Majesty’s Judges three or four times a year at the Shire Hall,
Hertford, for the whole county; the Grand Jury on such occasions being
composed entirely, or mainly, of magistrates. Quarter Sessions, on the
other hand, are held four times a year at Hertford for the eastern, and
at the Court House, St Albans, for the western division of the county;
these courts being constituted by the magistrates for the county and
the mayors of the boroughs and city. Petty Sessions are held weekly,
fortnightly, or monthly at a number of the towns and larger villages.
In most cases the county magistrates in the immediate neighbourhood
preside at these sessions; but the city of St Albans and the two
boroughs have magistrates of their own, who also hold petty sessions
for trying cases which occur within the area of their jurisdiction.
St Albans is the centre of an episcopal diocese, which includes
most of that portion of London situated within the county of Essex.
Arrangements are, however, now in progress for relieving the Bishop of
St Albans of the care of that part of the diocese commonly known as
“London Over the Border.”
The diocese, so far as Hertfordshire is concerned, is divided into
archdeaconries, rural deaneries, and parishes. The latter are very
numerous, although somewhat less so than the civil parishes, for the
purposes of which, as already mentioned, the ecclesiastical parishes
are frequently split into an urban and a rural section. There are
170 ecclesiastical parishes situated wholly or partly within the old
county, of which 164 are included in the diocese of St Albans; while
three belong to Ely, two to Oxford, and part of one (Northwood) to
London.
The larger towns, the city, and the two boroughs have Education
Committees of their own; but for the rest of the county a Committee of
this nature is appointed by the County Council.
Hertfordshire has four parliamentary divisions, namely, Hertford,
Hitchin, St Albans, and Watford, each of which returns one member to
the House of Commons. The county is thus represented only by four
members, as against fifteen for Kent.
21. The Roll of Honour of the County.
Hertfordshire cannot hope to rival such counties as Norfolk or Kent in
its roll of distinguished names, but it can show a fairly long list of
persons connected with the county who have been famous.
Since reference has already been made in several of the foregoing
sections to the visits of English sovereigns to the county, or to their
residence within its borders, very brief mention of the connection
between royalty and the county will suffice in this place. Neither here
nor elsewhere in these pages is any attempt made to give a complete
list of such visits.
The names of Boadicea, queen of the Iceni, and of Offa, king of
Mercia, who had his palace at Offley, dying there in 796, will always
be specially connected with Hertfordshire. In a somewhat less degree
the same may be said of William the Conqueror, to whom, as already
mentioned, the crown of this realm was offered at Berkhampstead. Edward
II and Edward III frequently resided at Langley Palace, where Edmund de
Langley, the founder of the White Rose faction, was born in 1341; and
the same residence was also used by Richard II. Henry I and his consort
Matilda were present at the dedication of St Albans’ Abbey on its
completion by Abbot Paul; and Henry VI was at the first battle of St
Albans, where he was wounded. Henry VIII, as mentioned on page 82, was
still more intimately connected with Hertfordshire, and the manor of
Hitchin was conferred by him in turn on Anne Boleyn and her successors.
Reference has already been made to the residence of Queen Mary, in her
youth, at Ashridge, and of Queen Elizabeth (before her ascent to the
throne) both there and at Hatfield; while, as sovereign, Elizabeth
also visited St Albans on two or three occasions as the guest of Sir
Nicholas Bacon at Gorhambury, and also went to other great houses in
the county. James I, as mentioned on the same page, spent much time
at Royston, and died at Theobalds. The Rye House plot, so called from
the meeting-place of the conspirators at Broxbourne, as stated in an
earlier section, was devised for the purpose of assassinating Charles
II while on his way through the county.
In connection with personages of royal blood, mention may be made of
Humphry, Duke of Gloucester, whose name is so intimately associated
with St Albans’ Abbey, to the monastery of which he was admitted a
member in 1423; and also of Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough, who was
born at Sandridge in the eighteenth century, and built and endowed the
almshouses bearing her name in St Albans.
Among great statesmen connected with the county a prominent place must
be assigned to Queen Elizabeth’s councillors and favourites, Lord
Burleigh and the Earl of Essex. To her reign likewise belongs Sir
Nicholas Bacon, Keeper of the Great Seal, and owner of Gorhambury,
where he died in 1578. Nearly a century later (1652), Gorhambury came
into the possession of Sir Harbottle Grimston, well known as Speaker of
the House of Commons.
