populace, assuring them that he was safe and uninjured."



LITERARY SHRINES OF LONDON [Footnote: From "Shakespeare's England." By
arrangement with the publishers, Moffat, Yard & Co. Copyright by William
Winter, 1878-1910.]

BY WILLIAM WINTER


The mind that can reverence historic associations needs no explanation of
the charm that such associations possess. There are streets and houses in
London which, for pilgrims of this class, are haunted with memories and
hallowed with an imperishable light that not even the dreary commonness of
everyday life can quench or dim. Almost every great author in English
literature has here left some personal trace, some relic that brings you
at once into his living presence. In the time of Shakespeare,--of whom it
should be noted that, wherever found, he is found in elegant
neighborhoods,--Aldersgate was a secluded, peaceful quarter of the town,
and there the poet had his residence, convenient to the theater in
Blackfriars, in which he owned a share. It is said that he dwelt at No.
134 Aldersgate Street (the house was long ago demolished), and in that
region, amid all the din of traffic and all the discordant adjuncts of a
new age, those who love him are in his company. Milton was born in a court
adjacent to Bread Street, Cheapside, and the explorer comes upon him as a
resident in St. Bride's churchyard,--where the poet Lovelace was
buried,--and at No. 19 York Street, Westminster, in later times occupied
by Jeremy Bentham and by William Hazlitt. When secretary to Cromwell he
lived in Scotland Yard, now the headquarters of the London police. His