THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 PRESENTED BY 
 
 PROF. CHARLES A. KOFOID AND 
 
 MRS. PRUDENCE W. KOFOID 
 

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TWO LECTURES 
 
 ON THE 
 
 HISTORY AND ANTIQUITIES 
 
 OF 
 
 BERKHAMSTED. 
 
 BY 
 
 JOHN WOLSTENHOLME COBB, M.A. 
 
 LONDON : 
 
 PRINTED BY NICHOLS AND SONS, 
 
 25, Parliament Street. 
 
 M.DCCC.LXXX11I. 
 
J) til 16 
 
 / 2*3 
 
 PEEFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. 
 
 The Lectures contained in the following pages 
 formed part of the course delivered to the Members 
 of the Berkhamsted Mechanics' Institute during the 
 winter of 1854-5. 
 
 They are printed at the request of those who heard 
 them, though, from their simple and conversational 
 style, it will at once be perceived that they were 
 originally written without any idea of publication. 
 Compiled indeed, as they were, only in the short 
 intervals which parochial engagements allowed for 
 them, nothing elaborate was possible. Trouble, how- 
 ever, has not been spared to render them a trustworthy 
 and connected record of the History and Antiquities 
 of Berkhamsted. It is, perhaps, needless to say that 
 much was omitted in their delivery for the sake of 
 being as little tedious as possible. 
 
 Instead of encumbering each page with references, 
 it has been thought sufficient to append a general list 
 of books consulted. 
 
 Many thanks are due to numerous friends for their 
 valuable contributions and corrections. 
 
 Any profit which may arise from the sale of this 
 publication will be added to the funds of the Institute. 
 
 Berkhamsted, December, 1855. 
 
PEEFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. 
 
 At the request of tbe Committee of the Mechanics' 
 Institute, I have carefully revised these Lectures with 
 a view to republication. I have thought it best to 
 make as few alterations as possible in the text of the 
 work, and to throw such further information as I 
 have acquired into the shape of notes [ ] and Appen- 
 dices [VII.-XL] That portion of Lecture II. which 
 relates to the Church must, of course, be always supple- 
 mented by Appendix VIII , which contains an account 
 of the Church as it is. This is the only instance in 
 which I have thought it right to make any reference 
 to what has happened in our own times. I am 
 thankful to say that the necessary corrections of errata 
 have not been numerous. It has been with me a 
 labour of love to comply with the request of the 
 Committee, and an agreeable task as Hector to re- 
 call many pleasant associations of former days when 
 I was Curate. I have again to express my best 
 thanks for additional information to many old and 
 not a few new Mends. It may perhaps be well to 
 state that the copyright of the book still remains in 
 the hands of the Institute. 
 
 I add with pleasure that for the plan of the Church 
 the best thanks of the Institute are due to Messrs. 
 Batterbury and Huxley, architects, who have pre- 
 pared it, and to Dr. Batterbury, the President of the 
 Institute, who has contributed it. To the President 
 and to the Committee for their kind co-operation I 
 myself am greatly indebted, and most especially to 
 my old friend Mr. Henry Nash, still the Secretary. 
 
 Rectory, Berkhamsted, January, 1883. 
 
REFERENCES. 
 
 E Keep. 
 P Inner Ward. 
 Q Inner Ditch. 
 H Outer Ditch. 
 I Middle Bank 
 K Bastions. 
 L Gateway. 
 
 iff c - 
 
 BERKHAMSTED CASTLE. 
 
 (By permission of the Royal Archaeological InstiUite.) 
 
HISTORY AND 
 ANTIQUITIES OF BERKHAMSTED. 
 
 LECTURE I. 
 
 DELIVERED ON THE EVENING OF TUESDAY, JANUARY 23, 1855. 
 
