Shakespearian Hotels and Inns: Places to Stay Associated With Literature's Most Iconic Figure

It is always important to place emphasis on the adjective 'reputed' when referring to events where no written documentation remains - if, indeed, any documentation was ever made in the first place.

This is particularly true of the ancient inns of England, Scotland and Wales and the countless claims that many make with reference to famous visitors centuries ago. That said, while a few are almost certainly the work of fertile imaginations, there's more than a metaphorical grain-of-truth to the vast majority.

Of course, the further one travels back in time the harder it becomes to substantiate such claims. A historic icon such as Charles Dickens, for example, was extremely well travelled, and accounts if his having stayed at hotels and inns throughout the UK are easier to verify by virtue of them being from little over a century and a half ago. Travel back to the 1600's or further and the waters become a little cloudier.

So, if we know of some of Dickens' former whereabouts, what of that other giant of English literature, William Shakespeare? Are there any surviving places one can stay today in which the "Bard of Avon" is supposed to have once done?

Alas, there are those which would have once offered lodgings to travellers that no longer do so. Such examples include the Golden Cross in Oxford - today a pizza restaurant - which is thought by some to have been patronised by Shakespeare, and the Old Bull in Inkberrow, Worcestershire (whose other claim-to-fame is in its being the real-life model for The Bull pub in BBC Radio's, The Archers). Another, The Bell Inn at Welford on Avon, is said to have been where he drank soon before coming down with the pneumonia that some allege ended his life (though the actual cause of death is still unknown).

Similarly, we know of places with some connection to him which do offer accommodation, but in which he is unlikely to have actually stayed. These include the MacDonald Alveston Manor in Stratford-upon-Avon where, some believe, the very first performance of A Midsummer Night's Dream took place. Similarly, the Harte and Garter in Windsor boasts an association, but the building is, alas, a 19th century replacement for the original.

As such, those wishing to actually sleep under the same roof as the creator of such works as The Taming of the Shrew and The Tempest have very few options. Of course, there are almost certainly more old inns where Shakespeare sojourned on his travels, but seemingly no record of his ever being there - written or verbal - remain.

One such place is the Spread Eagle in Midhurst, West Sussex - or so it is purported. Indeed, when it comes to celebrities of centuries-past, this ancient old building certainly has pedigree: Elizabeth I, Lord Nelson, Guy Fawkes and many others are all believed to have passed through its door. As such, it would be churlish to dispute popular opinion.

But for somewhere with a connection of which few can contest, one has to travel to small village in Buckinghamshire.

In the splendidly-named Grendon Underwood, between Bicester and Aylesbury, is an attractive part-Elizabethan building which today offers bed & breakfast accommodation to visitors from all over the world. Constructed during the 1570's, the property was originally an inn called The Ship. Today, though, it is known as Shakespeare House on account that the author is said to have stayed on several occasions while travelling between Stratford and London.

Indeed, such is the level of certainty of his having slept here that one room in particular is thought to have been that in which he rested. Moreover, it has even been suggested that inspiration for A Midsummer Night's Dream was found here.

Of course, we still come back to cautionary words such as 'reputed' and 'alleged'. But Shakespeare had to rest somewhere on his journeys. And here seems as good a place to lay claim to such an honour as any.

For more hotels and inns connected to figures from history, visit Nights In The Past: a guide to period accommodation throughout Great Britain and Western Europe.

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Andrew Carnegie - An Inspirational Figure in Teaching and Literature

A very wealthy entrepreneur, Andrew Carnegie is mainly known for his wealth and leadership during the late 19th and early 20th centuries - but many people may not be aware of some of his very influential writings. After immigrating to the United States with his parents from Scotland, his family was not always wealthy. In fact, he started out as a normal factory worker in a bobbin factory. It wasn't long before he worked his way up in the company and then rose up the ranks in a telegraph company. After learning how to operate a business, he build Pittsburgh's Carnegie Steel Company. Later, he would merge this large company with several others to form U.S. Steel. With this venture, he made a fortune and later in life, he concentrated more on philanthropy and helping those less fortunate than he was. He founded many different corporations, museums, universities, and more and also gave away mountains of money to libraries, schools, and universities - both in the United States and the United Kingdom.

