AT SHAKESPEARE'S SHRINE.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 241, 4 July 1908, Page 6

AT SHAKESPEARE'S SHRINE.

RECORD ATTENDANCE OP VISITORS AT STRATFORD-QN-AVON.. Mr. Sidney Leo presided at the annual meeting of the. trustees and guardians of Shakespeare's birthplaco, held . recently, ait Stratford-on-Avon. ■ It was reported tliat during the year ended March 31 last there had been a record attendance of . visitors, 43,065 persons paying for admission. The number who visited Anne Hathaway's cottage at Shottery was also in cxcess of any previous year. The birthplaco garden, which' contains all plants and flowers mentioned by Shakespearo in his plays, had to be closed 25 years ago owing to damage committed therein, but it had recently been re-opened temporarily as an experiment. The arrangement would beconio permanent .after _ three months' trial in the event of there being no complaints. _ ■ The Earl of Warwick remarked'that no mI jury wa3 now committed in ; the gardens,of Warwick Castle.- .

Lord Redesdale urged that a descriptive guide should be published on the shrubs and flowers in the poet's garden. It was stated that during the last 30 years the number of visitors and the amount of the revenue had increased fourfold. Upwards of sixty dif-

ferent nationalities were now represented in the visitors' book. The committee had. recently added to tho library two rare, quarto editions of Shakespeare's plays published in 1600 and 1619 respectively. Lord Ronald Sutherland Gower congratulated the committco on those important acquisitions