 It is certainly right that we should all know something of the 
 history of the place in which we live ; and though I dare say 
 many here to-night are, as old inhabitants ought to be, well 
 acquainted with everything that relates to the history of Berk- 
 hamsted, still no doubt there are some who have seldom if ever 
 given the subject any thought at all. I trust, therefore, that to 
 such among you, at any rate, the facts I have been able to collect 
 about the history and antiquities of this town and neighbour- 
 hood may not prove uninstructive, and, though to many they 
 are not new, still I hope they may not be without some degree 
 of interest to you all. I myself, I can assure you, have felt no 
 ordinary interest in the collection of materials for a lecture on the 
 history of a place of which I must say I have every reason to be 
 very fond, though I have been resident in it but so short a time. 
 Of course, from the very nature of my subject, you must see at 
 once that I can pretend to little originality in the remarks I am 
 about to offer. For much of what 1 have put together I am 
 indebted to those of my friends who have kindly lent me books 
 or otherwise given me valuable help and information ; and when 
 I tell you further that I have made several pilgrimages to the 
 
 B 
 
2 HISTORY OF BERKHAMSTED. 
 
 British Museum and there consulted many curious volumes 
 which I could not find elsewhere, I think you will have a pretty 
 general idea of the sources from which my lecture has been 
 compiled. 
 
 Having said thus much by way of preface, I will at once 
 proceed with my subject. 
 
 The first thing we shall be anxious to know is the meaning of 
 the name of our town. In the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, a series 
 of annals written probably almost contemporaneously with the 
 events they describe, we find mention of our town in the account 
 of the Norman Conquest as Beophhamrcebe; in Domesday Book, 
 which was completed in 1086, we read it Berchehamstede, and 
 in the early Latin Chronicles we constantly meet with it simply 
 as Beorcham. Thus, for instance, the advance of the Conqueror 
 is described by Florentius, the Monk of Worcester, as "ad 
 villain quae Beorcham nominatur." Now 1 mention this par- 
 ticularly, because it serves as an illustration of the fact that the 
 syllable " stede " is merely a terminal expletive, adopted simply 
 as indicating more fully place or position. In this way we find it 
 used in the words road-stead and home-stead, which last is 
 indeed precisely the same as the last two syllables of the name 
 of our town — since ham and home are etymologically identical 
 and signify a dwelling — to which if we add, as we often do, the 
 term place, thereby making it dwelling-place, we shall have the 
 exact equivalent to ham-sted. Ham-sted as you know is a very 
 common termination of local names. To take this county only, 
 we have our own town ; Hemel or Hean-Hempsted, i. e., the 
 high Hamsted, for of course the name Hemel Hempsted has 
 nothing to do with hemp ; Northamsted the north Hamsted ; Roth- 
 amsted the red Hamsted ; and Whethamsted the wheat Hamsted. 
 What sort of Hamsted then is ours — Berk-hamsted? To answer 
 this question we must consider the etymology of the first syllable. 
 Whether it be spelt beorh, berg, berk, or borough, it is etymo- 
 logically the same, and signifies originally an artificial tumulus 
 
HISTORY OF BERKHAMSTED. 3 
 
 or mound ; and, as applied to a town, a work of this sort raised 
 for defence. Accordingly we are told by Anglo-Saxon scholars 
 that whenever we find " bury "or " burg " in the name of a 
 town, we may regard it as an evidence of fortification in Anglo- 
 Saxon times, though of course it does not absolutely prove to us 
 that such fortification was then existing for the first time. In 
 the same way you know it is that "chester" or "caster" indi- 
 cates a Roman military position. Such, then, we may believe 
 to be the first and literal meaning of the word " berg." 
 Secondarily, however, and metaphorically, it comes to signify a 
 natural mountain or hill, and this is the meaning which has 
 usually been attached to it as regards the name of our town. 
 Thus, Norden, the oldest historian of the county, asserts that the 
 Saxons in ancient times called this town Berghamstedt because 
 it was villa sita inter montes: "berg" signifying a hill, "ham" 
 a town, and "stedt" a seat; and Chauncy, "the Herodotus of 
 Hertfordshire," quotes this derivation with approbation, adding, 
 (what no one can deny,) " all which was very proper for the 
 situation hereof." I have now suggested two explanations of 
 the name Berkhamsted, and must leave you at liberty to adopt 
 whichever you please : the one metaphorically gives its meaning 
 as the town situated amongst the hills, or the hill homestead ; 
 the other literally, and therefore perhaps more correctly, makes 
 it equivalent to the fortified homestead or dwelling-place by the 
 burys. With respect to the addition of the word Great, some- 
 times applied to distinguish our town from Little Berkhamsted* 
 on the other side of the county, as it was considered unnecessary 
 in former times, so indeed it ought to be in our own. The 
 s/ime may be said of the ecclesiastical appellation St. Peter, by 
 which our parish is distinguished from the adjacent one of 
 Berkhamsted St. Mary, or " North Berchamstede," or, as it is 
 now generally called, Northchurch. 
 
