Week 4 Recap

Week four, the overnight trip to Stratford-upon-Avon dominated the calendar. On Tuesday, the students took a pub break at two historic taverns, the Jerusalem (1720) and Ye Olde Mitre (1546), the latter mentioned by the poet and playwright Ben Jonson. Thursday Morning we met at Marylebone Station to catch the train for Stratford. Upon arrival, the group split up—half checking into Chadwyns Bed & Breakfast, the rest into the nearby Green Haven. Once settled, we walked into the old town, past many beautiful Tudor and pre-Tudor buildings, including the grammar school where Shakespeare had his early education, to visit the birthplace on Henley Street. This house has been a site of literary pilgrimage since the 18th century. Writers and luminaries including John Keats, Charles Dickens, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Mark Twain, and Thomas Hardy have paid their respects here—some, like Sir Walter Scott and the great 19th century actress, Ellen Terry, leaving their signatures etched in the window panes of the birth room. Our next stop was Nash’s House, adjacent to the former site of New Place, the distinguished home purchased by Shakespeare in 1597, where he died in 1616. Only the gardens of New Place survive, and the students enjoyed wandering through them.

After breaking for dinner, we reassembled at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre for the evening performance of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, a vivid and colorful production of one of the most popular comedies in the canon. Click here for excerpts from student reviews of the play.


Friday morning after breakfast, we strolled along narrow lanes and through the fields that Shakespeare once traversed to Anne Hathaway’s Cottage, a lovely thatched-roof house with great timbers and extensive gardens, where young William wooed Anne. Along with a maze and sculpture walk, the gardens hold many specimens of trees mentioned by Shakespeare, each with a plaque quoting the apt verse, i.e. “Those thoughts, to me like oaks, to thee like osiers bow'd.” After the walk back into town, we paid our respects at Holy Trinity Church on the bank of the Avon, where Shakespeare, Anne, and their daughter, Susannah are all buried before the high altar. Unlike the much trafficked birthplace, this sanctuary held a deeply moving serenity. Many of the students took the occasion to write entries in their journals here. Afterwards, we strolled along the Avon and stopped at the Guild Chapel. During the remaining free time, a few of us took a short river cruise before boarding the train back to London.

More photos:

Outside the Royal Shakespeare Theatre
On Henley Street
Students' self-portrait
New Place gardens: 1...2
Shakespeare's grave and monument
Martin Upham, site director and tour guide extraordinaire

Coming up in Week 5