PREFACE

This book, a companion to Shakespeare's England, relates to the gray days of an American wanderer in the British islands, and to the gold of thought and fancy that can be found there. In Shakespeare's England an attempt was made to depict, in an unconventional manner, those lovely scenes that are intertwined with the name and the memory of Shakespeare, and also to reflect the spirit of that English scenery in general which, to an imaginative mind, must always be venerable with historic antiquity and tenderly hallowed with poetic and romantic association. The present book continues the same treatment of kindred themes, referring not only to the land of Shakespeare, but to the land of Burns and Scott.

After so much had been done, and superbly done, by Washington Irving and by other authors, to celebrate the beauties of our ancestral home, it was perhaps an act of presumption on the part of the present writer to touch those subjects. He can only plead, in extenuation of his boldness, an irresistible impulse of reverence and affection for them. His presentment of them can give no offence, and perhaps it may be found sufficiently sympathetic and diversified to awaken and sustain at least a momentary interest in the minds of those readers who love to muse and dream over the relics of a storied past. If by happy fortune it should do more than that,—if it should help to impress his countrymen, so many of whom annually travel in Great Britain, with the superlative importance of adorning the physical aspect and of refining the material civilisation of America by a reproduction within its borders of whatever is valuable in the long experience and whatever is noble and beautiful in the domestic and religious spirit of the British islands,—his labour will not have been in vain. The supreme need of this age in America is a practical conviction that progress does not consist in material prosperity but in spiritual advancement. Utility has long been exclusively worshipped. The welfare of the future lies in the worship of beauty. To that worship these pages are devoted, with all that it implies of sympathy with the higher instincts and faith in the divine destiny of the human race.

Many of the sketches here assembled were originally printed in the New York Tribune, with which journal their author has been continuously associated, as dramatic reviewer and as an editorial contributor, since August, 1865. They have been revised for publication in this form. Part of the paper on Sir Walter Scott first appeared in Harper's Weekly, for which periodical the author has occasionally written. The paper on the Wordsworth country was contributed to the New York Mirror. The alluring field of Scottish antiquity and romance, which the author has ventured but slightly to touch, may perhaps be explored hereafter, for treasures of contemplation that earlier seekers have left ungathered. [This implied promise has since been fulfilled, in Brown Heath and Blue Bells, 1895.]

The fact is recorded that an important recent book, 1890, called Shakespeare's True Life, written by James Walter, incorporates into its text, without credit, several passages of original description and reflection taken from the present writer's sketches of the Shakespeare country, published in Shakespeare's England, and also quotes, as his work, an elaborate narrative of a nocturnal visit to Anne Hathaway's cottage, which he never wrote and never claimed to have written. This statement is made as a safeguard against future injustice.

W. W.

1892.

