My Brush With The Bard - Part One

 

I'm not really one for taking masses of photos, I normally prefer just to enjoy the moment of experience. But on my recent visit to Stratford Upon Avon I saw a number of things I would like to share with you my blogging chums, simply because I think they might interest you. Firstly the cake at the top of this post is obviously just to get your attention and yes I feel it has worked very well.

The rest of the pics in this post are from the house where Shakespeare was born in 1564. It's such an amazing dwelling, because of its age of course, but because he truly popped into this world in an upstairs room, a room that I was able to stand in. His family lived in the house for many years and he spent his early years there, attending a school just around the corner, which you can also visit.

It goes without saying that the contents of the house are not the originals, the house has been many things over the years, a school, a public house etc But what you see is original to the 16th century. Remarkable. 

The house has always attracted folk who share the love of Willaim Shakespeare and during the 19th century it became a fashionable thing for visitors making the pilgrimage to etch their  name on the panes of his bedroom window. A kind of homage to the great man. The last image shows the panes that are still in the room, but not actually in the window frames anymore. The earliest recorded date on the window is 1806.

Famous names written on the glass include the Scottish writer Walter Scott, the philosopher Thomas Carlyle: and two great Shakepeare actors, Ellen Terry and Henry Irving.

It felt like a very special place, a house with gravitas, you could feel the importance of it in the air. I was so glad to have walked through its doors.