 * It may be well to remark here that Bishop Ken was a native of Littlo 
 Berkhamsted, and not, as has often been said, of our towm 
 
 B 2 
 
4 HISTORY OF BERKHAMSTED. 
 
 Next a few words about the orthography of the name of our 
 town : you know that there are and have been a great many 
 ways of spelling it, though perhaps you are not aware of quite 
 so many as are put down in the accompanying list. This list 
 contains 50 different spellings, for each of which I could give 
 you the authority if necessary, and which I have no doubt might 
 be very much enlarged. The earliest mention of the entire 
 name which I have been able to discover occurs in the Anglo- 
 Saxon Chronicle to which I have before referred, and there it is 
 spelt thus : Beojihhanij-cebe. It would appear however that the 
 orthography of the entire name most akin to the present genius 
 of the language, and at the same time most strictly literal as to 
 its etymology, is BERKHAMSTED, a mode of spelling which 
 has the no small recommendation of being the shortest, and for 
 which also we have excellent authority — the authority of the 
 illustrious Camden. With regard to the insertion of the letter 
 p, I may just remark that, though frequently interpolated, as in 
 Hampshire, Hampton, Hampstead, Hampden, &c, still it never 
 occurs in this position in any purely Anglo-Saxon document. 
 Its earliest occurrence in the name of our town which I re- 
 member to have seen is in an epistle, by no means a pleasing 
 one, from Pope Innocent to King John, in the tenth year of 
 his reign, in which he bids him make restitution of the goods 
 of Queen Berengaria, his brother Richard's wife. 
 
 As to the pronunciation, of course it will vary, just as we say 
 Barkshire or Berkshire. Barclay or Berkeley. It is plain how 
 the word was pronounced in the middle of the sixteenth century 
 from the spelling Barkhamsted which then first occurs. As bear- 
 ing directly on this subject, we may quote the words of Chauncy 
 respecting Hertford : " Doubtless, it was merely called Hartford 
 for Hertford, by reason of the broad dialect and ill-speaking of 
 the vulgar sort of people, which oftentimes through long usage 
 changed the true names of divers places." 
 
 * Vide Appendix I. 
 
HISTORY OF BE11KHAMSTED. 
 
 I need hardly remark, however, that we have here no criterion 
 whereby to decide on the correct or approved pronunciation of 
 the present day. * 
 
 Having said thus much of the name, we will now proceed 
 with the History of Berkhamsted. Its early history, like that of 
 most other places, is involved in obscurity. The learned Dr. 
 Stukeley has contended that it stands on the site of the ancient 
 British town of Durocobrivis, " the city of the marshy stream," 
 an honour which has also been claimed for Dunstable, Redburn, 
 Ravensborough, and Hertford. Now, without attempting to 
 settle this very doubtful point, it may not be uninteresting to 
 make one or two remarks on what is certainly the oldest relic 
 in our neighbourhood, I mean the " Gryme's Dyke." You 
 must all have observed in walking to Frithsden a great bank or 
 wall of earth with a ditch in front extending across the common. 
 This is part of what is called Gryme's Dyke, a name however 
 by no means peculiar to this particular earthwork. Its probable 
 meaning is " the magic trench," and like the name Devil's 
 Bridge, so common in this and other countries, it seems to have 
 been appropriated originally by the ignorant to what they con- 
 sidered a work of superhuman construction. As applied to the 
 earthwork on the common, the name occurs under the spelling 
 " Grymesdich" in so early a document as the charter granted 
 to Ashridge by Edmund Earl of Cornwall, in the reign of 
 Henry III. In all probability we see in this Gryme's Dyke an 
 ancient British earthwork, erected by the Celts after the taking 
 of Verulam, as a means of defence against the invading Belgae. 
 The bank and ditch have been traced as far as Wendover and 
 Missenden, and when defended by the valour of a hardy race 
 must have afforded no insignificant obstruction to an advancing 
 
 * [Cf. an excellent paper by Freeman in the first number of Longman's Maga- 
 zine, in which the subject is illustrated by "Clerk" pronounced Clurk or Clark 
 (French Claire) ; also " German," " Jersey," formerly Jarman, Jarsey. l'robably 
 the original pronunciation of Berkhamsted was like the spelling — Beorchamsted.] 
 
