In the central case of relics are a ring with his initials, W.S., entwined on the setting; and a sword supposed to have belonged to him. The glass jug from which David Garrick drank at the Jubilee in 1769, and the inn sign of the Falcon Tavern at Bidford, are also preserved in this part of the Museum; with a considerable number of deeds relating to property acquired by various members of the Shakespeare family, or bearing their signatures as witnesses thereto. Of the books none are of particular note, although amongst them are several copies of early editions of the poet’s plays. The garden in the rear of the house is of considerable beauty and interest from the fact that it is largely stocked with specimens of the trees, fruits, and flowers mentioned by Shakespeare in his various plays. In the centre now reposes the remains of the ancient Market Cross of Stratford, dating from the fourteenth century. In the angle formed by Chapel Street and Chapel Lane, beyond the Town Hall and past the well–known Shakespeare Hotel, is a group of houses of considerable interest situated upon the left–hand side of the street. The first is known as Hathaway’s house, and was the residence in 1647 of a descendant of the family of Shakespeare’s wife, named Thomas Hathaway. Next door but one is Nash’s house, once the property of Thomas Nash, who married Elizabeth Hall, the poet’s grand–daughter; on her death it came again into the possession of the Nash family, and was one of the buildings purchased with New Place in 1861. The front of the house has been several times restored since Shakespeare’s day, and the interior has been greatly modernised, but a part of the back and the beams of the chimney are without doubt portions of the original building. The house is now a Museum, containing several items of distinct interest, amongst which are some chairs formerly at New Place, and a fine photographic copy of the proof impression of the Droeshout portrait of Shakespeare engraved in 1623. The house of Shaw, an intimate friend of the poet’s, and one of the witnesses to his will, is next door to the Museum, between it and the Hathaways’ house. [Illustration: BIDFORD BRIDGE.]