absences were liable to penalties of twenty pounds, which in the late years of Elizabeth's reign commissioners came from London to see that the local authorities enforced. Early in the 17th century swearing was rigorously prohibited. Laws as to dress were regularly enforced. In 1577 there were many fines exacted for failure to wear the plain statute woollen caps on Sundays, to which Rosaline makes allusion in _Love's Labour's Lost_ (v. 2. 281); and the regulation affected all inhabitants above six years of age. In 1604 'the greatest part' of the inhabitants were presented at a great leet, or law-day, 'for wearing their apparel contrary to the statute.' Nor would it be difficult to quote many other like proofs of the persistent strictness with which the new town council of Stratford, by the enforcement of its own order and the statutes of the realm, regulated the inhabitants' whole conduct of life." [Illustration: PLAN of STRATFORD _On Avon_] THE TOPOGRAPHY OF STRATFORD. No map of Stratford made before the middle of the 18th century is known to exist. The one here given in fac-simile was executed about the year 1768, and, as Mr. Halliwell-Phillipps tells us, "it clearly appears from the local records that there had then been no material alteration in either the form or the extent of the town since the days of Elizabeth. It may therefore be accepted as a reliable guide to the locality as it existed in the poet's own time, when the number of inhabited houses, exclusive of mere hovels, could not have much exceeded five hundred." The following is a copy of the references which are appended to the original map: "1. Moor Town's End;--2. Henley Lane;--3. Rother Market;--4. Henley Street;--5. Meer Pool Lane;--6. Wood Street;--7. Ely Street or Swine Street;--8. Scholar's Lane alias Tinker's Lane;--9. Bull Lane;--10. Street call'd Old Town;--11. Church Street;--12. Chapel Street;--13. High Street;--14. Market Cross;--15. Town Hall;--16. Place where died Shakespeare;--17. Chapel, Public Schools, &c.;--18. House where was Shakespeare born;--19. Back Bridge Street;--20. Fore Bridge Street;--21. Sheep Street;--22. Chapel Lane;--23. Buildings call'd Water Side;--24. Southam's Lane;--25. Dissenting Meeting;--26. White Lion." Moor Town's End (1) is now Greenhill Street. The Town Hall (15) did not exist in Shakespeare's time, having been first erected in 1633, taken down in 1767, and rebuilt the following year. The "Place where died Shakespeare" (16) was New Place, the home of his later years. The "Dissenting Meeting" or Meeting-house (25) was built long after the poet's day. The "White Lion" (26) was also post-Shakespearian, the chief inns in the 16th century being the Swan, the Bear, and the Crown, all in Bridge Street. The Mill and Mill Bridge (built in 1590) are indicated on the river at the left-hand lower corner of the map; and the stone bridge, erected by Sir Hugh Clopton about 1500, is just outside the right-hand lower corner.