h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Interesting that you can pinpoint it as close as that! It's a pretty small margin of error for an over-500-year period.

Given the actual baptism record, the known infant mortality rates in Elizabethan England, and the fact that baptism was your ticket into heaven, it is easy enough to conjecture that the birth must have taken place sometime in the few days before the recorded baptism.

It is possible that William was a sickly infant who hovered on the edge of death for a long time and was possibly born weeks before the baptism, although given the need for the entrance ticket to life everlasting, in those circumstances it would be most likely the baptism would have been held at the Shakespeare residence sooner rather than later.

If he were healthy then any delay would have resulted in the local vicar banging on the door demanding to know the reason why.

Hi Willem

After replying to your post I went off to your home page and thence to your pictures. Man!!!!!!! There is some great stuff there. I need to go back when I have more time to appreciate them.

I really liked the bird sequence, I am assuming it is a record of the progression of the painting, fascinating for a non artist like me.

I also noted some cat pictures, so I assume you are a cat lover, in which case you are OK by me.

Hello again! Yes the bird sequence illustrates how the painting goes from start to finish. I'm going to try and make an entry explaining it.

That's my kitty Poplap! She's now 16 years old.

If you're interested ... I write a series of columns about animals and plants for The Post: A53937714