:
i
*--VA_>'I
THE STRATFORD RECORDS
AND
THE SHAKESPEARE AUTOTYPES.
FIFTH EDITION.
What has become, said Giafar, of the old philosopher Abdallah, who
was so often, when I was last here, in the Sultan's green-house, and
who taught me the virtues of herbs? You are not likely to see him
there again, said Nourreddin. When he arrived, — it was in the reign
of Camalralzaman, long, long ago, — one saw nothing in the green
house but what looked like one of those dirt-heaps, covered with weeds
and fragments of jars, that are so common on the banks of the Ganges.
Now after Abdallah had spent a life-time of Hindbad in reclaiming
the plants, the Sultan made a new grand-vizier, who did not even know
one of their names, ruler of the green-house, and, — O Allah ! you will
hardly believe me, — the new grand-vizier told the people that Abdallah
had committed a very wicked act, that he had moved a row of pots
into the sun-light for nearly an hour, and that he deserved to be bas
tinadoed. This was too much for the old philosopher, who had worked
like a slave for so many years, and had never asked for a cowry. So
Abdallah left the Palace in disgust, and, if you want to see him, you
must go to his mountain-home in the province of Balsuta, where he has
a green-house as large as the Sultan's, and where there are no grand-
viziers. By Allah, said Giafar, he will be a bull-calf if he works any
more for the Sultan. — Tales from the Arabic^ Literally Translated, ed.
i837, P- 97-
THE STRATFORD RECORDS
AND THE
SHAKESPEARE AUTOTYPES.
THE FIFTH EDITION.
To which is Prefixed the Farewell of the oldest living
Shakespearean Biographer to the Shakespeare-Councils
of the Town which should be, but which is not, the
chosen Centre of Shakespeare-Biographical
Research.
AND FOR YOUR (PALEOGRAPHICAL) WRITING AND READING, LET
THAT APPEAR WHEN THERE IS NO NEED OF SUCH VANITY.
MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING.
LONDON :
HARRISON AND SONS, No. 59, PALL MALL.
1887.
•r*
LONDON :
HARRISON AND SONS, PRINTERS IN ORDINARY TO HER MAJESTY,
ST. MARTIN'S LANE.
PREFACE.
The reasons that have led to my retirement
from the Shakespearean councils of Stratford-
on-Avon having, I find, been greatly misunder
stood, an endeavour must be made to give a
more extended publicity to the true causes. A
large number of copies of this pamphlet will,
therefore, be distributed gratuitously, and it
will also be accessible to the general public.
My dispute is not with the people of
Stratford. Every surviving old or intimate
friend that I ever had there is still my old or
intimate friend, and I have every reason to
believe that I am only out of favour with the
members of an imperious little oligarchy, who
resent the slightest question of their supremacy,
and who consider it highly indecorous that so
inferior a being as a Shakespearean biographer
should venture to dispute the validity of their
decrees.
I would have put up with almost anything
could I have seen that the members of that
oligarchy had taken a real interest in the
evidences of ancient Stratford, but so far from
this being the case, there are abundant in
dications that they do not in their hearts care
one single halfpenny about them. If the reader
will turn to what is said at pp. 39-49, and
especially to pp. 43-49, he must perforce
acknowledge that a more complete exposure of
the hypocritical display of a pseudo-enthusiasm
was never submitted to the public.
It would have been better if there had been
merely indifference, if the ancient Shakespeare
memorials had been quietly let alone ; but this
unfortunately is not the case. Those memorials
are being tampered with in all directions.
Thus, for example, the main interest of the
gardens at New Place rests in the exact pre
servation of Shakespeare's own boundaries ;
but an adjoining footpath was thought to be
too narrow, and so a slice of the poet's garden
has been divorced from its associations and
transferred to Chapel Lane. The same spirit,
that in which the integrity of relics of the past
is habitually sacrificed to provincial notions of
expediency, has prevailed in the direction of
the recent operations at the Church. Not the
slightest trouble was taken to make a pre
liminary investigation into the history"* of its
* During: the execrable " restoration " of the Church in 1835 the
remains of St. Thomas's Chapel, one of its most interesting adjuncts,
were ruthlessly discarded. A considerable portion of those remains
came into my possession many years ago, and I gave them to the then
Vicar in the hope that they would be replaced, but they were consigned
instead to a corner of the churchyard. Interesting materials for the
history of the Chapel are preserved both at Stratford and in our national
Record Office.
architectural details, and, as clearly appears
from the story of the Hart tablet, there was
not even a schedule drawn up of the objects
that demanded careful preservation. The
anticipated effect upon modern eyes appears
to have been the only motive power. Owning
myself by far the largest collection of drawings
of the Church that has ever been brought
together, including some of the earliest known
to exist, I thought it my duty, in a letter to
Sir Arthur Hodgson, to offer the Committee
the use of them ; but a polite acknowledgment
of the letter was all that emanated from the
offer, and it was not of course my province to
pursue the matter further.
The proceedings of the oligarchy in all
literary matters connected with the town have
been of the most ludicrous description. For
some inscrutable reason they all at once made
a terrific fuss about their medieval records, so
much so that " your Committee," who did not
pretend to be able to read them, presented an
elaborate report on their extreme value and
importance to Sir Arthur Hodgson, who was in
a similar predicament, both, however, agreeing
that the meetings at the Town Hall would
be considerably more effective if held in the
stimulating presence of two or three of these
fascinating hieroglyphics. The selection must
have been easily made if others shared Sir
Arthur's opinion (see pp. 93, 94) that one
ancient document was quite as good as another
for all practical purposes. It was perhaps this
persuasion that induced the oligarchy to allow me
last year, at a public auction and in the presence
of their own accredited agent, to secure sixty-
six medieval records, all relating to Stratford-
on-Avon and its immediate neighbourhood,
and all equally at least if not more valuable
than those in possession of the town, at the rate
of sixteen-pence a-piece ! This startling result
was certainly not due to any favourable con
sideration towards myself, for I was not present,
and no one at the sale knew who was the real
purchaser, the biddings having been made by a
friend and in his own name.
Stratford-on-Avon, under the management
of its oligarchy, instead of being, as it ought
to be, the centre of Shakespeare-biographical
research, has become the seat of Shakespearean
charlatanry. There are no end of Shake
spearean speechifyings, Shakespearean plati
tudes, drums and trumpets, flags and banners,
and before long no doubt some kind of repetition
of Garrick's jubilee tomfoolery. But it is in
vain to look to its oligarchy for the dissemin-
ation of really effective Shakespeare work.
This appears beyond dispute in the lamentably
meagre reports that they present, — only once
in a year, recollect, — to the trustees of Shake
speare's Birth- Place. Thus we are told that
two hundred old deeds have been presented,
but not a word as to their contents, or even as
to their dates, or even as to the special localities
to which they relate. They could find plenty of
time last year to stick their pins and needles
into me, but not leisure to furnish the trustees
with so many as twenty lines in which to record
their proceedings for an entire twelvemonth,
nor a spare day to frame a section on the
new evidences that had then recently appeared
respecting the integrity of the national memorial
which is practically under their care. Then,
again, why is Mr. Warner's catalogue of their
rarities suffered to remain in manuscript, in
stead of being printed for the use of Shake
spearean scholars ? All this is in striking
contrast to the enlightened liberality shown
by the Governors of Dulwich College in re
spect to another of Mr. Warner's admirable
calendars.
As to myself, personally, I will defy the
Stratford oligarchy to produce a single instance
in which I have been deserving of censure in
TO
my work as Stratford's honorary servant, or to
show that my offence is deeper than in resist
ance to the pressure of an arrogant despotism.
Grotesquely arrogant it is true, but yet with a
sufficiency of the vulgarity of condescension to
render it unpalatable. There has been no real
desire on their part to effect a reconciliation on
terms that a person of independent character
could accept. There has been no withdrawal of
the insolent letters and speeches. No apology
has been made for the impertinent falsehood
respecting me which is exposed at pp. 95-96.
No steps have been taken by the Council to
neutralize the unwarrantable observations that
have been uttered in their presence. The only
overture for peace that they have made con
sisted of a quasi-official invitation that I received
a few months ago to partake of the Mayor's
hospitality on the occasion of my anticipated
attendance at a Shakespearean meeting, but
an acceptance of that invitation would, to my
thinking, have been tantamount to an ac
knowledgment that I had deserved the un-
gentlemanly criticisms to which I had been
subjected.
Since this last sentence has been written
another invitation of a similar character has
been received from Sir Arthur Hodgson, but
1 1
what in the world is the use of these little bits
of politeness when no other attempt is made to
efface the recollection of a series of insults ?
The practical illustration of the pretty little
allegorical overture, — " Come into my parlour,
says the spider to the fly," — may perhaps be
very well once in a way, but it is apt to pall on
repetition. Even Justice Shallow himself would
not have been so simple as to have taken the
part of Sir Dagonet in Arthur's Show if he had
been previously sat upon by the other per
formers ; and surely no reasonable being can be
surprised at my absence from the pageant or at
my having had quite enough of its surroundings.
It should be mentioned that the fourth
edition of this pamphlet, which was ready
for delivery nearly a year ago, was rigidly
suppressed through the belief, shared with a
Stratford friend, that a door could be opened
for the restoration of harmony. We neither of
us spared any efforts in furtherance of that
object, while on my part I made concessions
that landed me too dangerously near the
verge of humiliation, — concessions that were
erroneously interpreted, as they so often are
in cases of this kind, into a confession that I
was anxious for peace at any price. Thus it
happened that an ultra-generous scheme that
12
I had devised for reconciliation was trifled with
month after month, and I felt that I should be
placing myself in an obsequious and embarrass
ing position if I continued to sanction its validity.
I had fortunately made an express stipulation
that time, to use a legal phrase, was to be the
essence of the contract, a condition under which
I have withdrawn for ever all the proposed
concessions, and my future visits to Stratford,
so long to me a second home, will be those of
an independent critic.
I must now conclude with a farewell, but
in taking leave of gentlemen with whose pre
decessors I worked for nearly forty years in
unbroken harmony, and in withdrawing alto
gether from further participation in the work
or deliberations of the present Shakespearean
councils of Stratford-on-Avon, it is impossible
not to cast a " long lingering look behind "
upon the many happy days I have erewhile
passed in Shakespeare's town, days in which
courtesy asserted its even sway and in which
dictatorial impertinences were unknown.
J. O. HALLIWELL-PHILLIPPS.
Hollingbury Copse, Brighton.
October, 1887.
PREFACE TO THE FOURTH EDITION
Since the last edition of this little brochure
was issued I have come across a number of
letters from Mr. W. O. Hunt, the late town-
clerk of Stratford-on-Avon, some of them dated
so far back as the year 1847, and they throw so
clear a light on more than one point in dispute
that I am tempted to introduce a few extracts
from them in the following pages, all being of
a sufficiently quasi-official character to justify
their publication.
It is a pity that there should be a necessity
for the continuance of that which is, apart from
personal considerations, at least an unprofitable
if not a deleterious controversy, as well as one
of no general interest ; but I am not inclined to
pass over altogether without remonstrance the
persistent efforts made by a little coterie to
darken the character of my Stratford work by
injurious misrepresentations. Not a word on
the subject would ever have been heard from
me had they contented themselves with simply
ignoring my many years of patient labour as
unworthy of either notice or regard, but it is
a different matter when they have led the
public to infer that my work was based on
narrow and selfish designs, and when, as at
the very last meeting of the Trustees, it is
insinuated that it has not been conscientiously
executed. Refutation can hardly in such a
case be fairly considered the result of an undue
sensitiveness. It is no light matter for a person
who has been intimately connected with a town
for considerably upwards of thirty years without
exchanging a cross word with any one, and
where all his old friends whom death has spared
are still his old friends, to be not only involved
in conflict with its present leading citizens, but
prejudiced by the dissemination of ex parte
versions of the origin and subsequent history
of the dissension. To those old friends, and
to lovers of fair-play in Shakespearean matters,
these pages are addressed.
Apart from the unexpected estimate of my
work there were unfortunate misunderstandings
that should long since have been amicably
closed instead of being still under review. The
latter result is due to amusing and frantic
attempts on the part of my opponents to en
force me into an abject surrender, an object
that has underlaid every movement. So when
I did everything in my power, even to the
condonation of most serious discourtesies (see
p. 70), to restore harmony, the same individual,
— a gentleman of paramount influence in all
the affairs of the town, — who then cordially
supported my efforts, and who had only just
previously formally seconded at a Council
meeting a friendly and complimentary resolu
tion in my favour, organised immediately after
wards a local attack upon me in another
direction. These erratic proceedings landed
us into this exceedingly curious position, —
we were to be sworn-brothers in the Record-
Room and simultaneously at loggerheads in
the adjoining Birth-Place ; conditions under
which anything like pleasant or effective work
was out of the question, and my retirement
followed as a matter of course. It was clear,
moreover, that a real desire for an equitable
peace was restricted to myself. I am, indeed,
always ready in any controversy to "show my
valour and put up my sword," whenever I
can do so on any kind of reasonable terms,
but, in the present instance, although in the
course of so lengthened a dispute faults have
no doubt been committed on both sides, I must
take the liberty, until there is a reversal of
the singularly unfair policy that I have hitherto
encountered, of considering myself entitled to
act on the defensive.
i6
Although such a reversal would not now
affect my determination to withdraw altogether
from Stratford work, — work that, at my advanced
age, would under any circumstances have been
transferred before long to younger men, — it
might perhaps lead to the termination of a
deplorable controversy for which there can be
no real compensation even in victory. No
one would rejoice more than myself at such a
result, — no one more anxious to repair to the
utmost of my power any action in which it
may be generally considered by independent
observers that I have been to blame, — but
all this must, if necessary, be incident to the
continued refutation, through the evidence
of established facts, of the indefensible and
ungracious attacks to which I have been and
am still being subjected.
J. O. HALLIWELL-PHILLIPPS.
Hollingbury Copse, Brighton.
October the 25th, 1886.
PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION.
Singular misconceptions being prevalent at
Stratford respecting my record-work and the
treatment that I have met with in that town,
I am tempted to devote a few pages to the
subject ; and the rather as those delusions
have lately assumed a definite form and made
a public appearance in the columns of an
important local journal. The following, for
example, is the commencement of a recent
leading article in the Stratford-on-Avon Herald,
a newspaper which has a large circulation in
the town and neighbourhood, —
The Stratford Corporation are in possession of many
very interesting records extending from the earliest times,
but it is only recently that the value of these documents has
dawned upon the Corporate mind. They were permitted
to lie in the muniment-room at the Birthplace unclassified,
uncalendared, uncared for, and this indifference to their ex
istence, had it continued, would have led ultimately to their
decay, and consequent loss to the town. A little time ago
attention was directed to the condition of these records, and
the Corporation was prevailed upon to appoint a committee
to superintend their classification and calendaring. Mr.
Hardy, a gentleman in every way qualified for the work,
was entrusted with the task of reducing these records from
their chaotic state to something like order, and it is admitted
that, so far as the work has proceeded, he has admirably
discharged his duty. Of course gentlemen endowed with
special talent of this kind require adequate payment for
i8
their services, and already Mr. Hardy's account amounts to
one hundred and eighty pounds.
A few days previously the Chairman of the
local Record Committee, speaking of course
with authority, informed the Council, referring
to the unbound records of the Guild, that "they
were now gradually decaying and losing their
value."
