But to continue our search in the vicinage. On the 10th day of April, 1693 (thirteen years later), a visitor to Warwickshire wrote a letter to his cousin, describing, among other points of interest, the village and church of Stratford-upon-Avon. And, as the letter was discovered among the papers of a well-known nobleman, addressed to a person known to have lived, and indorsed by this latter, "From Mr. Dowdall; description of several places in Warwickshire"--as it bears on its face evidence of its genuineness, and, above all, mentions William Shakespeare, precisely in the same strain that it alludes to other worthies of the county--the Beauchamps, the Nevilles, etc.--it has always been accepted as authentic. After a description of the tomb and resting place of "our English tragedian, Mr. Shakespeare," the writer continues: "The clerk that showed me this church was above eighty years old. * He says that this Shakespeare was formerly of this town, bound apprentice to a butcher; but that he ran from his master to London, and there {073}was received into the play-house as a servitour, and by this means had an opportunity to be what he afterwards proved. He was the best of his family, but the male line is extinguished. Not one, for fear of the curse abovesaid, dare touch his gravestone, though his wife and daughters did earnestly desire to be laid in the same grave with him." * I.e. (more than "above" three years old when she died.) This letter was among the papers of Lord DeClifford, which were sold by auction--and was purchased by Mr. Rodd, a well- known antiquarian bookseller, of Great Newport Street, London, in 1834. Mr. Rodd printed it in pamphlet form in 1838 (at least the copy we have bears imprint of that year). It is dated "Butler's Merston in Warwickshire, April, the 10th, 1693;" is signed, "Your very faithful kinsman and most aff'te humble serv't till death, John at Stiles," and is addressed, "These for Mr. Southwell, pr. serv't." This is Mr. Edward Southwell, and the letter is indorsed in his handwriting, "From Mr. Dowdall. Description of several places in Warwickshire." Mr. Rodd says that the writer was "an Inns'-of-Court-Man."