explore the sacred dust?'

15.--Anonymous Article in the Birmingham Daily Gazette, of December
17, 1880, headed "Excavations in the Church and Churchyard of
Stratford-upon-Avon." This repeats, on the authority of Washington
Irving's Sketch Book, the story recorded by Mr. Halliwell-Phillipps.
It is an alarmist article, censuring the Vicar's excavations, which
were made indeed with a laudable purpose, but without the consent,
or even the knowledge, of the Lay Impropriators of the Church.

16.--Anonymous Article in the Cincinnati Commercial Gazette, of May
26, 1883, headed "Shakspeare at Home," where it is said "Nor should
they [the antiquarians of England] rest until they have explored
Shakspeare's tomb. That this should be prevented by the doggerel
engraved upon it, is unworthy of a scientific age. I have heard it
suggested that if any documents were buried with Shakspeare, they
would, by this time, have been destroyed by the moisture of the
earth, but the grave is considerably above the level of the Avon, as
I observed to-day, and even any traces connected with the form of
the poet would be useful. His skull if still not turned to dust,
should be preserved in the Royal College of Surgeons, as the apex of
the climbing series of skeletons, from the microscopic to the
divine."

17.--Ingleby, C. M., Shakespeare's Bones, June, 1883, being the
foregoing essay.



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