If these allegations are correct, then it
follows that I have grossly neglected my duty
in a work undertaken for a Corporation that
did me the honour some years ago to entrust
me with the arrangement of their records. How
far the implied accusations are correct will be
gathered by the public from the statements that
follow.
Then, again, the Stratford Herald, in another
recent leader, observes,—
This can be said from our own knowledge that Mr.
Halliwell-Phillipps has been treated with the greatest courtesy
by the Stratford Corporation and by every individual member of
it-, and that, if he thinks this treatment has not been ex
tended to him, his mind has received a particular bias from
people whose mental condition renders them incapable of
imparting to him the truth.*
* Whatever can be the real meaning of this extraordinary paragraph ?
If the notion is that I have been influenced by baseless gossip, then the
Stratford Herald has been falling into the identical error it has had the
charity to warn me against, or otherwise so unfounded an insinuation
would never have found its way into its columns. I may, however, be
wrong in this surmise, for there is so much in the article in which the
above paragraph occurs which is of so extremely mysterious a character
that, as poor Tom Hood used to say of the middle-cut of salmon, it is
impossible to make either head or tail of it.
If there is no mistake in the statements that
are here italicized, it follows that, after an inti
mate connexion with Stratford for nearly forty
years without exchanging a cross word with
anybody, I was suddenly transformed into one
of those ungracious old fellows who rush into
quarrels without any kind of provocation.
Being naturally reluctant that statements
favouring this impression should go forth un
challenged, I have drawn up, in the latter part
of this brochure, an explicit account of the
circumstances which induced me to believe that
I had been vexatiously treated. It is for the
public to say, upon a review of those circum
stances, if I have arrived at such a conclusion
on insufficient grounds, or if I can be fairly re
presented at Stratford as an imaginative person
who sees nothing but discourtesy in the very
centre of aesthetic amenities.
Hollingbury Copse, Brighton,
December, 1884.
THE STRATFORD RECORDS.
It is about forty years since I was intro
duced to the Stratford records. They then
and for long afterwards mainly consisted of
thousands of separate documents which had
been collected into boxes and were therein
preserved, the ancient ones tangled with the
modern in wild confusion.
A considerable number of the documents
had been crumpled and slightly mutilated, but
nothing like decay had set in, nor were they in
any way in a dangerous state. There was, it is
true, no end of dust, but that is an object in
a record-room as welcome to the eyes of a
paleographer as that of drain-pipes in a clay-
field is to a farmer. Records are very rarely
injured by dust, whilst its presence is an indica
tion of the absence of moisture, their greatest
and most dangerous enemy. If they are placed
in a damp room, their ultimate destruction is a
question of a single generation, and when once
fungi have been permitted to take root un
checked for even a very few years, all the efforts
^f the most skilful binders in the world will be
22
unable to repair the damage. Here there was
nothing of the kind.
But although there was no urgency so far as
the safety of the records was concerned, they
were in an exceedingly inconvenient condition
for literary reference, and the town-clerk — the
late Mr. W. O. Hunt — was extremely anxious
to have them put into thorough working order.
We had several discussions on the subject, but
most, if not all of them, concluded with one of
his favourite speeches, — " where's the money
to come from ?" As the Stratford Herald well
remarks, in reference to the engagement of a
record-reader, " of course gentlemen endowed
with special talent of this kind require adequate
payment for their services;" and, in this case,
what with the usual fees, travelling and hotel
costs, all necessarily extending over a consider
able period, the records could not possibly have
been put into accessible order and calendared
under an expenditure which, as Mr. Hunt said
over and over again, the Corporation neither
would incur, nor would be justified in incurring,
for such a purpose.
I cannot recall the precise date,* but some
years afterwards I offered to arrange and
* Since this was written I have found the exact date in a letter from
Mr. W. O. Hunt, 8 May, 1862, in which he says, — " I read your letter
about the Corporation records to the Town Council at their meeting
calendar all the documents from the earliest
times to the year 1750 without fee. The offer
was at once accepted by the Corporation, the
members of whom were in every way most kind
and obliging, scarcely a day passing without one
or other looking in to see if I wanted anything
to render my working more convenient. But
there was none of that fussy interference which
would have rendered my task an exceedingly
disagreeable one. They had the sagacity to
be aware that a good and useful work was in
hand, and, believing that I knew what I was
about, had the good sense to let me do it in my
own way. There was, moreover, none of that
tiresome intrusion of advice-giving in matters
which they had never studied. To the best of
my recollection the only question ever put to
me respecting the interior of a document was
by one of the aldermen, a scientific chemist,
who, taking up from the table an ancient
demurrer, wished to know which was the right
side upwards ? This was far better and more
sensible of him than attempting to give what
must necessarily have been an unsound opinion
either on the document itself or on my method
of work. It was no more disgrace to my kind
yesterday, and they agreed at once to your suggestions about them, and
desired me to offer you their grateful acknowledgments for your liberal
offer to calendar them."
24
friend, the chemist, not being able to decipher
an old record than there would have been to me
in my owning that I might have poisoned some
body had I made up one of his prescriptions.
The first and most tedious part of my busi
ness was to separate the modern and ancient
records. When this task had been effected, it
appeared that there were no fewer than 5823
separate ancient documents all of which were
of course to be arranged and calendared.
For reasons that will be presently shown there
were 954 of these records which it was not
thought expedient to send to the binders. The
remaining 4869 records, after each one had
been duly numbered and calendared, were con
fided to Mr. Tuckett, the binder to the British
Museum, and who, being in the daily habit of
binding manuscripts for the national establish
ment, was the most efficient person for the task
that could have been selected. In Mr. Tuckett's
hands every document requiring mending was
neatly repaired and the w^hole were delivered
to the Corporation substantially bound in 29
volumes ; ever since which time there is not a
single document amongst the 4869 that could
not, by the aid of the calendar, be readily found
in two or three minutes. It follows, therefore,
that my implied shortcomings must be restricted
to the above-named 954 documents, and now
we shall see upon what grounds such implica
tions can be founded.
The 954 unbound documents consist of, — i.
The Town Charters. — 2. Expired and surren
dered leases. — 3. A few miscellaneous docu
ments. — 4. The unbound records of the Guild.
It will be most convenient to speak of each of
these divisions in its order.
i. Every lawyer is aware how extremely
imprudent it is to disturb in the minutest degree
even the external integrity of original title-deeds,
and Mr. Hunt specifically excluded the Char
ters of Incorporation from binding operations.
It was his opinion that the miscellaneous
ancient documents were valueless for legal
purposes, but that the Town Charters partook of
a different character. Although many of their
provisions had been abrogated by the Municipal
Reform Act, there were some important ones
that were still in force, and he thought that if
intricate legal questions were to arise on the
wording of those charters, as was the case in
the seventeenth century in a litigation between
the Corporation and the Vicar, it would at all
events be advisable, if not essential, that they
should be produced before the Court in exactly
their original state.
26
2. Expired and surrendered leases, 719 of
which are in the Record Room, are about the
least interesting and valuable of all descriptions
of records. They are very rarely of any use
excepting in the determination of boundaries,
and the greater portion of the Stratford col
lection is exceptionally worthless owing to the
descriptions of parcels being generally repeated
over and over again in precisely the same terms,
even the names of owners of adjoining proper
ties being frequently continued for generations
after their respective deaths. Nearly all, if not
all, that there can be of positive interest,
although the early ones may be occasionally
useful for reference, is given in the printed
Calendar, pp. 1 18 to 166 ; and as all these leases
are placed in divisions for each Ward, there is
no difficulty in any one accustomed to research
finding what may be wanted. They are mostly
in exceedingly good condition, and although
there are a few that might be the better for
repairs, there are none in a state of cumulative
decay. Indentures of this kind are, moreover,
more expensive and troublesome to bind than
the earlier Guild Records, and the repairing and
binding of 119 of the latter have just cost the
Corporation somewhere about ^50. At the
same rate the binding of these 719 leases would
27
have cost ^300, and I cannot help thinking that
it would have been very thoughtless on my part
if, entertaining so strong an opinion as to their
very small literary value, I had involved the
Corporation in so large an expenditure, or even
in a quarter of it, for such an object.
3. About a dozen unbound documents, con
sisting mainly of rolls, constitutions of local
trading companies, &c., all of which were either
inconvenient for, or not thought to be worth,
binding.
4. The unbound records of the Guild are
of a kind that are more easily bound than those
last-mentioned, but they are of a class that are
seldom enquired after. As to these of Stratford,
with the exception of those which relate to the
building of the Guild Chapel, there are none of
more special interest than that which attaches
to thousands of similar guild records in many
other towns. There are none of them of the
least Shakespeare-biographical value, and they
all belong to one of the classes of the Town
Records that no Shakespearean student would
dream of troubling his head about. They
would of course be of use to the county topo
grapher, but of none in any of those branches
through the inclusion of which the Stratford
Records have attained their chief distinction.
28
There was no doubt a section of these docu
ments that admitted of repair, but in the
absence of the fear of accruing injury, and
considering how extremely few were the persons
to whom they were of interest, I did not feel
myself authorized in putting the Corporation to
the expense of having them bound. It is upon
a portion, little more than one half, of these
unbound guild records that the sum of ^180
has recently been expended, viz., ^64 by the
Corporation, and the remainder, with his usual
liberality, by Mr. Charles Flower, the former
sum, however, including the cost of framing the
Charters of Incorporation. I am glad indeed to
find that so much money can now be cheerfully
expended at Stratford in such a direction, but
I must be allowed to enter a protest against
the insinuation that my shortcomings have
rendered the outlay a matter of necessity.
I must also be allowed to protest against
the insinuation that I surrendered my work
into the hands of the Corporation, leaving a
number of unbound records in a dangerous and
perishing condition. I was neither so careless
nor so indifferent to the due execution of the
trust that had been confided to me. No mildew
had set in, — the rarity of consultation put on
one side the question of wear and tear, — and
29
whatever repairs might have been thought
acceptable in the luxury of order, there were
none that could not have been deferred for an
indefinite period without the slightest accruing
injury to any of the documents. It must be
recollected that I was entrusted with the direc
tion of the binding and repairs, that I was
dealing with public money, and that I should
not have been justified in involving the Corpora
tion in an expenditure beyond that which was
prudently necessary. It was Mr. Hunt's express
desire that every reasonable precaution should
be taken to limit the cost, and the result was
that 4869 records, duly bound, calendared'''5" and
repaired, were delivered to the Corporation at
a considerably smaller outlay than the sum of
,£180 which has just recently been expended
upon the four Town Charters and the 119
records of the Guild.
It is only two or three years ago that the
Royal Historical Commission deputed Mr. Cordy
Jeaffreson, one of the ablest paleographers in
the employ of the Government, to inspect the
records of Stratford, and the excellence of
their then condition is specially alluded to in
* It has been publicly stated on several occasions that Mr. Hardy's
descriptions complete my calendar, words that practically accuse me of
negligence ; but that gentleman's work is of quite a different character.
It is an admirably-executed descriptive analysis of unbound records that
I \i&a previously calendared.
30
his Report to the Commission. Having also
myself, in the course of my researches, personally
examined the ancient records of more than
seventy corporate towns in England and Wales,
it may not be thought either irrelevant or
presumptuous if I venture to express my con
viction that the Stratford records, previously to
recent operations, were in at least as good a
condition as those in any of the towns referred
to, and that condition is, in not a few instances,
practically unexceptionable.
There is only one piece of neglect of which
I have been really guilty. I certainly did
forget to mark the unbound records with the
numbers given to them in the Calendar, but the
inconvenience (if any) that has been created by
this oversight must have been very inconsider
able. If any number of persons had wanted to
consult the unbound records, the Town Clerk
would infallibly have called my attention to the
subject, and the defect would have been at once
remedied. The identification of records, after
a calendar has once been made, is one of the
easiest of paleographical tasks, and there could
have been no difficulty whatever in the matter.
It only remains to add that the calendar of
the records, which I had made for the use of
the Corporation, was printed in 1863, without
any expense to them, in a thick folio volume, in
which considerably over six thousand records
are described at sufficient length for ordinary
purposes. And the Stratford Herald has no
right to assert that the records have been
"permitted to lie in the muniment-room at the
Birth-Place unclassified, uncalendared, uncared
for;" and that they were in a condition that
necessitated their reduction " from their chaotic
state to something like order," statements con
veying the implication that I had thoroughly
deceived the Corporation, and involving me in
the somewhat humiliating necessity of placing
upon record a history of my own labours. Per
haps, however, the Stratford Herald is to be
commiserated rather than blamed, if, as is of
course possible, it has either been made the
victim of a foolish hoax, or if, to make use of
the elegant language it has addressed to myself,
" its mind has received a particular bias from
people whose mental condition renders them
incapable of imparting to it the truth."
STRATFORD AMENITIES.
If the Stratford Herald, in mentioning this
subject, had restricted itself to observing that
the Corporation, as a body, have always treated
me with " the greatest courtesy," no one would
have been justified in disputing the assertion.
I have ever felt grateful to them for the kind
ness with which they have treated me in their
collective capacity, for the consideration with
which they have invariably received the perhaps
somewhat too numerous suggestions and re
quests that I have ventured to make, as well as
for the very friendly terms in which they have
always expressed the several resolutions that
they have been generously desirous of passing
in my favour. But when the Herald proceeds
to observe, from its " own knowledge," that I
have been " treated with the greatest courtesy
by every individual member" of the Corporation,
it has forgotten for the moment certain speeches
that have been reported in its own columns.—
The story shall be told as briefly as possible.
In the Spring of last year I offered to be
at the risk of producing autotypes of a large
c
34
number of the Shakespearean town records, the
loss (if any) on the publication to be borne by
myself, the profit (if any) to be handed over to
the Corporation. The spirit in which this pro
posal was received will be gathered from the
following extract from a report of the proceed
ings that took place at the meeting at which
my offer was formally accepted.
THE MAYOR said that Mr. Phillipps had undertaken
to supply autotypes at his own risk, and he (the Mayor)
thought the offer a generous one, and ought in some way to
be entertained by the Council. He wanted the opinion of
the Council on the subject.
ALDERMAN Cox, — It has reference to the records of
the Council ?
THE MAYOR, — Yes.
MR. HODGSON,* — Which are kept in the Shakespeare
Museum ?
THE MAYOR, — Yes.
ALDERMAN BIRD thought it was a very desirable thing
to do ; but he should disagree with the Corporation taking
the risk. The public would be vastly benefited by the
publication.
THE MAYOR considered Mr. Phillipps's offer very liberal
indeed. (Hear, hear.)
MR. HODGSON, — These valuable documents would go
out of our possession, I presume, into the custody of Mr.
Phillipps.
THE MAYOR, — Necessarily.
MR. HODGSON said that before they did lend them, if
the Council were of opinion that they should comply with
the latter part of Mr. Phillipps's letter — and he hoped the
Council would do so, for he thought it a very nice one —
* Now Sir Arthur Hodgson, K.C.M.G.
35
every care should be taken that the documents should be
carefully numbered and registered. — Report of the Council
Meeting, as given in the Stratford-on-Avon Chronicle, 9
March, 1883.
