Part 59 (1/2)

Shakespeare used to pa.s.s through Gloucester on his way to London. Some of his celebrated scenes are in Gloucesters.h.i.+re.

The tradition is that Shakespeare's company acted in the yard of the New Inn, at Gloucester, an ancient hostelry still standing, a few rods only from the Raven Tavern, which belonged to my ancestors, and is mentioned in one of their wills still extant.

I have no doubt my kindred of that time saw Shakespeare, and saw him act, unless they had already learned the Puritanism which came to them, if not before, in a later generation.

I purchased, some years ago, some twenty ancient Gloucesters.h.i.+re deeds, of various dates, but all between 1100 and 1400. One of them was witnessed by John le h.o.r.e. It was of lands at Wotton-under-Edge in Gloucesters.h.i.+re. I have in my possession a will of Thomas h.o.r.e of Bristol, dated 1466, in which he mentions his wife Joanna, and his daughters Joanna and Margery, and his sons Thomas and John. These names--Thomas, John, Joanna and Margery--are the names of members of the family who dwelt in the city of Gloucester in later generations.

So I have little doubt that Thomas was of the same race, although there is a link in the pedigree, between his death and 1560 or 1570 which I cannot supply. This Thomas bequeaths land at Wotton-under-Edge, so I conjecture that John also was of the same race. A large old black oak chest bound with iron, bequeathed by Thomas to Bristol in 1466, is still in the possession of the city.

I was very much gratified that the people of the old City of Gloucester were glad to recognize the tie of kindred which I, myself, feel so strongly. I received a handsome box, containing a beautifully bound copy of an account of the City from the Traders' a.s.sociation of the City of Gloucester.

This account of the matter appears in the _Echo,_ a local paper of July 4, 1899.

GLOUCESTER CITY. GLOUCESTER TRADERS' a.s.sOCIATION.

INTERESTING PRESENTATION

On Monday evening a largely attended public meeting was held in the Guildhall under the auspices of the Gloucester Traders'

a.s.sociation for the purpose of hearing addresses on ”The munic.i.p.al electricity supply.” Mr. D. Jones (president) occupied the chair, and there were also present on the platform the Mayor (Mr. H. R. J. Braine), City High Sheriff (Mr. A. V. Hatton), Councillors Holborook, Poole and several members of the a.s.sociation.

The Chairman said that in his position as president of the a.s.sociation it was his pleasurable duty to present a copy of their guide to Mr. G. F. h.o.a.r, the distinguished member of the United States Government, who had always taken a great interest in their historic City.--The presentation consisted of a handsomely carved box made by Messrs. Matthews and Co.

from pieces of historic English oak supplied by Mr. H. Y.

J. Taylor. On the outside of the cover are engraved the City arms, and a bra.s.s plate explaining the presentation. A beautifully printed copy of the well-known guide, bound in red morocco, has been placed within, and on the inside of the cover there is the following illuminated address:

”To the Hon. G. F. h.o.a.r, of Worcester, Ma.s.s., Senator of the United States of America. Sir,--The members of the Traders'

a.s.sociation, Gloucester, England, ask your acceptance of a bound copy of their guide to this ancient and historic City, together with this box made from part of a rafter taken from the room in which Bishop Hooper was lodged the night before his burning, and from oak formerly in old All Saints' Church, as souvenirs of the regard which the a.s.sociation entertains for you and its recognition of your ardent affection for the City of Gloucester, the honored place of the nativity of the progenitor of your family, Charles h.o.a.r, who was elder Sheriff in 1634; and may these sincere expressions also be typical of the sterling friends.h.i.+p existing between Great Britain and America.”

”Senator h.o.a.r had been unable to attend the meeting, and the presentation was entrusted to the American Vice-Consul, Mr. E. H. Palin, to forward to him. Remarking on the presentation, the Mayor expressed his regret that Mr. h.o.a.r had been unable to accept the high and important position of American Amba.s.sador which had been offered to him. Addresses on the installation of the electric light were then given by Mr. Hammond, M.I.C.E., and Mr. Spencer Hawes.”

I was invited by the Corporation of the City to visit them in the fall and receive the freedom of the City, which was to be bestowed at the same time on Sir Michael Hicks-Beach.

But I had arranged to return to the United States before the time fixed for the ceremonial. So I was deprived of that great pleasure and honor.

I had a great longing to hear the nightingale. I find in an old memorandum that I heard the nightingale in Warwicks.h.i.+re in 1860, somewhere about the twentieth of May. But the occurrence, and the song of the bird, have wholly faded from my memory.

When I was abroad in 1892 and '96 I hoped to hear the song.

But I was too late. Mrs. Warre, wife of the Rector of Bemerton, George Herbert's Parsonage, told me that the nightingales were abundant in her own garden close to the Avon, but that they did not sing after the beginning of the nesting session which, according to a note to White's ”History of Selborne,”

lasts from the beginning of May to the early part of June.

Waller says:

Thus the wise nightingale that leaves her home, Pursuing constantly the cheerful spring, To foreign groves does her old music bring.

There are some counties in England where the bird is not found. It is abundant in Warwicks.h.i.+re, Gloucester and the Isle of Wight. It is not found in Scotland, Derbys.h.i.+re or Yorks.h.i.+re or Devon or Cornwall. Attempts to introduce it in those places have failed. The reason is said to be that its insect food does not exist there.

I utterly failed to hear the nightingale, although I was very close upon his track. On the night of the fifth of June at Freshwater, close to Tennyson's home, we were taken by a driver, between eleven and twelve at night, to two copses in one of which he said he had heard the nightingale the night before; and at the other they had been heard by somebody, from whom he got the information, within a very few days.

But the silence was unbroken, notwithstanding our patience and the standing reward I had offered to anybody who would find one that I could hear. Two different nights shortly afterward, I was driven out several miles past groves where the bird was said to be heard frequently. Nothing came of it. May 29, at Gloucester, I rode with my friend, H. Y.

J. Taylor, Esq., an accomplished antiquary, out into the country.

We pa.s.sed a hillside where he said he had heard the nightingale about eleven o'clock in the daytime the week before. Shakespeare says:

The nightingale, if she should sing by day, When every goose is cackling, would be No better a musician than the wren.

But the nightingale does sometimes sing by day. Mr. Taylor says that on the morning he spoke of the whole field seemed to be full of singing birds. There were larks and finches and linnets and thrushes, and I think other birds whose name I do not remember. But when the nightingale set up his song every other bird stopped. They seemed as much spellbound by the singing as he was, and Philomel had the field to himself till the song was over. It was as if Jenny Lind had come into a country church when the rustic choir of boys and girls were performing.

The nightingale will sometimes sing out of season if his mate be killed, or if the nest with the eggs therein be destroyed.