April 8.—­We visited the tomb of the mighty wizard.  It is in the bad taste of James the First’s reign; but what a magic does the locality possess!  There are stately monuments of forgotten families; but when you have seen Shakspeare’s what care we for the rest.  All around is Shakspeare’s exclusive property.  I noticed the monument of his friend John a Combe immortalised as drawing forth a brief satirical notice of four lines.

After breakfast I asked after Mrs. Ormsby, the old mad woman who was for some time tenant of Shakspeare’s house, and conceived herself to be descended from the immortal poet.  I learned she was dying.  I thought to send her a sovereign; but this extension of our tour has left me no more than will carry me through my journey, and I do not like to run short upon the road.  So I take credit for my good intention, and—­keep my sovereign—­a cheap and not unusual mode of giving charity.

Learning from Washington Irving’s description of Stratford that the hall of Sir Thomas Lucy, the justice who rendered Warwickshire too hot for Shakspeare, and drove him to London, was still extant, we went in quest of it.

Charlcote is in high preservation, and inhabited by Mr. Lucy, descendant of the worshipful Sir Thomas.  The Hall is about three hundred years old, an old brick structure with a gate-house in advance.  It is surrounded by venerable oaks, realising the imagery which Shakspeare loved so well to dwell upon; rich verdant pastures extend on every side, and numerous herds of deer were reposing in the shade.  All showed that the Lucy family had retained their “land and beeves.”  While we were surveying the antlered old hall, with its painted glass and family pictures, Mr. Lucy came to welcome us in person, and to show the house, with the collection of paintings, which seems valuable, and to which he had made many valuable additions.

He told me the park from which Shakspeare stole the buck was not that which surrounds Charlcote, but belonged to a mansion at some distance where Sir Thomas Lucy resided at the time of the trespass.  The tradition went that they hid the buck in a barn, part of which was standing a few years ago, but now totally decayed.  This park no longer belongs to the Lucys.  The house bears no marks of decay, but seems the abode of ease and opulence.  There were some fine old books, and I was told of many more which were not in order.  How odd if a folio Shakspeare should be found amongst them!  Our early breakfast did not prevent my taking advantage of an excellent repast offered by the kindness of Mr. and Mrs. Lucy, the last a lively Welshwoman.  This visit gave me great pleasure; it really brought Justice Shallow freshly before my eyes; the luces in his arms “which do become an old coat well"[162] were not more plainly portrayed in his own armorials in the hall-window than was his person in my mind’s eye.  There is a picture shown as that of the old Sir Thomas, but Mr. Lucy conjectures it represents his son.  There were three descents of the same name of Thomas.  The party hath “the eye severe, and beard of formal cut,” which fills up with judicial austerity the otherwise social physiognomy of the worshipful presence, with his “fair round belly with fat capon lined."[163]