Now, it will surely be conceded that, after
this, I should have been fully justified in request
ing the town-clerk, — and that the town-clerk
would have been equally justified in consenting,
— to send me to my own residence any docu
ments that were intended to be autotyped, he
of course keeping a register of every one so
forwarded. Not caring, however, to incur this
responsibility, I went a few months afterwards
to Stratford to ascertain if the autotyping could
not be done on the spot. It fortunately hap
pened that there was an experienced autotyper
in the town itself, and it unfortunately happened
that the record-room was so narrow and so
badly lighted that the accurate reproduction in
it of a single document was an utter impos
sibility. Under these circumstances I took one
document at a time (fourteen in all) to the
artist's studio, a few hundred yards off, taking
care to see that it was at once protected between
sheets of plate-glass, and, as soon as it was
photographed, returning it myself to its place in
the record-room before I took out another. By
pursuing this method there was never more
than one document absent at a time from the
C 2
record-room, and that under circumstances which
precluded the possibility of its being injured.
It is almost incredible, but it is neverthe
less a fact, that this harmless and beneficially-
intended action of mine was invested by Mr.
Charles Flower, one of the most active mem
bers of the Corporation, with the dignity of a
high crime and misdemeanour. Even if I had
been a stranger in the town, yet, having the
sanction of the Mayor (see p. 34) — a sanction
taken for granted by the Town Council — to the
personal loan of the above-mentioned records,
and acting, be it ever remembered, in the in
terests of the Corporation, not in those of my
own, it would not have been a graceful act on
the part of a member of that Corporation to have
instituted a complaint respecting what was at
most a technical irregularity in the very limited
step that had been taken. Believing myself,
however, to have been the accredited literary
servant of the Corporation, I can scarcely
describe the more than amazement with which
I shortly afterwards received the intelligence,
from two of the county newspapers, that a cen
sure had been publicly uttered against my mode
of procedure.
The circumstances that had surrounded my
dealings with the records made this attack upon
37
me peculiarly singular and ungracious. When
the Corporation accepted my offer in 1862 to
make a calendar of them, I was necessarily in
vested with an exceptional trust, and was as
much responsible for their safety and preserva
tion as the town-clerk or any other official.
Not only this, but so far from the Corporation
having objected to the temporary removal of a
document from one part of the town to another,
while I was preparing the calendar, and with
the full sanction of everybody, I repeatedly took
one or other over to Mr. W. O. Hunt's house,
and sometimes to Mr. Wheler's, their local
topographical knowledge often enabling me to
complete a description when otherwise I should
have been at fault. I remained in this kind of
quasi-official position for over twenty years, not
one of the three town-clerks who have held
office during that period withdrawing the once
generally appreciated confidence merely because
its bestowal was no longer of much importance
to the town in a commercial point of view.
The result was that, during the whole of that
period, and until Mr. Charles Flower suddenly
commenced to take so absorbing an interest
in the records, whenever I visited Stratford,
efficient study being out of the question in the
dim light of the record-room, I have always felt
38
myself at liberty to take a volume of documents
either into the Museum, or, by their unvarying
kind permission, into the residence of the cus
todians. But here again I was not collecting
for the few pages of extracts that were subse
quently introduced into the " Outlines," but for
references likely to elucidate the history of one
or other of the Museum documents. While thus
engaged I have been favoured with occasional
visits by members of the Corporation, not one
of whom ever dropped the remotest hint that
I was exceeding my legitimate prerogatives.
It has been oddly enough suggested that if
these privileges are conceded to me, an incon
venience might arise from the Corporation being
expected to grant the same powers to every
one else. Assuredly they might be, but only
to the every one else who had arranged and
calendared their records for them. And, any
how, if new regulations had been thought to
have been advisable, they might surely have
been enacted without a public complaint being
made against me for having worked under the
old ones.
THE "GREATEST COURTESY" SPEECH.
When I replied to the adverse criticism to
which I had been subjected, it was generally
considered that I did so with too much
animation, and that I allowed irritation to
"out-run the pauser reason." But it ap
peared to me from the very first that an
objection to the propriety of my action, under
the unique position I held in respect to the
records, no matter in what or in how mild terms
that objection was raised, practically conveyed
a slur upon my conduct ; and that I correctly
appreciated the intentional significance of the
original attack will be obvious from the fol
lowing remarks which Mr. Charles Flower
afterwards made in a speech delivered before
the Town Council, —
Mr. Halliwell-Phillipps had drawn very largely on his
imagination, and possibly his conscience might have told
him that irregular was the mildest term that could have
been applied to those proceedings. He was not aware — he
did not think any member of that Council was aware —
before reading that pamphlet, that fourteen most valuable
documents had been removed from the record-room without
the knowledge of the Mayor, or any member of the
Corporation, or even of the Town Clerk. He thought a
stronger word than irregular might be applied to those
proceedings.
If the Stratford-on-Avon Herald considers
that this language is that of " the greatest
courtesy," that journal must belong to a new
and advanced ethical school that would ex
clude so old-fashioned a person as myself from
a seat upon its polished benches.
It is clearly insinuated in the above speech
that I had not acted in a straightforward
manner, and that " my conscience" was most
probably aware of that interesting fact ; but it
is easy enough to see on reflection that the
speech is rendered innocuous by its palpable
animosity. Its worst feature, as it now appears
to me, is that it entirely ignores my long
and friendly connexion with the town, as
well as that which ought to have been known,
after a lengthened experience, not only " to
the Corporation but to every individual member
of it," — the impossibility of any action of mine
respecting their records not having been taken
in what I believed to have been the truest
interests of the Shakespearean student and of
those of the people of Stratford.
A CONTRAST.
Subsequent proceedings showed unmistak
ably that the attack made upon me was wholly
of a gratuitous character, and that it was not
the outcome of a preternatural anxiety for the
safety of the records.
Shortly after the delivery of the speech last
quoted, Mr. Charles Flower, as chairman of the
Record Committee, practically controlled the
management of the records, and one of his very
first acts was to sanction the transmission of 1 1 9
of them to London ! There would have been
nothing singular in any one else confiding the
documents to the perfectly safe custody of the
national Record Office, but it is curious that
a gentleman who had taken alarm at the risk
incurred by my diminutive proceedings should
have unhesitatingly encountered another which,
however small, was obviously a greater one. If
it was proper to incur the latter risk, it follows
that Mr. Charles Flower, who had never worked
at the records at all, was perfectly right in
sending 119 of them over a hundred miles
away to be absent for months, while I, who had
42
fagged at them for years, was perfectly wrong
in moving 14 a few hundred yards, not a single
one of that 1 4 being permitted to be away from
its domicile for more than two or three hours.
The nature of the escort under which the
119 records were conveyed to the metropolis
has not transpired. Perhaps Mr. Charles
Flower, emulating my care, took one at a time
to London, returning it to its place at Stratford
before he undertook the responsibility of carrying
another. Even in that case he would have
submitted them to a greater risk than I did,
while the " conscience " of each of us remains,
I presume, similarly affected.
OLIGARCHAL ENTHUSIASM.
Bad has begun, but worse remains behind.
And a very curious worse it is. Please to
recollect the vivid and absorbing interest taken
by Mr. Charles Flower and his colleagues in
the ancient records of Stratford-on-Avon.
In November, 1886, the Severne collection
of documents was sold by public auction, in
cluding amongst them the following lots that
were thus described in the sale-catalogue : —
221. Confirmation by Robert de Clopton, Knt. to
Henry de la Le and Eliz his wife, of a grant by William de
Wilmacote, of lands in Clopton. Witn. dom. Peter de
Wlnardintone, Robert de Val, William de Sotriche, &c.
temp. Hen. III.
222. Grant by Peter de Monteforti, to James de Clopton,
of the manor of Clopton, cum grava, rent, io.y. Witn. dom.
William de Bissopesdone, Richard de Wroxhulle, John de
Curli, &c. temp. Hen. III.
223. Grants for ^40, from James Clopton to Walter de
Cokefeld, dictus marescallus, and lohanna, his wife, of his
capital messuage and lands in Clopton and in la Graue.
Excepting a messuage held by mag. William de Monteforti,
parson of Stratford. Witn. dom. John de Wilmecote, dom.
William de Bisopisdone, dom. Peter "de Woluardintone, &c.
temp. Hen. Ill, seals. — Five documents.
44
225. Grant by Walter de Kokefeld, dictus mares callus,
lord of Clopton, to James de Clopton, of lands in Schotredes-
mede and Bischopesdon. Witn. dom. Robart de Val, William
Purcel, Philip de Hulle, &c. temp. Hen. III.
226. Grant, for ;£6o, from Peter de Monteforti to Isabel,
dau. of Stephen Norton, dericus, and Eadmund de Middel-
tone, her son, of a messuage and lands within the manor of
Clopton (tenants and boundaries given). Witn. dom.
William de Bisopesdone, Richard de Wroxhul, John de
Curli, &c. temp. Hen. Ill, seal of arms.
227. Grants from Isabella de Norton, dau. of Stephen,
dictus dericus, of Norton, to Walter de Cokefeld, dictus
marescallus, of the lands acquired from Peter de Monteforti,
in Clopton, and Clopton Grove, in Stratford-upon-Avon.
Witn. dom. Eadmund de Hegham, dom. Osberd de Berforde,
dom. William de Bishopesdone, &c. 8 Edw. I, seals. — Six
documents.
229. Lease from John, son and heir of James de Clopton,
to Walter de Cokefeld or Cokefeud, lord of Clopton, for
iocs, ofavirgate of land in Clopton and Clopton Grove.
Witn. dom. Robert de Val, Knt. William Purcel, Roger de
Wotton, dericus, 6°<r. Attached is a similar lease, with the
addition of a messuage called Ankerhus, in Stratford. Witn.
dom. John de Clintone, Knt. Nicholas de Warewyc, Henry
de Stratford, fil, Henry de Stowe, &c. 27 Edw. I, seals. —
Three deeds.
230. Grant by John le barbur, of Stratford, and Margery,
his wife, to John Coldelle, of a virgate of land in Clopton.
Witn. Henry de Stodleye, Hugh de Chutone, Alan de
Schottrethe, &c. 27 Edw. I, seals.
231. Lease from John Coldelle to Walter de Cokefelde,
lord of Clopton, of land in Clopton. Witn. William Moryn
of Snytenfeld, Henry de Hattone, John de Peyto, &c. 32
Edw. I, seal.
232. Grant by Robert de Stratford to Walter de Clopton,
of a messuage, &c. in Clopton and Grave, and land in
Shotryche. Witn. William Saucer, John Gegelyn, William
de Utlycote, &c. 3 Edw. III.
45
233. Exchange by Robert de Stretford, bishop of
Chichester, with Walter de Cokefeld, of Clopton, of a
place of land called "la Mote," in Clopton, for a
meadow in Shotrich. Witn. mag. Henry de Cokham,
Adam de Stiuynton, William de Chiltenham, &c. u
Edw. Ill, seal. — Two documents.
234. Lease from mag. John Geronde, dericus, formerly
rector of Stratford-upon-Avon, to Walter Cokefield and
Matilda, his wife, of a place of land in Clopton, next
Stratford, called "la Mote." Witn. Henry Myle, Adam de
Styuentone, Nicholas de Shotryd, &c. 12 Edw. Ill, seal.
235. Lease from John James, of Stratford-upon-Avon,
to dom. Robert de Stretford, bishop of Chichester, and
Walter de Cokefeld, and Matilda, his wife, of the Manor of
Clopton and "in la Grove," and lands in Shotred. Witn.
dom. William de Lucy, John Stretham, Knts., John de
Peyto, &c. 1 6 Edw. Ill, seal.
237. Enfeoffment by William, son and heir of John
Ermeger, of Stratford, to John Glemham and Rose, his
wife, of lands in Stratford, Glemham, Cranysford, Tunstall,
&c. 2 Hen. IV, fine seal of 'arms.
238. Copies of five Deeds, as follows : i. Grant by
Richard at Halle and Hugh at Halle, of Stratford-upon-
Avon, to Henry Tryg and Johanna, his wife, of lands in
Stratford, Aluestone and Tydyngton. Witn. John Iremonger,
chief bailiff, John Chebbesey, sub-bailiff, &c. n Hen. IV.—
Grant by Johanna Brown, of Dymnoke, widow of Henry
Tryg or Trigge, to William Rokesley, of Stratford-upon-
Avon, of a burgage, &c. there, in Cornestret, and lands in
Tedynton (boundaries given) 8 Hen. V. — Release from
Thomas Tryg, son and heir of Henry and Johanna, of
same to same Power of Attorney and Bond, paper roll. —
Five documents.
239. Grant by Thomas Mayell, of Stratford-upon-Avon,
draper, to John Greswolde, John Mayell and Thomas
Leeke, of the same, of all lands held by them in Co.
Warwick. Witn. Richard Halle, Thomas Chacombe,
bailiff of Stratford, &c., 15 Hen. VI.
46
240. Grant by Richard Felde, of Kynges Norton, Co.
Wore., to Thomas Wouour ah. Balshale, of Stratford-upon-
Avon, of a burgage and croft in Stratford, in Grenehulstrete.
Witn. John de Harrapp, and William Staffordshire, sub-
bailiffs of Stratford, &c. 24 Hen. VI.
244. Grant by Johanna Iremonger, of Alcettur, widow, to
John Clopton, of Stratford-upon-Avon, and Johanna, his
wife, of lands in Stratford, in Rotherstreete, called Colyers.
Witn. Thomas Clopton, esq., Roger Pagett, Richard Stobbe,
Thomas Couper, sub-bailiffs, &c. ig Edw. IV.
255. Exemplification of a Recovery by John Ichener
and William Perrott, from John Clopton of Clopsyll, gent.,
of 2 messuages, 2 gardens, 2 orchards, and 6 acres of
pasture, in Stratford-upon-Avon. 3 Eliz.— -fragment of seal
of Queerfs Bench.
256. Lease, for 21 years, from William Clopton, esq.,
to William Smythe, of Stratford, haberdasher, of a leasowe
or pasture in Clopton. Rent 2 capons. 4 Eliz.
261. Lease, for 30 years, by Lodowick Grevell, esq., to
Richard Harrington, of Stratford-upon-Avon, yeom., of a mes
suage and lands in Stratford, and in he Idp. of Ryen Clifford
and Bridgtown (described). Rent, ;£i6. 13. 4. 7 Eliz.
267. Grant by William Clopton, esq., to Raffe Sheldon,
of Beoley, co. Wore, of lands in Clopton, Reyen Clifford,
Bishopstone, &c. for a jointure to Anne his wife, with
reversion. 13 Eliz.
269. Lease, for 21 years, by William Clopton, esq., to
Peter Smarte, of Stratford-upon-Avon, husbandman, of a
close in Clopton. Rent, 26s. &d. 15 Eliz.
273. Grant for ^"900, by William Clopton, esq., to
John Harvie, of Ickworth, esq., and Henry Griffith, in
trust, for George Carewe, esq., and Joyce Clopton his
wife, of the Manors of Bridgetown and Ryen Clifford,
Co. Warw. 23 Eliz. — Two documents.
275. Sale, for ;£8o, by Sir William Catesby, of Ashley
Legers, co. Northton, knt, to Thomas Cale, of Bishopton,
husbandman, of a messuage and lands in Bishampton,
Stratford-upon-Avon, Old Stratford, &c. 24 Eliz.
