between the main street and the station, L.&N.W.R.[k] Paper and straw
plait are both made largely. The village owes its name to the fact that
Henry III. built a palace on a spot still marked by a few fragments of
ruin a little W. from the church, and the royal manor became known as
Langley Regis, whereas the Langley on the E. side of the river belonged
to the Abbey of St. Albans, and was called Abbot's Langley (_q.v._).
Edmund de Langley, fifth son of Edward III., was born in this palace in
1344. He became Duke of York, Earl of Cambridge and Lord Tivedale, and
married Isabel, a younger daughter of Don Pedro of Castile. In 1392
Richard II., with his first Queen, Anne of Bohemia, and many bishops,
earls, lords and ladies, kept Christmas at King's Langley Palace.
Near the palace was founded, by one Roger Helle, a priory of Dominican
monks, which was enriched by Edward II. and several successive monarchs.
The body of Piers Gaveston was brought from Oxford and buried in the
church of this priory in 1315--he was beheaded on Blacklow Hill in
1312--and what was then believed to be the body of Richard II. was
brought to the same spot in 1400 for temporary sepulture. The priory was
dissolved, like most priories, in the days of Henry VIII.; but it was
restored by Mary. It was finally suppressed soon after the accession of
Elizabeth. The church, at the S.E. extremity of the village street, is a
Perp. structure of flint and Totternhoe stone; the W. tower is embattled
and has an angle turret. It has been partially restored. On the N. side
of the chancel stood formerly the tomb of Edmund de Langley and Isabel
of Castile (both mentioned above) which was brought from the priory
church at the Dissolution; it is now in the chapel at the end of the N.
aisle. There is, I believe, no absolute proof that this is the tomb of
Edmund and Isabel, but the evidence that it is so is very strong.
Chauncy, two centuries back, wrote: "On the north side of the chancel
there is a Monument raised about five foot, with the Arms of France and
England, with three Labels upon it, also the Arms of Peter, King of
Castile and Leons, by which Coats it seems to be the Tomb where Edmond
de Langley, the Fifth Son of Edward III. and Isabel his Wife, one of the
Daughters of Don Pedro, King of Castile, was [were] interr'd". During
the removal of the tomb to its present position the bones of a male and
two females were discovered; they are presumably those of Edmund and
Isabel, and of Anne Mortimer, the wife of Edmund's second son, Richard,
Earl of Cambridge. The tomb is covered by a slab 7 feet 3 inches long;
the sides are embossed with Plantagenet shields within cusps. Note the
beautifully carved open screen between chapel and chancel, and the
reredos, partly of marble, erected in 1877. The oaken pulpit is Perp.
There are several other monuments: (1) to Hon. Sir W. Glascocke of
Aldamhowe, Kt., Admiralty Judge in Ireland under Charles II. (d. 1688);
(2) brass to John Carter, "late of Gifres" (d. 1588); the inscription
states that he had two wives, that the first bore him four sons and five
daughters and the second five sons and four daughters; (3) brass to
William Carter and Alice his wife, 1528.
Sir John Evans, in 1862, found an almond-shaped river-drift flint
implement on a heap of stones in this neighbourhood.
KING'S WALDEN (about 5 miles S.W. from Hitchin) has an ancient church,
carefully restored in 1868. It stands in the park of _The Bury_, a large
mansion, Elizabethan in style. The embattled tower has masonry probably
older than fourteenth century, and much of the nave arcade is Norman.
Note the sculptured capitals of pillars, curiously similar to those at
Old Shoreham. The chancel arch is E. Perp.; probably substituting its
E.E. predecessor on very close lines; the corbels bear busts thought to
resemble Henry VI. and Margaret of Anjou. In the chancel are a double
piscina, and two E.E. lancet windows. The chancel screen is a really
wonderful piece of work, in excellent preservation. In the N. aisle is
an ambry, and in the S. aisle a sedile and two piscinæ, and on the N.
side another ambry. The font stands at the E. end of S. aisle, formerly
the Chapel of the Virgin Mary.