[Illustration: The Salisbury Statue, Hatfield]
Passing on to the Victorian age, we have two great statesmen, namely,
Lord Melbourne and Lord Palmerston, both of whom lived at Brocket,
where the former died; and, subsequently, the late Marquis of
Salisbury, owner of stately Hatfield. The first Viscount Hampden,
sometime Speaker of the House of Commons, was also a Hertfordshire man,
with his residence at Kimpton Hoo. Cecil Rhodes, the South African
premier and “Empire-builder,” likewise claims a place in the roll of
honour of the county, having been born at Bishop’s Stortford rectory,
and Commodore Anson, the great circumnavigator, though not a native,
lived at Moor Park, where he died in 1762.
[Illustration: Cecil Rhodes’s Birth-place, Bishop’s Stortford]
Dame Juliana Berners, imaginary prioress of Sopwell nunnery, who was
supposed to have written the immortal _Treatyse on Fysshynge with
an Angle_, the first work on angling ever published in England, has
been shown to be a myth. Among names famous in literature and science
the greatest connected with the county is perhaps that of the great
philosopher Sir Francis Bacon, afterwards Lord Verulam and Viscount
St Albans, who, during his father’s residence at Gorhambury, lived
in Verulam House, at the Pondyards. On the death of his father Sir
Nicholas Bacon he succeeded to Gorhambury. By a curious error he is
frequently called Lord Bacon, although no such title was ever in
existence. John Bunyan claims a place among Hertfordshire literary
worthies as he was connected with a chapel at Hitchin.
[Illustration: Ruins of Verulam House, the Residence of Francis,
Viscount St Albans]
[Illustration: Francis Bacon, Viscount St Albans]
Two of the greatest literary names connected with the county are those
of William Cowper the poet, and Charles Lamb, author of the _Essays of
Elia_, unsurpassed as a master of delicately humorous prose, whether as
essayist or letter-writer. The former was born at Berkhampstead rectory
in the year 1731; but Lamb was chiefly a visitor to the county, though,
as he tells us in the _Essays_, he was once a Hertfordshire landowner,
and his cottage at West Hill Green, about 2½ miles from Puckeridge,
still exists. Mackery End Farm was the residence of the Brutons, who
were his relatives, and it was to their house that his visits were
made; so that the neighbourhood is essentially Lamb’s country. It is a
question whether the Lyttons or the beauties of Knebworth, their home,
are the more famous. The great novelist, author of _The Last Days of
Pompeii_, _The Caxtons_, and innumerable other tales, as well as such
successful plays as _The Lady of Lyons_ and _Money_, was best known to
readers in the middle of the last century as Sir Edward Bulwer-Lytton,
though he began life as Mr Bulwer and died Lord Lytton. His son, poet,
Ambassador, and Viceroy, who wrote under the name of “Owen Meredith,”
was scarcely less distinguished, and received an Earldom in 1880. Here,
too, mention may be made of Mrs Thrale, the friend of Dr Johnson, who
was often at Offley Place, where her husband, whose family was long
connected with St Albans, was born. Offley Place was at this time a
fine old Elizabethan mansion, although it has since been rebuilt.
Gadebridge Park, Hemel Hempstead, was the residence of the great
surgeon Sir Astley Paston Cooper. But a greater distinction attaches to
the name of Rothamsted, near Harpenden, as being the residence of the
late Sir John Bennet Lawes, Bart., who, with his scientific colleague
Sir Henry Gilbert, conducted the experiments which made their names
famous throughout the agricultural world. Sir John Lawes first obtained
the idea of using fossilised phosphates for manure from Professor
Henslow, the great Cambridge botanist (himself sometime a resident
at Hall Place, St Albans), who sent him specimens obtained from the
Essex “Crag,” with a suggestion that they might be used as a source
of phosphoric acid. Yarrell, the naturalist, lies buried in Bayford
churchyard, with many members of his family. Last in the scientific
and literary list, we have the name of Sir John Evans, the great
antiquarian and numismatist of Nash Mills, Hemel Hempstead, who died so
recently as 1908. To Evans, in conjunction with the late Sir Joseph
Prestwich, is mainly due the credit of definitely establishing the fact
that the so-called flint “celts” are really the work of prehistoric
man. His most important and best work is _Ancient Stone Implements_.
[Illustration: Charles Lamb]
[Illustration: William Cowper]
Among great ecclesiastics mention must be made of Nicholas Breakspear,
born near Abbot’s Langley towards the close of the eleventh century,
who subsequently became Pope as Adrian IV; being the only Englishman
who has occupied the papal chair. Reference may also be made to
Cardinal Wolsey, who spent a considerable portion of his time at
Delamere House. Nor must we omit Young, the author of the _Night
Thoughts_ and Rector of Welwyn, or that great maker of hymns, Dr Watts,
who as the 36-year guest of Sir Thomas Abney resided at Theobalds,
where he died. Among distinguished lawyers, the most prominent name
is that of Lord Grimthorpe (formerly Sir Edmund Beckett), who was,
however, connected with the county, not in his professional capacity,
but as the restorer of St Albans’ Abbey and other churches in the
neighbourhood. Much criticism has been expended on Lord Grimthorpe’s
modes of “restoration,” which were certainly of a drastic character. It
must, however, be remembered that when he undertook the restoration of
St Albans’ Abbey it was in a dangerous condition, and sufficient money
was not forthcoming to make it secure. The result is that the abbey,
although in many ways unlike its former self, will stand for centuries.
Lord Grimthorpe, who was a Yorkshireman, built himself a residence at
Batchwood, near St Albans.
As another well-known lawyer and also a judge, mention may be made of
Lord Brampton (Sir Henry Hawkins), who came of a family long connected
with Hitchin, at which town he was born.
Sir Henry Chauncy, the antiquary and historian of the county, to whom
reference has so often been made in this book, lived, and died in 1700,
at Yardley; and Balfe, the composer, made his home at Rowney Abbey,
close by, till his death in 1870.
22. THE CHIEF TOWNS AND VILLAGES OF HERTFORDSHIRE.
(The figures in brackets after each name give the population in 1901,
and those at the end of the sections give the references to the
text.)
Abbot’s Langley (3342), a village situated on the Gade, with a station
on the North-Western Railway; it was bestowed in the time of Edward the
Confessor upon the then abbot of St Albans, whence its name. Hunton
Mill, on the Gade, was granted to Sir Richard Lee in 1544, and both
this and Nash Mills were farmed from the abbot of St Albans between
1349 and 1396. The present church, dedicated to St Lawrence, cannot be
traced farther back than the close of the twelfth century. A west tower
was added about 1200. (pp. 72, 90, 105, 149.)
Aldenham (2437), a village and manor lying to the north-east of
Watford. It has a grammar school; and near by is Aldenham Abbey, the
seat of Lord Aldenham. In 1898 two Roman kilns were discovered in
the parish. The church, which has been restored, contains one small
twelfth-century window; no trace of the chancel remains.
The Amwells--Great Amwell (1421), and Little Amwell (930)--small
villages not far from the Rye House. Amwell is associated with the name
of the Quaker poet, John Scott, who lived there for some time after
1740. Near by is Haileybury, formerly the training college for the
officials of the East India Company, but now a public school. (p. 135.)
Ashridge, a domain in Little Gaddesden parish, situated on the
Buckinghamshire border of the county, and celebrated for its splendid
beech woods. It was formerly the property of the Dukes of Bridgewater,
being acquired by the Egertons in 1604, but it is now owned by Earl
Brownlow. A building, formerly the porter’s lodge, includes some
remains of an old monastic college. The present house, which stands
partly in Buckinghamshire, was built by the eighth Earl of Bridgewater.
(pp. 115, 142.)
Ashwell (1281), a village on the Cambridgeshire border of the county,
with a station some distance away on the Royston and Cambridge branch
of the Great Northern Railway. Ashwell, which was formerly a town,
had a fair and a market in the time of William the Conqueror. It was
severely visited by the plague. Its church-tower is the only one in the
county built wholly of stone. (pp. 92, 113.)
Baldock (2057) is a market-town on the Icknield Way, to the north-west
of Hitchin, with a station on the above-mentioned branch of the Great
Northern Railway. It dates from Norman times, when it was known as
Baudok. During the Crusades, Baldock, like St Albans, Berkhampstead,
and Hoddesdon, had a lazar-house for lepers, who were at that time
numerous all over England. The list of Rectors is complete from the
days of the Knights Hospitallers in 1317. The church contains much
Decorated and Perpendicular work. (pp. 90, 94, 128.)
Barkway (661), originally Berkway, is a small town and manor situated a
few miles to the north-east of Buntingford. (p. 96.)