47
277- Sale by William Clopton, esq., for ^"100, to John
Skevynton, esq., and John Graye, esq., of the Manor of
Clopton, with a messuage, dovecot, &c. in Stratford-upon-
Avon. Hilary Term. 24 Eliz.
278. Lease, for 8 years, from the same, to Johanne
Sadler, of Stratford, widow, of a windmill in Old Stratford ;
— rent, a peppercorn. 25 Eliz.
285. Leases, for n years, from Sir George Carew, knt.,
and Joyce, his wife, of the Minories, co. Midd., to Richard
Woodward, Thomas Dixon, and Richard Hill, of Stratford-
upon-Avon, of lands called Bells Peece, Rye Peece, the
Haydon, Arrow Hill, &c. in Bridgetowne. 35 Eliz. — Four
documents.
286. Sale, for ;£8o, by John Clopton, of Sledwich, co.
Durham, esq., to Sir George Carew, knt., Lieut. -Gen. of
Ordnance, of the remainder of a lease of lands in Bridge
towne, and Rien Clifford, in par. of Stratford, same date.
292. Leases, for 10 years, from Sir George Carew, to
John Lane, William Walker and others, of Stratford-upon-
Avon, of lands called Crosse, and New Close, Auges, and
Harrington's Pikes, Belle's Piece, &c., in Bridgetowne,
Ryen Clifforde, and Stratford. 2 Jas. I. — Six documents.
294. Lease, for 21 years (with counterpart), from George
Lord Carewe, of Clopton, and Joyce his wife, to George
Hooker, of London, gent,, and William Bristowe, of the
Savoy e, Midd., of a tenement called the Hermytage, in
Bridgetowne. Rent £7. 3 Jas. I. — Two documents.
296. Sale, for ^40, by William Combe, of Old Strat
ford, esq., to Simon Cale, of Bishopton, yeom., of 41
"landes" of arable land in Bishopton (described). 9 Jas. I.
297. Grant, to uses, by Symon Cale, of Byshopton,
husbandman, to John Fowler, of Worcester, clothier, John
Stayte, and others, of messuages and lands in Bushopton,
Byshophampton, Stratford, Shottery, &c., in consideration
of his marriage with Anne, sister to said John Stayte.
10 Jas. i.
300. Leases from Sir George, Lord Carewe, and Joyce
his wife, to John Salisbury, Avery Millard, and Richard
48
Wright, of lands called Little Rushbrooke, Bridgetowne
Farm, Harrington Farm, and Windmill Flat, in Bridgetowne.
17 & 21 Jas. I. — Three documents.
304. Leases for 10 years, from Joyce, countess dowager
of Totnes, to Francis Ainge, Henry Smith, Avery Millard,
and others, of lands called Oxe leasowe, Rammes Close,
Great Rushbrooke, and Roxley Heath, in Bridgetown.
9 Ch. I. — Four documents.
Now it will be admitted that this collection
of documents, all relating to Stratford-on-Avon
and its immediate neighbourhood, is of singular
local interest, — certainly the most curious as
semblage of the kind connected with that town
that has ever occurred for sale in the course of
my very long experience. Four of the deeds
were of special value, those relating to Robert
de Stratford, some time Bishop of Chichester,
the most eminent inhabitant of the borough
during any part of the middle-ages.
The sale was well advertised, and the
Stratford oligarchy very properly sent their
agent to attend the auction, where he was, I
believe, the purchaser of a few articles of a
value very inferior to those above described.
I have not the pleasure of his personal ac
quaintance, but, from all that I hear, he was
certain to have faithfully carried out to the
letter the instructions of his chiefs ; and upon
a very inexplicable system must those instruc-
49
tions have been based. Strange and almost
incredible as it may appear, they sufficed to
enable me to purchase the whole of the above-
named sixty -six records for the sum of four
pounds eight shillings, being exactly at the
rate of sixteen-pence each. The four docu
ments of the fourteenth century relating to
Robert de Stratford were honoured with a
higher estimate, and for those I had to pay
the exorbitant sums of one shilling and six
pence a-piece.
The reader will kindly bear in mind the
excessive degree of interest taken by the
Stratford oligarchy in its ancient records, an
interest so devoted and indefinite that it is
no wonder they were dissatisfied with what
they considered to be my imperfect descrip
tions of them. It seems that (taking the
average) I rarely devoted more than half a
dozen lines to the notice of a single docu
ment, a very inadequate space indeed for the
description of a patrician representative of
sixteen-pence sterling.
D
NOTE.
At the same auction I had the good fortune to acquire
the Clopton Cartulary, an ancient folio manuscript volume
with its original vellum cover and leather fastenings, that is
to say, in precisely the same state in which it appeared as
the reference estate-book ages and ages ago at Clopton
House. It is the most complete record of that mansion
and the adjoining land that is known to exist, but I should
hardly have cared to have added it to the Shakespearean
collection at Hollingbury Copse had it not included the
earliest notice of the poet's estate at New Place that has
yet been discovered.
THE HERALD'S EXPLANATIONS.
The preceding pages contain a reprint (with
a few corrections and additions) of a little tract
in the form in which it originally appeared.
These additional notes are elicited by another
article in the Stratford Herald, in the course of
which appear the following observations, —
A few words may be said respecting Mr. Halliwell-
Phillipps's earlier labours in connection with the Corporation
documents. These, it must be admitted, have been con
siderable, but they seem to have ended when the records
of Shakespearean interest were exhausted. Mr. Halliwell-
Phillipps has the frankness to confess that the work was
undertaken in " Shakespearean interests and those of his
own taste." Engaged in the task to which Mr. Halliwell-
Phillipps has devoted the greater portion of his life, one
can form some idea of what to him would be the value
of the documents in the possession of the Corporation.
Without access to them would he have been able to compile
those copious "Outlines" and voluminous "Notes" which
are read with so much interest not only by Shakespearean
scholars, but by every student of the immortal poet ? If
people were so mercenary as to look upon these matters
from a business point of view, they might be disposed to
assert that Mr. Halliwell-Phillipps had received a quid pro quo
for his labours. We will not do him the injustice which his
champions in the Press are trying to inflict upon a fellow-
townsman. We will believe that he engaged in the work,
having the highest objects in view, and the real interests of
D 2
the town at heart. Too great a latitude has been given to
our remarks, which should only have been applied to those
records which did not particularly interest Mr, Halliwell-
Phillipps — that were, in fact, in his opinion, of no Shake
spearean value. Having used expressions which implied
more than we were justified in assuming, we tender to Mr.
Halliwell-Phillipps, in all sincerity, our humble apologies.
But may it not be assumed that the records which he deemed of
no importance were of the highest value to the Corporation,
and, therefore, to the town ? If these were found to be decaying
and in a chaotic state, was it not the duty of some one who was
cognisant of their value to see that this decay was arrested and
the documents duly calendared ?
It would have given me much pleasure to
have accepted these " humble apologies " if
their effect had not been neutralized by the
passages here italicized — passages which are all
founded on erroneous information, and which in
a new form repeat the implications that were
originally challenged, and are evidently meant
to convey the impression that I not only made
an important offer to the Corporation solely in
my own interests, but that I neglected to carry
out effectively the terms of my offer in all
directions in which those interests were not
affected. The three passages alluded to will
now be separately considered.
i. These, it must be admitted, &c. — The
notion that my labours " seem to have ended
when the records of Shakespearean interest
were exhausted " is not borne out by the
53
facts. If this had been the case, my task
would indeed have been an easy one. The
Corporation records include only twelve docu
ments in which the great dramatist himself
is mentioned. In addition to these, there
are one containing a notice of his mother,
four that mention his uncle Henry, and two
referring to his grandfather Richard. Then
there are twenty-nine separate documents that
include notices of his father, John Shakespeare,
who is also frequently mentioned in entries,
mostly very brief ones, in the Chamberlains'
Accounts, in the Council Books, and in the
proceedings of the Court of Record. Out
of the more than six thousand records be
longing to the Corporation the above make
the sum-total of those that relate to the poet
and his family, and, if the Calendar had been
restricted to the latter, a small pamphlet instead
of a thick folio volume would have sufficed for
their description.
2. Without access to them, &c. — The Herald
is under a delusion in thinking that a large
number of extracts in my Outlines of the Life
of Shakespeare have been derived from the
Corporation records. A careful examination of
the last edition will show that, exclusive of
documents that were printed long before I was
54
born, the aggregate of extracts from those records
would make only about nine pages of that work !
Much of what little there is of Shakespearean
interest in the Stratford records is of the highest
value, but most of the materials for the bio
graphy are preserved in other collections.
3. Bui may it not, &c. — Here is a reiteration
of notions that it was hoped had been satis
factorily disposed of. There was no accruing
decay to arrest, as has been already explained
at pp. 21, 26 and 28. The utmost that can be
said is that a small proportion of the unbound
records would have been the better for repairs
if expense had been no object, but I can only
be fairly censured in the matter for having been
too sparing of the Corporation money. The
suggestion that I have omitted to calendar
records "of the highest importance to the
Corporation " is entirely without foundation.
With the exception of some half-dozen documents
that have been added to the Record- Room since
the Calendar was printed, I have therein described
every ancient document in the possession of the
Corporation, however small may have been its
value in my own estimation. Under this system
over eight hundred miscellaneous records of the
Guild have been " duly calendared," although
numbers of them are useless indentures refer-
55
ring to properties that are now impossible of
identification, while scarcely any of them bear
even in a remote degree on my own studies.
So much for the attempts to convey the
notion that I failed in my duty to the Cor
poration. A few words may now be added
respecting the explanation which is given of the
singular language quoted at p. 1 8, but which is
really no explanation at all. It appears that
one or more persons have been amusing them
selves by forwarding to the Stratford Herald,
and even " going to the expense of setting-up
in type " paragraphs that have been displeasing
to that sensitive journal. Its statements of last
week were the earliest intimations I had that
any paragraphs had been sent to the Herald,
or that any one had incurred printing expenses
in the matter."* And how in the world their
transmission could under any circumstances
have been expected to have influenced me is
beyond ordinary powers of conjecture.
The Herald concludes its leader with words
which appear to imply that I have suppressed
* Perhaps I ought to except a long article, entitled An Ungrateful
Town, criticizing very severely the Corporation and Mr. Charles Flower,
which was shown to me in type by the editor of the journal for which
it was intended, and which, at my urgent entreaty, was suppressed.
But this is the only exception, and it hardly comes within the statement
made by the Herald. As to the personalities so justly censured by the
Herald, I need scarcely observe that they were as distasteful to me as
ever they could have been to Mr. Charles Flower or to any of his friends.
a letter of importance in the fair consideration
of the speech quoted at pp. 39, 40. This
is not the case. Immediately following the
receipt of the letter referred to, before any
sort of legitimate time allowed for a reply had
expired, and without the excuse of intervening
provocation, another " greatest courtesy" speech
against me had been delivered. One fails to
understand how a courteous letter, received
under such circumstances, can justify the sub
sequent delivery of speeches of an opposite
description.
In conclusion, let me add that I had hoped,
as any one else would reasonably have done
under the circumstances, that the letter I ad
dressed to the Corporation in January, 1884, —
see a copy of it at p. 71, — one which was most
conciliatory in its tone and ordered to be
entered on their minutes, would have closed
all matters of dispute. So far from this being
the case, Mr. Charles Flower, who had seconded
the complimentary resolution (p. 70) in my
favour, positively initiated almost immediately
afterwards another movement against me. It
is true that the latter was connected with an
institution which was outside the direct influence
of the Corporation, but, in a town like Stratford,
where the most active leaders belong to both
57
societies, even if there had been no more
weighty obstacle, anything like the resumption
of pleasant work was obviously impossible. It
would, indeed, have been impossible, even
previously, had I not consented, by the letter
just mentioned, to pass over, for the sake of
that work and of peace, the singularly indefen
sible and more than uncourteous onslaught that
had been made upon me for taking the docu
ments to the photographers. But it was now
abundantly clear that the denunciatory spirit
which had led to the latter inexcusable aggres
sion was only transiently suspended, and that,
if I had been weak enough to have made
further concessions, I should always have been
liable to similar inflictions.
Most people will be of opinion that I should,
in justice to myself, have retired upon the
occasion of the observations that were made
respecting the photographs, a step that I should
most assuredly have taken had I been either
working for myself or receiving payment for
my services. But it must be recollected that
my own Stratford researches had practically
terminated many years previously, that I was
labouring gratuitously, in part under an engage
ment, in the sole interests of the town, and that
it would have been ungenerous on my part
to have withdrawn until I had exhausted all
possible means for the restoration of harmony.
Those means were exhausted when Mr. Charles
Flower thought proper to continue the personal
altercation, he being then, as now, the chairman
of the very committee with whom the Cor
poration by a specific resolution had desired
me to act, my consent to work under that
committee, in variation of the terms of my
original offer and in opposition to my own
predilections, having been moreover solely
conceded in deference to their express wishes.
Mr. Charles Flower must, indeed, have acquired
a singularly exaggerated notion of my poverty
of spirit if he
Dost think, I am so muddy, so unsettled,
To appoint myself in this vexation ;
or that it was possible for me to have so com
pletely surrendered every vestige of a decorous
consistency as to have attempted to have
worked amicably with him in his capacity as
the chairman of one committee at the very
same time that he was the leader of the hostile
opposition to me in his capacity as the chairman
of another. It is fortunately not: my province
to elucidate the theory under which it was
thought that a commutative action could have
been rationally defended.
THE "MELANCHOLY EVIDENCE."
A republication of the following indepen
dent article, and subsequent correspondence, is
necessary in elucidation of more than one
incident of the controversy.
I. — Copy of an editorial article which appeared in the
Birmingham Daily Post on February the Jth, 1885.
Mr. J. O. Halliwell-Phillipps — the learned and laborious
Shakespearean scholar — has just issued a second edition
of his recent pamphlet in answer to some charges more
or less vague made against him, and amounting not merely
to omissions, but even to neglect. His pamphlet will
interest all who take any pride in Shakespeare or Stratford,
for the poet and the town owe him an endless debt of
gratitude for the years of labour he has given to the collec
tion of every fragment which can help the modern student
to fill up the scanty sketches of Shakespeare's personal life
and the history of his literary works. Nearly forty years
ago Mr. Halliwell-Phillipps began his researches among the
Stratford records. He found Chaos — he left Kosmos. He
personally examined some 5,823 documents — all in fair
condition — but requiring careful examination and descrip
tion. Nearly 5,000 of these were afterwards arranged and
bound in twenty-nine volumes, so that now any one of them
can be found in a few minutes when required. A large
folio volume of nearly 500 pages, of which only seventy-
five copies were printed, and which is now worth seven or
eight guineas, was compiled by Mr. Halliwell-Phillipps, as a
" Calendar of the Stratford Records." The whole cost of this
valuable volume was paid by Mr. Halliwell-Phillipps himself,
6o
and many copies were given by him to officials and others
in Stratford. So much for what Mr. Halliwell-Phillipps
did. Now for what he did not do. The uncalendared
documents, numbering 954, consisted of town charters,
expired and surrendered leases, miscellaneous documents,
and the unbound records of the guild. The late Mr.
