Chapter III: Part II: ), stands on the south of the chapel; the coffin may be seen

by raising the trap-door. On the north side is the Watching Gallery, where a monk sat to guard the shrine and its treasures. It dates from _c._ 1400. There is only one other in England.

Leaving by the north door again, the shrine of St. Amphibalus, dating from 1350, is seen. It was likewise demolished at the Reformation. The Lady Chapel and its ante-chapel were erected between 1260 and 1320, and exhibit Early English and Decorated architecture. They have been restored under Lord Grimthorpe. Forty nobles who fell in the first Battle of St. Albans are interred here. At the Reformation the chapels were converted into school premises for St. Albans Grammar School, and used as such for 300 years. The stone carving is particularly beautiful. Passing out by the south door, an altar slab is seen, with its five crosses; a grille, dating from _c._ 1270, which is the only trellis screen in England; and upon the south the openings to former external chapels. In the Wheathampstead Chapel may be seen the brass of Abbot de la Mare (1349 to 1396), reputed to be the finest ecclesiastical brass in existence.

The ~Great Gateway of the Monastery~, opposite to the west front of the Abbey Church, dates from 1361, and now forms part of St. Albans Grammar School, one of the oldest, if not _the_ oldest, scholastic foundations in the kingdom. It was probably founded in the reign of King Edred, about 948, and among the eminent personages attending it have been Alexander Nequam, foster-brother of Richard I.; Matthew Paris, who left the school in 1217 and entered the monastery; Sir John Mandeville, the famous writer of his supposed travels, who lies buried in the abbey; and Nicholas Breakspere, born in 1090, who subsequently became Pope of Rome, the only Englishman who has attained to that dignity. In 1195 the school was the largest in England. In 1381 the gates were forced by the rioters in Wat Tyler's rebellion and the precincts of the monastery invaded; and in 1480 the third printing-press in England was set up in the building. Among post-Reformation scholars one of the most distinguished was Francis Bacon.

At the bottom of the lane leading from the monastery gateway is the well-known Fighting Cocks Inn, reputed to be the oldest inhabited house in Britain, and a few steps from it the River Ver. Crossing the stream, the British causeway is reached, one of the most ancient earthworks in Great Britain, and the Roman walls lie just beyond. The visitor here stands upon soil which recalls memories of the earliest period in the chronology of English history.

~Verulamium.~--At the time of Cæsar's invasion, 54 B.C., Cassivelaunus was ruling over a great tract of country, with his capital at _Verulamium_, the home of a long line of ancestors. The Roman general captured the city and exacted tribute. In A.D. 42 the town submitted to the Romans under Aulus Plautius, but was sacked and burnt by Boadicea and her followers in A.D. 61. Rebuilt and fortified with walls and towers, it was the first Roman city built in Britain. Its area is 203 acres. In A.D. 58 Nero made it a _municipium_, or free city, York being the only other town so honoured. It was essentially a trading and residential city, and became the capital of Southern Britain. In 303 St. Alban was led out of the gates and martyred upon Holmhurst, where the Abbey Church was subsequently erected. By 436 the Roman occupation had ceased, and swarms of Picts and Scots, Irish pirates, and Northmen overran the district. Many battles were fought, and in 516 _Verulamium_ was sacked and burnt. It served as a quarry for many hundreds of years, yielding building materials for the monastery and town. The only Roman theatre as yet discovered in Britain came to light about fifty years since, and the foundations of the largest building as yet unearthed in our islands were revealed a few years ago. The thorough excavation of the whole site is being mooted at the present time.

~St. Michael's Church~ is of Saxon architecture, dating from 948. It contains an Elizabethan pulpit with hour-glass stand, and the tomb and statue of Francis Bacon, Viscount St. Albans.

The ~Two Battles of St. Albans~ were fought in 1455 and 1461, the first chiefly in St. Peter's Street and its byways, and the second upon Bernard's Heath, lying to the north of St. Peter's Church, in whose churchyard many thousands of the slain were interred.

The ~Clock Tower~ in the High Street dates from 1410, and contains a medieval bell of beautiful workmanship, _c._ 1403, the curfew bell.

Other objects of interest in St. Albans are Sopwell Ruins, St. Stephen's Church, and Gorhambury, two miles distant, the house of the Bacons.

* * * * *

Shortly after leaving St. Albans by the Redbourn road, the River Ver is crossed at Bow Bridge, and here the Watling Street from London, which has passed through the centre of Verulam, joins the road, and from this point until Chester is reached the way lies almost entirely upon this great Roman artery. It is intact from London to St. Stephen's Church, St. Albans, and, with a few gaps, from near Bow Bridge to Chester.

At ~Redbourn~ a few quaint old houses still linger in the long, narrow street. To reach the church, which is Norman and Early English, a turn to the left is taken at the entrance to the village. It contains a very fine chancel screen.

Flamstead lies half a mile off the main road, at the summit of a steep hill. The church has recently been restored--a restoration in the true sense of the word.

A long, steady rise through beautiful country eventually leads to

DUNSTABLE

The modern town is successor to the ancient station of _Durocobrivæ_ and a great Roman market, the _Forum Dianæ_.

[Map: TOWN PLAN NO. 2--DUNSTABLE.]

The district is remarkably rich in British and Roman remains: Maiden Bower, a circular British earthwork, and Totternhoe, a combined British and Roman fort, lie at short distances from the town (see Map). The Watling Street is crossed here in the centre of the town by the Icknield Way, and a piece of the Roman road was exposed near this spot, which was 9 inches thick and intensely hard, of cemented flints and sandstone.

Turning to the right, along Church Street (part of the Icknield Way), the priory church, with its beautiful west front, is seen upon the right.

~Dunstable Priory Church.~--Founded 1131, the church is but a fragment of that which formerly stood here. Tower, transepts, chancel, and Lady Chapel have disappeared, and even the nave, which remains, has been curtailed. The body of Queen Eleanor rested here in 1290 upon its progress to London; and in 1533 Archbishop Cranmer held his court in the church, and formally divorced Queen Catherine of Aragon from the King. The priory was dissolved in 1534. The greater part of the building is Transition Norman, the chevron and billet ornamentation being of excellent workmanship. The north aisle is Perpendicular. In the chancel are ten balusters of Flemish design and execution. Undoubtedly the great feature of the building is the exquisite west front, which, though suffering in parts from recent restoration, still delights the ecclesiologist. It contains four orders of architecture, which effectually harmonize with one another.

Mr. Worthington G. Smith, the eminent local antiquary, has written a most admirable handbook to the town, which will supplement these brief particulars.