I confess, I don’t conceive the Difference betwixt Ingenio and Genio in the first Verse.  They seem to me intirely synonomous Terms; nor was the Pylian Sage Nestor celebrated for his Ingenuity, but for an Experience and Judgment owing to his long Age. Dugdale, in his Antiquities of Warwickshire, has copied this Distich with a Distinction which Mr. Rowe has follow’d, and which certainly restores us the true meaning of the Epitaph.

  JUDICIO Pylium, Genio Socratem, &c.

In 1614, the greater part of the Town of Stratford was consumed by Fire; but our Shakespeare’s House, among some others, escap’d the Flames.  This House was first built by Sir Hugh Clopton, a younger Brother of an ancient Family in that Neighbourhood, who took their Name from the Manor of Clopton.  Sir Hugh was Sheriff of London in the Reign of Richard III, and Lord Mayor in the Reign of King Henry VII.  To this Gentleman the Town of Stratford is indebted for the fine Stone-bridge, consisting of fourteen Arches, which at an extraordinary Expence he built over the Avon, together with a Cause-way running at the West-end thereof; as also for rebuilding the Chapel adjoining to his House, and the Cross-Isle in the Church there.  It is remarkable of him, that, tho’ he liv’d and dy’d a Batchelor, among the other extensive Charities which he left both to the City of London and Town of Stratford, he bequeath’d considerable Legacies for the Marriage of poor Maidens of good Name and Fame both in London and at Stratford.  Notwithstanding which large Donations in his Life, and Bequests at his Death, as he had purchased the Manor of Clopton, and all the Estate of the Family, so he left the same again to his Elder Brother’s Son with a very great Addition:  (a Proof, how well Beneficence and Oeconomy may walk hand in hand in wise Families:) Good part of which Estate is yet in the Possession of Edward Clopton, Esq; and Sir Hugh Clopton, Knt. lineally descended from the Elder Brother of the first Sir Hugh:  Who particularly bequeathed to his Nephew, by his Will, his House, by the Name of his Great-house in Stratford.

The Estate had now been sold out of the Clopton Family for above a Century, at the Time when Shakespeare became the Purchaser:  who, having repair’d and modell’d it to his own Mind, chang’d the Name to New-place; which the Mansion-house, since erected upon the same Spot, at this day retains.  The House and Lands, which attended it, continued in Shakespeare’s Descendants to the Time of the Restoration:  when they were repurchased by the Clopton Family, and the Mansion now belongs to Sir Hugh Clopton, Knt.  To the Favour of this worthy Gentleman I owe the Knowledge of one Particular, in Honour of our Poet’s once