cottage is a large old-fashioned thatch-roofed building--very plain but
very homely. The clumsy string-lifted wooden door-latches, and the wooden
pins fixing the framing, and which have never been cut off, but stick up
some inches from the wall, are still all there. It was dusk before I got
there. My rap at the door was responded to by the appearance of an old
lady custodian, a descendent of the Hathaway family, who immediately
busied herself to light a tallow candle. That being successfully
accomplished, she commenced her story by pointing out the old hearth, and
explaining the kitchen arrangements of olden times. Among the old articles
of furniture, is a plain wooden settee or bench which used to stand
outside against the house near the door, during the summer, and which, as
tradition, has it, was Willie's and Anne's courting settee. Pictures of
their courtships hang against the walls, exhibiting styles and fashions
well in keeping with the antique furniture of the room. An old carved
bed-stead of the Shakespeare era, stands in the room above. Here the
custodian offered me a book of autographs, asking me to sign my name, as
has been customary since October 4th, 1846. Six books have been filled
with autographs, since that time. Among the signatures I saw one Emma R.,
July 24th, 1866. "This," said the custodian, "is the signature of the
Queen of the Sandwich Islands."

Henry W. Longfellow's signature, who was here with his brother (and
families), June 23rd, 1868, and that of Chas. Dickens, here in 1852, were
also pointed out.

The old lady would not let me go away without having taken a drink from
"the spring where Anne used to drink." After presenting me with "lavender"
and "rosemary" for mementoes, and a button-hole boquet consisting of a
fine rose and buds, for immediate display, she wished me god-speed on my
journey, and I retraced the path across the fields to Stratford.