nature engaged him in the acquaintance, and entitled him to the friendfhip, of the gentlemen of the neighfumed by fire; but our Shakspeare's houfe, among fome others, efcaped the flames. This houfe was firft built by Sir Hugh Clopton, a younger brother of an ancient family in that neighbourhood. Sir Hugh was Sheriff of London in the reign of Richard III. and Lord-Mayor in the reign of King Henry VII. By his will he bequeathed to his elder brother's fon his manor of Clopton, &c. and his houfe, by the name of the Great House in Stratford. Good part of the eftate is yet (in 1733) in the poffeffion of Edward Clopton, efq. and Sir Hugh Clopton, Knt. lineally defcended from the elder brother of the firft Sir Hugh.

The eftate had now been fold out of the Clopton family for above a century, at the time when Shakspeare became the purchafer: who having repaired and modelled it to his own mind, changed the name to New-Place, which the manfionhoufe fince erected upon the fame fpot, at this day retains. The houfe, and lands which attended it, continued in Shakspeare's defcendants to the time of the Restoration; when they were re-purchafed by the Clopton family, and the manfion now belongs to Sir Hugh Clopton, Knt. To the favor of this worthy gentleman I owe the knowledge of one particular in honor of our poet's once dwelling-houfe, of which I prefume Mr. Rowe never was apprized. When the Civil War raged in England, and King Charles the Firfl's Queen was driven by the neceffity of her affairs to make a recefs in Warwickshire, fhe kept her court for three weeks in New-Place. We may reasonably fuppofe it then the beft private houfe in the town; and her Majefly preferred it to the College, which was in the poffeffion of the Combe family, who did not fo ftrongly favor the king's party. THEOBALD.

From Mr. Theobald's words the reader may be led to fuppofe that Henrietta Maria was obliged to take refuge from the rebels in Stratford-upon-Avon: but that was not the cafe. She marched from Newark, June 16, 1643. and entered Stratfordupon-Avon triumphantly, about the 22d of the fame month, at the head of three thousand foot and fifteen hundred horfe, with 150 waggons and a train of artillery. Here he was met by Prince Rupert, accompanied by a large body of troops. After fojourning about three weeks at our poet's houfe, which was then poffeffed by his grand-daughter Mrs. Nafh, and her hufband, the Queen went (July 13) to the plain of Keinton under Edge-hill, to meet the king, and proceeded from thence with

bourhood. Amongst them, it is a story almost still remembered in that country that he had a particuhim to Oxford, where fays a contemporary hiftorian, «her coming (July 15) was rather to a triumph than a war.,,

Of the college above-mentioned the following was the origin. John de Stratford, Bishop of Winchefter, in the fifth year of King Edward III. founded a Chantry confifting of five priefts, one of whom was Warden, in a certain chapel adjoining to the church of Stratford on the fouth fide; and afterwards (in the feventh year of Henry VIII.) Ralph Collingwode inftituted four chorifters, to be daily affiflant in the celebration of divine fervice there. This chantry, fays Dugdale, foon after its foundation, was known by the name of The College of Stratfordupon-Avon.

In the 26th year of Edward III. a house of square ftone,, was built by Ralph de Stratford, bishop of London, for the habitation of the five priefts. This houfe, or another on the fame fpot, is the house of which Mr. Theobald fpeaks. It fill bears the name of The College,,, and at prefent belongs to the Rev. Mr. Fullerton.

After the fuppreffion of religious houfes, the fite of the college was granted by Edward VI. to John earl of Warwick and his heirs; who being attainted in the 1ft year of Queen" Mary, it reverted to the crown.

Sir John Clopton, knight, (the father of Edward Clopton, efq. and Sir Hugh Clopton,) who died at Stratford-upon-Avon in April 1719, purchafed the eftate of New-Place, &c. fome time after the year 1685, from Sir Reginald Forfter, Baronet, who married Mary, the daughter of Edward Nash, efq. coufingerman to Thomas Nath, efq. who married our poet's granddaughter, Elizabeth Hall. Edward Nafh bought it, after the death of her fecond hufband, Sir John Barnard, knight. By her will, which will be found in a fubfequent page, fhe directed her trustee, Henry Smith, to fell the New Place, &c. (after the death of her husband,) and to make the firft offer of it to her coufin Edward Nafh, who purchafed it accordingly. His fon Thomas Nafh, whom for the fake of diflinction I fhall call the younger, having died without iffue, in August 1652, Edward Nafhby his will, made on the 16th of March, 1678-9, devised the principal part of his property to his daughter Mary, and her husband Reginald Forfter, efq. afterwards Sir Reginald Forfter; but in confequence of the teftator's only referring to

lar intimacy with Mr. Combe,' an old gentleman noted thereabouts for his wealth and ufury: it happened, that in a pleasant conversation amongst their a deed of fettlement executed three days before, without reciting the fubftance of it, no particular mention of New-Place is made in his will. After Sir John Clopton had bought it from Sir Reginald Forfter, he gave it by deed to his younger fon, Sir Hugh, who pulled down our poet's houfe, and built one more elegant on the fame spot.

In May 1742, when Mr. Garrick, Mr. Macklin, and Mr. Delane, vifited Stratford, they were hofpitably entertained under Shakspeare's mulberry-tree, by Sir Hugh Clopton. He was a barrifter at law, was knighted by George the First, and died in the 80th year of his age, in Dec. 1751. His nephew Edward Clopton, the fon of his elder brother Edward, lived till June 1753.