Barnet, or Chipping Barnet, originally Chipping Bernet (7876), a large
and important market-town near the Middlesex border of the county, with
a station (High Barnet) on a branch of the Great Northern Railway. Near
by are New Barnet and East Barnet, with a station on the main line, and
having a population of 10,024. The name Barnet is a corruption of the
Saxon _Bergnet_, signifying a little hill; the site of the town then
forming a small rising in the midst of the great forest; the prefix
Chipping = market is a word of Scandinavian origin, represented in the
Swedish Jonköping and the Danish Kjøbenhavn = (Copenhagen). Barnet
was the scene of a battle in 1471, when the Yorkists defeated the
Lancastrians, killing their leader, Warwick the king-maker. The market
was famous for its cattle; and in addition to this there is an annual
horse-fair, which formerly attracted dealers from all parts of the
country. (pp. 9, 53, 54, 82, 99, 128.)
East Barnet (2867), known as La Barnette in the thirteenth century, and
Low Barnet in the fifteenth century, is situated on the stream known as
Pymmes’ Brook, on the western side of the valley of which stands the
almost deserted old parish church.
Bayford (330), a village nearly midway between Hatfield and Hoddesdon.
In the churchyard is buried William Yarrell the naturalist. Bayfordbury
is celebrated for its collection of portraits of members of the Kitcat
Club painted by Sir Godfrey Kneller. (p. 147.)
Bengeo (3063), formerly Bengehoo, a village in the valley of the Beane
one mile north of Hertford. The old church, now little used, is one
of the oldest in the county, dating apparently from the early Norman
period. Together with Great Wymondley church, it is peculiar, so far as
Hertfordshire is concerned, in having an apsidal chancel. In place of a
tower, it has a wooden bell-cote. Panshanger, formerly the property of
the late Lord Cowper, is near by.
Bennington (522), a market-town and manor, situated on the Beane,
from which it takes its name; it was an important place in the ninth
century, when it was the residence of the kings of Mercia. The church
is fourteenth century. (pp. 53, 54, 56, 78, 111.)
Berkhampstead, or Berkhampstead Magna (5140), an important
market-town[3] on the London and North-Western Railway and Grand
Junction Canal, and one of the oldest in the county, the castle dating
from Norman times, and being possibly on the site of an earlier
Saxon edifice. It was here that the crown of England was offered to
William the Conqueror. The manor and castle were granted first to
Piers Gaveston and subsequently to Edward the Black Prince, but were
afterwards annexed to the Duchy of Cornwall. Berkhampstead, which
is now a petty-sessions town, and has an ancient grammar school,
formerly returned burgesses to Parliament. Its almshouses were built
in 1684. Cowper was born here. Berkhampstead Parva and Berkhampstead
St Mary’s--the latter now generally known as Northchurch--are villages
in the neighbourhood. The church dates from the thirteenth century; it
contains the beautiful Torrington tomb. (pp. 2, 7, 63, 80, 81, 82, 91,
92, 109, 111, 131, 132, 141.)
[3] The market at Berkhampstead has been discontinued for many years.
Bishop’s Stortford (7143) is the most important town on the Essex
border of the county, and has a station on the main line of the Great
Eastern Railway, and a bridge over the Stort. The town, which has a
market, possessed a considerable trade in Saxon times, and was the
property of the Bishop of London, and to protect this, and for the
purpose of consolidating his own rights, William the Conqueror built
a small castle here. Bishop’s Stortford has a grammar school, and
formerly returned members to Parliament. The church, which dates from
the tenth century, is an imposing Perpendicular edifice, and stands on
the site of an earlier building. (pp. 23, 24, 79, 92, 112, 132, 144.)
[Illustration: Bishop’s Stortford, and the River Stort]
Boxmoor (1127), a small town on the Grand Junction Canal and North
Western Railway. A Roman villa was discovered here some years ago. (pp.
132, 133.)
Braughing (930), a village to the north-west of Stortford, on the
Cambridge road, with a station on the Great Eastern Railway, situated
in the valley of the Quin. It dates from Saxon times, when it was
known as Brooking; and it was granted a market by Stephen. A Roman
sarcophagus and many Roman coins have been discovered in the parish.
(pp. 22, 113, 136.)
Broxbourne (748) is also a village on the Great Eastern Railway, to the
south of Hoddesdon: it contains an almshouse for poor widows founded in
the year 1728. The village is intimately connected with the Rye House
Plot. (pp. 128, 142.)
