lived at New Barns, in this parish. Both in this church and churchyard, as well as in the abbey, many noblemen, gentlemen, and common soldiers, were buried who fell in those two battles, between king Henry VI. and his barons in May 1455, and queen Margaret and the barons in 1461; at the first of which the king was taken prisoner, and again recovered at the last. Key Field, the Chequer Inn, Holywell Street, &c. are particularly mentioned in the accounts of one or other of these battles. The pillars that support the roof of this fabric are remarkably handsome, light, and neat. In the steeple is a fine peal of ten bells, and a clock.

St. Michael's church is situate at the west end of the town, out of the borough, and within the walls of the city of Verulam. It is rather smaller than St. Peter's, and has a ring of six bells. The living is a vicarage, in the gift of lord Grimstone. In the chancel is the family vault of the family of that nobleman. On the north side of this chancel, in a niche in the wall, is the effigy of the famous Francis Bacon, lord Verulam, made of alabaster, and seated in a ehair of ebony, in the attitude of study.

Under

after they had gone on for years, sometimes using the church, and at other times having it shut up. To close the scene, on the morning of Saturday, the 21st of November, 1801, (service being at that time performed every Sunday,) the whole floor of the belfry fell at once into the body of the church, and crushed several of the pews to pieces; a beam that supported the floor, and rested on the piers, having broke off, being quite rotten. This event obliged the parish to apply to parliament for an act to enable them to re-build the tower and chancel upon a reduced scale, and more effectually to repair the church: this act passed on the 24th of March, 1803. The bishop of Ely, to whom the chancel belonged, agreed to its being made smaller, and with his lessees of the great tithes of the rectory, handsomely contributed towards the expence, on condition that the parish should secure to the appropriator, the site of the old chancel, and maintain the new one for the time to come. The architect appointed to effect the recent alterations, was Mr. Robert Chapman, of Wormwood Street, London."

This nobleman was lord high chancellor of England under king James I. He was born in 1560, being the son of Sir Nicholas Bacon,

Under his effigy is a Latin inscription, by Sir Henry Wotton, of which the following is a translation:

Francis Bacon, baron of Verulam, viscount St. Alban's, or, by more conspicuous titles, of sciences the light, of eloquence the law, sat thus: who, after all natural wisdom and secrets of civil life he had unfolded, Nature's law fulfilled, Let compounds be dissolved!' in the year of our Lord 1626, of his age sixty-six. Of such a man, that the memory might remain, Thomas Meautys, living his attendant, dead his admirer, placed this monument,

The above panegyric, as it respects the literary character only of this great man, will be universally admitted; but it

lord keeper of the great seal in the reign of queen Elizabeth, by Anne, daughter of Sir Anthony Cook, eminent for her skill in the Latin and Greek languages. Francis, even in his infancy, gave tokens of what he would one day become; and queen Elizabeth had many times occasion to adire his wit and talents, and used to call him her young lord keeper. He studied Aristotle's philosophy at Cambridge; and he made such a rapid progress in his studies, that at sixteen years of age he had run through the whole circle of the liberal arts as they were then taught, and even then began to perceive those imperfections in the reigning philosophy which he afterwards so effectually exposed, and thence not only overturned that tyranny which prevented the progress of true knowledge, but laid the foundation of that free and useful philosophy which has since opened a way to so many glorious discoveries. On his leaving the university, his father sent him to France; where, before he was nineteen years of age, he wrote a General View of the State of Europe: but, his father dying, he was obliged suddenly to return to England, where he applied himself to the study of the common law at Gray's Inn. His merit at length raised him to the highest dignities in his profession, attorney-general and lord high chancellor: but in this high office he was accused of bribery and corruption; and, being brought to trial before the house of lards, he was found guilty, and sentenced to pay a fine of forty thousand pounds, and to be imprisoned during the king's pleasure: but his majesty soon after remitted both fine and punishment. From that time Bacon lived mostly a retired life, closely pursuing his philosophical studies and amusements, in which time he composed the greatest part of his works; though even in the midst of his honours and employments he forgot not his philosophy, but in 1620 published his Novum Organum, or "New Organ of Sciences," In this philosophical retirement he died, anno 1626, being sixty-six years of age.

will be an awful lesson of instruction, to those who contemplate splendid talents without adverting to the superior splendour of moral excellence, when they reflect that Bacon's real character is justly summed up by Pope in these lines: If parts allure thee, think how Bacon shin'd, The wisest, brightest, meanest of mankind.

In the churchyard is a memorial for Dr. NATHANIEL COTTON, author of " Visions in Verse," &c.

