This national Shakespeare Fund was actively
promoted, chiefly by the late Mr Halliwell-Phillipps, for more than
ten years; a large sum of money was collected, and the aims with which
the Fund was set on foot were to a large extent fulfilled. It only
remained to organise on a permanent legal basis the completed
Stratford Memorial of Shakespeare. By an Act of Parliament passed in
1891 the two properties of New Place and the Birthplace were
definitely formed into a single public trust "for and in behalf of the
nation." The trustees were able in 1892, out of their surplus income,
which is derived from the fees of visitors, to add to their estates
Anne Hathaway's Cottage at Shottery, a third building of high interest
to students of Shakespeare's history.
The formation of the Birthplace Trust has every title to be regarded
as an outward and visible tribute to Shakespeare's memory on the part
of the British nation at large.[46] The purchase for the public of
the Birthplace, the New Place property, and Anne Hathaway's Cottage
was not primarily due to local effort. Justly enough, a very small
portion of the necessary funds came from Stratford itself. The British
nation may therefore take credit for having set up at least one
fitting monument to Shakespeare by consecrating to public uses the
property identified with his career in Stratford.
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