Wm. Oakes Hunt concurred with Mr. Halliwell-Phillipps in
not risking the town charters to the "tender mercies" of
the binder's knife, that the miscellaneous documents were
of no value entitling them to be bound, and that the 719
expired or surrendered leases were worth keeping, but no
more. All the most interesting of these were described
in the Calendar (pp. 118-166), and as binding them would
have cost ^"200, it was deemed not worth that sum. The
unbound records of the guild did not seem to Mr. Halliwell-
Phillipps to be sufficiently original and important to be
bound, and he " did not feel authorised to put the Corpo
ration to the expense of having them bound," but about
one-half of these have recently been bound, at a cost of
;£i8o, of which ,£64 has been paid by the Corporation,
and the balance by the Chairman of the Record Committee
(Mr. C. E. Flower). Mr. Halliwell-Phillipps is glad to find
that so much money has so readily been found, but enters
his "protest against the insinuation that his shortcomings
have rendered the outlay a matter of necessity." He
further denies that when he finished his work in 1862-63 he
left any documents in " a dangerous or perishing condition,"
and contends that he was not justified in spending public
money for what was not prudently necessary ; the result was
that the cost of the repairs, calendaring, and binding of
4,869 records was less than has recently been paid for a
similar treatment of four town Charters and 119 records of
the guild. Few, if any, antiquarians and palaeographers of
our day, even professional experts, could have done so much
good work, and have done it so well, as well as so generously ;
and Mr. Halliwell-Phillipps was entitled to expect a con
tinuation of the freedom of access and courteous help which
his great services had so long received. On the occasion
6i
of the recent proposal to have autotype fac-similes of the
most important documents, some friction created much
warmth. Some errors and delays led to misunderstandings
and the result seems to be that Mr. Halliwell-Phillipps's
long literary connection with Stratford-on-Avon is now
closed. It is sad to find, and the world generally will
find it difficult to believe, that such an ending is possible
after forty years of untiring and unselfish work for the
literature of the world. In this second edition he gives a
complete and apparently unanswerable answer to the kind
of charges made more or less directly, and the literary
world will remember that it owes Shakespeare's Birthplace
and New Place, not to mention a library of Shakespearean
books, to the labours of Mr. Halliwell-Phillipps's life.
//. — Copy of a letter which appeared in the same news
paper on February the Jth^ 1885, entitled, " The Ancient
Indulgences at Stratford-on-Avon"
To the EDITOR of the DAILY POST.
SIR, — The Solomons of Stratford on the Record Com
mittee* seem to have made some " remarkable discoveries,"
something like that of the watch which was found before it
had been lost. Fortunately, these are discoveries of "in
dulgences" some five hundred years old, but the Record
Committee will soon want some "indulgences " of a much
later date. No doubt all the members of the Record
Committee can read the crabbed old manuscripts of five
centuries ago, can fill up all the numerous abbreviations,
and can translate at sight mediaeval ecclesiastical Latin, but
* It appears that there is great indignation in certain local quarters
at this body having become a subject for ridicule, but who in the world
can help laughing at a Record Committee consisting of gentlemen who
are confessedly unable to read a single page of the registers of their
own ancient Court of Record ? Would not the members of the College
of Surgeons be similarly derided if they restricted their anatomical
committee to Lord Tennyson and his poetical contemporaries ? The
constitution of the deliberative body would not be a whit more absurd
in one case than in the other. The poets, indeed, would have the best
of it, most of them, as is well-known, being versed in the suggestive con
tents of that very remarkable work, Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy.
62
they do not seem to have read, or even to have looked
at the fac-similes in a folio volume published by one
Thomas Fisher some eighty years ago, in which several
" Indulgences " found among the Stratford Corporation
Records were fully described. They may further be
" surprised to hear " that Fisher also gave fac-similes of
some indulgences of even older date. I think I remember
one or two of 1160 or 1170, and that he gave many pages
of careful and valuable fac-similes of documents which the
"Record Committee" will probably "discover" in good
time with the help of some expert palaeographer who,
possibly new to the work, may explore and find what Thomas
Fisher found in the "summer of 1804," and published in
1807-1809. If the Record Committee will look into Mr.
Halliwell's Descriptive Calendar of the Ancient Manuscripts
and Records in the possession of the Corporation of Strat-
ford-on-Avon, published in 1863, in a folio volume of nearly
500 pages (viii., 467), they may perhaps be led into the way
of further " discoveries," and may possibly find the original
MSS. of A Comedy of Errors and Much Ado About
Nothing. It is delightful to find that the " ancient indul
gences" are to be "framed and glazed" and hung up in the
Town Hall, where probably the Town Council, including
the Record Commitee, meet. Vivat Dogberry !
Your obedient servant,
AN ANCIENT AND MOST QUIET WATCHMAN.
///. Copy of a letter which appeared in the same news
paper on February the qth, 1885, entitled,—" The Stratford
Records and Mr. Halliwell-Phillipps"
To the EDITOR of the DAILY POST.
SIR, — I had not intended to say a word respecting the
latest melancholy evidence of the spirit which now animates
Mr. Halliwell-Phillipps, but when a journal of your impor
tance and circulation in the district, after giving a summary
of his work, states that, " in this second edition he gives a
complete and apparently unanswerable answer to the kind of
charges made more or less directly," it is time that the
impression should not be allowed to go abroad that his
renewed attacks upon the Corporation of Stratford-on-Avon
and myself are unnoticed because they are " unanswerable."
The fact is that all who know the circumstances, or will
take the trouble to read Mr. Halliwell-Phillipps's pamphlets,
and to refer to the actual reports of the Council meetings,
will see what a strange series of mis-statements and perver
sions of fact he has strung together. His main charge of
interference with his freedom of access to the Records
seems to be based upon a paragraph taken from a county
paper; but he has not the candour to add that he had
ascertained before the publication of his first pamphlet that
the paragraph gave an erroneous impression of what had
taken place. It is indeed "sad to find" that one for whom,
up to the issue of these astonishing pamphlets, I had
entertained feelings of esteem and regard, should have so
wantonly placed himself in a position of hostility to the
Corporation, from whom he had received so many favours
and such unlimited confidence.
It seems really absurd that Mr. Halliwell-Phillipps
should distort into an attack upon himself words which I
spoke in reply to charges he had made in about as insulting
language as it is possible to imagine, and which charges I
proved had not the slightest foundation. I had hoped that,
with more leisure to attend to Shakespearean studies, I
might have benefited by the advice and assistance he was
so well able to give. I can only regret that, as soon as I
put my foot upon ground he so well occupied, his friend
ship should have changed into enmity.
Yours faithfully,
CHARLES E. FLOWER,
Chairman of the Record Committee.
Stratford-on-Avon, February 7, 1885.
64
IV. Copy of a letter which appeared in the same news
paper on February the loth, 1885, entitled " The Stratford
Records and the Discoveries"
To the EDITOR of the DAILY POST.
SIR, — As there are two sides even to the thinnest slice,
so there may be two sides to the question of which the
Chairman of the Record Committee gives his own, by
imputations of motives to which, doubtless, Mr. Halliwell-
Phillipps has a full reply. In the meantime the discoveries
are dropped, and no explanation is attempted of the claim
to have found what had been found eighty years before. A
cloud of controversy is useful when awkward facts are in
the way. The facts remain that the Record Committee do
not seem to have known what had been done, and to have
claimed honours which they did not deserve.
Your obedient servant,
AN ANCIENT AND MOST QUIET WATCHMAN.
V. — Copy of a letter which appeared in the same news
paper on February the I2th, 1885, entitled, " The Stratford
Records."
To the EDITOR of the DAILY POST.
SIR, — The letter of Mr. Charles Flower, in your yester
day's paper, deals so vaguely with the only two questions
really at issue between the Corporation of Stratford and
myself, that you will, I feel sure, kindly allow me to say a
few words in elucidation of the subject.
The first question is whether I did or did not neglect
my duty in the work on the records that I undertook years
ago for the Corporation. It having been lately intimated
at Stratford that I did so neglect my duty, I thought it as
well to submit to the public a statement of opposing facts
which, in the absence of explicit confutation, are clearly
" unanswerable." Questions of this kind are not to be
decided by mere expressions of opinion on either side, and
it is now Mr. Charles Flower's obvious duty to either sub
stantiate his charges of neglect or to withdraw them.
The second question is whether I did or did not
commit a breach of privilege in the initial action that I took
in the conduct of the autotypes. The Corporation having
offered me the personal loan of those records that were
to be autotyped, and the record-room being too dark for
the operation, it never for a moment occurred to me that
I could be doing wrong in taking a few of them, one at
a time, to photographers who resided a few hundred yards
off. Nor to this day, unless Mr. Charles Flower is entitled,
as might appear from his letter, to speak of all Stratford
matters in the name of the Corporation, can I believe that
any society would be so absurd as to complain of a pro
ceeding taken under the sanction of their own offer. Mr.
Charles Flower speaks of my "charge" respecting their
"interference with my freedom of access to the records,"
but so far from making any charge of the kind, I acknow
ledge with pleasure the courtesy with which they have
refrained from such interference during the whole period
of my local work of every kind. What interference in
such matters, if any may now be, or has lately been, con
templated under the guidance of Mr. Charles Flower, is a
contingency that cannot affect me in any way, as I have
for some time past definitely relinquished all work on their
records.
Mr. Charles Flower is not justified in speaking of my
"renewed attacks on the Corporation," unless a temperate
defence against injurious surmises broached by certain
members of that body can be so interpreted. What I have
attacked, and intend, if necessary, to continue to attack, is
the gratuitous insolence by which I have been assailed for
my harmless and beneficially-intended proceedings in the
matter of the autotypes. Mr. Charles Flower accuses me
of having published "a strange series of mis-statements
and perversions of fact." I challenge him* to prove the
* No notice has been taken of this challenge, although it was clearly
Mr. Charles Flower's duty to have either withdrawn or substantiated
his statement. That he should not have adopted the former course is
not very surprising, withdrawals and apologies, excepting as objects of
demand, being unknown to the present regime of Stratford-on-Avon.
66
truth either of this assertion or that of my having made
charges against him " in about as insulting language as it is
possible to imagine." Mr. Charles Flower then asserts that
I had used a paragraph which I had previously ascertained
" gave an erroneous impression of what had taken place."
It is now some months since I stated my evidences, showing
that I had not ascertained anything of the kind. Mr.
Charles Flower's reiteration of the charge is, therefore, a
wilful aggression.
Should any of your readers desire to learn more on
these subjects in greater detail, copies of the third edition
of my pamphlet now in the press, will be forwarded, free
of expense, to any one sending name and address to
Your obedient servant,
J. O. HALLIWELL-PHILLIPPS.
Hollingbury Copse, Brighton, Feb. 10.
VI. — Copy of a letter which appeared in the same news
paper on February the ijt/i, 1883, entitled, — " The Stratford
Records."
To the EDITOR of the DAILY POST.
SIR, — Conjectural imputations of motives are so outside
the bounds of legitimate controversy that I did not, in my
yesterday's letter, consider it necessary to reply to Mr.
Charles Flower's more than insinuation that I was mean
enough to entertain inimical feelings towards him as soon
as I found that he was entering upon a course of my
favourite studies. As, however, your astute and humorous
correspondent, the Ancient and Most Quiet Watchman,
appears to think that a disclaimer is called for, I may
observe that the view expressed by Mr. Charles Flower is
That he could have been successful in an endeavour to verify the above
accusation is, I will venture to say, impossible. I may of course have
committed oversights in matters of trivial detail, but I have taken the
greatest pains to ensure accuracy in every point of the slightest impor
tance, and upon the irrefutable exposition of my case rests my confidence
in the nature of the ultimate verdict of public opinion.
67
one of those arrows which, "too slightly timber'd for so
loud a wind," are apt to revert a little way beyond the
archer's bow. I have only to remark that my misunder
standing with that gentleman arose a considerable time
before he had expressed the slightest intention of troubling
himself about the records, and before any sign had
appeared that his Shakespearean studies were likely to
extend beyond those that had relation to the modern
Shakespearean drama cultivated at the Memorial Theatre.
My own studies have for many years been restricted to
Shakespearean biography and the history of the contem
porary stage.
Your obedient servant,
J. O. HALLIWELL-PHILLIPPS.
Hollingbury Copse, Brighton, Feb. n.
E 2
HOSTILITY TO THE COUNCIL.
Now with respect to Mr. Charles Flower's
statement of my "having wantonly placed
myself in a position of hostility to the Cor
poration/' — For thirty years or more the most
cordial and friendly relations existed between
that body and myself. It was not until March,
1883, that there was the slightest interruption
of harmony. This occurred soon after I had
offered to undertake the publication of the
Shakespeare autotypes, but the irritation that
may have been created on either side by the
resulting controversy disappeared under the
influences of a conciliatory resolution and an
equally conciliatory acknowledgment. The
resolution to which I refer was unanimously
passed by the Corporation on January the 4th,
1884, in the following terms : —
That this Corporation, fully sensible of the interest taken
in their ancient records by Mr. Halliwell-Phillipps, and
gratefully acknowledging the important services rendered
by him at various times in regard to them, desire to express
their regret that he has thought it desirable to abandon the
work he had entered upon of autotyping certain of them of
special interest; and the Corporation also desire to say
;o
further that the confidence they have placed in Mr. Halliwell-
Phillipps has never been withdrawn, and they trust that
arrangements may be made by the newly-appointed Record
Committee which may enable him to resume his valuable
labours.
Nothing could possibly be more courteous
than the terms of this resolution, but its passage
was accompanied by a very singular incident, —
it was seconded by Mr. Charles Flower, who,
in a speech delivered only a few minutes pre
viously, had attacked me in language of the
most seriously aggressive character (see the
extract at p. 95). It was natural that I should
be perplexed by this odd example of " hot ice
and wondrous strange snow," but wishing, if
possible, to end all matters amicably, and
especially desirous, after receiving so friendly a
resolution, that the Corporation should not be
subjected to further controversy, — I compelled
myself to accept the fact of Mr. Charles
Flower's seconding the vote as equivalent to
an expression of regret for the violence of his
previous speech. Adopting this view, the
resolution was acknowledged in the following
letter, and the observations made upon it at the
Council are here given (from the Stratford
Chronicle Report, 8 Feb., 1884), to show how
fully it was then considered that all matters in
dispute were happily terminated : —
My dear Sir, Brighton, 19 January, 1884.
I have the pleasure of acknowledging the receipt of
copies of the resolutions passed at the last meeting of the
Town Council, and I hope that you will take the earliest
opportunity of tendering to that body my cordial thanks
for the flattering terms in which they have been pleased
to speak of my services in respect to the records, and
especially for the continued confidence in me so gracefully
and unanimously expressed.
I can only say that, so long as I feel that I possess
that confidence, and am not subjected to restrictions to
which I have been unaccustomed, I shall consider it a
privilege to work on the autotypes or in any other way in
which my special reading may be useful. It will also give
me pleasure to confer with the newly-appointed Record
Committee, not merely on the autotypes, but on the general
question of the records, and it would be a mere affectation
on my part were I not to admit the indulgence of a hope
that my very long experience in such matters may enable
me to be of service. Believe me, my dear Sir,
Yours faithfully,
J. O. HALLIWELL-PHILLIPPS.
To Thomas Hunt, Esq.,
Town Clerk of Stratford-on-Avon.
The letter was received with loud applause.
COUNCILLOR FLOWER, in moving the adoption of the
Record Committee's report, alluded to the pleasure and
satisfaction which they would all feel at the receipt of the
letter from Mr. Halliwell-Phillipps.
