neither put down with exactness what he saw, nor impart any life to his meagre descriptions. From the first section of his book, which tells us that "The river Avon derives its source from a spring called Avon Well in the village of Naseby," to the last, in which he informs us that "Avon's friendly streams with Severn join," the 'Picturesque Views' of Mr. Samuel Ireland appear to us the production of the most spiritless of delineators. We would not recommend the tourist to encumber himself with this heavy book. The associations of the Avon with Shakspere may be considered to begin in the neighbourhood of Kenilworth. The river is not navigable above Stratford, and therefore the traveller will find it no very easy matter to trace its course; but still a pedestrian can overcome many difficulties. The beautiful grounds of Guy's Cliff are shown to visitors. A little below a boat will convey the wayfarer through somewhat tame scenery to Warwick Bridge. The noble castle is an object never to be forgotten; and perhaps there is no pile of similar interest in England which in so high a degree unites the beautiful with the magnificent. The Avon flows for a considerable distance through the domain of the castle.. Below, the left bank is bold and well-wooded, especially near Barford. The reader may now trace the river by the little map (p. 232). The course of the stream is generally through flat meadows from Barford to Hampton Lucy; but the high ground of Fulbrooke offers a great variety of picturesque scenery, and occasionally one or the other bank is lofty and precipitous, as at Hampton Wood. The reader is already familiar with the characteristics of the river from Hampton Lucy to Stratford. The most romantic spot is .Hatton Rock; a bank of considerable height, where the current, narrow and rapid, washes the base of the cliff, which is luxuriantly wooded. The river view of Stratford as we approach the bridge is exceedingly picturesque. When we have passed the church and the mill we may follow the river, by the tow-path on the right bank, the whole way to Bidford. The views are not very picturesque till we have passed the confluence of the Stour. Near Ludington we meet at every turn with subjects for the sketch-book. Opposite Welford, on the pathway to Hilborough, the landscape is very lovely. A mill is always a picturesque object; and here is one that seems to have held its place for many a century. Of the Grange and of Bidford we have often spoken. Below the little town the river becomes a much more important stream; and the left bank for several miles will appear bold and romantic even to those who are familiar with the Wye. This is especially the case under the Marl Cliff Hill. Here the Arrow contributes its rapid waters to swell the stream. We have now quitted Warwickshire. As we approach Evesham the town with its noble tower and ancient spires forms a most interesting termination to such a walk of three days as we have now briefly traced. THE hospitality of our ancestors was founded upon their sympathies with each other's joys and sorrows. The festivals of the church, the celebrations of sheep-shearing and harvest-home, the Mayings, were occasions of general glad ness. But upon the marriage of a son or of a daughter, at the christening of a child, the humblest assembled their neighbours to partake of their particular rejoicing. So was it also with their sorrows. Death visited a family, and its neighbours came to mourn. To be absent from the house of mourning would have seemed as if there was not a fellowship in sorrow as well as in joy. Christian neighbours in those times looked upon each other as members of the same family. Their intimacy was much more constant and complete than in days that are thought more refined. Privacy was not looked upon as a desirable thing. The latch of every door was lifted without knocking, and the dance in the hall was arranged the instant some young taborer struck a note; or the gossip's bowl was passed around the winter fire-side, to jest and song: "And then the whole quire hold their hips and loffe, And waxen in their mirth, and neeze, and swear A merrier hour was never wasted there." * Young men married early. In the middle ranks there was little outfit required to begin housekeeping. A few articles of useful furniture satisfied their simple tastes; and we doubt not there was as much happiness seated on the wooden bench as now on the silken ottoman, and as light hearts tripped over the green rushes as upon the Persian carpet. A silver bowl or two, a few spoons, constituted the display of the more ambitious; but for use the treen platter was at once clean and substantial, though the pewter dish sometimes graced a solemn merry-making. Employment, especially agricultural, was easily obtained by the industrious; and the sons of the yeomen, whose ambition did not drive them into the towns to pursue commerce, or to the universities to try for the prizes of professions, walked humbly and contentedly in the same road as their fathers had walked before them. They tilled a little land with indifferent skill, and their herds and flocks gave