Arden, Warwickshire prominent in the area for centuries. Mary Arden, mother of William Shakespeare, was a member. Shakespeare's play "As You Like It" is set in the Forest of Arden, however it is an imaginary version incorporating elements from the Ardennes forest in Thomas Lodge's prose romance "Rosalynde" and the real forest (both as it was then, subjected to deforestation and enclosure, and the romanticized version of his youth). Towns in the area include Hampton-in-Arden, Henley-in-Arden, and Tanworth-in-Arden. The Countryside Commission considered creating a new national forest in the area in 1989, but the proposal was not taken up. A national forest
Cecil Arden Cecil Arden Cecil Arden (December 15, 1894 – September 4, 1989) was an American mezzo-soprano and contralto opera singer active over the early decades of the twentieth century. Cecile Alexia Hart was born in New York City to Benjamin and Mildred Hart. Her father was real estate broker originally from Charleston, South Carolina, and her mother a native of Springfield, Illinois. Little is known of Arden's early life other than that she studied under the Italian Arturo Buzzi-Peccia and that there are photographs of her singing at a patriotic event on the steps of New York’s Federal Hall National Memorial