ALDERMAN NEWTON seconded the adoption of the
report, and said he was sure they all felt glad that the
resolution which was passed at the last meeting of the
Council was received in the very best spirit. He also
hoped that was the last they would hear of that rather
unpleasant episode.
THE MAYOR said that, with regard to Mr. Halliwell-
Phillipps's letter, he begged to move " that this most satis
factory letter be placed upon our records."
ALDERMAN Cox seconded the motion with the greatest
pleasure. He thought it must be exceedingly gratifying to
every member of the Corporation to have received that
letter, and they might hope that whatever there had been
of difficulty or of slight misunderstanding might now be
considered to be settled, and that matters with regard to the
Record Committee and Mr. Halliwell-Phillipps would now
go on smoothly to his satisfaction and to their benefit.
The motion was unanimously adopted.
It was well-known at Stratford that I had
a special objection to doing literary work in
conjunction with a committee, and the appoint
ment of one was not altogether fair. The
conditions under which the services of a
gratuitous worker have been accepted should
not, in ordinary courtesy, have been materially
varied without his consent. It was and is my
firm conviction that, while business matters
connected with literature may be judiciously left
to such a body, literary work itself is always most
efficiently conducted by the individual. Waiv
ing, however, this objection, and condoning,
for the reasons above stated, the allegations in
Mr. Charles Flower's speech, — that gentleman
being then Chairman of the Record Committee,
— I was holding out to him an unconditional
olive-branch by working cordially and amicably
73
with that committee. That I did so work will
be apparent from the following letter which
I addressed to the town-clerk a few weeks
afterwards, —
Brighton, i3th February, 1884.
My dear Sir, —
I have the pleasure of returning you Mr. Hardy's
report, and would venture to submit the following observa
tions upon it : —
1. With respect to the documents, drawings, engravings,
and papers in the custody of the Birth-Place Trustees,
instructions were given at the last meeting of those trustees
to Dr. Ingleby and myself to see what could best be done
towards the formation of a greatly-wanted Calendar of
them. It was not easy to find a competent person for such
a task, for it requires one who has not only a manuscript
and record experience, but also a considerable acquaintance
with the literature of the Shakespearean period. After
some months' consideration, we decided to recommend as
calendarist Mr. G. F. Warner, of the Manuscript Depart
ment of the British Museum, and we have ascertained from
that gentleman that he is willing to undertake the work.
This recommendation is, of course, subject to the approval
of the trustees, but it is not likely that Mr. Warner's
nomination will be opposed, the Governors of Dulwich
College having engaged him a few years ago to make a
catalogue of their somewhat cognate collection of ancient
deeds and old dramatic manuscripts, the result being a
calendar that is acknowledged to be one of the best ever
published.
2. With respect to the records of the Corporation —
those now under the care of your Committee — they will be
most conveniently considered in the two classes of bound
and unbound manuscripts.
All the bound manuscripts have been fully calendared,
and having been repaired and mounted at the British
74
Museum by the most experienced manuscript binders in the
world, no question can arise as to the necessity for any of
these being again sent to London.
The unbound manuscripts form a very small portion of
the collection, and if, as is stated, there are any amongst
them not to be found in the printed calendar, it must be
that some have been discovered and placed in the drawers
since that calendar was printed in 1863. I work at these
matters so extremely methodically, it is hardly possible that
I could otherwise have overlooked any, and especially,
according to Mr. Hardy, " a large portion," — but this latter
statement is surely, as will be seen, founded on misap
prehension.
Mr. Hardy, in drawing up his report, was evidently not
aware that a year or two ago Mr. Cordy Jeaffreson made
an examination of your records on behalf of the Historical
Manuscript Commission, and in the last Report of that
Commission, issued a few days ago, there is printed an
elaborate " List of the Unbound Records in the Stratford-
on-Avon muniment-room."
It would take time and care to ascertain how many in
this list are unmentioned in the printed calendar, but I have
already, during the few days that have elapsed since the
report was published, identified all but nine as being
described in that Calendar. I may, therefore, be pardoned
for suspecting that even this very small list of omissions may
be still further reduced. It is worth notice that Mr. Cordy
Jeaffreson mentions as " the most remarkable of the hitherto
unnoticed documents" the Letters of Indulgence of 1270.
Now this very document will be found described in my
printed Calendar, p. 252, No. 65. It is true that it is only
briefly catalogued, but the proper office of a calendarist
is merely to say what the documents are, not to enter upon
the value or curiosity of each. Had I adopted the latter
system, I should have had to print a dozen folio volumes
instead of one.
Any of the records are, of course, perfectly safe when
they have once reached the Record Office, but there is
75
always a certain amount of risk, however infinitesimal, of
danger in transmission. If the committee will kindly excuse
the suggestion, it will be best to lay down a rule that no
records bearing on the history of Shakespeare or his family
should be allowed to go out of the town. Most of the
bound volumes include documents that come under this
denomination, and the trifling degree of risk previously
referred to should not, without urgent necessity, be encoun
tered in respect to muniments of such priceless value.
None of the unbound records include notices of either
Shakespeare or his family, and, as many of them seem to
require repair, it is hardly necessary to say that, as that
special work could not be done at Stratford, no better
arrangement could possibly be made for that purpose than
sending them to the Public Record Office to the care of so
experienced a paleographer as Mr. Hardy.
Begging you to do me the favour of placing this letter
before the committee, Believe me,
Yours faithfully,
J. O. HALLIWELL-PHILLIPPS.
To Thomas Hunt, Esq.,
Town-Clerk of Stratford-on-Avon.
Taking it for granted that all things would
now continue to go on quite smoothly, my regret
may be well imagined when I learnt only two
days afterwards that the Chairman of the Record
Committee was the leader in an aggressive
movement directed against me in the name of
the Executive Committee of the Birth-Place.
Although this latter controversy was outside the
function or notice of the Corporation, I clearly
saw that further pleasant wrork with their Record
Committee was out of the question, and at once
76
determined to retire from the scene. It did
not, however, appear to be necessary to trouble
the Corporation with a formal announcement to
that effect, and there was not the semblance of
a ground of complaint on my part against the
Corporation. So far from this, when they were
recently accused of treating me discourteously,
I thought it my duty to correct the statement
in the following letter which appeared in one
of the October numbers of Truth> —
Brighton, Oct. i8th, 1884.
Sir,
Will you kindly allow me to say a few words in reference
to a paragraph in your last number ?
It is true that I have been treated with " scant courtesy "
by certain individuals at Stratford-on-Avon, who have made
the place a less agreeable workshop to me than heretofore,
but I have received nothing but kindness from the main
body of the Corporation. During the many years that I
have held honorary relations with that Corporation, no
request of mine has been refused, nor have I the least reason
for suspecting that an exception would now be made. At
the same time I have made up my mind to have nothing
further to do with the conduct of the Shakespeare autotypes ;
but this determination is the result of circumstances in
which the Corporation, as a body, have had no share.
I am, Sir,
Your obedient Servant,
J. O. HALLIWELL-PHILLIPPS.
To the Editor of Truth.
So much for the accusation that I have
made " renewed attacks upon the Corporation
77
of Stratford-on-Avon." Now let us see what
grounds there are for Mr. Charles Flower's
allusion to the " many favours " that he alleges
I have received from that body.
Of " favours" from the Corporation, of any
that can be reasonably so called, either few or
many, I have received absolutely none. The
facilities that I have enjoyed for my Shake
spearean researches cannot be regarded in the
light of that term, for that would be to imply
that the Corporation were not voluntarily
anxious to encourage such researches. So
far from the latter being the case, they have
always shown an enlightened desire to facilitate
the work of all students who have come before
them with legitimate objects of enquiry. As
for other kind of " favours," I have solicited
none from the Corporation that have not been
demanded in their own interests, while I have
ever carefully refrained from asking for — and it
was well known that I would not have accepted
— a single penny for myself. This was not from
a want of reliance on their liberality, for I knew
perfectly well that if I had but hinted that I
wished my personal expenses to be defrayed,
or to have received a donation towards the
expense of printing the Calendar, the money
would have been immediately and cheerfully
voted. But throughout my long connexion
with Stratford-on-Avon I have been deter
mined to sustain an absolutely independent
position, and have at least been successful in
that direction.
Neither can I admit that the "unlimited
confidence " awarded me by the Corporation
was in any sense whatever a "favour" to myself.
It was the necessary result of their acceptance
of my offer to calendar their records. In the
absence of "unlimited confidence," the pre
paration of that volume would have been an
impossibility. Even with the unrestricted
facilities that were afforded, being otherwise
intensely occupied, I had to work double tides
to manage its preparation. If it had been
necessary for me to wait on every occasion for
the attendance of the Town Clerk, the waste
of time alone would have stifled the whole
design, so that my control over the record-keys,
when I was at Stratford, was really an essential
feature of the contract.
Mr. Charles Flower speaks of my " main
charge of interference with my freedom of
access to the records." Having some time
ago expressed my intention of having nothing
further to do with the records, this statement
would have been objectless even if it had been
79
correct. But, instead of being correct, it is
absolutely devoid of foundation. I have made
no charge of the kind, nor had I the slightest
grounds for doing so. The Corporation have
never either directly or indirectly intimated that
they wished to curtail the facilities that were
necessary when I was working for them, and
had since naturally become habitual privileges.
A movement in that direction would have been
inconsistent with their vote of confidence, and
with their acceptance of the terms of my acknow
ledgment of that vote. My retirement from
the Corporation record-work has no connexion
whatever with this subject, but it is entirely
owing, as has already been stated, to circum
stances over which they have no jurisdiction.
It is Mr. Charles Flower, not I, who has
made " charges," and by one of his respecting
the autotypes he has intimated that I was not
as solicitous as I ought to have been for the
safety of the records. This surmise is wholly
unjustifiable. I can venture to say that no one
could possibly have taken a more affectionate
care of them than either the late Mr. W. O.
Hunt or myself.
Mr. Hunt very properly laid down a strin
gent rule that, excepting in those rare cases
where substantial reasons could be given for
8o
its infringement, no record was to be moved
beyond the precincts of Stratford, but he always
gave me complete liberty to take a volume of
them into any part of the town that I pleased,
either for reference, or for light, or for com
parison. Was this a " privilege " on my part
too extravagant to be enjoyed in my excep
tional position of the Corporation's honorary
calendarist ? If the transmitter of the 119
records to London asserts that the late Mr. W.
O. Hunt's ruling in this or any other matter
is deserving of condemnation, then I know
that there will not be wanting those who will
rise in indignation at a slur being so passed
upon the memory of the most revered son of
modern Stratford, — upon that of one who was
for nearly fifty years the ablest and the most
devoted servant of its Corporation.
THE CALENDAR OF THE RECORDS.
It is only charitable to assume that the
implication conveyed by the surmises of the
" many favours " and the "quid pro quo" was
not an intentional misrepresentation, but it is
none the less offensive or the less inexcusable
on that account. Before people indulge in
assertions that lead up to derogatory inter
pretations it is their duty to make themselves
acquainted with the facts of the case. The in
sinuation has been neither more nor less than
one to the effect that I was furtively collecting
for my own personal objects under the pretence
of working in the interests of the Corporation
and the town ; and it is hardly possible to
imagine an imputation that can be further re
moved from the truth.
Before the spring of 1848 I had gone
through all the Stratford records for Shake
speare-biographical purposes, this circumstance
being alluded to in the following terms in the
Preface to my Life of Shakespeare published
in that year, — " in the council-chamber of
Stratford-on-Avon are preserved vast quantities
82
of manuscript papers, commencing at a very
early period, and particularly rich in materials
for a history of that town during the reign of
Elizabeth ; — all these I have carefully perused,
— attractive bundles filling large boxes, chests,
drawers and cupboards, — and the important
and novel information thence collected is fully
exhibited in the following pages." A few years
afterwards I made another minute examination
of the town records, the result being that every
Shakespearean document in the possession of the
Corporation was printed in the next edition of
my work that appeared in 1853, nine years before
the Calendar was commenced.
As I have already observed, exclusively of
documents printed before I was born, there are
only about nine pages of my "Outlines" taken
from the town records. Now if we exclude
everything in that work that had been published
in or before the year 1853, there are less than
two pages of new matter derived from those
records, and this in a book of seven hundred
and eighty-four pages, those two pages, more
over, consisting of dispersed extracts that are
merely illustrative of more important facts
derived from other sources. Even these ex
tracts were, I believe, taken in the researches
that were made before 1853. Considering that
the work of calendaring was not commenced till
1862, there is something more than indefensible
in the insinuation, on the part of the present
leaders of public opinion in Stratford, that I
undertook that very laborious task for the sake
of obtaining information in aid of my own pub
lication. What makes the matter far worse is
their studied suppression of all allusion to my
having printed the Calendar in a thick folio
volume at my own expense, a fact that in the
minds of all fair-dealing persons would in itself
have averted the very possibility of the quid-
pro-quo suggestion.
In striking contrast with all this is the
gentlemanly reception that my labours met with
at the time at the hands of the Corporation,
whose appreciation of them was embodied in
the following resolution, —
Borough of Stratford-upon-Avon. — At a Quarterly Meet
ing of the Council held at the Guildhall on Wednesday, the
5th day of August, 1863, Edward Fordham Flower, Esq.,
Mayor, in the Chair, it was moved by Mr. Alderman
Kendall, seconded by Mr. Councillor Bird, and resolved
unanimously, that the best thanks of the Council be given
to J. O. Halliwell-Phillipps, Esq., for the liberal present of
two copies of his Calendar of the Records of this Corpora
tion ; and the Council desire to take this opportunity of
expressing the deep sense they entertain of his disinterested
ness and zeal in thus giving to the world a descriptive
account of their valuable and interesting records, a work of
great labour, undertaken without any hope of reward except-
F 2
84
ing the satisfaction arising from the fact that his labours
were exercised upon documents intimately connected with
the birth-place of the great bard, whose genius and writings,
and the history of whose life, Mr. Halliwell-Phillipps has
done so much to elucidate and explain, and to whose
memory he has so effectively directed the minds of the
present generation. The Council desire also to thank Mr.
Halliwell-Phillipps for the interest he has taken in the bind
ing and preservation of the town records, and the valuable
suggestions he has made to that end. That a copy of this
resolution, sealed with the Common Seal, be framed and
glazed, and formally presented to Mr. Halliwell-Phillipps.
The Corporation, indeed, have never been
wanting in the courtesy due to the hardest
gratuitous worker that Stratford has ever pos
sessed, and I feel sure that, if I had filled two
hundred instead of two pages of my "Outlines"
with extracts from their records, it would not
have influenced their estimate of my services.
Instead of attributing selfish motives to me
on that account, they have always, and this is
even implied in some of the terms of the above
resolution, expressed themselves indebted to all
zealous investigators of the details of Shake
spearean biography, upon the truthful study of
which really depends the permanence of Strat
ford's celebrity. They would assuredly have
concurred in the sentiments that were thus
expressed in a letter that the late Mr. W. O.
Hunt addressed to me in 1847, — " mv earnest
wish is that every document which will throw
85
the least light upon the life of the inimitable
poet should be published without delay, lest
any damage happen to the originals, and for
this purpose I will afford every opportunity in
my power."
