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 CHAPTER XVII

SOME PERSONAL ITEMS

It is pretty generally known that when Sir Theodore Martin desired, in honor of Lady Martin's memory, to place a Helen Faucit memorial in the chancel of Trinity Church, Stratford-on-Avon, it was Miss Marie Corelli who undertook a successful campaign against the project. Sir Theodore Martin most ardently wished to execute his intention, and he had progressed so far with the negotiations that his desires were on the point of being carried out; and they would have been but for the active intervention of Miss Corelli, who roused the whole town of Stratford into energetic protest against the proposed invasion of Shakespeare's own particular shrine. It was Sir Theodore's idea to place a bas-relief of Helen Faucit immediately opposite the historical bust of the Poet, on the other side of the chancel, but in an equally if not more prominent position.

Miss Corelli began her campaign with a letter to the Morning Post calling public attention to Sir Theodore's plan, and the whole Press backed up