ened to their father and their uncle Henry up at the
big farm close to Snitterfield church (where Henry Shakspere lived) as
the two men discussed the price of a yoke of oxen at Stratford or
Warwick fair, or debated whether they should "sow the head-land with
wheat,--with red wheat, Davy,"[A] or grumbled over the "smith's note
for shoeing and plough-irons," or told the latest turn in the quarrel
between "William Visor of Woncot" and "Clement Perkes of the Hill." Very
likely the little hazel-eyed boys took William Visor's part, though they
wisely kept their opinions to themselves, since small boys in that
period were not allowed the liberty of speech they enjoy in these
degenerate times. William Visor was a neighbor of the Ardens, and
possibly a friend of "Marian Hackett, the fat ale-wife of Wincot"; for
Wincot, Woncot, and Wilmcote are all the same place. Or perhaps the
young lads sided with Clement Perkes; for the Hill where he lived at
Weston was known as Cherry Orchard Farm, a name full of tempting
suggestions to little boys. And we know that Shakspere, like many less
wise people, was fond of "ripe red cherries." He mentions them again and
again. He and Gilbert, and their little friends the Sadlers and Harts
and Halls, must have played bob-cherry, as we do now,--drawing up the
stem of the cherry with our tongues, and, with a sudden snap, getting
the round, ripe fruit between our lips,--and then have used the stones
for "cherry-pit"--a child's game that is frequently mentioned by
Shakspere and other old writers, which consisted in pitching
cherry-stones into a small hole.

[Footnote A: 2d Henry IV., Act 5. Scene 1.]

[Illustration: THE SCHOOL AND GUILD CHAPEL.]

Stratford lies just at the beginning of the fruit-growing country, which
stretches right down the Vale of Evesham to Worcester and the Severn;
and little Will Shakspere was well versed in the merits of all kinds of
fruits. There were the plum-trees, that make you think in the
spring-time that a snow-shower has fallen upon a sunny day all over the
Stratford district; while in the autumn the branches are laden with "the
mellow plum." Who can doubt that little Will climbed the damson-tree,
"with danger of my life," as he said later that Simpcox did at his
wife's bidding?[B] In the plays he mentions apples of many sorts--some
of which, though rare or extinct in other parts of England, still grow
about his native place--the bitter-sweetings and leather-coats, the