:

It appeared that his father held the property in Shakspeare's two houses at Stratford, but they had long been under mortgage; and his mother, a few years ago, sold them by auction, deriving a balance, after paying the mortgage and expenses, of only 30%. The family pedigree he had preserved; but he had no other relic of the great poet, save a long walking-stick, which was given to him by his father, as one which had belonged to Shakspeare.

On inquiring after other branches of the family, he referred Sir Richard to the Smiths of Stratford, who were his cousins, and children of his father's sister; and also to an aunt, whom he supposed still to reside at Stratford. Sir Richard afterwards proceeded to Stratford; and, on applying to Mrs. Hornby, an amusing gossip, who then resided in the house in which Shakspeare was born, he was readily introduced to the Smiths, but the aunt had removed to Leamington. Of the Smiths, there are two brothers and a sister: one is a bricklayer, and the other had kept a grocer's shop, but had failed.

The sister is married to a bricklayer, who works under his brother-in-law. It was no play of fancy to be able to trace, in the faces of the two

Smiths, the same family resemblance which had been observed in Harte at Tewkesbury.

Having as yet profited nothing by their familyrenown, they expected nothing; but they acknowledged they felt it hard that Stratford should profit so much by the name of their kinsman, and the country boast so much of his works, while his family were suffering every kind of privation; the very house of Shakspeare having fallen into the hands of strangers, by shewing which, the family might have been kept from want. At Stratford, Sir Richard received much aid in these inquiries, from the politeness of Mr. Wheeler, author of the History of Stratford. Owing, however, to a mistake in the published pedigrees, he and the inhabitants of Stratford had, to this time, lost sight of the Smiths, as connected with the family of their illustrious town's-man; and, till the visit of Sir Richard, they had supposed that every branch of the family had left Stratford.

From Stratford, Sir Richard proceeded to Lea mington, where he found Jane, the aunt of Harte, of Tewkesbury, in the humble situation of a washer-woman. She had married a soldier of the name of Iliffe, by whom she has two girls,

the eldest of whom is kindly patronized by Mr. Bissett, of the Museum, and has been recognized, in her relationship to the Bard of Avon, by many of his distinguished visitors.

The surviving branches of Shakspeare's family may be classed as under :

William Shakspeare Harte, chair-maker of Tewkesbury, son of John Harte, who died January 22, 1800, and grandson of George Harte; and his five children.

John Harte, a chair-maker, of Cirencester; brother to W. S. Harte.

Jane Harte, of Leamington, daughter of Thomas Harte, who was son of George Harte, turner and chair-maker, of Stratford, and resident in Shakspeare's house, which was his property; and her two children.

Joseph Mallison Smith, late grocer of Stratford, son of Mary Harte, who died December 1785, who was daughter of the above George Harte; and his two children.

William Jones Smith, of Gloucester, late in the militia of that county; and his three children. George Smith, of Stratford, bricklayer; and his three children.