Farewell to Wiki Wednesday

I have decided to retire the Wiki Wednesday feature, so this is the last one ever:

Time to learn something!

1. Go to Wikipedia.
2. Click on "Random article" in the left-hand sidebar box.
3. Post it!

I got a good literary one today, something I didn't know before:

New Place (grid reference SP201548) is the name given to William Shakespeare's final place of residence in Stratford-upon-Avon during his retirement, and it is where he died in 1616. It is now owned by the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust

The house rested on the corner of Chapel Street and Chapel Lane and was apparently the second-biggest dwelling in the town. It was built in 1483 by Hugh Clopton, a wealthy merchant and future Lord Mayor of the City of London. Built of timber and brick (then a new innovation in Stratford) it had ten fireplaces, five handsome gables and grounds large enough to incorporate two barns and an orchard. Shakespeare bought the house in 1597, nine months after the death of his son Hamnet, for sixty British pounds. Shakespeare was associated with London for much of his life, and tradition states that he retired to Stratford in his later years, though he still visited London as late as 1614.

After Shakespeare's death in 1616 the house passed to his daughter Susanna Hall, and then his granddaughter, Elizabeth Hall. Elizabeth Hall married Thomas Nash, who owned the house next door. After Elizabeth died, the house was returned to the Clopton family who had originally built the house.

The next owner was one Reverend Francis Gastrell. In 1759, after becoming tired of the constant visitors to the house, he attacked and destroyed a mulberry tree in the garden which was reported to have been planted by Shakespeare himself. In retaliation, the townsfolk destroyed New Place's windows. Gastrell then razed the house to the ground, destroying all that remained.

The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust acquired New Place and Nash's House in 1891. Today the foundations of New Place are accessible through a museum that resides in Nash's House, the house next door.

Comments

[Elena]

Why? What will you replace it with? I don't do well with change!

[Karen]

I don't intend to replace it. I guess I'm just tired of it. Sorry -- I should have cleared it with you first! ;-)