Identifier: reviewofreviewsw05newy (find matches)
Title: Review of reviews and world's work
Year: 1890 (1890s)
Authors:
Subjects:
Publisher: New York Review of Reviews Corp
Contributing Library: Robarts - University of Toronto
Digitizing Sponsor: University of Toronto

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en years his senior. Mr. Williamsglances over the evidence pro and con, and declaresthat the balance is in harmony with the popular tra-dition that the beautiful old flower-imbedded cottageat Shottery was the home of the wife of the poet ofall time. Following the footpath way through the kitchengardens of Stratford from the town to the village ofShottery, one finds the cottage set in the midst of agenuine old English garden, with its prim beds setwith shrubs as well as flowers. The old oaken timbers which form the frameworkof the walls are arranged in a curious variety ofangles and geometrical patterns, whose design itwould be hard to trace to any clear purpose. Tli&intervening brickwork is covered in places by a coat-ing of plaster laid on at different times, and so assum-ing different tints of gray-white and creamy-yellowaccording to its age. A group of sunflowers finds a,fitting backgi-ound in the red brick at a spot where the-plaster work has fallen off. We pass under the low^
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ANN HATHAWAYS COTTAGE. 570 THE REJ/IEIV OF REFIEIVS. vine-covered doorway, and are ushered into an apart-ment that takes ns back three centuries at a singlestep. Here are the wainscoted walls : here is the lowceiling ribbed with its heavy oaken timbers : here arethe swinging casement windows with th^r leadsashes and tiny panes of glass; and, what seemsmost old-fashioned of all, the flagstone floor worn bythe feet of many generations. The old lady who claims to be a direct descendantof Richard Hathaway, the supposed father of Mrs.Shakespeare, still lives in the cottage ; and it is her portrait that is reproduced in the foreground of the^illustration. Mr. Williams has done a service which is morethan national—it is racial. All English-speaking menhave reason to rejoice for all time to come that ournational poet should have found so reverent andsympathetic an observer to store up the traces whichstill remain after the lapse of three centiiries of theold England which Sliakespeare made

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