food and raiment to their household. Surrounded by the cordial intimacies of the class to which he belonged, it is not difficult to understand how William Shakspere married early; and the very circumstance of his so marrying is tolerably clear evidence of the course of life in which he was brought up. It has been a sort of fashion of late years to consider that Shakspere was clerk to an attorney. Thomas Nash in 1589 published this sentence: "It is a common practice now-a-days, among a sort of shifting companions, that run through every art and thrive by none, to leave the trade of Noverint, whereto they were born, and busy themselves with the endeavours of art, that could scarcely latinize their neck-verse if they should have need; yet English Seneca, read by candlelight, yields many good sentences, as Bloud is a Beggar, and so forth and, if you entreat him fair in a frosty morning, he will afford you whole Hamlets, I should say handfuls, of tragical speeches."+ This quotation is held to furnish the external evidence that Shakspere had been an attorney, by the connection here implied of " the trade of Noverint" and "whole Hamlets." Noverint was the technical beginning of a bond. It is imputed, then, by Nash, to a sort of shifting companions, that, running through every art and thriving by none, they attempt dramatic composition, drawing their tragical speeches from English Seneca. Does this description apply to Shakspere? Was he thriving by no art? In 1589 he was established in life as a sharer in the Blackfriars Theatre. Does the use of the term "whole Hamlets" fix the allusion upon him? It appears to us only to show that some tragedy called 'Hamlet,' it may be Shakspere's, was then in existence; and that it was a play A Midsummer-Night's Dream, Act 11., Scene 1. also at which Nash might sneer as abounding with tragical speeches. But it does not seem to us that there is any absolute connection between the Noverint and the Hamlet. Suppose, for example, that the Hamlet alluded to was written by Marlowe, who was educated at Cambridge, and was certainly not a lawyer's clerk. The sentence will read as well; the sarcasm upon the tragical speeches of the Hamlet will be as pointed; the shifting companion who has thriven by no art, and has left the calling to which he was born, may study English Seneca till he produces "whole Hamlets, I should say handfuls, of tragical speeches." In the same way Nash might have said whole Tamburlaines of tragical speeches, without attempting to infer that the author of 'Tamburlaine' had left the trade of Noverint. We believe that the allusion was to Shakspere's Hamlet, but that the first part of the sentence had no allusion to Shakspere's occupation. The context of the passage renders the matter even clearer. Nash begins, "I will turn back to my first text of studies of delight, and talk a little in friendship with a few of our trivial translators." Nash aspired to the reputation of a scholar; and he directs his satire against those who attempted the labours of scholarship without the requisite qualifications. The trivial translators could scarcely latinize their neck-verse-they could scarcely repeat the verse of Scripture which was the ancient form of praying the benefit of clergy. Seneca, however, might be read in English. We have then to ask was Hamlet a translation or an adaptation from Seneca ? Did Shakspere ever attempt to found a play upon the model of Seneca; to be a trivial translator of him; even to transfuse his sentences into a dramatic composition? If this imputation does not hold good against Shakspere, the mention of Hamlet has no connection with the shifting companion who is thus talked to as a trivial translator. Nash does not impute these qualities to Hamlet, but to those who busy themselves with the endeavours of art in adapting sentences from Seneca which should rival whole Hamlets in tragical speeches. And then he immediately says, "But, O grief! Tempus edax rerum;-what is it that will last always? The sea exhaled by drops will in continuance be dry; and Seneca, let blood line by line, and page by page, at length must needs die to our stage." The external evidence of this passage (and it is the only evidence of such a character that has been found) wholly fails, we think, in showing that Shakspere was in 1589 reputed to have been an attorney. But had he pursued this occupation, either at Stratford or in London, it is tolerably clear that there would have been ample external evidence for the establishment of the fact. In those times an attorney was employed in almost every transaction between man and man of any importance. Deeds, bonds, indentures, were much more common when legal documents were untaxed, and legal assistance was comparatively cheap. To every document attesting witnesses were numerous; and the attorney's clerk, as a matter of course, was amongst the number. Such papers and parchments are better secured against the ravages of time than any other manuscripts. It is scarcely possible that, if Shakspere had been an attorney's clerk, his name would not have appeared in some such document, as a subscribing |