_Kinsbourne Green_ is on the Bedfordshire border, 2 miles N.E. from
Harpenden. The Kennels of the Hertfordshire Hunt are here. The hamlet is
close to Luton Hoo Park.
_Kitter's Green_ is a hamlet 1 mile S.E. from King's Langley Station
(L.&N.W.R.). Abbot's Langley old church (_q.v._) is ½ mile N.
[Illustration: KNEBWORTH PARK]
KNEBWORTH, famous as the home of Bulwer Lytton, lies on high ground 1
mile W. from the station (G.N.R.). The village is small, and in itself
of little interest; it was formerly called Chenepeworde, and
Knebbeworth. It is, however, ancient, and was valued in _Domesday Book_.
Sir Thomas Bouchier, K.G., who fought for the Earl of Richmond at
Bosworth Field, sold the manor of Knebbeworth to Robert Lytton, Esq.,
Keeper of the Wardrobe to Henry VII., whose son William was buried in
this parish. This Sir Robert began to erect a huge Tudor mansion on the
site of a fortress which had stood since the days of the Conquest; it
took several generations to complete it. The present house is the result
of the work of demolition and reconstruction in the days of the
novelist's mother, and of the enlarging of 1883, when the S. wing and
entrance were added; it is pseudo-Gothic. The castellated parapet,
cupola-topped turrets, griffins upon pinnacles and many mullioned
windows are noticeable features from the grounds. Within, the finest
sight is the grand old banqueting hall, with its gallery for minstrels,
its Elizabethan oak-screen, and wainscots by Inigo Jones. Around, on all
sides, are suits of armour, some dating from the days of Henry VII. The
room is associated with memories of Elizabeth, who was sometimes
entertained at Knebworth by Sir Rowland Lytton, whom she knighted; he
was buried in the chancel of the little church in the park (see below)
in 1582. The room in which Elizabeth slept on these occasions is still
shown as "Queen Elizabeth's Chamber," and contains a finely carved
over-mantel (oak) and an oaken bedstead of colossal proportions. Among
the distinguished guests so often entertained here by Bulwer Lytton were
Dickens, Forster and Jerrold.
The grounds are nearly perfect, art and nature seaming to strive to
out-do one another. Well-kept lawns are figured by flower-beds of all
shapes and sizes; the rosery is very large; the great variety of
evergreens imparts every hue and shade to the extensive walks stretching
W. from the house. The lawns are divided here and there by stone
balustrades and overlooked by statues of classical and modern figures.
There are many nooks, pleasure houses and alcoves. A long avenue of
limes leads to the lake.
The church, a little N. from the house, is approached through lodge
gates. It is for the most part E.E. The oaken pulpit is octagonal; the
finely carved panels represent scenes in the life of Christ, one of them
bears the date 1567. At the N. side of the chancel, which has a piscina,
is the Lytton Chapel, "a little Chapel or Burying Place, built by the
Family of the Lyttons". Among the members of the family buried in the
chapel were (1) Dame Judith Barrington, daughter of Sir Rowland Lytton,
and wife to Sir Thomas Barrington of Hatfield Broad Oak (d. 1657); (2)
Sir William Lytton, Kt. (d. 1660); (3) Sir Rowland Lytton, Kt. (d.
1674). To the Sir Rowland Lytton who died in 1582 (see above) there is a
fine brass with effigy, which also commemorates his wives Margaret and
Anne, and his three children. There are other memorials both in the
church and Lytton Chapel, among which note (1) brass to Simon Bache,
Treasurer of the Household to Henry V. and Canon of St. Paul's (d.
