Day 20 Shakespeare, October 4

Good morning, everyone. Today we woke up to a sunny and cool day. In the early afternoon we visited Sherborne Hunting Lodge. This was about 2 miles from the manor house and was a place that Lord Sherborne built to entertain his friends and family.

The favorite sport was deer coursing. There was a mile long course that runs in front of the lodge. They would turn a deer loose and then two dogs. The chase was on, and they would bet on which dog finished the course first. There were two ditches at the end. The first dog over the first ditch was the winner. The deer was able to get over a second ditch and away from the dogs. If the bet went over 20 pounds, the viewers expected that the dogs would be allowed to kill the deer.

 Next we drove about 50 minutes to Stratford-upon-Avon, the birthplace of William Shakespeare. Obviously this is a very touristy place, but we joined right in and had a great time. We walked all around the town, taking in the sights, the shops and the river Avon.  Of course, the main attraction is the home where Shakespeare was born. All the buildings here are built of wooden beam construction and it is amazing (there I go using that word again) that they are still standing...more about that in a minute.

We shopped in many of the quaint shoppes. Some had part of the original structures and parts that were more modern. After our visit to the Tower of London, we decided to buy Richard the III, a play by Shakespeare that tells the story of the murder of two princes in the Tower. This book shop had all of his plays and sonnets for sale.

As I mentioned before, since these buildings are of timber construction, built around 1500-1600, they are in a variety of conditions. The funniest part was that many of them are leaning at angles that boggle the imagination as to how they are safe to inhabit. But inhabited they are.  You probably can't tell from the photos exactly how whop-sided they are. By the way, this building has a thatched roof.

 As you might now expect, when we were ready for a rest, we stopped into a shop called The Food of Love and had, yes, you guessed it, coffee, scones and jam...

Fortified, we continued on. Our next destination was the home of my ancestor, John Hall, a physician who was married to Susanna, daughter of Shakespeare. (just kidding of course, for those of you who don't know, that my family name is Hall.  But we could be related.  Really!)

Nice house, right? It was now getting close to evening so we headed back toward the Avon river. This is a picture post card river that runs through the town. You can rent row boats, take a tour on barge boats or just stroll up and down at your leisure.

We know that many of you have already visited this interesting place and we hope that the rest of you may some day have the chance. If you do, mind the roads, first you come to Morton-on-Marsh, then Stow-on-the-Wold, Bourton-on-the-Water and then, off the beaten-path, to Sherborne. (if you come to Upper or Lower Slaughter, you went the wrong way)

Cheers!  For now.