The Shakespeare Birthplace Catalogue. (Stratford - upon - Avon. ls.)—This catalogue, drawn up by
Mr. R. Savage, secretary and librarian, enumerates, and on occasion describes, the books, manu- scripts, works of art, &c., which are exhibited in the birthplace. The house was the property of John Shakespeare, the dramatist's father. Mrs. Hart, his sister, lived in it all her life (1569-1646) letting out part of it latterly as an inn. The Hart family owned it up to 1806. In 1846 it became public property. The collection is, as Mr. Sidney Lee remarks, somewhat miscellaneous. Some of the exhibits are but remotely connected with the dramatist. On the other hand, there are some very valuable articles, the First Folio, for instance, which was bought at the Ashburnham sale for £585. The literary portion of the collection is very good. There are also some interesting personal relics, a gold ring, for example, of Elizabethan date and marked with " W. S." (this was found in 1810), and the undoubtedly genuine, if somewhat commonplace, documents that are connected with Shakespeare's private life. A specially interesting section is " Shakespeare's Library,"—i.e., the books with which the plays show him to have been familiar. If we could be sure that the William Shakespeare of Stratford-upon-Avon possessed them !
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