CASTLES AND SHAKSPERE. This castle hath a pleasant seat; the air MACBETH, Act I., Sc. 6. There, Shakspere! on whose forehead climb ELIZABETH BROWNING. VIII. CASTLES AND SHAKSPERE. THE locomotive facilities of our day, if, on the one hand, they abridge poetic experience by rapidity and unadventurous order, on the other, enhance it by concentrating space and associations. Nowhere is this benefit more apparent than in England; and in no region of the kingdom has the traveller more reason to bless the miracles of modern conveyance, than where the iron network of the railway brings into such neighborhood Stratford, Warwick, and Kenilworth. The local genius of each of these old towns is nearly related to the other, at least in the imagination; for they are alike hallowed by the spells of bard and baron: if in one we become absorbed in the feudal past, with all its valor, superstition, and intrigue, they most effectively reappear as described by the poet whose birthplace is adjacent; and if, in another, fancy delights to picture the early days of the minstrel, it is to link his mature triumphs with the historical relics and the natural beauty that make up the rest of the memorable picture. It is true that the details of chronology, and the heir-looms of power, at first, rivet attention in the castles; but, ere long, the portrait of an historical character, the trophy of a dramatic event, a glimpse of the Avon through an armorial window, or the sight of a sylvan patriarch asserting the departed glory of the forest of Arden, bring us again to the feet of Shaksperę. I have suggested that the most vivid impression of rural magnificence, as exhibited in the ancient domains of the nobility, is obtained by viewing them when fresh from a manufacturing district; and this is the case because the luxury and the wretchedness thus contrasted are the result of modern times; high present cultivation in one case, and incessant labor in the other. But when we seek to become familiar with the baronial grandeur of England, to revive the epoch when earls confronted kings in battlearray, and the warlike and noble subject vied with royalty in the strength as well as the splendor of his abode, it is advisable to seek another contrast,that between the highly-civilized life of to-day, as represented in a town built up by fashion and wealth, and the venerable castellated edifice that symbolizes the feudal and culminating era of British power. The elegant comfort and unfortified homes of our own times, their domestic privacy and gentle manners, are thus made to illustrate more pictu. resquely the massive towers, and huge gray battlements, wherein once the ambitious and titled of the land could only make sure their privileges. The cawing of rooks from the inn-garden at Leamington, greets the ear of the awakening traveller as a sound consonant with ancient rural domesticity; and when he walks forth into the broad, cleanlypaved street, how fresh, eligible, and refined, is the aspect of all around, compared with the murky and toilsome look of a manufacturing town. Instead of a pale operative or surly carman, he encounters a well-varnished bath-chair, in which is seated an invalid dowager, with dark-silk pelisse, elaborate bonnet, and an air of dignified prosperity, drawn by a groom in livery; or he notes a gentleman in hunting-coat and gaiters, mounted on a sleek trotter; or he passes a handsome mansion, its front yard umbrageous with flowering shrubs, turns to mark the cheerful faces of two rosy young ladies in a snug pony-chaise, or enters a library on whose tables lie the journals of the day, the last novel, and the new poem, in convenient array. No sign of trade is visible, except in the attractive windows of a fancyshop. The beautiful domicil of a renowned physician; an evergreen-oak by the wayside, crowned with the traditions of ages; well-dressed people conversing at an angle, or taking their morning stroll, |