STRATFORD-UPON-AVON, i'von, England, a market-town and municipal borough in Warwickshire, 94 miles northwest of Lon don, on the Avon. The town comprises an old and a new section, but its chief points of interest are associated with the name and life of Shakespeare. In Henley street stands an unpretentious one-story gabled wooden house, where he was born, and which now belongs to the British government. The house where he died was torn down in 1759. The parish church of Holy Trinity, late Gothic, dates from the 15th century, and Shakespeare's remains were in terred in its chancel. There stands to-day a monument and bust erected to his memory.
Anne Hathaway also is buried in this church. A small memorial hall and the interior of the town-hall are dedicated to Shakespeare's mem ory. The town has a fine guild-hall, a new public library, rich in Shakespeareana (1905), art gallery with many Shakespearean paintings, market-house, corn exchange, almshouses, churches for Dissenting denominations, a hospital for infectious diseases, a new school for technical education, public schools, the fine Shakespeare memorial theatre, and the Shakes peare fountain, erected by George W. Childs, the well-known American. The town-hall con tains Garrick's portrait by Gainsborough. At Wilmcote near by is the cottage of his mother and at Shottery, also in the neighborhood, that of his wife, Anne Hathaway. The visitors to the town are its chief source of wealth. The
tercentenary of Shakespeare's death was celebrated with great éclat in 1916. In recent years, through the efforti of Marie Corelli, and a few who support her artistic tastes great changes have been wrought in the ancient town. Old houses with plastered walls, which were eyesores to the visitors and residents alike, have been stripped of their outward ugliness, to reveal the quaint, picturesque tudor archi tecture of Shakespeare's time. Wherever it has been possible the early appearance of the buildings has been restored, and the effect has been a most remarkable transformation and restoration of the place as Shakespeare knew it. The ancient "sword of state,a which hangs in Shakespeare's birthplace, was removed from its scabbard in August 1914, as an official notice that England was at war. The people say tradition forbids them to sheathe the old sword carried by Shakespeare's father when he was high bailiff in 1568-69, until England is again at peace. The town owns the gas and water works, and has constructed an excellent system of main drainage and works for sewage dis posal. Pop. 8,531. Consult Lee, Sir Sidney, 'Stratford-on-Avon> (London 1890) ; Savage, 'The Registers of Stratford-on-Avon' (ib. 1898) ; Stopes, C. C., 'Shakespeare's Environ ment' (ib. 1915).