SHAKESPEARE IN A YORKSHIRE TOWN.
[TO THE EDITOR OP THE "SPECTATOR." J SIR,--I was much interested and delighted by your article on "Shakespeare in a Surrey Village" in the Spectator of February 17th, as well as by the account of a similar ex- periment in Kent in your last issue. May I draw the attention of your readers to the fact that in Yorkshire also we have made the discovery that our finest English plays touch the hearts of the people and elevate actors and audience as nothing else can do? In the little town of Otley in Wharfedale a company of the townsfolk gave at Christmas a performance of Midsummer Night's Dream so excellent that it is to be repeated two or three times this month at the special request of the community. All evidence points to the excellence of the production and the fine influence upon those who studied and personated the characters. Their sense of the truly artistic has been greatly developed, and their judgment of the true and noble vastly increased. I trust such experiments will grow in favour, and that many of our 'working men and women will find the truest rest and refreshment in such studies, and in the gracious service of presenting these masterpieces to their fellows.—I am, Sir, &e.,
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