1414); (2) brass to John Hotoft, who filled the same office in the
Household of Henry VI. (d. _circa_ 1430). This brass formerly showed
effigies of Hotoft in armour with his wife beside him. Note also, near
the S. porch, two headstones with interesting inscriptions to servants
of the Lytton family, and close by, in the park, the mausoleum erected
by the mother of the novelist, who was buried within its walls. The
epitaph to her memory on the exterior was written by her son. Passing
out at the lodge gates we may turn left and reach a pretty dip, from
whence a walk of 3 miles N. over open country leads to Stevenage.
_Knebworth Green_ skirts the S. side of the park.
_Langley_, a hamlet on the Hatfield-Hitchin road, is 2 miles S.W. from
Stevenage Station (G.N.R.). Langley Bottom is a few minutes' walk N.
_Langleybury_ (1 mile S. from King's Langley Station, L.&N.W.R.) is
practically part and parcel of Hunton Bridge, the church standing W. and
the village E. of the main road from Watford to Hemel Hempstead. The
church is modern, a Gothic structure; on the S. is a good lich-gate.
Close to the S. porch is the large cross of Sicilian marble, by the
Florentine sculptor Romanelli, to the memory of the late W. J. Loyd, at
whose expense the church was erected. The walk from Langleybury to
Buck's Hill (W.), by way of West Wood, leads through some lovely bits of
scenery, and should on no account be omitted. At the outset the confines
of Grove Park are on the left and the road dips up and down as the woods
are passed, and is shaded by fine beeches in many spots.
_Layston_ was a village in Saxon times, but nothing now remains save the
ruins of the church, still almost intact, at the meeting of two lanes, 1
mile N.E. from Buntingford. It is a flint structure, E.E. and Perp. The
S. porch is in part demolished. There are monuments to the Crowch family
of seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.
LEA, river. (See Introduction, Section II.)
LEAVESDEN (about 2½ miles N. from Watford) is a village in the pretty
district between Grove Park and Bricket Wood. The ecclesiastical parish
was formed seventy years ago from the parishes of Watford and St.
Albans. The huge brick building on high ground a little N. is the
Metropolitan District Asylum for Idiots; it was erected in 1869. The
church dates only from the formation of the parish and is situated at
Garston, 1 mile E. It was designed by Sir Gilbert Scott and is E.E. _The
Grove_, a large mansion of red brick, was erected in 1760 by one of the
Villiers family, but has been restored and altered. The house contains a
part of the pictures collected by Clarendon; comprising portraits by
Vandyck, Lely, C. Janssens, Zucchero, Van Somer, Kneller, Hogarth, etc.
The park is extensive and beautiful.
LEMSFORD is another modern ecclesiastical parish, formed sixty years
ago. It is nearly 3 miles N. from Hatfield, on the S.E. side of _Brocket
Hall Park_. It is widely known for its large mill on the river Lea. The
church, erected in 1859 as a memorial to the sixth Earl Cowper, is E.E.
and Dec., with a good E. window, also to the memory of the earl. The
tower (W.) is lofty and embattled.
_Letchmore Heath_ (1½ mile S.W. from Radlett Station, M.R.) is a small
village.
_Letchworth_ (2 miles N.E. from Hitchin) has a small Perp. church,
containing a curious old brass to Thomas Wyrley, an early Rector (d.
1475). The effigy represents him with a heart in his hands. Another
brass, much defaced, dates from _circa_ 1400; it is to William Overbury
and Isabel his wife. The village, which almost adjoins that of Willian
(_q.v._), is ancient, and was once the property of Robert Gernon, a
Norman warrior who fought at Hastings. There was a church at _Leceworth_
at least as early as _temp._ Henry I., for during the reign of that
monarch it was given "with all its appurtenances and twelve acres of
land" to the monastery at St. Albans. _Letchworth Hall_, now a manor
house containing some good carved oak, was built by Sir William Lytton
(_circa_ 1620), and still bears on the S. front the arms of that family.
_Letty Green_ is close to Cole Green Station, G.N.R.
_Levens Green_ (1 mile S. from Great Munden) has a tiny chapel-of-ease
erected in 1893. The nearest station is Standon, G.E.R., 2½ miles E.,
between which and the hamlet lies the Old North Road.