Of course, on top of his massive wealth and business savvy sense, Andrew Carnegie was also a brilliant writer that penned many essays, articles, contributions, and even wrote several novels. He was a frequent contributor over labor issues to many well known publications, helping businessmen and women all over the world understand their workers and help to provide a better working environment for everyone. His novels include: "The Gospel Of Wealth", "Triumphant Democracy", "Round The World", "The Empire Of Business", "The Secret Of Business Is The Management Of Men", "James Watt", "An American Four-In-Hand In Britain", and "Problems Of Today". His literary works became so well known around the world that they inspired both writers and business men, world leaders and poverty stricken peoples, and anyone that they touched.

His writings were so important to business and the world in general, that his own personal papers reside at the Library of Congress where they can be viewed by those wishing to read them in the Manuscript Division. Of course, most of his writings are public domain today, and can easily be found over the internet. The written work he did helped to inspire so many business people all over the world and helped to change relationships between both workers and their managers. His way of viewing the workplace, especially industrial areas, aided in so many different organizations being founded to help continue his work, his beliefs on business, and his giving nature.

Some of the different organizations that he founded included the Carnegie Foundation For The Advancement Of Teaching, which was created to be an independent research center that would help those in any teaching area. The organization's primary activities include writing and research over every different level of education to help promote higher education and a higher standard for education for every child all over the world. One of the main things that the Carnegie Foundation For The Advancement Of Teaching helped to create was federal aid for higher education as well as Pell Grants, to help those lower income students that could not afford to go to college otherwise. Without these grants and financial aid, millions of college students and graduates would never have risen to the areas that they are now. Many people don't even realize that Andrew Carnegie and this organization were the driving force behind what financial aid is now for college.

Another organization that he founded that touches many peoples lives is the Carnegie Endowment For International Peace. This think tank is based in Washington DC and is not associated with any political party, yet continues to help promote international engagement by the U.S. into peaceful cooperation between nations all around the world. Andrew Carnegie believed that war could easily be eliminated by stronger international laws and better international organizations. In 1907, he wrote: "I am drawn more to this cause than to any,". In fact, on his 75th birthday, he announced the establishment of this organization with a $10 million dollar gift and charged the trustees of the organization to help fund the abolition of international war and gave them the widest discretion as to their measures and policy that they should adopt when needed.

One of his best known organizations is the Carnegie Corporation Of New York, which was founded in 1911 by Andrew Carnegie to help "promote the advancement and diffusion of knowledge and understanding". This organization is one of the most influential American organizations and they have contributed so much to the world, including: a massive expansion of higher education and even adult education, advancement of research on early childhood learning and development, major promotion of educational and public broadcasting, advancement of women and minorities in higher education, helping to raise public understanding of both education and health needs of children and young adults, and to help further the investigation of risks of superpower confrontation, ethnic and civil strife, as well as nuclear war. Along with all of these influences upon education, international relations, this organization also helped to establish several other institutions, including the Carnegie libraries, the National Research Council, the Russian Research Center at Harvard, the Children's Television Workshop (including Sesame Street), and so much more.

In fact, his constant contributions to libraries, schools, and universities as well as his literary works prompted the United Kingdom to create the Carnegie Medal for the best children's literature. There are also many different schools and universities named after him, including Carnegie College in Dunfermline. And, believe it or not, he even has both a dinosaur and a cactus named after him, the Diplodocus Carnegiei (he sponsored the expedition that discovered it's remains) and the Saguaro Cactus's scientific name, Carnegiea.

Without his massive contributions to teaching, literature, and his commitment to education in general all over the world, many of the great institutions and organizations we know today would not exist.

Jason Corrado is the owner of http://famousquotesindex.com, a website containing close to 30,000 famous quotes and citations from renowned authors.

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Representation of Female "Figure and Character" in Art and Literature of Pakistan

Female figure has always been in the limelight in the works of artists and authors, who commented on the society, collective Psyche and behavioral changes through gradual evaluation of centuries. First in Subcontinent and subsequently in Pakistan, due to great influence of Hindu Mythology women have been depicted either as goddesses or witches, in accordance to their relationship to the class they abode in.

In Pakistan, Art & Literature depicted woman as the tragic icon. In 1947, during cruel process of genocide she became the target of violence, all this changed the concept of her personality, and during each freedom movement she had to endure all the consequences.

