Stratford Church. details

Interior, seen from the door.

The plate is coloured in the original book.

The parish church of Stratford-upon-Avon is a large and handsome structure, of the usual cross-form, with a central tower surmounted by a spire. The chancel, of which the coloured engraving exhibits a view from the south door, showing Shakspere’s [Shakespeare’s] monument on the north wall, is a fine specimen of late perpendicular architecture; the west end of the nave, the north porch, the piers, arches, and clerestory, are also perpendicular, but of earlier date; the tower, transept, and some parts of the nave, are early English: the ancient arches of the tower have been strengthened by underbuilding them with others of perpendicular character. Some of the windows have portions of good stained glass. Shakspere was buried on the north side of the chancel: his monument on the north wall must have been erected previous to 1623, when his works were first published, for Leonard Digges, in the verses prefixed to that first edition, thus addresses the departed poet: –

Shakespeare, at length thy pious fellows give
The world they works: thy works by which outlive
Thy tomb thy name must: when that stone is rent,
And time dissolves thy Stratford monument,
Here we alive shall view thee still. This book,
When brass and marble fade, shall make thee look
Fresh to all ages.