Page:Letters from England.djvu/169

 “Merry Old England”

NCE again, however, we must come to a standstill; we must just look to see where merry old England really is. Old England, that is, let us say, Stratford, and that is Chester and I know not what else. Stratford, Stratford, let’s see, have I been there? No, I haven’t; so I haven’t seen the house in which Shakespeare was born, if we do not take into account that it has been entirely rebuilt and that, more over, perhaps no such person as Shakespeare ever existed. But, on the other hand, I have been in Salisbury, where a quite undoubted Massinger worked, and in the Temple in London, where a well-attested Dickens stayed, and at Grasmere, where a historically authenticated Wordsworth lived, and in many other birthplaces and centres of activity which are