The only remaining perfon of the Clopton family now living (1788), as I am informed by the Rev. Mr. Davenport, is Mrs. Partheriche, daughter and heirefs of the fecond Edward Clopton above-mentioned. She refides," he adds, at the family manfion at Clopton near Stratford, is now a widow, and never had iffue. "

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The New Place was fold by Henry Talbot, efq. fon-in-law and executor of Sir Hugh Clopton, in or foon after the year 1752, to the Rev. Mr. Gafrell, a man of large fortune, who refided in it but a few years; in confequence of a difagreement with the inhabitants of Stratford. Every house in that town that is let or valued at more than 40s. a year, is affeffed by the' Overfeers, according to its worth and the ability of the pier, to pay a monthly rate toward the maintenance of the poor. As Mr. Gafirell refided part of the year at Lichfield, he thought he was affeffed too highly; but being very properly compelled by the magiftrates of Stratford to pay the whole of what was levied on him, on the principle that his houfe was occupied by his fervants in his abfence, he peevishly declared, that that houfe fhould never be affeffed again; and foon afterwards pulled it down, fold the materials, and left the town. Wishing, as it should feem, to be damn'd to everlafling fame," he had fome time before cut down Shakspeare's celebrated mulberrytree, to fave himself the trouble of fhewing it to those whofe admiration of our great poet led them to vilt the poetick ground on which it flood.

common friends, Mr. Combe told Shakspeare in a laughing manner, that he fancied he intended to write his epitaph, if he happened to out-live him;

That Shafpeare planted this tree, is as well authenticated as any thing of that nature can be. The Rev. Mr. Davenport informs me, that Mr. Hugh Taylor, (the father of his clerk,)、 who is now eighty-five years old, and an alderman of Warwick, where he at prefent refides, fays, he lived when a boy at the next houfe to New-Place; that his family had inhabited the houfe for almost three hundred years; that it was tranfmitted from father to fon during the laft and the prefent century, that this tree (of the fruit of which he had often eaten in his younger days, fome of its branches hanging over his father's garden,) was planted by Shakspeare; and that till this was planted, there was no mulberry-tree in that neighbourhood. Mr. Taylor adds, that the was frequently, when a boy, at NewPlace, and that this tradition was preferved in the Clopton family, as well as in his own.

There were fcarce any trees of this fpecies in England till the year 1609, when by order of King James many hundred thoufand young mulberry-trees were imported from France, and fent into the different counties, with a view to the feeding of filkworms, and the encouragement of the filk manufacture, See Camdeni Annales ab anno 1603 ad annum 1623, published by Smith, quarto, 1691, p.7; and Howes's Abridgment of Stowe's Chronicle, edit. 1618, p. 5o3, where we have a more particular account of this tranfaction than in the larger work. A very few mulberry-trees had been planted before; for we are told, that in the preceding year a gentleman of Picardy, Monfieur Foreft, kept greate ftore of English filkworms at Greenwich, the which the king with great pleafure came often to fee them worke; and of their filke he caufed a piece of taffeta to be made.",

Shakspeare was perhaps the only inhabitant of Stratford, whofe bufinefs called him annually to London; and probably on his return from thence in the fpring of the year 1609, he planted this tree.

As a fimilar enthufiafm to that which with fuch diligence has fought after Virgil's tomb, may lead my countrymen to vifit the fpot where our great bard fpent feveral years of his, life, and died; it may gratify them to be told that the ground on which The New-Place once flood, is now a Garden belong

and fince he could not know what might be faid of him when he was dead, he defired it might be done immediately; upon which Shakspeare gave him thefe four verses:

Ten in the hundred lies here ingrav'd; 6

'Tis a hundred to ten his foul is not fav'd:
If any man afk, Who lies in this tomb?

Oh! ho! quoth the devil, 'tis my John-a-Combe.",7

ing to Mr. Charles Hunt, an eminent attorney, and town-clerk of Stratford. Every Englishman will, I am fure, concur with me in wishing that it may enjoy perpetual verdure and fertility. In this retreat our SHAKSPEARE'S godlike mind With matchlefs fkill furvey'd all human kind. Here may each fweet that bleft Arabia knows, Flowers of all hue, and without thorn the rofe, To laeft time, their balmy odours fling,

And Nature here difplay eternal fpring! MALONE.

that he had a particular intimacy with Mr. Combe,) This Mr. John Combe I take to be the fame, who by Dugdale, in his Antiquities of Warwickshire, is faid to have died in the year 1614, and for whom at the upper end of the quire of the guild of the holy crofs at Stratford, a fair monument is erected, having a ftatue thercon cut in alabafter, and in a gown, with this epitaph.

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Here lyeth interred the body of John Combe, Efq. who departing this life the 10th day of July, 1614, bequeathed by his laft will and teftament thefe fums enfuing, annually to be paid for ever; viz. xx. s. for two fermons to be preach'd in this church, and vi. 1. xiii. s. iv. d. to buy ten gownes ten poore people within the borough of Stratford; and 1ool. to be lent to fifteen poore tradefinen of the fame borough, from three years to three years, changing the parties every third year, at the rate of fifty fhillings per annum, the which increafe he appointed to be diftributed towards the relief of the almes-poor there. The donation has all the air of a rich and fagacious ufurer. THEOBALD.

Ten in the hundred ties here ingrav'd;) In The more the merrier, containing three core and odd headless epigrams, shot, (like the fooles bolts) among you, light where they will: By H. P. Gent. &c. 1608. I find the following couplet, which is almoft the fame as the two beginning iines of this Epitaph on John-a-Combe: