The South Dakota Agricultural Heritage Museum is taking groups to Wessington Springs for a Shakespeare Garden Tour and Tea on Friday, Aug. 7, and Wednesday, Aug. 12.

The tours begin with a classic British "high tea," featuring tea, crustless sandwiches, fruit and assorted desserts.

Immediately following refreshments , participants will tour the Shakespeare Gardens, the oldest South Dakota gardens, and view a thatched-roof cottage on the site. The gardens were created on April 23, 1927, by Wessington Springs Seminary professors Clark and Emma Shay in honor of William Shakespeare's birthday. The Anne Hathaway Cottage, built in 1932, is modeled after a cottage lived in by Hathaway, Shakespeare's wife, in Stratfordupon-Avon , England. In 1995, a thatched roof was added to the structure, making it the only thatched-roof building in South Dakota.

Thatching is a roofing method dating back to the Middle Ages that uses dry vegetation, such as straw, to layer so as to shed water away from the inner roof.

"This is a fun and unique way for people to expand their cultural horizons and learn a bit about state agricultural history without traveling far from home," said Carrie Van Buren, curator of the South Dakota Agricultural Heritage Museum.

Participants will travel together in vans, which leave the parking lot behind the Ag Museum at 9:45 a.m., and will return to Brookings by 5 p.m. Cost for the tour is $35, which includes travel, a onehour tour of the gardens and a British high tea.

For additional information, contact the South Dakota Agricultural Heritage Museum at 605-688-6226 or toll-free at 877-227-0015.