SHAKESPERE'S BIRTHDAY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 11986, 7 June 1902, Page 5 (Supplement)

SHAKESPERE'S BIRTHDAY.

PICTURESQUE CELEBRATIONS AT

STRATFORD. On April 23 Shakespere's birthday was kept in becoming style at Stratford-op-Avon. Fortunately it was a perfect spring day, with a changing sky, cool soft breezes, and occasional bursts of warm sunshine—a day in which the green meadows and budding trees and flower-decked gardens of the beautiful countryside were seen at their pleasantest.

The poet's birthday was, in fact, the first flower festival of the year. All the enthusiasts who are filling the Stratford hotels to overflowing rose early and rejoiced to find that the overnight rain had ceased. They ate tremendous Shakesperean breakfasts, and went out and purchased posies of spring flowers wherewith to decorate later on the poet's grave. At eleven o'clock the members of the Shakespere Club, with the Mayor presiding, met in a panelled chamber of the old grey town hall Members and visitors formed in a processional order, the Mayor leading, and, all carrying flowers, marched through the streets to the beautiful parish church bv the river-side. s " After the vicar had delivered a short address he led the way to the chancel, where, standing within the altar rails before the bust of Shakespere, he received the flowers and laid them on the grave. It was a pretty ceremony. The great event of the day, however, was Miss Ellen Terrv's appearance in the part of Queen Katharine in Mr. Benson's rival of "Henry VIII." The pretty Memorial Theatre was crowded to the roof. It was Miss Terry's first appearance in England since her return from America, and she was at her very best. At the annual meeting of the governors of the ' Shakesperean Memorial Association Miss Terry was elected a life governor.