SHAKESPEARE'S ANCESTORS
UST behind the Welcombe Hills which rise to the northwest of Stratford-
on-Avon. dozes in its quiet little valley the old-world village of Snitter-
field. The name is not poetical, but there dwelt the forefathers of one
who, through his poetry, created the world anew
an hour and a half from Stratford one sunny afternoon in spring-time
delayed somewhat by many wayside rambles
flowers which in rich profusion "carpeted all the way with joy," at last led us
A leisurely walk of
gather the old English wild.
down a hillside street, quite overhung with wide-spreading branches of noble
oaks and clms, and so we came into the hamlet where once lived the ancestors
of William Shakespeare.
It is a beautiful village, of perhaps thirty or forty cot-
tages, a few of which are old, but the most of them comparatively modern, scattered
over the hillside that bounds the eastern side of the valley
A softly flowing stream.
crossed by fords and rustic foot-bridges, winds about through the meadows and
So far as we are able to learn, the old church is
cottages at the foot of the hill