Mr. Hunt's wishes were speedily realised,
and the Stratford records, although of eminent
value to the local historian, are now practically
of none to the Shakespearean biographer, every
document that can be of the slightest use to
him in his researches having long since been
published and as well known to the student as
the grave-stone or monumental effigy. It may,
indeed, be safely asserted that there is not a
single known probable source of record Shake
speare-biographical information in all Warwick
shire that has not been exhaustively worked.
Accident of course may bring something of
value to light from hitherto unmentioned re
cesses, but how great is the improbability may
be gathered from the curious circumstance that
the Stratford Herald, a paper which has always
followed its obvious duty in encouraging Shake
spearean communications during the many years
of its existence, has never to this day obtained
a single new fact that could be introduced into
a reasonable Life of the great dramatist. What
has been useful has not been new, and what
86
has been new has not been useful. This is not
said in depreciation of that journal, it being
obvious that the conductors of a general-infor
mation newspaper cannot be expected to have
at hand references that are familiar only to
specialists of mature experience ; but still it is
singular that no one of its correspondents should
either have added to our knowledge of the
poet's biography, or even have indicated the
only large repository of unexhausted materials
that is within the easy reach of the local en
quirer.
At Worcester will be found a nearly unex
plored mine which is all but certain to yield
new information of value both to the local
historian and to the Shakespearean biographer.
I have gone carefully through the corporate
records of that city as well as those which are
in the Diocesan Registry, but an effective
examination of the immense number of wills,
inventories, administrations and licenses, which
are preserved in the District Registry of the
Court of Probate, could not be completed under
a continuous labour of several years, and this
has all along been beyond my reach. That
much is there to be found may be gathered
from my having discovered, in a fortnight's
search during the present summer, an important
document respecting Richard Shakespeare of
Snitterfield and his son John, the latter of
whom was the poet's father, as well as several
incidental notices of both of them and other
valuable evidences. Stratford being within an
easy drive of that office, which is daily open to
the public from 10 to 4 on the payment of
moderate fees, surely some of its Shakespearean
votaries will be found to continue the work, one
that is certain to yield more useful results than
the search for imaginary quid-pro-quos and un-
conferred favours.
EXAMPLES OF THE "FAVOURS.11
i. When the estate of New Place was
purchased in the year 1861, it was thought
desirable, and, indeed, a duty to the subscribers,
to place on record the evidences by which its
identity and exact boundaries were determined.
I spent many laborious months in the prosecu
tion of this task, embodying the results of my
enquiries in a large folio volume, copiously
illustrated, in which the history and topography
of the property were set forth in minute detail,
both in their connexion with Stratford-on-Avon
and with Shakespearean biography, from the
fifteenth century to the time of the purchase.
Copies were liberally distributed in the town,
none being subscribed for either there or else
where, the whole of the expenses being borne
by myself. In acknowledgment of the copy
presented to the Corporation I had the pleasure
of receiving a transcript of the following reso
lution, —
Borough of Stratford-upon-Avon. — At a Quarterly Meet
ing of the Council held at the Guildhall on Wednesday, the
7th February, 1866, the Town-Clerk informed the Council
that Mr. J. O. Halliwell-Phillipps had transmitted a copy of
his History of New Place which he desired to present to
the Corporation to be kept in their Record-Room. Moved
by Alderman Kingsley, seconded by Alderman Kendall, and
unanimously resolved, that the Council beg to express their
best thanks to Mr. Halliwell-Phillipps for the presentation
of this valuable and interesting book, and at the same time
to acknowledge their high sense of his multifarious acts
of liberality and generosity to the Corporation and their
appreciation of this additional evidence of the warm interest
he takes in everything connected with the history of the
borough.
2. In the year 1864 I compiled an account
(printed in a folio volume) of the Council
Books marked A and B, the work being ex
tremely laborious, owing to the perplexing
manner in which a large number of the entries
had been originally inserted ; the Corporation,
in acknowledging the receipt of their presenta
tion copy, passing the following resolution, —
At a Meeting of the Council of the Borough of Strat-
ford-upon-Avon held at the Guildhall on the yth day of
December, 1864, the Mayor read a letter from J. O.
Halliwell-Phillipps, Esq., F.R.S., accompanied by a copy of
a new work prepared by him and printed at his own expense
containing a minute account of the two earliest Council-
Books of this borough, marked A and B, extending from
1563 to 1628, of which he begged the acceptance of the
Corporation. Moved by Alderman Kendall, seconded by
Alderman Freer, and resolved unanimously, that the Council
accept with great pleasure Mr. Halliwell-Phillipps's interesting
and valuable gift, and desire to convey to him their grateful
thanks for the excessive care and trouble he has so kindly
taken in executing gratuitously the very difficult task of
deciphering and rendering legible to all readers the abbre-
viations and obscure manuscripts contained in these old
Council-Books commencing three centuries ago. The
Council are pleased to take this opportunity to renew their
best acknowledgments to Mr, Halliwell-Phillipps for his
liberal presents to the Corporation on former occasions, and
for his disinterested exertions to secure for the public every
relic calculated to elucidate the domestic life and character
of Shakespeare and the history of this his native town.
That this resolution be copied on parchment, and sealed
with the Common Seal in the presence of the Mayor, and
be then framed and glazed and transmitted by the Town-
Clerk to Mr. Halliwell-Phillipps.
Let me here mention that, until impelled by
recent occurrences, I never dreamt of alluding
to any services that I may have rendered the
town of Stratford, but there are circumstances
under which a little egotism is not only ex
cusable but a necessity in self-defence. As a
well-known author lately observed under con
ditions similar to those in which I am now
placed, — "when a man is attacked in the way
I have been, he must say something for
himself."
THE INTANGIBLE SHAKESPEARE.
When I said that I had described in my
Calendar of 1863 every ancient document then
in the possession of the Corporation, I ought to
have added that one omission might reasonably
be inferred from the following statement which
appears in a recent number of the English
Illustrated Magazine, —
The curious entry relating to him (Shakespeare) in the
diary of his cousin, Thomas Greene, clerk of the Corporation
of Stratford, has just been autotyped. Thanks to the kind
ness of the present mayor (Sir Arthur Hodgson) and the
town-clerk, we were enabled to see the original document.
We looked on its crooked, almost illegible characters, with no
little reverence, as being one of the very few authentic relics of
that intangible person, William Shakespeare. Greene writes
from London : — "1614, Jovis 1 7, No. My cousin Shakspeare
coming yesterday to town, I went to see him how he did.
He told me that they assured him they meant to inclose no
further than to Gospel Bush, and so up straight (leaving out
part of the Dingles to the field) to the gate in Clopton hedge,
and take in Salisbury's piece ; and that they mean in April
to survey the land, and then give satisfaction, and not
before ; and he and Mr. Hall say they think there will be
nothing done at all."
It must be admitted that no notice of the
document here quoted will be found in my
Calendar, but then I have this to say in my
defence, viz., that it is neither in the Record
94
Room nor in the possession of the Corporation at
all! It was no doubt thought, and perhaps
correctly, that one old document was as good as
another in a town where neither could be read ;
but still it was too cruel of Sir Arthur Hodgson
to allow a confiding visitor to go into unnecessary
raptures over a visionary relic ; at the same time
that he was exposing me to a charge of serious
negligence in omitting all notice of what would
have been, — if it had only been there 1 — one of
the most interesting records in the collection.
The authoress of the charmingly-written paper
above quoted, who does not assume to be a
paleographical reader, necessarily relied on the
exhibit being the real Simon Pure ; little
thinking that the latter was preserved in
another repository. " Please, sir, will you tell
me which is the Duke of Wellington and which
is Napoleon Bonaparty," imploringly enquired a
little girl of the keeper of a penny peep-show.
"Vichever you please, my pretty little dear/'
replied the accommodating proprietor, " you
pays your money and you takes your choice."
No wonder that the great dramatist is termed
an " intangible person" when a biographical
evidence is the object of a similar contempt
for accurate identification even in his own
native town.
THE " IRREGULAR" ENQUIRY.
Perhaps, — I speak hesitatingly in the midst
of so much rough treatment, — but perhaps the
most striking example of the ungentlemanly
manner in which I have been assailed will be
found in the following extract from a speech
publicly delivered by Mr. Charles Flower before
a meeting of the Town Council, —
To account for the difference in tone of my letter of
December ist and my speech of December 4th, I must
explain that the letter was written under the idea that
Mr. Halliwell-Phillipps had been acting under an erroneous-
but honest impression. I even thought it possible that I
might have used the word irregular at the former meeting,
although I had no recollection of having done so. It was
only on the evening of December 3rd that I ascertained
from the newspapers that had reporters present that I had
not used the word at all, and learned that Mr. Halliwell-
Phillipps had himself made enquiries, and knew before he
issued his pamphlet that I had not used the word to which he
objected. This, of course, entirely altered the complexion
of the case, and showed that the mis-quotation was made
deliberately instead of, as I had supposed, from some mis
information.
The passages given in italics are utterly
false. Not having been at Stratford at the
time, and no oral communication having passed
between any one connected with the town and
myself, it follows that my only sources of
information were those that were afforded by
epistolary correspondence. Now the only cor
respondence that I had on the subject of the
Council meeting was with the two Stratford
newspapers, and in their replies, which are now
before me, and which are in answer to my
enquiries respecting the completeness of their
published reports, there is neither a syllable
referring to the word irregular, nor an allusion
to anything whatever that Mr. Charles Flower
was supposed to have uttered. At the same
time I held, and still hold, absolute evidence
that neither of those published reports contain
the whole of what was said on the occasion.
The speech's offence is aggravated by the
fact that I had already given a refutation of
the calumny when it had been broached by Mr.
Charles Flower on a previous occasion. Having,
however, condoned the repetition of the insult
for the reasons given at p. 70, I could not of
course have resuscitated the subject if Mr.
Charles Flower himself had not, for the third
time, promulgated his deliberate misrepresenta
tion (see p. 63) in a manner that would lead
the public to believe that it had never been
contradicted.
THE BIRTH-PLACE MUSEUM.
It was observed by Mr. Charles Flower, at
the last meeting of the Trustees, held in the
May of this year, 1886, speaking of the manu
scripts preserved at the Birth-Place, that " Mr.
Halliwell-Phillipps had them bound, looking
after those only which were of Shakespearean
interest, and letting the others go anywhere."
If I had done so, I should not have been greatly
blamed by my fellow-students,"5' but in point
of fact, having worked throughout my Stratford
career with constant reference to the local
interests, I paid nearly as much attention to
the Stratford as I did to the Shakespearean
* However limited may be the value of Shakespearean biography in
the opinion of a large number of the critics, to say nothing of its absolute
inutility to the odd people who believe Shakespeare to have been
somebody else, there can be no doubt of its being everything to Stratford -
on-Avon, a town which, in its absence, would be merely one of our
Little Pedlingtons. It is, therefore, with infinite amazement that one
observes indications, on the part of its present rulers, to place the study
of the history of the town on a level with that of the history of the poet.
There is an unmistakable evidence of this in the prominence that has been
given, during the three opening years of the Record Committee, to the
medieval documents, which are in fact the only ones that they have
taken in hand, and which are absolutely valueless to the Shakespearean
student. It is now announced that Mr. Hardy is to be further engaged
on the same series of comparatively worthless documents, an arrange
ment greatly to be deplored when his skilled services amidst the inex
haustible stores of our national Record Office would be certain to yield
information of high value respecting Shakespeare's Stratford, and in
all probability new facts of importance respecting the great dramatist
himself.
documents. The latter forming an infinitesimal
portion of the collection, Mr. Charles Flower's
words involve an implication of negligence on
my part in respect to nearly the whole of the
documents, and, under these circumstances, a
few words on the system that was followed in
my work may not be thought irrelevant.
When the Museum was founded some time
about the year 1862, by Mr. W. O. Hunt and
myself, our main object was of course to obtain
articles of Shakespearean interest, but we
included in our design those which were illus
trative of the history of Strat ford-on- A von and
of some of the adjacent hamlets and villages,
including Bishopton, Shottery, Wilmecote and
Snitterfield. There was only one point upon
which we materially differed. Mr. Hunt was
for excluding printed notices of modern date,
such as hand-bills, &c., whereas I was in favour
of preserving everything that could be obtained,
having seen how often the ephemeral produc
tions of one generation become useful to the
next. And Mr. Hunt eventually let me have
my own way, thus securing for the Museum
every sort of record in the town that I could
get hold of, from medieval documents to recent
announcements of the advent of a wild-beast
show.
99
Proceeding upon this system I persuaded
the late Mr. Edward Adams to make up for
the Museum a complete set of the Strat
ford Herald from its commencement. Few
articles are more difficult to obtain than old
sets of provincial journals, and it is scarcely
necessary to say how important they become
to the local historian. Of the first Stratford
newspaper, published from 1749 to 1753, single
copies only of five or six numbers are now
known to exist, and I am probably the only
person living who has read through a complete
file, one, believed to have been unique, having
perished with the rest of the Longbridge rarities.
A very considerable number of the early
deeds and papers respecting Stratford-on-Avon,
Wilmecote and Snitterfield, now in the
Museum, were obtained by my own personal
exertions, and in this way. Attached to Mr,
Hunt's offices was a large room containing many
thousands of documents, including, as would
naturally be the case with a firm of solicitors
that had been established considerably upwards
of a century, a vast number that had become
legally useless. I minutely explored the con
tents of this room, a task that occupied many
weeks, it being arranged that, whenever I found
a document suitable for the Museum, I should
G 2
100
submit it to Mr. Hunt, before placing it in that
depository, in order that he might be perfectly
sure that it neither belonged nor could be of
use to any of his clients. Jn this work I was
at intervals materially assisted by my old friend,
Mr. Thomas Hunt, the present town-clerk, who,
however, made no scruple in expressing his
decided opinion that a person who, without a
liberal fee, could spend a long summer's day
poring over deeds in a musty room instead of
taking a fishing excursion, was a palpable
lunatic.
Mr. Charles Flower then complains of " the
way in which many of the documents at the
Birth-Place are mixed up, a valuable parchment
deed coming next, perhaps, to a newspaper
report of Stratford races."
This defect, if defect it be, is easily explained.
The documents came in very gradually during
a number of years, and my plan was to have all
loose papers bound in volumes as soon as pos
sible after their delivery, a plan that I feel sure
was best conducive to their preservation, and to
as convenient reference as was possible under
the circumstances. One might have waited for
half a century before there were accumulated
a sufficient number for a volume of " valuable
parchment deeds " that were suitable for binding
101
(the seals of most of such relics excluding them
from that operation), or for another one of
reports on Stratford races. In a collection
subject to continual increase, — two hundred
documents have, I understand, been presented
during the present year, — a definite arrangement
is practically impossible, for it would necessitate
a rebinding of the whole whenever a parcel of
articles of a miscellaneous character were added
to the Museum. Few things are easier than to
compile a chronological table of contents to a
calendar, and in that way all serious incon
venience to the student from the want of a
chronological arrangement in the calendar itself
would be obviated.
Then Mr. Charles Flower, speaking of the
main collections in the Museum, observed that
they " were not the gifts of Mr. Halliwell-
Phillipps or Mr. Hunt entirely, but simply
brought together by them." These words are
calculated to convey an erroneous impression.
