My Companion, However, Made Me Amends In Some Measure For This Loss.
He Seemed To Be An Exceedingly Good-Tempered And Intelligent Man;
And I Felt In This Short Time A Prepossession In His Favour One Does
Not Easily Form For An Ordinary Person.
This, I flattered myself,
was also the case with him, and it would mortify me not a little to
think he had quite forgotten me, as I am sure I shall never forget
him.
Just as we had been sometime eagerly conversing about Shakespeare,
we arrived, without either of us having thought of it, at Stratford-
upon-Avon, Shakespeare's birthplace, where our coach stopped, that
being the end of one stage. We were still two-and-twenty miles from
Birmingham, and ninety-four from London. I need not tell you what
our feelings were, on thus setting our feet on classic ground.
It was here that perhaps the greatest genius nature ever produced
was born. Here he first lisped his native tongue; here first
conceived the embryos of those compositions which were afterwards to
charm a listening world; and on these plains the young Hercules
first played. And here, too, in this lowly hut, with a few friends,
he happily spent the decline of his life, after having retired from
the great theatre of that busy world whose manners he had so
faithfully portrayed.
The river Avon is here pretty broad, and a row of neat though humble
cottages, only one storey high, with shingled roofs, are ranged all
along its banks.
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