A very respectable body of Dissenters inhabit in this town; there are four meeting houses, for Independents, Quakers, Anabaptists, and Presbyterians; the latter have established a school for the education and clothing of thirty boys and ten girls; besides these, there are thirty boys belonging to the establishment, who are clothed and educated at the expence of the corporation, assisted by voluntary contributions from others. The dowager lady Spencer clothes and educates, at a school of industry, a certain number of poor girls; and a great number of children of both sexes are instructed at a Sunday school.

There are several almshouses at St. Alban's; but none claims the attention of the stranger equal to a building situate on the side of the Hertford road, going out of the town, built and endowed by Sarah duchess of Marlborough. It consists of nine different houses, each divided into four apartments, for the residence of thirty-six old decayed tradesmen*.

The buildings form three sides of an oblong square, each house having a small piece of garden ground behind it, and a fine grass plot before it, enclosed with palisades next the road. Some of the upper apartments are extremely pleasant, enjoying a fine prospect from east to south.

The clock tower in the centre of the town bears marks of antiquity; but it cannot be ascertained when it was built. It is a lofty square tower, the sides of flint, and the corners of free-stone, raised on strong arches of stone; the

* It is said, that the duchess originally founded it for the reduced widows and maiden daughters of officers.

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lower part of it has been for some time used for the postoffice. In the upper part of this building a large bell, formerly used to be rung at stated times, morning and evening, as a curfew.

In the town hall are holden the quarter sessions for the liberty, as well as for the borough; also the court of requests, the meeting of the commissioners of the land-tax, the monthly court of the mayor and aldermen, and a petit sessions, every Saturday. This ball is occasionally converted into a ball room, and sometimes public dinners are held hiere, particularly the mayor's feast, on St. Matthew's day; on these occasions sometimes near three hundred persons have dined in the hall. Underneath the town hall is the prison for the borough, and an engine house; and a dwelling for the jailer.

Near the town hall is the market house, to which great quantities of corn are brought. The first origin of this market was by the interest, and in the time of, abbot Ul sinus, who may be called the great patron of the town, which was considered as part of the demesne of the abbey at the time of the Conquest. By the charter of Charles II. the privileges of the town were much extended and con firmed to the corporation, and particularly pointed out. Under this charter the corporation still acts, by which no higler, foreigner, &c. is to buy any commodity before the market bell rings, (generally at ten o'clock,) at which time the farmers untie their sacks of grain for the inspection of buyers, under a penalty, except the freemen and inhabitants, who may buy for their own use any article without any regard to the bell. This market is well supplied with poultry, butter, eggs, &c. The market cross stands on the spot of ground formerly occupied by a stone cross erected to the memory of queen Eleanor, by Edward I. (about 1290.)

This liberty extends its jurisdiction in matters both civil and ecclesiastical to the parishes of Watford, Rickmansworth, Norton, Ridge, Hoxton, Abbot's Walden, Abbot's Langley, Sarret, Elstree, Bushy, Caldicot, Shepehale, Sandridge, Redbourn, and Barnet, for which there is a gaol delivery at St. Alban's.

In 1794 an act of parliament was obtained for avoiding some dangerous turnings in the public road, in consequence of which, part of the Cross Keys Inn and Keyfield was purchased by the trust, for the purpose of making a spacious and straight road through the town. An act of parliament has likewise been procured for bringing a navigable canal, to pass hence through the lower end of Watford, and communicating with the grand junction canal near Cashiobury Bridge, under the direction of the grand junction company.

Two common breweries, a cotton manufactory, and an oil mill, afford employ for several hands; and there are several good corn mills both above and below the town, on the river Ver. St. Alban's boasts a healthy air, a pleasant situation, spacious, streets, and a good neighbourhood; and many very respectable families reside in the town.

SOPEWELL, was a house for Benedictine nuns, built upon the following occasion. Two religious women constructed for themselves a booth with leaves of trees, and covered it with bark, near Eywood, by the river, and lived in great abstinence, chastity and prayer a considerable time, with which abbot Jeffery being made acquainted, he built them a cell, appointed them to be cloathed with vests, after the manner of nuns, and to live after the rule of St. Benedict. He gave them also possessions and rents to support their religious life; but being tender of the reputation of his nuns, he ordered that they should be always locked up in their house, and that none should be taken into the college but a select number of virgins, not to exceed thirteen; he also gave to them a burying place, which he caused to be consecrated, and appointed, that none but the nuns of that house should be buried there. Nothing of the nunnery now remains but some of its walls.

Henry de Albancio, and Cicely, his wife, with Roger, his brother, and Robert, his son, gave two hides and one virgate of land in their manor of Cotes, and Richard de Tony his land, called Blackhide, in the soke of Tidebang, to God, Mary the mother of Christ; and the maidens of

this