With this building Shakespeare must have been well acquainted when a boy, and also as a man. Whilst resident at New Place he, in all probability, attended it, as there was a pew attached to the property. Not only is this small building interesting as a survival of a bygone age, but as intimately connected with at least two portions of Shakespeare’s life—boyhood, and his later years of residence in the town of his birth. Another building of great and enduring interest is the Guild Hall, an ancient, half–timbered structure standing on the south side of the chapel, and built in 1296 by Robert de Stratford, but greatly altered during the fifteenth century. It was erected for the use of the members of the Guild, and after the dissolution of that body it was granted by Edward VI. in 1553 to the principal inhabitants, and was later on used for the purposes of a Town Hall, until the present one was erected in 1768 on the site of a previous building. In 1890, at the south end, underneath the wainscot, some traces of frescoes were discovered in the plaster panels. The centre one contains a representation of the Crucifixion, with the Virgin on one side and a figure (probably St. John) on the other. In the other panels are coats of arms. It was in this hall that Shakespeare most probably first became acquainted with “stage plays” and players, and not, as some suppose, at Kenilworth, for it was here that travelling companies, invited by the bailiff and aldermen of the town, used to give performances. The first of these of which a record exists visited the town in 1569; subsequently the companies of the Earls of Leicester, Worcester, and Warwick all gave performances at Stratford; that of the first named in 1587, the year in which Shakespeare is supposed to have gone to London in their company. The windows looking out into the street are comparatively modern, those originally lighting the room being on the opposite side, and at the south end, which latter window is now blocked up. In the lower part of the wall are holes, in which the beams supporting the dais or stage on which the plays were performed were placed. The Armoury, or “greeting–room,” which is reached from the hall, has good panelling of the Jacobean period, and the Royal arms over the fireplace were set up in 1660 as a memento of the public rejoicing which followed the Restoration. The Muniment Room, reached by a winding staircase, is a small chamber, in which a large number of interesting documents of the sixteenth century were discovered some years ago. Above the armoury is the Council Chamber, an interesting room now used as the school library. In it is a massive oak table dating from Jacobean times.