The history of the town subsequent to this date until the reign of Edward VI. is very obscure. Indeed, although it is more than probable that it saw something of the Wars of the Roses, and in a measure played its part in the history of the county at large, the records of its progress and the doings of its inhabitants are scanty indeed. The name of one family, however, which became indissolubly connected with Stratford towards the close of the fifteenth century, calls for at least a passing mention. In 1483 Sir Hugh Clopton, of the manor of Clopton, which lies about a mile to the north of Stratford, came to the town and built himself a fine house (as houses were so considered in those days) on the site now occupied by New Place. It was he that, seeing the old bridge of wood which then spanned the Avon was in a “sorry state,” erected the stone structure which, since the days of Henry VII. till the present day, has spanned the river with its fourteen arches, except for a short period from 1645–52, when there was at most a temporary passage across, owing to the destruction of the second arch of the end farthest from the town by the Parliamentarians. During the reign of the Virgin Queen, Stratford, which had by then become a country town of some little importance and size, made some progress. But in even the spacious days of Elizabeth there was still something of mediæval ways and manners clinging to the life and habits of towns such as Stratford. It is difficult for us, who dwell in the twentieth century, with its almost fanatical cleanliness and idolisation of everything which can be described as progress, to realise the conditions prevailing in places like Stratford, which was probably not worse governed or overseen than other towns of similar size. In a contemporary record one reads with astonishment that a “muck heap” was permitted in no less than six places, the removal of which unsavoury deposits was only suffered twice a year! The streets were, notwithstanding the official refuse heap, often almost impassable for filth, “fine gentlemen and dames passing with difficulty without the soiling of their garments along them.” Even a vicar of the town was interrogated by the Council regarding a pig–stye he had erected in the open street, to the obstruction of the common way! The Town Council (Stratford had been granted a Charter of Incorporation in 1553 by Edward VI.) seem to have attempted some control of the inhabitants, but, if one may believe the evidence afforded by contemporary documents, with but scant and qualified success. Rushes were still strewn on the clay floors of even the best houses, and, what is of greater importance, were not removed too frequently. And although a mandate was issued by the Town Council in the year before Elizabeth ascended the throne for the inhabitants in the winter to hang out a lantern before their doors between the hours of five and eight in the evening, this order was frequently disregarded. It is from these