STRATFORD-UPON-AVON

No town of comparable size enjoys such universal popularity and veneration as Stratford-upon-Avon, the birthplace of William Shakespeare. Warwickshire's oldest and loveliest market town, Stratford-upon-Avon processes a peculiarly English character, derived from its unique heritage of natural setting, history and literаrу associations, which has come to make it an international asset of the first order. Year by year the fame of its long established Shakespeare Festival spreads as increasing number of visitors from all parts of the world come to enjoy the plays of the greatest dramatist of all time in the setting of his native town.

Originating as a river-crossing settlement, Stratford-upon-Avon has served as the market center of the sur­rounding countryside since the grant of its market in 1196. Since 1553 Stratford has remained a self-governing borough and today has a basic population of some fifty thou­sand people.

Apart from Shakespeare, present day Stratford has a miscellany of small light industries such as beer-brewing, fruit-canning, the making of road signs, light casting, and aluminium goods; various crafts and trades associated with agriculture and market gardening; and farmers' insurance business.

Stratford is a town with a character and atmosphere of its own. Apart from the beauty of its river, its streets and buildings preserve many links with its interesting histori­cal past. Most famous are the properties and gardens associated with Shakespeare and his family, which are preserved as a memorial to the poet.

The smooth-flowing Avon, a river navigable for com­merce until the beginning of the XIX century, is Stratford's greatest asset, while second only in importance is the fine old bridge spanning its course. Superseding an earlier wooden bridge, the present stone bridge with its fourteen arches was built at the end of the fifteenth century by Hugh Clopton, a native of the town.

The Shakespeare Memorial Theatre is the center of the Shakespeare festival. Occupying a commanding posi­tion on the willow-fringed banks of the Avon, the brick-built theatre was erected in 1932 to the design of Miss Elizabeth Scott to replace an earlier theatre destroyed by fire. It is without doubt one of the best equipped theatres and its Shakespearean productions attract an internation­al audience. Shakespeare's statue (Gower Memorial) stands on the Bankroft, commanding the approach to Stratford from Clopton Bridge. The statue of the great poet and drama­tist with the figures of Hamlet, Lady Macbeth, Falstaff and Prince Hall is imposing, indeed.

The house in Henley Street where Shakespeare was born in 1564 and spent his early years in a half-timbered building of a type common in Elizabethan Stratford It is visited by pilgrims from all over the world. Though the exterior of the property has undergone some minor restoration-its essential features remained unchanged. The interior of Shakespeare's Birthplace contains many features of unusual interest. The poet's birth room on the first floor is a fascinating room with a low, uneven ceiling and is furnished after the pattern of a middle-class home such as the Shakespeare family occupied. There is a famous window with records and signatures of distinguished people who visited the house.

Anne Hathaway's cottage near Stratford-upon-Avon built in the half-timbered style with a thatched roof has also survived. The garden, the house, and even some of the furniture remain as Shakespeare probably saw them.