Thursday, January 8, 2009

Anne Hathaway's Cottage, Stratford-Upon-Avon

Anne Hathaway's Cottage, Stratford-Upon-Avon

(I wonder what the little boy is doing on the right hand side of the postcard)

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Anne Hathaway (1555/56 – 6 August 1623) was the wife of William Shakespeare. They were married in 1582. She outlived her husband by seven years. Very little is known about her beyond a few references in legal documents, but her personality and relationship to Shakespeare have been the subject of much speculation by historians and creative writers.

Anne Hathaway's childhood was spent in a house near Stratford in Warwickshire, England. Although it is often called a cottage, it is, in fact, a spacious twelve-roomed farmhouse, with several bedrooms, now set in extensive gardens.

After the death of Anne's father, the cottage was owned by Anne's brother Bartholomew, and was passed down the Hathaway family until 1846, when financial problems forced them to sell it. It is now owned and managed by the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, and is now open to public visitors as a museum.

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