We recently held a productive meeting with the team at Hawkstone Follies, and we are delighted to report that they are engaging deeply with their stakeholdership of As You Like It, which they share with us. This connection is a natural extension of our shared history, as both the Follies and the Soulton estate represent the enduring legacy of the Sir Rowland Hill landscape.
Portrait of Sir Rowland Hill, Mercer’s Copy
As we look toward an upcoming performance of Shakespeare’s great comedy, we have agreed to assist in providing the historical and topographical background for a commemorative publication. Our focus is, among other things, on the demanded topography of the play—specific physical requirements in the script that are extant and visible across the wider Hawkstone and Soulton landscape.
The Source Code: Thomas Lodge and the Soulton Rental
You cannot have As You Like It without its source text: Thomas Lodge Junior’s 1590 book, Rosalynde. The link between this text and our landscape is literal and documented. The Soulton Rental records show the signature of the Lodge family (via Thomas Lodge’s own father) alongside that of Sir Rowland Hill—the very man Shakespeare would eventually honor in the play.
Published in 1590 Rosalynde is a pastoral romance writen by Thomas Lodge in 1590 – his family owned Soulton before Old Sir Rowland Hill
This document records the transfer of these lands to Sir Rowland, who acted as a guardian figure to the family during a time of financial hardship. Though the Lodge family interest was formally sold around 1556 when Thomas Lodge Junior was very young, his family’s deep ties to this landscape and the dramatic ruins of Red Castle left an indelible mark on the stories he would later tell, and which Shakespeare would later adapt.
The Signatures of Old Sir Rowland Hill and Sir Thomas Lodge on the 1500s Soulton Papers
A Landscape that Mirrors the Text
The “Forest of Arden” is often treated as a vague, pastoral fantasy. However, when the text is placed against this specific geography, the parallels are far too precise to be accidental. The landscape provides the physical “source code” for the drama:
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The Valley Compassed by Mountains: Thomas Lodge’s 1590 book, Rosalynde—the undisputed source for Shakespeare’s play—describes a “fair valley, compassed with mountains.” This is a perfect topographical match for the North Shropshire plain, where the dramatic ridges of the Hawkstone Follies rise to encircle the fertile lowlands of the Soulton estate. To stand at Soulton and look toward the cliffs is to see the exact environment described by Lodge and adapted by Shakespeare.
Hawkstone Follies: “fair valley, compassed with mountains.”
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The Elevated Stage of the Duke’s Cave: When Duke Senior speaks from his cave, he is in an elevated, rugged setting that is immediately recognizable to anyone familiar with the Hawkstone cliffs. This environment is more than just a shelter; it is the conceptual home of the “Seven Ages of Man” speech. From these high ridges, the character Jaques looks out over the world as if it were a literal stage, using the expansive view of the Shropshire plain to reflect on the cyclical journey of human life. This vantage point provides the necessary philosophical distance for such a profound meditation.
Hawkstone Grotto Caves: “I am the duke/That loved your father: the residue of your fortune,/Go to my cave and tell me.” — “I’ll stay to know at your abandon’d cave.” — “As how I came into that desert place:–/In brief, he led me to the gentle duke,/Who gave me fresh array and entertainment,/Committing me unto my brother’s love;/Who led me instantly unto his cave,”
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The Soulton Estate and Rosalind’s Cottage: In the play, the “sheep-cote” where Rosalind and Celia find refuge is described as being “West of this place, down in the neighbour bottom.” This aligns perfectly with the location of the cottage in Soulton Wood, situated in the lower ground to the west of the high cliffs, by the “rank of osiers [willows] by the murmuring stream.”
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- Left on your right hand brings you to the place. But at this hour the house doth keep itself; There’s none within.
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- The rank of osiers by the murmuring stream
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The Brawling Brook and Antique Roots: Shakespeare describes an oak whose “antique root peeps out upon the brook that brawls along this wood.” These ancient oaks, with their roots overhanging the water, are still visible and flourishing along the Soulton landscape today, providing a living link to the sixteenth-century text.
“Well, this is the forest of Arden.”
- The Monument and Mathematical Order: The landscape even preserves the memory of Sir Rowland Hill through the 1795 monument at Hawkstone. This column, exactly 110 feet tall, is precisely double the 55-foot cube of Soulton Hall, the house Hill built. This obsession with mathematical code and symmetry mirrors the transition in the play from the chaos of the forest back toward the restored order of the manor.
“My father loved Sir Rowland as his soul,
And all the world was of my father’s mind:”
- The Ordered Manor and the Orchard of Old Sir Rowland: The transition from the rugged, wild cliffs of Hawkstone to the red-brick symmetry of Soulton Hall mirrors the movement of the play from the chaos of exile back toward social restoration. However, this journey begins in deep domestic conflict within a specific setting. When the character Oliver asks, “Know you where you are, sir?”, Orlando sharply replies: “O, sir, very well; here in your orchard.” This exchange serves as a crucial reminder that while the characters stand in the territory of “Old Sir Rowland,” the ground has fallen into disorder and “penury” without the guidance of the elder Hill. The orchard at Soulton, situated close to the highly ordered house, represents the potential for the productive, harmonious life that Hill championed—a potential that is fractured by the brothers’ quarrel at the start of the play and which the characters must work to restore by the conclusion.
This image depicts a scholarly reconstruction of Soulton Hall, highlighting its architectural elements inspired by the ancient theater of Epidaurus. The yellow lines trace these features, revealing the Rowland Hill’s homage to the renowned Greek structure.
By highlighting these links, Hawkstone Follies is acknowledging its role as a guardian of a territory famously associated with protecting the “rebel alliance” of the Tudor era.
“And to the skirts of this wild wood he came;/Where meeting with an old religious man,/After some question with him, was converted/Both from his enterprise and from the world,”
Men like Sir Rowland Hill leveraged their wealth and this rugged terrain to shield the core values of the realm from state-sponsored violence.
We look forward to seeing this “strategic silence” broken by the voices of the actors this season, as we work together to keep the memory of “Old Sir Rowland” and his landscape alive.