CONTENTS

PAGE

Preface to Illustrated Edition 9

Preface to First Edition 11

CHAPTER I

Classic Shrines of England 25

CHAPTER II

Haunted Glens and Houses 36

CHAPTER III

Old York 53

CHAPTER IV

The Haunts of Moore 66

CHAPTER V

The Beautiful City of Bath 84

CHAPTER VI

The Land of Wordsworth 94

CHAPTER VII

Shakespeare Relics at Worcester 112

CHAPTER VIII

Byron and Hucknall-Torkard Church 122

CHAPTER IX

Historic Nooks of Warwickshire 141

CHAPTER X

Shakespeare's Town 150

CHAPTER XI

Up and Down the Avon 172

CHAPTER XII

Rambles in Arden 181

CHAPTER XIII

The Stratford Fountain 188

CHAPTER XIV

Bosworth Field 198

CHAPTER XV

The Home of Dr. Johnson 209

CHAPTER XVI

From London to Edinburgh 223

CHAPTER XVII

Into the Highlands 230

CHAPTER XVIII

Highland Beauties 238

CHAPTER XIX

The Heart of Scotland 248

CHAPTER XX

Sir Walter Scott 265

CHAPTER XXI

Elegiac Memorials in Edinburgh 287

CHAPTER XXII

Scottish Pictures 297

CHAPTER XXIII

Imperial Ruins 305

CHAPTER XXIV

The Land of Marmion 314

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

PAGE

York Cathedral Photogravure Frontispiece

Edinburgh Castle Vignette Title-page

Stoke-Pogis Churchyard 26

Gray's Monument 28

Portrait of Thomas Gray 29

All Saints' Church, Laleham 31

Arnold's Grave Photogravure face 33

Portrait of Matthew Arnold 34

Hampton Lucy 37

Old Porch of Clopton 39

Clopton House Photogravure face 44

Warwick Castle, from the Mound 46

Warwick Castle, from the River 48

Leicester's Hospital 51

From the Warwick Shield Tailpiece 52

Bootham Bar 54

York Cathedral—West Front 57

York Cathedral—South Side 60

York Cathedral—East Front 62

Portrait of Thomas Moore 67

The Bear—Devizes 70

St. John's Church—Devizes 73

Hungerford Chapel—Devizes 75

The Avon and Bridge—Bath 85

Portrait of Beau Nash 86

Bath Abbey 88

High Street—Bath 91

A Fragment from an Old Roman Bath 92

Remains of the Old Roman Bath Tailpiece 93

Penrith Castle Photogravure face 94

Ullswater 95

Lyulph's Tower—Ullswater 101

Portrait of William Wordsworth 103

Approach to Ambleside 104

Grasmere Church 106

Rydal Mount—Wordsworth's Seat 108

An Old Lich Gate Tailpiece 111

Worcester Cathedral, from the Edgar Tower 113

The Edgar Tower 117

Portrait of Lord Byron 123

Hucknall-Torkard Church Photogravure face 128

Hucknall-Torkard Church 131

Hucknall-Torkard Church—Interior 135

The Red Horse Hotel 142

The Grammar School, Stratford 146

Interior of the Grammar School 147

Trinity Church 152

The Shakespeare Memorial Theatre 154

An Old Stratford Character: George Robbins 158

Anne Hathaway's Cottage 165

The Gower Statue Photogravure face 168

Tailpiece 171

Evesham 173

Clopton Bridge 174

Charlecote, from the Terrace 176

The Abbey Mills, Tewkesbury 179

Wootton-Wawen Church Photogravure face 183

Beaudesert Cross 186

Tailpiece 187

Portrait of Henry Irving, 1888 191

The Stratford Fountain Photogravure face 193

Mary Arden's Cottage 196

Tailpiece 197

Bosworth Field Photogravure face 200

Higham-on-the-Hill 207

Tailpiece 208

Dr. Johnson 210

Lichfield Cathedral—West Front 211

Lichfield Cathedral—West Front, Central Doorway 213

House in which Johnson was born 217

The Spires of Lichfield 220

Peterborough Cathedral Photogravure face 224

Berwick Castle 228

Stirling Castle 231

Loch Achray 234

Loch Katrine 235

Tailpiece 237

Oban 240

Loch Awe Photogravure face 246

Corbel from St. Giles Tailpiece 247

The Crown of St. Giles's 249

Scott's House in Edinburgh 252

The Maiden 255

Grayfriars Church 256

High Street—Allan Ramsay's Shop 257

The Canongate 260

Holyrood Castle, and Arthur's Seat Photogravure face 262

St. Giles's, from the Lawn Market 263

Portrait of Sir Walter Scott 266

Edinburgh Castle 271

The Canongate Tolbooth 277

Grayfriars Churchyard 292

The Forth Bridge 298

Dunfermline Abbey 300

Northwest Corner of Dunfermline Abbey 303

The Nave—Looking West—Dunfermline Abbey 304

Loch Lomond 306

Loch Lomond 308

Dunstaffnage 312

Tantallon Castle 316

Norham Castle, in the Time of Marmion 321

"Whatever withdraws us from the power of our senses, whatever makes the past, the distant, or the future predominate over the present, advances us in the dignity of thinking beings.... All travel has its advantages. If the passenger visits better countries he may learn to improve his own, and if fortune carries him to worse he may learn to enjoy it."

DR. JOHNSON.

BYRON.

"The charming, friendly English landscape! Is there any in the world like it? To a traveller returning home it looks so kind,—it seems to shake hands with you as you pass through it."

THACKERAY.

GRAY DAYS AND GOLD