendation for many invalids, in its comparative tranquillity, when compared with Cheltenham or Leamington, and in the opportunity thus afforded to render quietness, country air, and early hours, auxiliary to the beneficial effects of the mineral waters.

In consequence of an application from the proprietors, H.R.H. the Duchess of Kent was graciously pleased to permit the Spa to be named "The Victoria Spa," in honour of her illustrious daughter, on the day of whose coming of age, (May 24th, 1837), the Pump Room and Baths were opened by a public breakfast and other entertainments.

The Stratford waters possess most valuable qualities, and may be drank or used for bathing in all cases to which a course of mild saline water is adapted. The state of dilution in which the salts they contain renders them fit for long-continued use, especially in chronic disorders affecting the organs of digestion, the result of exposure to hot climates, or of too great indulgence in the pleasures of the table, or arising from any other causes. As compared with other known saline springs, the Stratford water most nearly resembles those of Cheltenham.

CHARLECOTE.

Charlecote Park is about three miles from Stratford, beautifully situated upon the green banks of the quiet musing Avon, and at present embosomed in gigantic elms whose leafy canopies surround it on all sides. So thickly placed are these lofty wooded citizens that the old Elizabethan mansion with its turrets, gables, balustrades and chimneys, is scarcely to be seen from between the foliage, unless the house is approached very near.

Charlecote has always been traditionally connected with an early exploit of Shakespeare's, the truth or falsehood of which has engaged the attempts of many writers to elucidate. We accept the tradition, and think it highly probable that Shakespeare in his younger days may have been passionately fond of field sports, and indulged in them clandestinely. Probably an exploit of the kind was then considered no more of than is thought now of a sportsman shooting a hare on a manor where he is on trespass.

Charlecote House was built by Thomas Lucy, Esq., in 1558, only six years before Shakespeare was born, and he was Sheriff of Warwickshire in 1578. He was knighted by Queen Elizabeth, at a later

period, in 1593. Mr. Knight, in his Biography of Shakespeare, has attempted to prove the improbability of the deer stealing tradition, and asks whether it is likely that Sir Thomas Lucy would have pursued the son of an alderman of Stratford with extraordinary severity? We think it likely enough, and that the account given by Rowe, as far as can now be made out, shadows forth the true facts of the case." Upon his (Shakespeare's) leaving school, he seems to have given entirely into that way of living which his father proposed to him; and in order to settle in the world after a family manner, he thought fit to marry while he was yet very young. His wife was the daughter of one Hathaway, said to have been a substantial yeoman in the neighbourhood of Stratford. In this kind of settlement he continued for some time, till an extravagance that he was guilty of, forced him both out of his county and that way of living which he had taken up; and, though it seemed at first to be a blemish upon his good manners, and a misfortune to him, yet it afterwards happily proved the occasion of exerting one of the greatest geniuses that was ever known in dramatic poetry. He had,' by a misfortune common enough to young fellows, fallen into ill company, and amongst them some that made a frequent practice of deer stealing, engaged him more than once in robbing a park that belonged to Sir Thomas Lucy, of Charlecote, near Stratford. For this he was prosecuted by that gentleman, as he thought somewhat too severely; and in order to revenge that ill usage,

he made a ballad upon him; and though this, probably the first essay of his poetry, be lost, yet it is said to have been so very bitter that it redoubled the prosecution against him to that degree, that he was obliged to leave his business and family in Warwickshire for some time, and shelter himself in London."

The walk from Stratford to Charlecote is very pleasing, especially if the side of the Avon be taken by Hatton Rock, as picturesque a part of the river as any about Stratford. Here all is serenity and repose -the river sleeps, lulled by the "waving sedges," hoar willows sentinel the banks, and the wooded glacis rapidly sinking to the stream, wild with brush wood, lofty wild flowers, and drooping brambles, "call home ancient thoughts from banishment," and invest our ideas with the simplicity of scenes fresh with childhood. Shakespeare has been here, and we catch the thoughts and similes before embodied by him, and but for him should we now be wandering? His enchanter's wand has consecrated all this river and woodland scenery, the soft-flowing Avon, and glades of Charlecote.

Sauntering through the park among the lofty elms, beeches and limes, the scene is involved in shadow consonant to the feelings likely to arise, save where on the velvet turf the opening glades exhibit the numerous deer with their branching horns, which we can by no means dispense with, leading us to the images of the witty poet, and his mention of the "hairy fools." Yet changes have occurred even here,

we look for the trees we could certainly identify with the Elizabethan age, and find but few-some there are, and perhaps the old hawthorns divided down to their roots in many boles, are really as old as the time of Shakespeare's excursions hither. They inspire recollections of that "hawthorn shade" so old English in itself, to which he often refers.

The old Church of Charlecote has recently been taken down, and another, in the pointed style, erected. Thus change progresses, and it becomes increasingly difficult for imagination to supply the images of the past. The old mansion has even been altered and added to, but may its characteristic features long remain.