Of the landmarks that Shakespeare knew, the Great Fire of London destroyed many, and Time, dealing in rather gentler fashion, has effaced the most of those that the fire spared. A map made by Peter Van den Keere in 1593 shows us the old London Bridge, with the Church of St. Saviour's, then known as "St. Marye Overyes," facing the river on the Southwark side. This church, which would have been well known to the poet, is, with the exception of Westminster Abbey, the only ancient example of pure Gothic architecture in London. Its earliest name would have been St. Mary Over Rye, rye being perhaps the old name for ferry. When it was built there could have been no London Bridge, and St. Mary's was built upon the site of a still older priory founded by two Norman knights. In this church one finds a stone in the centre aisle marked "Edmond Shakespeare. Died December 1607." =ANNE HATHAWAY'S COTTAGE= This marks the mortal remains of a brother of the poet, said by some to have been concerned with the business side of his undertakings, and certainly his companion in London for some time. In St. Mary Over Rye or St. Saviour's, King James I. of Scotland was married; here the poet Gower, with whose works Shakespeare was undoubtedly familiar, was buried, and his monument is a fine one with many inscriptions, including one that describes him as "Anglorum Poeta celeberrimus." Beyond "St. Marye Overyes" on Van den Keere's map one sees the famous "Bears House," and below that the "Play House," and beyond this the town merges into gardens stretching up to "Lambeth Marsh." Across the river we see "More Feyldes" and "Spittlefeyldes," big open spaces, and then Islington, but there is no sign of another theatre. Had the worthy cartographer known what was to give his map an abiding interest three centuries after its making, he would doubtless have given more thought to the playhouses. To-day the Church of St. Saviour's stands well-nigh smothered by factories, shops, and small houses. London, a muddy stream, has overflown its banks and spread on that side far into regions where birds and beasts of the chase flew or ran in the poet's day. Tradition tells us that the Thames sometimes rose above its boundaries and flooded the graveyard of St. Mary's, and in like fashion the town itself has spread beyond all limits, until the south side, within a very restricted area, holds more than all London held in the poet's day. Doubtless the old church fared better at the hands of the river than the town does now, for three hundred years ago the hands of Father Thames were clean; the river still ran sparkling under London Bridge, then a comparatively low structure, with houses on either side of it, like the Ponte Vecchio in Florence.