6 HISTORY OF BERKHAMSTED. 
 
 foe. Such are the traces which the earliest inhabitants of this 
 island have left behind them in our neighbourhood.* 
 
 Whilst Britain was in the hands of the Romans, the highway f 
 in all probability ran pretty nearly in the same direction as at 
 present, and the soldiers of the Empire marched from Verulam 
 to Bicester along the valley in which our town now stands. 
 There is a curious local tradition that at this early period in its 
 history this neighbourhood was visited by St. Paul, who drove 
 away from it for ever all serpents and thunderstorms. Unfor- 
 tunately the latter part, at any rate, of this tradition is utterly 
 falsified by experience. So much for the history of our neigh- 
 bourhood before the Anglo-Saxon invasion. The more formal 
 foundation, however, of our town, as its name implies, would 
 appear to date from Anglo-Saxon times. England was then 
 divided, not as it is now into counties, but into kingdoms, in 
 each of which there was a separate king. This part of the 
 country was in the kingdom of Mercia — a kingdom which com- 
 prised the whole of the midland counties ; and in this great 
 kingdom, so suitable did the locality of Berkhamsted appear, 
 that we are told it was selected by the Mercian kings as a fre- 
 quent place of residence. If we may trust Sir Henry Spelman, 
 the first event of interest in the annals of our now important 
 town was the great council or parliament which was held here 
 by King Wihthrsede, a.d. 697. This, however, is contradicted 
 by Gough and Kemble, who claim the honour for Brasted, in 
 Kent, a supposition certainly borne out by the fact that Kent 
 and not Mercia was governed by King Wihthrsede. Notwith- 
 standing these doubts as to the place of meeting, it may not be 
 undesirable to know something of the history of this famous 
 
 * I may mention here that Lord Londesborough has in his possession a coin 
 of Cunobeline, which was discovered at Berkhamsted: Obv. CVN. beneath a 
 horseman galloping to the right. Rev. Victory walking to the right holding a 
 garland. JE. Weight 49 gr.— Num. Chron. ii. 192. Several Roman coins have 
 also been fonnd here. 
 
 I [Akeman Street.] 
 
HISTORY OF BERKHAMSTED. 7 
 
 council. It was held under the presidency of Birtwald, Arch- 
 bishop of Canterbury. Gybmond, Bishop of Rochester, and all 
 the great men of the day, were present and assisted at its 
 deliberations. The laws which were passed have been preserved, 
 and in them are several marks of good policy, besides many 
 improvements suggested by Christianity. For instance, the 
 observance of the Lord's day is strictly provided for. Thus, if 
 a master made a servant work on Sunday he was to be fined 
 eighty shillings. If a servant travelled by his own choice on 
 Sunday he was to be fined six shillings or be whipped. It is 
 curious to observe that the Lord's day in these cases is defined 
 as commencing at sunset on Saturday. The last canon is in- 
 teresting as descriptive of the caution necessary to be observed 
 in the then unsettled state of the country. " If any stranger 
 shall wander privately through the country, and shall neither 
 cry aloud nor sound his horn, he shall be taken for a thief, and 
 shall be either slain or banished." 
 
 So much for the council of King Wihthraede, which may or 
 may not have been held in our town. 
 
 The next time, however, Berkhamsted makes its appearance 
 in the pages of history is in a much less dubious manner. In 
 that very important year for England, a.d. 1066 — the year of 
 the Norman conquest — it stands forth without doubt as an im- 
 portant Anglo-Saxon stronghold, and as such was selected by 
 the Conqueror as a resting-place previous to his coronation. 
 That William came to our town and resided here for some time 
 is as much a matter of fact as any other event in history. We 
 cannot, however, make the same assertion with regard to all 
 that is said to have happened during his visit. Many are the 
 curious and often contradictory incidents related by the old 
 chroniclers with respect to the purport of his continuance here. 
 After a comparison, however, of these different stories, the 
 probable narrative of the Conqueror's movements would seem, 
 to be as follows. 
 
