those that governed those Jews who returned to England and lived their prosperous but dignified lives in the east end of London when the eighteenth century was as young as our own. =SHAKESPEARE'S HOUSE--STRATFORD-ON-AVON= There was much to hold communities together in Elizabeth's time, much to encourage strength of purpose and resignation to troubles that were regarded as the manifestation of Divine Will, though in truth they were fruits of the people's ignorance. Unfortunately there was no real attempt to control them. Sanitation was unknown. The ground floors of the houses were of hard clay, covered with rushes; chimneys were not common. Refuse and garbage were placed in the open roads, not always in the special places appointed by the corporation. Pigs were kept close to the houses, and though the butchers were supposed to take the refuse of the slaughter-houses beyond the town, a strong wind would doubtless bring back infection. The corporation kept certain public places clean, and doubtless the citizens, or the most of them, did their best; but they had no knowledge of the price of uncleanliness, and in a town that was unpaved, undrained, and seldom cleaned, microbes must have enjoyed their life under conditions only familiar to those of us who have travelled through some of the remote cities of Africa and Asia, and known what it is to be literally unable to dismount from a horse. Street lighting was in its early infancy. In Shakespeare's time every man of substance was compelled to hang a lighted lantern outside his house from dusk to curfew, during a few weeks of midwinter, and that was all. Of all these defects the lack of cleanliness was the vital one, and the consequences of the neglect or ignorance of the first laws of sanitation may be imagined. Plague was never far away. Every few years there would be a visitation, mild or severe, and there was no effective remedy known to the people. As in the time of the great plague of London, herbs and cooling drinks were employed, fresh air was in demand, and there was much burning of spices. Shakespeare was a baby in arms when a visitation of the plague gave nearly fifteen per cent. of the town's population to the graveyard or its substitute, the plague pit. Now and again the Avon would overflow its banks and flood the surrounding country. Not only would such a disaster increase the ague and rheumatism that are never far removed from dwellers by the river-side, but a late summer flood might damage the crops on low-lying lands, or carry away corn that had been cut but not carted, and then, as Stratford was not readily accessible, the prices of food stuff would rise despite the corporation's efforts, and actual famine was not unknown.