traceable, is surrounded by gardens. Shakespeare is buried in the chancel of Holy Trinity church, his wife lying next to him. The slab over the poet's grave bears the lines beginning
" Good friend, for Jesus' sake forbeare
To digg the dust enclosed heare ";
while the effigy on the mural monument above may well be an authentic representation, though somewhat altered and damaged by time and restoration (see Shakespeare: Portraits).
Apart from the interest attaching to the pleasant country town and its pastoral environment, through their influence traceable in Shakespeare's writings, there are further connexions with himself and his family to be found. The house adjacent to New Place known as Nash's house was that of Thomas Nash, who married Shakespeare's granddaughter Elizabeth Hall; it is used as a museum. At Shottery, 1 m. west of Stratford, is the picturesque thatched cottage in which Shakespeare's wife, Anne Hathaway, was born. It was purchased for the nation in 1892. The maiden name of the poet's mother was Mary Arden, and this name, that of an ancient county family, survives in the district north-west of Stratford, the Forest of Arden, though the true forest character is long lost. At Snitterfield to the north, where the low wooded hills begin to rise from the valley, lived Shakespeare's grandfather and uncle.
The principal modern monument to the poet's memory in Stratford is the Shakespeare Memorial, a semi-Gothic building of brick, stone and timber, erected in 1877 to contain a theatre, picture gallery and library. A performance of one of the plays is given annually. The memorial stands by the river above the church, and above again he the Bancroft or Bank croft gardens where, in 1769, a celebration in honour of the poet was organized by David Garrick. Evidence of the intense interest taken by American visitors in Stratford is seen in the memorial fountain and clock-tower presented in 1887, and in a window in the church illustrating scenes from the Incarnation and containing figures from English and American history.
History.—Stratford-on-Avon (Stradforde, Strafford, Strafford- on-Avon) is a place of great antiquity. A Roman road may have run past the site; coins, &c, have been found, and the district at any rate was inhabited in Roman times. The manor was granted by King Off a to the bishopric of Worcester; and it was under the protection of the bishops of Worcester, who were granting them privileges as early as the reign of Richard I., that the inhabitants of the town assumed burghal rights at an early date. The Gild of the Holy Cross, founded in the 13th century for the support of poor priests and others, exercised great authority over the town for many years. Its dissolution was the cause of the incorporation charter of Edward VI. in 1553, by which the town was incorporated under the title of the bailiff and burgesses, who were to bear the name of aldermen. Another charter, confirming former liberties but altering the constitution of the corporation, was granted in 1611. By the charters of 1664 and 1674 the corporation was given the title of mayor, aldermen and burgesses. The governing body now consists of a mayor, 6 aldermen and 18 councillors. A market, formerly held on Thursdays by a grant of 1309, is now held on Fridays. The various trades of weaving, saddlery, glove-making, collar-making, candle-making and soap-making were carried on during the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries, but have lost their importance.
STRATHAVEN (locally pronounced Strĕvn), a manufacturing
and market town of Lanarkshire, Scotland. Pop. (1901), 4076. It
lies on the Avon, 16 m. S.S.E. of Glasgow by road, and is the
terminus of the Caledonian Railway Company's branch line from
Hamilton. It has manufactures of silk, cotton and hosiery and
is a market for cheese and grain. The picturesque ruins of
Avondale Castle are situated on Powmilion Burn, a stream that
runs through Strathaven to join the Avon, a mile below the town.
Remains of a Roman road are traceable for several miles immedi-
ately to the south of the Avon. Stonehouse (pop. 2961), a
mining and weaving town about 4 m. north-west, is claimed
as the birthplace of the Scottish martyr, Patrick Hamilton
(1504–1528). Six miles south-west of Strathaven, on the moor of Drumelog, the Covenanters defeated John Graham of Claverhouse, Viscount Dundee, on the 1st of June 1679. A granite obelisk commemorates the battle, but the religious meetings that used to take place on the anniversary are no longer held.
STRATHCLYDE, the name given in the 9th and 10th centuries
to the British (Welsh) kingdom, which from the 7th century
onwards was probably confined to the basin of the Clyde, together
with the adjacent coast districts, Ayrshire, &c., on the west of
Scotland. Its capital was Dumbarton (fortress of the Britons),
then known as Alclyde. On the south this kingdom bordered on
the territories of the Niduari Picts of Galloway, including the
modern counties of Wigtown and Kirkcudbright, a region which
from the middle of the 7 th century seems to have been in the
possession of the Northumbrians. Strathclyde is also sometimes
called Cumbria, or Cumberland, and the survival of the latter
name on the English side of the border preserves the memory of
a period when the territories of the northern Welsh were of much
greater extent, though it is perhaps not certain that the race
possessed political unity at that time. Of the origin of the
kingdom of the North Britons we have no information, but there
seems little reason to doubt that they were the dominant
people in southern Scotland before the Roman invasion.
After the withdrawal of the Romans in the 5th century the northern Britons seem to have shown greater determination in maintaining their independence than any of the southern kingdoms and, according to Welsh tradition, Cunedda, the ancestor of the kings of Gwynedd, had himself come from the north. In the Historia brittonum we read of several princes of the northern Britons. The chief of these appear to have been Urien, who is said to have fought against the Northumbrian king Theodoric, and Rhydderch Hen who is mentioned also in Adamnan's Life of S. Columba. Rhydderch Hen appears to have secured the supremacy amongst these Welsh princes after the great battle of Ardderyd fought about the year 573, to which frequent reference is made in early Welsh poetry. His death seems to have taken place in 603. A late authority states that he was succeeded by his son Constantine, but the subsequent kings were descended from another branch of the same family.
Such notices as we have of the history of Strathclyde in the 7th and 8th centuries are preserved only in the chronicles of the surrounding nations and even these supply us with little more than an incomplete record of wars with the neighbouring Scots, Picts and Northumbrians. It is probable that the Britons were allied with the Scots when Aidan, the king of the latter, invaded Northumbria in A.D. 597. In 642, however, we find the two Celtic peoples at war with one another, for in that year the Britons under their king Owen defeated and slew the Scottish king Domnall Breac. In the same year they came into conflict with the Northumbrian king Oswio. In 649 there appears to have been a battle between the Britons and the Picts, but about this time the former must have become subject to the Northumbrian kingdom. They recovered their independence, however, after the defeat of Ecgfrith by the Picts in 685. In 711 and again in 717 we hear of further wars between the Britons and the Scots of Dalriada, the former being defeated in both years. Towards the middle of the 8th century Strathclyde was again threatened by an alliance between the Northumbrians and Picts, and in 750 the Northumbrian king Eadberht wrested from them a considerable part of their territories in the west including Kyle in Ayrshire. In 756 the North Britons are said to have been forced into submission and from this time onwards we hear very little of their history, though occasional references to the deaths of their kings show that the kingdom still continued tp exist.
In 870 Dumbarton was attacked and destroyed after four months' siege by the Scandinavian king Ivarr, and for some time after this the country was exposed to ravages by the Norsemen. It is believed that the native dynasty came to an end early in the 10th century and that the subsequent kings belonged to a branch of the Scottish royal family. At the end of the reign of Edward the Elder (925) the Britons of Strathclyde submitted to that king together with all the other princes of the north.
