Tordan del.

NEW

PLACE,

To face p.73.Vol.1.

A.Birrell fe

From a Drawing in the Margin of an Ancient SURVEY, made by Order of SIR GEORGE CAREW (afterwards BARON CAREW of Clapton, and EARL of TORNESS) and found at Clopton near Stratford upon Avon, in1786.

Published as the Act directs by J. Rivington & Partners Octo1,1790.

1

The latter part of his life was fpent, as all men of good fenfe will with theirs may be, in eafe, retirement, and the converfation of his friends. He had the good fortune to gather an estate equal to his occafion,4 and, in that, to his wifh; and is faid

ing paffage of his Efay of Dramatich Poefy, 1667; and he as well as Gildon goes fomewhat further than Rowe in his panegyrick. After giving that fine character of our poet which Dr. Johnfon has quoted in his preface, he adds, "The confideration of this made Mr. Hales of Eton fay, that there was no fubject of which any poet ever writ, but he would produce it MUCH BETTER done by Shakspeare; and however others, are now generally preferred before him, yet the age wherein he lived, which had contemporaries with him, Fletcher and Jonfon, never equalled them to him in their efteem: And in the last king's court [that of Charles I.] when Ben's reputation was at higheft, Sir John Suckling, and with him the greater part of the courtiers, fet our Shakspeare far above him.”

one of

Let ever-memorable Hales, if all his other merits be forgotten, be ever mentioned with honour, for his good taste and admiration of our poet. "He was," fays Lord Clarendon, the leaft men in the kingdom; and one of the greatest scholars in Europe." See a long character of him in Clarendon's Life, Vol. I. p. 52. MALONE.

4 He had the good fortune to gather an eftate equal to his occafion,] Gildon, without authority, I believe, fays, that our author left behind him an eftate of 3001. per ann. This was equal to at least 1000l. per ann. at this day; the relative value of money, the mode of living in that age, the luxury and taxes of the present time, and various other circumftances, being confidered. But I doubt whether all his property amounted to much more than 2001. per ann. which yet was a confiderable fortune in those times. He appears from his grand-daughter's will to have poffeffed in Bishopton, and Stratford Welcombe, four yard land and a half. A yard land is a denomination well known in Warwickfhire, and contains from 30 to 60 acres. The average therefore being 45, four yard land and a half may be estimated at about two hundred acres. As fixteen years purchase was the common rate at which the land was fold at that time, that is, one half less than at this day, we may fuppofe that these lands were let at feven fhillings per acre, and produced 701. per annum. If we rate the New-Place with the appurtenances, and our poet's other

to have spent fome years before his death at his native Stratford.s His pleafureable wit and good

houfes in Stratford, at 601. a year, and his houfe, &c. in the Blackfriars, (for which he paid 1401.) at 201. a year, we have a rent-roll of 150l. per annum. Of his perfonal property it is not now poffible to form any accurate eftimate: but if we rate it at five hundred pounds, money then bearing an intereft of ten per cent. Shakspeare's total income was 2001. per ann.* In The Merry Wives of Windfor, which was written foon after the year 1600, three hundred pounds a year is described as an eftate of fuch magnitude as to cover all the defects of its poffeffor:

" O, what a world of vile ill-favour'd faults

"Look handfome in three hundred pounds a year."

MALONE.

to have spent fome years before his death at his native Stratford.] In 1614 the greater part of the town of Stratford was confumed by fire; but our Shakspeare's house, among fome others, efcaped the flames. This house 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 house, by the name of the Great House in Stratford. Good part of the eftate is yet [in 1733] in the poffeflion of Edward Clopton, Efq. and Sir Hugh Clopton, Knt. hineally 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 manfion-house, fince erected upon the fame fpot, at this day retains. The house, and lands which attended it, continued in Shakspeare's defcendants to the time of the Reftoration; when they were re-purchased by the Clopton family, and the manfion 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 poet's once dwelling-houfe, of which I prefume Mr. Rowe never was apprized. When the Civil War raged in England, and King

*To Shakspeare's income from his real and perfonal property must be added 2001. per ann, which he probably derived from the theatre, while he continued on the ftage.

nature engaged him in the acquaintance, and entitled him to the friendship, of the gentlemen of the

Charles the Firft's Queen was driven by the neceffity of her af fairs 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 house in the town; and her Majefty preferred it to the College, which was in the poffeffion of the Combe family, who did not fo ftrongly favour 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 Stratford-upon-Avon triumphantly, about the 22d of the fame month, at the head of three thoufand foot and fifteen hundred horfe, with 150 waggons and a train of artillery. Here fhe 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. Nath, and her husband, the Queen went (July 13) to the plain of Keinton under Edge-hill, to meet the King, and proceeded from thence with him 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 Winchester, in the fifth year of King Edward III. founded a Chantry confifting of five priests, 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 affiftant in the celebration of divine fervice there. This chantry, fays Dugdale, foon after its foundation, was known by the name of The College of Stratford-upon-Avon.

In the 26th year of Edward III." a houfe of fquare ftone" was built by Ralph de Stratford, Bishop of London, for the habitation of the five priests. This houfe, or another on the same spot, is the house of which Mr. Theobald speaks. It still bears the name of "The College," and at present belongs to the Rev. Mr. Fuller

ton.

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 first year of Queen Mary, it reverted to the crown.

Sir John Clopton, Knt, (the father of Edward Clopton, Efq. and Sir Hugh Clopton,) who died at Stratford-upon-Avon in

neighbourhood. Amongst them, it is a story almoft still remembered in that country that he had a par

April, 1719, purchased the eftate of New-Place, &c. fome time after the year 1685, from Sir Reginald Forfter, Bart. who married Mary, the daughter of Edward Nath, Efq. coufin-german to Thomas Nafh, Efq. who married our poet's grand-daughter, Elibeth Hall. Edward Nash bought it, after the death of her fecond hufband, Sir John Barnard, Knight. By her will, which will be found in a fubfequent page, the directed her trustee, Henry Smith, to fell the New-Place, &c. (after the death of her hufband,) and to make the first offer of it to her coufin Edward Nafh, who purchased it accordingly. His fon Thomas Nafh, whom for the fake of diftinction I fhall call the younger, having died without iffue, in Auguft, 1652, Edward Nath by his will, made on the 16th of March, 1678-9, devifed 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 a deed of fettlement executed three days before, without reciting the substance of it, no particular mention of New-Place is made in his will. After Sir John Clopton had bought it from Sir Reginald Forster, he gave it by deed to his younger fon, Sir Hugh, who pulled down our poet's house, and built one more elegant on the fame Ipot.

In May, 1742, when Mr. Garrick, Mr. Macklin, and Mr. Delane vifited Stratford, they were hospitably entertained under Shakspeare's mulberry-tree, by Sir Hugh Clopton. He was a barrister at law, was knighted by George the Firft, 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 second Edward Clopton above mentioned. "She refides," he adds, " at the family manfion at Clopton near Stratford, is now a widow, and never had any iffue.'

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. Gaftrell, a man of large fortune, who refided in it but a few years, in confequence of a difagreement with the inhabitants of Stratford. Every houfe 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 occupies,