8 HISTORY OF BERKHAMSTED. 
 
 After the battle of Hastings, William crossed the Thames at 
 Wallingford and proceeded to Berkhamsted, where he halted, 
 not, as Chauncy says, being compelled to do so by a stratagem 
 of Frederick Abbot of St. Albans, but in order to receive the 
 deputation of Saxon nobles which there awaited him to offer 
 him the crown and swear allegiance to his government. Edgar 
 Atheling, the heir to the Saxon throne, the Earls Edwin and 
 Morcar, Aldred Archbishop of York, and the Bishops Wulfstan 
 of Worcester and Walter of Hereford, were at the head of this 
 important deputation, and when fair words and promises had 
 passed on both sides, the Conqueror advanced to Westminster, 
 where Aldred performed the ceremony of coronation. 
 
 Much disaffection still remained throughout the land, and in 
 this county Frederick the Abbot of St. Albans was found daring 
 enough to oppose the claims of the newly-made king. William 
 seems to have resolved to proceed to St. Albans after his coro- 
 nation, but the Abbot is stated to have rendered an approach 
 impossible, by causing trees to be felled and placed across the 
 highways. William, therefore, disappointed of his visit, came 
 again to his old quarters at Berkhamsted, and invited Frede- 
 rick to an amicable meeting. The Abbot arrived, and, mutual 
 concessions having been made, the King took an oath, which 
 was administered by Frederick on the relics from St. Alban's 
 Abbey, that he would observe and keep the good old laws of 
 this country as they had been established by the ancient kings, 
 and especially by King Edward. William was surrounded by 
 many of his Norman retainers, amongst whom was Lanfranc the 
 primate elect ; and whether, owing to their presence or not, it is 
 certain that, as an evident token of the way in which the King 
 meant to keep his oath, angry words soon passed between 
 Frederick and the monarch — the Abbot declaring that if all 
 the clergy had manifested the same spirit as himself the Con- 
 queror would never have set foot in England, and William, on 
 the other hand, uttering such severe threats in reply that the 
 
HISTORY OF BERKHAMSTED. 9 
 
 Abbot's voluntary withdrawal from St. Albans to the Isle of 
 Ely was the immediate consequence. 
 
 This was a prelude to what was to follow. No sooner was 
 the Conqueror firmly established on the throne than he forgot 
 his promise. He neglected and slighted the ancient lords of 
 the soil, seized their possessions, and gave them away to his 
 own friends and relations. This town, together with many 
 others, he presented to his brother by the mother's side, Robert 
 Earl of Mortaigne or Moreton. William was, indeed, most 
 lavish in his gifts to this nobleman. In Sussex alone he granted 
 him 121 manors in addition to the strong Roman castle of 
 Pevensey, which he re-fortified and enlarged. He was created 
 Earl of Cornwall, and, in all, was possessed of 793 manors, 
 among which our town held a most conspicuous place. Now 
 we are told by Camden that it was this Earl Moreton who built 
 our castle. We must not, however, so understand this as to 
 imagine that there was no castle here previously, but rather 
 that, as at Pevensey, the Earl re-built and re-constructed on a 
 more enlarged scale what he already found in part existing. 
 Some, indeed, have asserted a Roman origin for the castle, 
 because of certain coins which have been found on its site ; but, 
 without attempting to decide upon evidence so uncertain, we 
 may well conceive that it was a firm stronghold in Anglo-Saxon 
 times. We shall probably, therefore, be right in regarding the 
 existing mound or keep as the work of its original founder. 
 But of this more hereafter.* Berkhamsted is mentioned in 
 Domesday Book as belonging to this same Earl Moreton. Now 
 Domesday Book, or Dom-boc, as many of you are aware, was 
 a survey of the whole country made by order of the Conqueror. 
 It was commenced in 1078, and finished in 1086. Its name 
 implies that it was " a judicial or decisive record or book of 
 dooming justice," and such records were probably so called 
 originally with a reference to that solemn day when the book 
 
 * [Vide p. 27 and App. VII] 
 
