should drop it upon the carpet in a parlor. I passed along the pavement
with it, until I met a street-sweeper, and there threw it upon his heap
with a nod, which he reciprocated with a bow.

On entering Stratford, my foot first tended toward



Shakespeare's Birthplace,


a large two-story house, about fifty feet long, having three large
dormer-windows and two chimneys, one of them running up on the outside of
the house.

The custodian takes the visitor through every apartment of it, giving the
history of the same and of numerous articles of furniture and Shakesperian
relics, &c., which constitute a considerable museum.

When William Shakespeare's father was a "well-to-do" man, he occupied the
whole house; but after he had become poor, the east end was rented to a
hotel-keeper, and he lived in the middle part only, which has later been
used as a butcher-shop.

"On the 16th of September, 1847, it (the building) was put up for sale by
the magniloquent Mr. George Robins, and in consequence of a strong appeal
to the feelings of the people, made through the public press, by which a
_National Subscription_ was raised for the purpose; this house was bought
at the bidding of Mr. Peter Cunningham, for something more than 3,000
pounds sterling, and was placed under Trustees on behalf of the Nation."