LEVERSTOCK GREEN (1½ mile S.E. from Hemel Hempstead Station, M.R.) is in
a pleasantly diversified district, at the junction of the roads from St.
Albans and Abbot's Langley. It has a modern church, Gothic in style,
erected just before the district was constituted an ecclesiastical
parish in 1850.
_Ley Green_ is a hamlet 1 mile N. from King's Walden Church, and about 4
miles S.W. from Hitchin. It is on high ground.
LILLEY, a village on the Bedfordshire border, is 4 miles N.E. from Luton
(Beds). It was formerly called Lindley, and Lilly Hoo, and the old
manor, like so many others, was given to a Norman (Goisfride de Bech)
for services rendered at Hastings. The church is of ancient foundation,
but was rebuilt, in E. Dec. style, in 1870-71. Several old memorials are
still preserved, notably those to the Docwra family, early seventeenth
century. _Putteridge Bury_ (1 mile S.) is in the centre of a park of 450
acres; on or near the site of the house built by Thomas Docwra, J.P. and
High Sheriff of Herts, who died there in 1602. The present mansion dates
from the beginning of last century.
_Little Heath_ is on the Middlesex border, 1 mile N.E. from Potter's Bar
Station. The Dec. church, just off the Barnet-Hatfield road, is new.
LONDON COLNEY, a village on the main road from Barnet to St. Albans, is
on the river Colne. The nearest station is that of the G.N.R. at St.
Albans, 2¼ miles N.W. The church, built by the third Earl of Hardwicke
in 1825, is a plain brick structure of Gothic character. Half a mile E.
is _Tittenhanger Park_, a large brick mansion with tiled roof and dormer
windows, built by Sir Henry Blount in 1654. The manor had belonged to
the Abbots of St. Albans, who had a residence on the same spot,
commenced during the abbacy of John de la Moote and completed during
that of John Wheathampsted. Henry VIII. and Catherine of Arragon stayed
here during the "sweatinge sicknesse" (1528).
_Long Lane_ is a hamlet near the river Chess, 1½ mile S.W. from
Rickmansworth.
_Long Marston_, 1 mile N. from the Aylesbury Canal, is a village and
ecclesiastical parish in the extreme W. of the county. The nearest
station is Marston Gate, 1 mile N. The old church, a small Dec.
structure, was pulled down twenty years ago with the exception of the
tower, which stands in the disused graveyard. The new building,
adjoining the present burial ground, is Gothic, and contains some
portions of the old structure, and its two piscinæ.
_Lower Green._ (See Tewin.)
_Ludwick Hyde_ is in the parish of Hatfield, 3 miles N.E. from that
town.
_Luffenhall_, a little hamlet, is in the hollow between Weston and
Cottered, 5 miles W. from Buntingford Station. The district is one of
winding lanes and field footpaths so characteristic of the county.
_Lye End_, 2 miles S. from Sandon Church, is a hamlet lying W. from the
Buntingford-Royston road.
[Illustration: OLD COTTAGES NEAR MACKERY END]
MACKERY END, 1½ mile N.W. from Wheathampstead Station, G.N.R., is close
to Batford and Pickford mills on the river Lea. Charles and Mary Lamb
had talked about the place "all their lives" and the essay by the former
entitled "Mackery End in Hertfordshire" need only be named here. The
place, as Lamb mentions, was also called Mackarel End. John
Wheathampsted, who became thirty-third Abbot of St. Albans in 1420, was
the son of Hugh Bostok or Bostock of the village from which he took his
name; his mother was the daughter of Thomas Makery, "Lord of Makeyrend".
_Mangrove_ is a hamlet, partly in Offley and partly in Lilley parishes;
Mangrove Green is on the S. outskirts of Putteridge Bury Park, on the
Bedfordshire border. The nearest station to the latter is Luton (Beds).