10 HISTORY OF BERKHAMSTED. 
 
 shall be opened and the dead shall be judged according to those 
 things which are written in the books, according to their works. 
 The other suggested derivation of " Domus Dei," from the 
 church of Westminster where it was deposited, seems unworthy 
 of attention. The entry in this curious record regarding our 
 town is very interesting, and when translated from the original 
 Latin is to this effect. I give it in the words of Chauncy : 
 
 " Earl Moreton held Berchehamstede in Treung hundred ; it 
 was rated for thirteen hides. The arable is six-and-twenty 
 carucates, in demesne six hides, and there are three carucates, 
 and three others may be made. Here is a presbyter or priest 
 with fourteen villains, and fifteen bordars having twelve caru- 
 cates, and now eight more may be made ; there are six servants 
 and a certain ditcher had half an hide, and Ralph a servant of 
 the Earl one virgate. In the borough of this vill are two-and- 
 fifty burgesses who pay four pounds a-year for toll, and they 
 have half an hide, and two mills of twenty shillings rent by the 
 year ; and there are two arpends of vineyard, meadow eight 
 carucates, common of pasture for the cattle of the vill, wood to 
 feed a thousand hogs, and five shillings rent by the year. In 
 the whole value it is worth sixteen pounds ; when he received 
 it twenty pounds ; in the time of King Edward (the Confessor) 
 four-and-twenty pounds : Edmar a thane of Earl Harold held 
 this manor." 
 
 With regard to this entry, I may just mention that hides and 
 carucates are measures of land which have no exact equivalent 
 at the present day. Demesne land, terra dominicalis, means 
 land for the maintenance of the lord's own family. A villain 
 (de villa) in this case is not so much a bondman as a farmer 
 fixed on his farm, and, as such, the property of his lord. A 
 bordar is the tenant of a borda or cottage, with a small 
 parcel of land annexed, held by the service of finding poultry, 
 eggs, &c, for the lord's board or table. I need hardly say that 
 the two mills here mentioned remain to this day. In the inven* 
 
HISTORY OF BERKHAMSTED. 11 
 
 tory of the property of the King of the Romans we find three 
 mills enumerated ; three water-mills worth 1 1. 6s. 8d. each ; and 
 one more is added in an inquisition taken at the death of his 
 son.* The two mills are named again in Queen Elizabeth's 
 grant of the property to Sir Edward Carey as two water-mills 
 under the yearly rent of 11. 10s. 
 
 So much for the entry in Doomsday Book, which tells us that 
 Berkhamsted belonged to the Earl Moreton. There is a curious 
 story told by Matthew Paris, either of this nobleman, or his son 
 William ; whether of the two is uncertain. It is to this effect. 
 When William Rufus was accidentally shot in the New Forest, 
 this Lord of Berkhamsted happened to be hunting near the place. 
 Knowing nothing of the King's death, he was suddenly met by 
 a great black goat bearing the body of the monarch, all black, 
 naked, and wounded through the midst of the heart, and be- 
 smeared with blood. Amazed at the sight, he adjured the goat 
 by the Holy Trinity to tell him what that was which he so 
 carried : to which the goat replied, " I am carrying your King 
 to judgment ;f yea that tyrant William Rufus ; for I am an evil 
 spirit, and the revenger of the malice which he bore to the 
 Church of God: it was I who caused this his slaughter; for the 
 Proto-martyr of England (St. Alban) commanded me so to do, 
 who complained to God of him for his grievous oppressions in 
 this Isle of Britain, which he first hallowed." Such is the story 
 which we are told the Earl subsequently related to his followers. 
 Now, if this tale prove anything, it would go far, I think, to 
 shew that our Lord of Berkhamsted knew something more of 
 the King's death than he chose thus to make public. 
 
 The young Earl soon afterwards took up arms in Normandy 
 against Henry the First, but was speedily taken prisoner. His 
 
 * Vide page 18. 
 
 f [William Rufus is perhaps the only recorded ruler of a Christian kingdom 
 whose eternal damnation was assumed by all men as a matter of course. Ed'nii 
 hunjli Review, 1865, on Sir F. Palgrave.] 
 
