No general plan of Stratford-upon-Avon, executed before the middle of the eighteenth century, is known to exist. The one here given in fac-simile was taken about the year 1768 by a caligraphist of the name of Winter, and it clearly appears, from the local records, that there had then been no material alteration in either the form or the extent of the town since the days of Elizabeth. It may, therefore, be accepted as a reliable guide to the locality as it existed in the poet's own time, when the number of inhabited houses, exclusive of mere hovels, could not have much exceeded five hundred. The following is a copy of the referenceexplanations which are found under the original plan: 1. Moor Town's End ;-2. Henley Lane:-3. Rother Market;—4. Henley Street;-5. Meer Pool Lane;-6. Wood Street; 7. Ely Street or Swine Street ;-8. Scholar's Lane alias Tinker's Lane;-9. Bull Lane;— 10. Street call'd Old Town ;-11. Church Street;-12. Chapel Street;--13. High Street ;14. Market Cross;-15. Town Hall;--16. Place where died Shakespeare ;-17. Chapel, Public Schools, &c. ;-18. House where was Shakespeare born;-19. Back Bridge Street 20. Fore Bridge Street;-21. Sheep Street;-22. Chapel Lane ;-23. Buildings call'd Water Side ;-24. Southam's Lane ;-25. Dissenting Meeting;-26. White Lion. 203 signature. But this was not the only legal business of the year in which the poet was interested. It appears that a flaw had been discovered in the validity of his title to New Place, the vendor's relative, Hercules Underhill, possessing some unknown kind of interest that had not been effectually barred by the terms of the conveyance. In order to meet this difficulty it was necessary for a fine to be levied through which the absolute ownership of the purchaser should be recognized by Hercules, and of so much importance was this considered that, upon the deforciant representing in June, 1602, that the state of his health prevented his undertaking a journey to London, a special commission was arranged for obtaining his acknowledgment. This important ratification was procured in Northamptonshire in the following October, Shakespeare no doubt being responsible for the considerable expenditure that must have been incurred by these transactions, which, there is reason to believe, 332 were conducted exclusively by his own professional advisers. The pecuniary resources of Shakespeare must now have been very considerable, for, notwithstanding the serious expenditure incurred by this last acquisition, a few months afterwards he is recorded as the purchaser of a small copyhold estate near his country residence. On September the 28th, 1602, at a Court Baron of the Manor of Rowington, one Walter Getley transferred to the poet a cottage and garden which were situated in 271 Chapel Lane opposite the lower grounds of New Place. They covered the space of a quarter of an acre, with a frontage in the lane of fourty feet, and were held practically in fee simple at the annual rental 272 of two shillings and sixpence. It appears from the roll that Shakespeare did not attend the manorial court then held at Rowington, there being a stipulation that the estate should remain in the hands of the lady of the manor until he appeared in person to complete the transaction with the usual formalities. At a later period he was admitted to the copyhold, and then he surrendered it to the use of himself for life, with a 273 remainder to his two daughters in fee. The cottage was replaced about the year 1690 by a brick and tiled building, and no representation of the original tenement is known to be in existence. The latter, in all probability, had, like most other cottages at Stratford-on-Avon in the poet's time, a thatched roof supported by mud walls. The adjoining boundary wall that enclosed the vicarage garden on the lane side continued to be one of mud 221 until the latter part of the eighteenth century. In the spring of this year, 1602, our national tragedy, 156 known originally under the title of the Revenge of Ham- 157 let, Prince of Denmark, was in course of representation 158 |