Jordan del. NEW PLACE, From a Drawing in the Margin of an Ancient SURVEY, made by Order (afterwards BARON CAREW of Clopton, and EARL of TOTNESS) and found at Clopton 2 To face p. 519, Vol 2 A.Birrell fe near SIR GEORGE CAREW, Stratford upon Avon, in 1786. "O, what a world of vile ill-favour'd faults "Look handsome in three hundred pounds a year." The residence in which Shakspeare spent the latter part of his life, must from that circumstance be ever regarded with veneration. The following account of it is given by Mr. Theobald: “In 1614 the greater part of the town of Stratford was consumed by fire; but our Shakspeare's house, among some others, escaped the flames. This house was first 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 son his manor of Clopton, &c. and his house, by the name of the Great House in Stratford. Good part of the estate is yet [in 1733] in the possession of Edward Clopton, Esq. and Sir Hugh Clopton, Knt. lineally descended from the elder brother of the first Sir Hugh. "The estate had now been sold out of the Clopton family for above a century, at the time when Shakspeare became the purchaser: who having repaired and modelled it to his own mind, changed the name to New-Place, which the mansion-house, since erected upon the same spot, at this day retains. The house, and lands which attended it, continued in Shakspeare's descendants to the time of the Restoration; when they were re-purchased by the Clopton family, and the mansion now belongs to Sir Hugh Clopton, Knt. To the favour of this worthy gentleman I owe the knowledge of one particular in honour of our |