After a morning walk, my Beloved’s first stop on his list was to see the home of William Shakespeare. This was his childhood home where he was born and raised, and where he also spent his first five years of marriage to Anne Hathaway, and later returned at the age of 49..

Williams father, John, was a glover and apparently did well for himself. Upon entering the home, the Parlor was the warmest room in the house with a fireplace and a bed. During Shakespeare’s time, a bed in the Parlor was considered a sign of wealth. This is the room where it is believed William Shakespeare was born and where they would’ve entertained guests.

This tapestry beside the bed would have been a symbol of wealth as well.

The Hall (below) is where they would have gathered for the noon meal (main meal) of the day.

The photo below is in the Hall looking back toward the Parlor.

This would have been Shakespeare’s bedroom.

Above his bedroom was his father’s office.

The girls room was large and has many artifacts. The chair shown below was Shakespeare’s chair and what looks like a desk to the right was actually a pantry that had snacks if the children got hungry in the night.

William Shakespeare’s chair.

Below is the parents bedroom. Children typically stayed in the same bedroom as their parents until they were about 5 years of age. Before they could sleep on their own, they had to pass a candle test, meaning they had to show they could hold a candle still for atleast one minute. Fires were aplenty due to the candles, so the town had a curfew of lights out at 8pm every night.

This is a book of visitors to William Shakespeare’s home.

Many writers, actors and historians have visited Shakespeares home including Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry Wadsworth, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Mark Twain, Thomas Hardy, John Keats, Charles Dickens, Alfred Tennyson, Thomas Carlyle, Walter Scott, Ellen Terry, and Henry Irving. They have etched their names in the glass leaving their signatures behind.

The small doorways, some of which came to my hubby’s 6’4″ frame were made low so that they would hold the heat in.

A view out the window to the garden.

Below is what is believed to be William Shakespeare’s signet ring with his initials (reversed so as to give a positive impression when pressed into wax) and a “true lover’s knot.” The ring was found in a field owned by Shakespeare and close to his church. Signet rings were popular in that time to show the authenticity of letters and documents and to make sure they were not tampered with. A signet ring would have been the most expensive item a person of that time possessed. Shakespeare’s mother, Mary Arden, had a signet ring as well. Her signet ring was of a rearing horse.

Considered on of literature’s greatest influences, little is really known about William Shakespeare. Author of 38 Plays, 154 Sonnets, and countless other poems, we have William Shakespeare to thank for many famous quotes like “A fool thinks himself to be wise, but a wise man knows himself to be a fool” and a whole host of sayings like “break the ice” and “eaten me out of house and home” which is how I describe my punks.

So until tomorrow…

“Like as the waves make towards the pebbl’d shore, so do our minutes, hasten to their end.” ~William Shakespeare