Buntingford (1272) is a market-town, with almshouses, on a branch of
the Great Eastern Railway running northwards from Stortford. It was
granted a market by Edward III. (pp. 54, 128.)
Bushey (2838), a parish in the south of the county, separated from
Watford about 1166. The village is now the site of the Herkomer Art
School. The church was “restored” in 1871, when a late Gothic window
was removed.
Bygrave (148), a small market-town a short distance north-east of
Baldock.
Cassiobury, a park and mansion at the north-west of Watford which has
for many generations been the residence of the Earls of Essex. The
present house is modern. (pp. 20, 21, 45, 84, 85, 136.)
Cheshunt (12,292) is a large market-town in the south-eastern corner
of the county, nearly north-west of Waltham Abbey, with a station
on the Great Eastern and some distance from the town itself. It is
celebrated for its nursery gardens, roses being especially cultivated.
Within Cheshunt parish is situated Theobald’s Park, at one time a royal
residence. Cheshunt Park is on the opposite, or north side of the town;
and near by are the remains of an old nunnery. (pp. 43, 99, 100, 128.)
Codicote (1145), a small village to the north-west of Welwyn. The
church was an ancient one, but a drastic “restoration” in 1853
destroyed much of the evidence of the age of its constituent portions.
(pp. 43, 128, 130.)
Elstree (1323), a village on the southern border of the county lying a
little west of the Midland Railway, on which it has a station. It is
rapidly becoming a suburb of London. (pp. 7, 11, 52, 126, 132.)
Flamstead (1039), a village near the Watling Street to the north of
Redbourn. The name is supposed to be a corruption of Verlampstead,
the Ver flowing in the valley below the village. The Thomas Saunders
almshouses were built in 1669. Beechwood, the seat of the Sebright
family is in the parish.
Great Gaddesden (746), a village in Dacorum Hundred to the north
of Hemel Hempstead. Gaddesden Place, which was burnt down in 1905
and rebuilt, is the seat of the Halsey family, who possessed the
neighbouring “Golden Parsonage” so long ago as 1544. The church
probably dates from the twelfth century. (pp. 19, 35, 42.)
The Hadhams--Much Hadham (1199), Little Hadham (655)--two villages
lying respectively to the south-west and north-west of Bishop
Stortford, and known to have been in existence in the time of the
Conqueror. The manor of Hadham Hall was granted by the crown to the
Bishops of London at the time when the survey recorded in Domesday
books was made. (pp. 12, 117.)
Harpenden (4725), a large village or small town on the Midland Railway,
almost exactly half-way between St Albans and Luton. During the last
twenty years Harpenden (“the valley of nightingales”) has nearly
doubled in size, and is rapidly increasing. Within the parish is the
agricultural experiment-station of Rothamsted; the laboratory being
situated on the borders of the village itself. About a mile to the
north is Shire-Mere, a small green partly in Hertfordshire and partly
in Bedfordshire, and in consequence a favourite site for prize-fights
in the old days. Harpenden has branch-lines connected with the Great
Northern and the North-Western Railways. With the exception of the more
modern tower, the church, which was largely Norman, was pulled down and
rebuilt in the sixties. A Norman arch remains in the tower. (pp. 7, 36,
37, 38, 43, 45, 47, 66, 67, 75, 96, 117, 130, 132.)
Hatfield, or King’s Hatfield (4330), is a small town on the main line
of the Great Northern Railway, chiefly noteworthy on account of its
connection with Hatfield House, the seat of the Cecils, Marquises of
Salisbury. As mentioned above, Hatfield was at one time a royal palace;
but the original building is now used as a stable and riding-school,
the present house being of Jacobean date. The residence at Hatfield of
Queen Elizabeth is connected with the old palace. Among the features
of Hatfield House are the marble hall, its oak-panelled walls hung
with tapestry, and its panelled ceiling painted; the grand staircase,
hung with portraits; the long gallery, with its armour and pictures;
King James’s drawing-room, a magnificently decorated apartment; the
great dining-room, with a bust of Lord Burleigh; the armoury; and
the beautiful chapel, with its exquisite Flemish window and a marble
altar-piece. Hatfield is an important railway centre for the county,
the Great Northern having branches to Hertford, St Albans, and
Harpenden and Luton. Petty sessions are held in the town. In the church
are the monuments of the Cecil family, and a statue of the late Lord
Salisbury, erected by county subscription, stands at the park entrance.
(pp. 20, 23, 31, 34, 43, 83, 115, 116, 128, 132, 142.)