The gifts of the late Mr. W. O. Hunt were
in the aggregate of enormous importance to
the town. For the sake of the Museum he
stripped his house of nearly every article of
Shakespearean interest, including some of the
highest rarity and pecuniary value, indepen
dently of what is generally termed the Stratford
102
Portrait, for which alone it is well-known that
he received an offer of a thousand pounds.
His other gifts included the valuable court- roll
of Getley's Copyhold, 1602, one of the few docu
ments now in existence that must have been in
the hands of the great dramatist himself. Mr.
Hunt, writing to me on August the 24th, 1865,
observes, — " you will be pleased to hear that
I have this day placed in the Museum, as a
gift by me, my beautiful illustrated edition
of Shakespeare in twelve vols. 4to, and I
assure you it cuts a good figure in the book
case ; — this will be the last of my donations,
and I prefer giving what I have done in my
life-time, as it not only saves the expense of
legacy-duty, but trouble to my representatives
hereafter ; — we have had enough too already
of gifts by will in Thomson v. Shakespeare ; —
it is fortunate I prevailed upon Miss Wheler
to make her presents at once, for we might
have waited for many years and then probably
have had a dispute with her executors, besides
the annoyance and expense."
It was entirely owing to the incessant
entreaties of Mr. Hunt that the invaluable
Wheler collection was secured for the town.
My own gifts to the Museum were of far
smaller importance than those which were
103
contributed by Mr. Hunt, but they were not
altogether insignificant. They included about
five hundred volumes of printed Shakespeareana,
the early oil painting of Windsor showing the
street where Falstaff is said to have been carried
down in the buck-basket, and Greene's original
drawing of the Jubilee Amphitheatre, 1769, of
local interest as the only contemporary sketch
of that building known to be preserved.
For many years the Museum was the object
of my earnest solicitude. I can safely say that,
with very few exceptions indeed, my numerous
visits to Stratford-on-Avon from 1864 to 1883
were made all but exclusively in its interests.
On the occasion of my last visit I spent a
week, at serious personal inconvenience, solely
and entirely in arranging a large parcel of
single-leaved manuscripts that had been pre
sented to the Museum by Mr. Bush. It was
a task that involved the careful perusal of
nearly every document, and unless the Stratford
oligarchy are far more obtuse than I take
them to be, I must have expended more time
over this one piece of business than they do
in a year over their annual report on Shake
spearean matters. Their labours in that direc
tion for the entire twelvemonth ending in last
May, 1887, yielded eighteen printed lines.
104
Yet these are the gentlemen who had the
effrontery to complain of the brevity of some
of the descriptions in my Calendar of the Town
Records, a laborious compilation consisting of
466 folio pages of close print, each page con
taining 42 lines. At their rate of work that
Calendar would have furnished the Stratford
oligarchy with tranquil occupation for over
a thousand years.
My Stratford work having terminated, and
under circumstances that exclude the possibility
of its resumption, if the present magnates of
the town, not caring to offer me so much as a
thank-you for my long-continued services, prefer
to subject them to adverse criticism, one would
have thought that the latter might have been
conducted with a little more regard to fairness
and accuracy of fact.
OPINIONS OF THE PRESS.
His work finished, Mr. Halliwell-Phillipps returned home
with the well-earned sense of having done his best, and
leaving, as he admits in his pamphlet, but one thing undone,
namely, to mark the unbound records with the numbers
given to them in the calendar, but, as he justly adds, the
" inconvenience (if any) that has been created by this
oversight must have been very inconsiderable." It was
with the greatest amazement, therefore, that he read the
following remarks in a leading article in a recent issue of
the Stratford-on-Avon Herald : — " The Stratford Corporation
are in possession of many very interesting records extending
from the earliest times, but it is only recently that the value
of these documents has dawned upon the corporate mind ;
— they were permitted to lie in the muniment-room at the
Birth-Place unclassified, uncalendared, uncared for, and this
indifference to their existence, had it continued, would
have led ultimately to their decay and consequent loss to
the town." No severer judgment could have been passed
upon him, and Mr. Halliwell-Phillipps rises in natural and
just indignation to defend himself against the implied charge
of gross neglect. The strictures upon him are both unkind
and uncalled for. — The United States Shakespeareana.
Allusion has more than once been made to the curious
and humiliating controversy into which Mr. Halliwell-
Phillipps has recently been drawn with certain members of
the Council of Stratford-on-Avon. That controversy has just
resulted in the most painful of possible issues, for it has ended
in the total severance, on the part of the eminent Shake
spearean scholar, of all literary connection with the native
town of the national dramatist. The course adopted by Mr.
Halliwell-Phillipps was the only one at all compatible with
io6
the respect that a thorough student and perfect gentleman
owes to himself and to his subject. That Mr. Halliwell-
Phillipps's friends may feel strongly in this matter of the
treatment he has had at the hands of Stratford officials is
perhaps a smaller concern, but it is not unimportant where
a decision of such consequence is in question. Mr. Halliwell-
Phillipps is not a young man fighting his way in the world,
expecting hard knocks and getting them. He is now a man
with a long life behind him, notoriously genial of disposition,
obviously desiring nothing better than to live at peace with
all men, yet compelled in these last years, after heaping up
mountains of laborious work and earning a large reputation,
to engage in a petty piece of contention with a gentleman
of whom no one knows anything outside the little circle
of Stratford celebrities. The obvious question is, "why
trouble about these people and their doings?" The object
of an attack which (rightly or wrongly) is supposed to carry
a charge of grave neglect of a public duty has, however, no
choice but to reply. Silence in such a case is too often
interpreted unfavourably, and that man is too amiable for
an unamiable world who can see without vexation his
" benefits forgot." Mr. Halliwell-Phillipps is not concerned
to show that Stratford-on-Avon is in his debt; but his
friends and the public cannot overlook the gross and
manifest ingratitude of the Council, which does not silence
at once and emphatically the busybodies who impute, or
seem to impute, unworthy transactions to a man who,
without pay or fee, at a tangible loss of hard cash to no
small amount, and without any earthly realisable or con
ceivable object other than the public good, has devoted
years of work to their service. The tone of speeches made at
various times in the Council when proposals of Mr. Halliwell-
Phillipps have been discussed, has often been ludicrous
enough to any reader possessed of risible faculties at all acute.
The Shakespearean scholar offers on one occasion to take the
risk of autotyping some Stratford records for sale, the loss, if
any, to be his ; the profit, if any, to be the Corporation's.
The proposal comes up in Council, and Mr. Alderman Bird
says "the public would be vastly benefited by the publi
cation." So far well ; but presently Sir Arthur Hodgson
would like to know if the valuable documents would re
quire to go temporarily out of the possession of the Council.
The Mayor replies that that would be a necessity, where
upon Sir Arthur Hodgson warns the Council that if they are
of opinion that they " should comply " with Mr. Phillipps's
letter — " and he hoped they would do so, for he thought it a
very nice one — every care should be taken that the docu
ments should be carefully numbered and registered." The
silly farce of such a gracious way of " complying " with an
offer to risk a large sum and earn none in the interests of a
scheme that would " vastly benefit the public " can only be
fully appreciated in the light of the fact that it was Mr.
Phillipps himself who told the Council what " value " the
documents possessed. But the whole controversy, so far as
some of the members of the Stratford Council are concerned,
is really too childishly illogical to be seriously considered
except so far as it involves a grave offence to an honoured
servant, not only of Stratford, but of the greater public.
The idea current in the little town that Mr. Phillipps has
probably had his quid pro quo in the information he has
gleaned from the town records ought to be banished by the
author's emphatic statement that not nine out of the 700
pages of his " Life of Shakespeare " came out of the docu
ments in dispute. The local press ought really to hold
itself superior to such unworthy and palpably erroneous
imputations. In dismissing this subject one need only say
that the spirit of Mr. Phillipps's farewell to his Stratford
friends is everything that could be expected from that most
thorough representative of the old style of English gentle
man. — The Liverpool Mercury.
Mr. J. O. Halliwell-Phillipps has found it necessary to
issue a further brochure on " The Stratford Records and the
Shakespeare Autotypes." This is intended as " a brief review
of singular delusions that are current at Stratford-on-Avon."
The pamphlet is by "the supposed delinquent," and his
narrative seems to show that he has not been treated with
io8
that courtesy and consideration due to him not only as a
Shakespearean scholar, but as one who has freely given good
time and unpaid service to the Stratford Corporation. Some
years ago he offered to arrange and calendar all their docu
ments from the earliest date up to the year 1750, and his
offer being gratefully accepted he examined all and arranged
4,869 separate documents, leaving 954 which, as of little
interest, were not bound with the others. Since their
quarrel with him the Town Council have paid ;£i8o for the
arrangement of the four charters and of 1 1 9 records of the
Guild. If this sum be a proportionate one, it will be seen
that Mr. Halliwell-Phillipps's honorary services represent a
considerable saving to the town. Early in 1883 he offered
to autotype a large number of the Shakespearean records, to
bear the loss if any, and in the event of profit resulting to
hand it over to the Corporation. As the record-room is too
narrow and too badly lighted for photographic purposes,
Mr. Halliwell-Phillipps took a single document at a time to
the artist's studio, a few hundred yards off, placed it for
protection between plates of glass, and as soon as the
negative was made returned it to its place in the record-room.
There does not appear to be anything very dreadful in this
proceeding, and perhaps no one was more astonished than
Mr. Halliwell-Phillipps by the censures passed upon him for
taking even for such a brief time any document from the
record-room, since the discussion in the Town Council on
his offer when first made clearly showed that it was under
stood that the documents would " necessarily " pass into his
custody. It is also notable that after objecting to the
removal, even for a few moments, of documents from their
home at the Birth-Place, the objectors should send 119
documents to London for examination 'at the Record Office.
Yet it has been said that "irregular is the mildest term" for
his action ! Such is the gist of Mr. Halliwell-Phillipps's
latest word on the unpleasant subject of the Stratford
records. — The Manchester Guardian.
Most of our readers who know anything of Shakespearean
literature will be ready to acknowledge their indebtedness
109
to Mr. J. O. Halliwell-Phillipps, who has devoted himself
for many years to the most minute and painstaking investi
gation of everything connected with the poet's life and
surroundings. For forty years he has been at work, in
various ways, amongst the Stratford Records. He arranged
and calendared the Corporation Records, without fee or
reward, and his monument is visible in the bound volumes,
containing 4,869 documents, now accessible to the Shake
spearean or the antiquary. Two years ago he offered " to
be at the risk" — we quote his own words — "of producing
autotypes of a large number of the Shakespearean town
records, the loss (if any) on the publication to be borne by
myself, the profit (if any) to be handed over to the Cor
poration." Owing to the discourtesy offered him soon after
he had commenced the undertaking, Mr. Halliwell-Phillipps
has withdrawn from it, and he has now been compelled to
make a defence in a pamphlet which lies before us. We
have not space to describe the events which have produced
estrangement between Mr. Halliwell-Phillipps and the
Corporation, but we must record our opinion, from a full
knowledge of the nature of his services to the town, and
to world-wide students of Shakespeare, that Mr. Halliwell-
Phillipps has been treated with unpardonable rudeness,
suspicion, and want of consideration. The whole Cor
poration is, happily, not to blame, but that is, as far as Mr.
Halliwell-Phillipps and the general public are concerned, a
small matter. At great personal labour and expense he has
devoted himself to a task no other man could have done
so well, and to offer him discourtesy, after so many years, is
a reproach to the town, and calls for the remonstrance of
all who venerate our national poet, and sympathise with an
honourable and high-minded man in what has been a long
mission of toil and labour in the service of literature. —
York Herald.
Mr. Halliwell-Phillipps has printed for circulation among
his friends a dignified remonstrance against the discourtesy
with which he has been treated by Mr. C. Flower, of
Stratford-on-Avon^ after having gratuitously calendared all
I IO
the ancient charters and other documents belonging to that
ancient town in which rest the bones of Shakespeare. He
also protests, and most justly, against a statement in the
Stratford Herald to the effect that he allowed valuable papers
entrusted to his charge to lie about "unclassified, uncalen-
dared, and uncared for " — the real fact being, as he clearly
shows, that he recommended to the Mayor and Corporation
to bind such, and such only, as were of real historic value ;
he also states that while Mr. Flower reflected on him for
taking valuable documents to a house a few yards off, to be
reproduced by the autotype process, the same Mr. Flower
felt no scruple in sending up to London 119 records, and
leaving them there for several months ! — The Antiquarian
Magazine.
We have received "The Stratford Records and the
Shakespeare Autotypes : a Brief Review of Singular De
lusions that are current at Stafford-upon-Avon," by the
Supposed Delinquent, third edition (Brighton). It gives a
denial by our valued contributor, Mr. Halliwell-Phillipps,
of charges, real or supposed, of neglect in the discharge of
his voluntary functions in regard to the Stratford-on-Avon
records. No one who knows the zealous, loyal, painstaking,
and self-denying services Mr. Halliwell-Phillipps has ren
dered to everything connected with Stratford-upon-Avon, its
documents included, can believe that any justification can
be necessary. With regard to a matter that has approached
unpleasantly near a quarrel, we will only say that this seems
emphatically a case in which friendly arbitration should put
an end to difficulties. That Mr. Halliwell-Phillipps has what
seems a perfect vindication needs not be said. The only
surprise is that anything capable of being supposed to be an
implication of carelessness could ever have appeared to be
brought against him. — Notes and Queries.
Mr. Halliwell-Phillipps has issued a brief review of
what he calls the " Singular Delusions that are current at
Stratford-upon-Avon." That the charges of " neglect " and
"irregularity" which have been preferred by influential
members of the Town Council, and repeated elsewhere, are
1 1 1
here satisfactorily disposed of, we need hardly say. Con
sidering how deeply the town is indebted to the disinterested
services of this enthusiastic scholar, the pamphlet neverthe
less leaves a painful impression. — The Daily News.
The tempest aroused by the recent attacks upon Mr. J.
O. Halliwell-Phillipps concerning his relations with Stratford-
on-Avon has by no means subsided, as his latest pamphlet
clearly shows. The first edition was so masterly a defence
that anything further seemed uncalled for. Yet not only
has Mr. Halliwell-Phillipps's explanation not been accepted,
as it should have been, but renewed attacks have been made
upon him both by the Stratford papers and by Mr. Charles
Flower, who has taken so prominent a part in the matter.
The difficulty between Mr. Halliwell-Phillipps and the Cor
poration had been disposed of by a resolution passed by
the latter on January 4th, in which they complimented him
on the value of his work and invited him to continue it.
Accepting this resolution in the spirit in which it originated
Mr. Halliwell-Phillipps prepared to continue his work, and
even expressed his willingness to do so with the conjunction
of a committee, although he had always objected to such an
arrangement. Yet scarcely had he renewed his labour when
he learned that Mr. Charles Flower was operating against
him in another quarter, and while it was a matter outside
the Corporation, the nature of the case was such as would
not permit of the two working together. Mr. Halliwell-
Phillipps has, therefore, announced that his connection with
Stratford-on-Avon has ceased, a conclusion to be regretted,
not only that so eminent a student should have met with
difficulties and unkindness in the prosecution of his labours,
but also because his opponents, instead of destroying his
defence, are only satisfied with heaping additional abuse
upon his head. — The United States Shakespeareana.
LONDON :
HARRISON AND SONS, PRINTERS IN ORDINARY TO HER MAJESTY,
ST. MARTIN'S LANE.
I
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