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On 20
March 1902, two days before actors Ellen Terry and Sir Henry Irving
sailed for England after their last major tour together in the United States,
aspiring American actor and playwright named Elmer Blaney Harris wrote
from his apartment in New York City to his mother in Oakland, California:
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"... Miss Terry is a corker.........Gave me her London address, and
her address at Stratford on Avon, the Red House,* where she goes to
play revivals of Old English comedies during the week of
Shakespeare's birthday ...
* Ellen Terry's "idyllic retreat" in Gustard Wood Common,
near Weathampstead, England. She returned there in
March to play Katherine in Henry VIII for the Shakespeare Birthday
Festival.
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From a small village booklet "Wheathampstead" issued under the
auspices of the Wheathampstead Parish Council :-
| " A short walk across the fields brings us to The Firs,
Gustard Wood where Ellen Terry was born. She and
Sir Henry Irving frequently visited Wheathampstead to catch
trout at "The Fisheries," which at that time (1910) belonged
to Lord Northcliffe. |
There appears to be an error above regarding the place of birth as a more
comprehensive biography gives Coventry :-
Dame Ellen Terry, GBE (February 27, 1847 – July 21, 1928) was an
English stage actress. Terry became the leading Shakespearean actress in
Britain. Alice Ellen Terry (she reversed her names by the
time of her first marriage) was born in Coventry, England,
Updated
16 Jan 2008
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