Home Words. Stratford-on-Avon Parish Magazine.

Stratford-on-Avon, Published by J. Morgan.. 1880. BOUND WITH: BULLOCK (Rev. Charles): Home Words for Heart and Hearth. London: "Hand and Heart" Publishing Office, 1880. 2 volumes in 1, with Bullock's journal being the first item in the volume, bound in contemporary blue decorated cloth, block in gilt on front cover; some margins closely shaved it latter item but with no significant loss, binding a little worn and faded, but a good copy with the bookplate of the Oxford scholar and Bodley librarian Paul Morgan (1915 - 2006), on the top margin of the front paste-down end-paper; Morgan spent a large part of his life in Stratford-on-Avon, and the Publishers of the latter item is probably an ancestor, and the ownership inscription, "John Pimms" or possibly "John Simms", from "45 Bull Street / Stratford on Avon", on the verso of the title-page of the first item. George Arbuthnot (1846­1922), Vicar of Holy Trinity, the church of Shakespeare's baptism and burial; his Shakespeare Sermons was published in 1900, but most of his concern here is with parish activities and matters, not to mention the weekly offertory, the contributions to which are often disappointing, e. g., the total amount on one Sunday was "as low as One Shilling and Fourpence." Arbuthnot published several works on Stratford-on-Avon, always emphasizing its role as the birthplace of Shakespeare, and Home Words sheds some light on his other activities. Bullock's much longer periodical is visually more impressive, with a fine engraving of Sir Edward Henry Landseer and another of James Watt studying a steam kettle. The Shakepeare Birthplace Trust has a copy, the only one I have located, of George Arbuthnot's Home Words. Stratford-on-Avon Parish Magazine, and it might have ceased publication, or changed its name, after the first 12 issues, though Arbuthnot records that he was printing between 700 and 900 issues each month. The librarian at the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust informs me that the journal did changes it name "a few times," perhaps to avoid confusion with Bullock's journal, e. g. Home Words in 1880 (as above), but Trinity Times 1892, Church Monthly 1892-1906, and Avonside Messenger 1963-68. The association with Shakespeare is tenuous, of course, but Arburthnot was certainly very much a part of the ongoing community interest in Shakespeare and his birthplace. The Bodleian has a copy of Bullock's Home Words for Heart and Hearth for the 1884, while the BL has a set for 1888; and there are copies of 1880 set in in Wakefield Metropolitan District Library, State Library of New South Wales, and National Library of Australia.