_Maple Cross_, a hamlet 2½ miles S.W. from Rickmansworth, is near the
river Chess. It lies between Mill End and West Hyde, on the road to
Uxbridge.
MARAN, or MIMRAM, river. (See Introduction.)
_Marford_, _Old_ and _New_, are hamlets on the river Lea. The latter
adjoins the E. side of Wheathampstead village; the former lies ¼ mile
farther E.; the cress-beds, the hand-bridge over the river, and some
dilapidated cottages render it a picturesque spot. On the opposite side
of the road from Hatfield to Wheathampstead lies The Devil's Dyke, a
long, narrow gorge most beautifully wooded. It is a favourite haunt of
the nightingale, as the writer can testify.
MARKET or MARKYATE STREET (3½ miles S.W. from Luton, Beds) is a village
on the high road from St. Albans to Dunstable. The church, a little N.
from the village, in Cell Park, is small and uninteresting, with a
chancel added in 1892. The mansion called Markyate Cell, a little
farther N., is old, and occupies the site of the old Benedictine nunnery
built by Geoffrey de Gorham, sixteenth Abbot of St. Albans, at the
instigation of Roger the Monk, the church of which was consecrated in
1145. Cowper the poet was at school in the village, at the house of Dr.
Pitman.
MARLOWES is a suburb of Hemel Hempstead (_q.v._).
_Marsh Moor_ lies between Hatfield Park and Mimms Park. It is a hamlet
in the parish of North Mimms, 2 miles S. from Hatfield.
_Marston Gate_ is little more than the station (L.&N.W.R.) for Long
Marston, 1 mile S. It is nearly the extreme W. point of the county.
_Mayden Croft_, or Maiden Croft, is near the source of the river Hiz,
with the hamlet of Gosmore adjoining (S.E.). Some remains of a moat may
be traced, which are supposed to mark the site of a nunnery. The manor
is ancient; in the time of Edward III. it belonged to Sir Robert Nevill,
Kt.
MEESDON (6½ miles N.E. from Buntingford) has a very ancient flint
church, probably erected in the thirteenth century, but restored in
1877. The S. porch is Jacobean. The pavement of the Sacrarium is a
mosaic of many coloured, vitrified tiles; it is almost unique in the
county and is undoubtedly of great age. There is also in the chancel a
curious monument and inscription to Robert Young, gent. (d. 1626). Most
of the population are to be found at Meesdon Green, ½ mile W. from the
church.
On _Metley Hill_, between the Icknield Way and the village of
Wallington, may be seen Bush Barrow, one of the many ancient mounds in
the county concerning which so little is known.
_Micklefield Green_ (½ mile E. from Sarratt Church) is near the river
Chess and the Bucks border. The nearest station is Chorley Wood (Met.
R.) 2 miles S.W. The district is varied and undulating.
MILL END (1 mile S.W. from Rickmansworth) is on the Middlesex border,
close to the river Colne. The church (modern) is late Dec. in style, and
has several good stained windows. The village and parish were only
formed in 1875. There is also a hamlet of this name 1½ mile S.W. from
Buckland, on the Royston road.
_Mill Green_, at the N. end of Hatfield Park, is a pretty hamlet on the
Lea, near the old paper mill.
MIMMS, NORTH (3 miles N.W. from Potter's Bar Station, G.N.R.), is in one
of the prettiest districts in the county, although so close to
Middlesex. The church and parsonage are in the park, ½ mile from the
village. Dedicated to St. Mary the Virgin, the church is Dec., unusually
pure in style. It is said to have been built by Sir Hugh de Magneville
(_temp._ Stephen); I should think it more probable that Geoffrey de
Magneville, then Lord of the Manor, was the real founder, as stated by
Chauncy. However this may be, the structure is now almost wholly of
later date. The monuments and brasses are numerous and very interesting;
several of the latter, now in the chancel, were moved from their
original positions on the floor during the restoration sixty years ago.