In Art, Ustad Allah Baksh, in his mystic, supernatural and metaphysical paintings like Talism-e-Hoshruba, portrayed women as angels, fairies or witches. Afterwards under the mixed influence of Art and Literary movements, Realism, Romanticism, Expressionism, Impressionism, Symbolism, Cubism, and Humanism, woman became the symbol of glamour and sensuality. Shakir Ali's abstract approach towards nature and beauty made his treatment of presenting female figure simple but very rangy, both in terms of apparent sketch as well as the inner meanings. The sharp edges of his brush presented the balance and beauty of figure, influenced by distortions, felt and absorbed. Whereas Sadeqain explored this enchanting manifesto through his "Pen N' Ink" technique while presenting nudes with all the essential details, even of less beautiful or non beautiful parts of female figure, but it is hard to find any character in those drawings on the contrary to Sadeqain's male figure based paintings and drawings.

Later Iqbal Hussain portrayed her, sitting in the posture full of elegance, romanticism and temptation. In Saeed Akhtar's work we find a woman with elegant and snobbish look. Rahat depicted her with soft touch of innocence. Collin David and Jamil Naqsh focused on the centuries old tradition in art "THE NUDES", which was a dare step in society like Pakistan where it was not acceptable openly. Collin David explored the female figure as the symbol of beauty and presented 'woman as woman' with all her subtlety and femininity, while Naqsh was a bit ambiguous in his approach, adopted a hazy expression that was, due to its un clear expression, more sensuous.

On the other hand just after partition Saadat Hassan Manto, Asmat Chugtai, Bano Qudsia, and Qurat-ul-Ain Haider presented her as victim of sexual assault and violence. In Bano Qudsia's work we find woman's struggle and internal conflict, how she survives in the social setup. Hajra Masroor and Khadija Mastoor highlighted the problems faced by middle class woman, injustice and inequity faced by ordinary woman, encroachment upon their rights. Different shades of her personality conveyed through 'stream of consciousness' technique by Qurat_ul_Ain Haider. In the work of above mentioned writers and artists, we become familiar with the emotional and sentimental picture of traditional female figure, her confrontation with society, changes in behavior due to unequal socioeconomic status.

In Parveen Shakir's poetry we find a subtle image of woman with all feminine emotions and qualities. All these painters and writers tried to lay a foundation and give a direction to their successors. Female figure being a strong character in different ways, in a society gives birth to new dimensions in Art and Literature.

I want to disclose the hidden realities and socio-economic, emotional and psychological facts that caused writers and painters to capture feminist values.

In our society the role of women is essential in all cultural and social activities, none of our rituals is complete without female character, folk songs are sung and expressed by women, moreover, she is expressed through her dance.

The little innocent daughter or younger sister is an epitome of affection, love and care, while the young girl of our society is to remain modest and noble in all means, so she is the center of all concerns by her parents and this concern, in our society is the cause of many traditional subjects of our art and literature. Young woman's body has been described in detail even in our mystic poetry as Waris Shah in his narrative piece of poetry (Heer) did. While the painters and sculptors found the female shape and contours, the universal phenomena to understand and express the real sense of beauty, apart from that external value, the sentiments of a women, being a tender character in our society, always have attraction to feel, observe and express, so, the outer shape as a figure and the inner quality as a character always inspired artists and writers to ponder on a women, even more than needed.

The bridal activities start from woman and end on her as well as she is the center of attraction in this festival, while the groom is a silent figure who just has to sit idle in all the activities, his mother, sisters and afterwards his wife's sisters and friends are active in all the rituals connecting to a wedding ceremony. Being the most wanted and awaited ceremony in our folk culture, and the only platform for folk women to express their artistic qualities, wedding becomes a vital source of cultural information regarding women character.

Same is the case in funeral procession in our society, male are responsible just to burry the dead body accordingly while female characters as mother, sister, daughter and wife are the core characters to enhance the element of sorrow and pain through a dare, open and above board expression of mourning. In our art, it is not very obvious but the grief and sorrow has been painted through female portraits without any detail of circumstances while literature has got its very base for mourning songs (Marsia) through women's voice. The pain of dear departed as son, brother or husband is always depicted in literature through women's expression and feelings. Moreover, all the rituals regarding deaths directly influence female of our society like widow has to go through (Iddat) after the death of her husband, avoid color clothes in connection with century old Hindu tradition that has influenced our society a lot.

My proposal basically reaches out to reveal social, economical, cultural, and ritual factors and reasons that make our female figure and character prominent and its influence on our society. This research will discuss and disclose the restraints and barriers those are in common practice in society but broken through art and literature regarding women. The research will go a long way into the roots of our concepts that are pruned by religion, ethics, myths, media and education through a process of century old evaluation and the shape we are into, in twenty first century. It will also enable us to analyze our status in the modern multi-culture or global culture scenario.

Painter, Sculptor, Photographer, Researcher and Poet.

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