ed into a single public trust "for and in behalf of the
nation." The trustees were able in 1892, out of their surplus income,
which is derived from the fees of visitors, to add to their estates
Anne Hathaway's Cottage at Shottery, a third building of high interest
to students of Shakespeare's history.

The formation of the Birthplace Trust has every title to be regarded
as an outward and visible tribute to Shakespeare's memory on the part
of the British nation at large.[46] The purchase for the public of
the Birthplace, the New Place property, and Anne Hathaway's Cottage
was not primarily due to local effort. Justly enough, a very small
portion of the necessary funds came from Stratford itself. The British
nation may therefore take credit for having set up at least one
fitting monument to Shakespeare by consecrating to public uses the
property identified with his career in Stratford. Larger funds than
the trustees at present possess are required to enable them to carry
on the work which their predecessors began, and to compete with any
chance of success for books and relics of Shakespearean interest--such
as they are empowered by Act of Parliament to acquire--when these
memorials chance to come into the market. But a number of small annual
subscriptions from men of letters has lately facilitated the
performance of this part of the trustees' work, and that source of
income may, it is hoped, increase.

[Footnote 46: Nor is this all that has been accomplished at Stratford
in the nineteenth century in the way of the national commemoration of
Shakespeare. While the surviving property of Shakespearean interest
was in course of acquisition for the nation, an early ambition to
erect in Stratford a theatre in Shakespeare's memory was realised--in
part by subscriptions from the general public, but mainly by the
munificence of members of the Flower family, three generations of
which have resided at Stratford. The Memorial Theatre was opened in
1879, and the Picture Gallery and Library which were attached to it
were completed two years later. The Memorial Buildings at Stratford
stand on a different footing from the properties of the Birthplace
Trust. The Memorial institution has an independent government, and is
to a larger extent under local control. But the extended series of
performances of Shakespearean drama, which takes place each year in
April at the Memorial Theatre, has something of the character of an
annual commemorati