Among them we may note (1) large black marble monument in chancel
surmounted by a figure of justice, to John Lord Somers, Baron of Evesham
(d. 1716); (2) altar tomb in N. aisle, with Elizabethan effigy, to a
Derbyshire family named Beresford; the inscription is only in part
decipherable; (3) mutilated brass to Sir Robert Knolles (d. 14--), and
to Elizabeth his wife (d. 1458); (4) brass to Sir Henry Covert (d.
1488); (5) fine old brass to Richard Boteler and Martha (Olyff) his wife
(_circa_ 1560); (6) brass, probably of Flemish workmanship, thought to
be a memorial to William Kesteven, vicar (d. 1361). This effigy is
closely described in Murray. "It is apparently Flemish, and resembles in
style that of Abbot de la Mare at St. Albans. He is vested in a chasuble
and stole, has a chalice on his breast, and over him is a rich canopy,
with, on the dexter side, St. Peter, and underneath SS. John the
Evangelist and Bartholomew, and in corresponding places on the sinister
SS. Paul, James the Great, and Andrew, with their respective emblems.
Above is the Almighty holding the soul of the deceased; at the sides
are two angels swinging censers." Separated from the chancel by an oaken
screen is the chantry-chapel of St. Catherine, dating from early
fourteenth century.
_North Mimms Park_ surrounds the fine Jacobean manor house of red brick,
recently in part restored, but originally built about 1600 by Sir Ralph
Coningsby; it is very extensive and can show some good carving, and a
chimney-piece dating from sixteenth century. E. from this park is
_Potterels_, a modern house standing in another but smaller park, and E.
again from Potterels is the more famous _Brookman's Park_, where, in
1682, Andrew Fountaine erected the mansion soon afterwards purchased by
the great Lord Somers who died here in 1716. The house was completely
burnt down thirty years ago and has only in part been rebuilt. The
further stretch of park adjoining Brookman's on the S. is _Gubbins_, or
more correctly _Gobions_, where formerly stood the old manor house in
which Sir Thomas More lived awhile with his family. The walks in each of
these parks are very fine, and most beautifully wooded; they command
distant views in many directions, and, in the autumn, are a perfect
study in colour. No London cyclist should fail to visit this picturesque
and interesting neighbourhood.
MIMMS, SOUTH, recently included in the administrative county of Herts,
has a restored, E. Perp. church, with fine massive W. tower. The Frowyk
chantry, at E. end of N. aisle, contains a very ancient tomb with
recumbent effigy of a knight in armour, under a richly designed canopy.
The knight was a Frowyk, and there are also some mutilated brasses to
this family. The village is prettily situated on rising ground, 1½ mile
W. from Potter's Bar Station, G.N.R. (Middlesex).
_Moneybury Hill_ is on the Bucks border, close to the Bridgewater
Column, 2 miles S.W. from Tring Station.
_Moor Green_ (3 miles W. from Buntingford Station, G.E.R.) is a hamlet
in Ardeley parish.
_Morrell Green_ is a hamlet 2 miles E. from Barkway on the Essex border.
The nearest station is Buntingford, nearly 6 miles S.E.
_Mortgrove_, on the Beds border, is little more than a modern house, 1½
mile S. from Hexton.
_Munches Green_ lies in the centre of that quiet district of villages
and hamlets which stretches between the G.N.R. and G.E.R. It is a hamlet
a little S.E. from _Ardeley Bury_ and nearly 4 miles W. from Westmill
Station, G.E.R.
MUNDEN, GREAT, formerly Mundon Furnival, from Gerrard de Furnival, who
was Lord of the Manor in the time of Richard I., is a village 2 miles W.
from Braughing Station, G.E.R. There is a Norman doorway on the N. side
of the church, and a small Perp. reredos which was discovered during
restoration in 1865. There is a brass in the chancel to John Lightfoot,
Canon of Ely (d. 1675). The hamlet of Nasty, a little N.E. from the
church, now takes Munden Furnival as its alternative name, but the older
historians give that title to the district around the parish church.