12 HISTORY OF BERKHAMSTED. 
 
 eyes were put out, he was banished the realm, his estates con- 
 fiscated, and his Castle of Berkhamsted, which his father had 
 built, was razed to the ground. This town and manor thus 
 reverted to the Crown. It was not long, however, before the 
 King granted it to one Randulphus, whom he had placed in the 
 office of Chancellor. Randulphus was a man of great arrogance, 
 and consequently very unpopular. He it was who rebuilt the 
 castle ; and, when the work of restoration was completed, he 
 invited his sovereign to meet him here. The account of this 
 visit, as related by Henry of Huntingdon, is very interesting. 
 " The King," says the Chronicler, u having kept his Christmas 
 at Dunstable, proceeded to Berkhamsted, where was a manifes- 
 tation of God worthy of Himself. As Randulphus was con- 
 ducting the Royal party to his castle, where the King proposed 
 to stay some time as his guest, and he had reached the top of 
 the hill from which the stately structure might be descried, 
 whilst he was pointing to it with great elation, he fell from his 
 horse, and a monk rode over him. In consequence he was so 
 bruised that he breathed his last in a few days;" and then 
 follows the remark, full of quaint humour, M Ecce quanta 
 superbia quam vilissime Deo volente deperiit." 
 
 We hear nothing of the residents here in King Stephen's 
 time, but Henry II. had not long been on the throne when the 
 custody of the castle was granted to a man then rapidly rising 
 into eminence — the celebrated Thomas a Becket.* After Becket's 
 death King Henry himself seems to have fixed upon Berkham- 
 sted as a favourite place of residence. He constantly kept his 
 court here,f an< ^ gave a substantial proof of the esteem in which 
 he held our town by granting to us our first regular charter. 
 In this charter, which was given at Oxford, on the 1st June, 
 ad. 1156, in the presence of Theobald Archbishop of Canter- 
 
 * [Who lived here in great state. Vide Longman, Edw. III. p. 58.] 
 f e.g. when he granted the church of Havering to the monastery of St. Bernard 
 de Monte Jovis to make fires for the poor people there. 
 
HISTORY OF BERKHAMSTED. 13 
 
 bury, after the assertion that the men and merchants of Berk- 
 hamsted and Wallingford, which is coupled with it, are to 
 enjoy their privileges as well and as honourably, and better and 
 more honourably, than in the days of King Edward, King 
 William, and King Henry, we find a declaration that they are 
 to be free of all tolls and duties whithersoever they go, whether 
 through England, Normandy, or Spain; and any one disquieting 
 them is to forfeit 101. It may be well to remark here that there 
 is an instance of the assertion of this privilege in the Black 
 Prince's time, when the Bailiff of Aylesbury's goods were dis- 
 trained at Berkhamsted, for having taken toll of the tenants of 
 this honor. This portion too of the grant is again recited and 
 confirmed in the second year of King Eichard III., by John 
 rector of Ashridge. 
 
 The mention of merchants in this charter may lead us to inquire 
 in what the chief business of the place then consisted. Salmon 
 supposes, and with great probability, that it was a trade in wool. 
 We know that in those times no fabrics were woven in England, 
 and hence the necessity to carry our wool abroad in order that 
 it might be made into cloth, and brought back again to England. 
 It was Edward III. who first induced Flemings to settle in this 
 country and engage in the manufacture of woollen goods. In 
 early times, therefore, we may imagine that the chief business 
 of Berkhamsted consisted in the trade in wool ; in later times it 
 was quite changed. In the reign, for instance, of Queen Eliza- 
 beth, Norden makes this observation, " It is a market town, 
 and standeth most upon making of malt." And now it is 
 changed again. Of the modern manufactures of Berkhamsted 
 one certainly deserves notice at this particular time, I mean 
 wood-working, because by this trade a considerable number of 
 shaving-boxes and tent-pegs are daily supplied to the army from 
 our town. 
 
 To resume the history. The next fact we know concerning 
 Berkhamsted is that the Castle was made the jointure-palace of 
 
14 HISTOKY OF BEKKHAMSTED. 
 
 Queen Isabella, the bride of King John. Soon afterwards, how- 
 ever, it was granted to Geoffrey Fitz Piers Earl of Essex, and 
 to his heirs by his wife Aveline, on payment of 100Z. per annum. 
 This Earl of Essex was a person of great eminence. His opinion 
 had great weight with his sovereign King John, and so long as 
 he lived the King's government prospered. His death, which 
 happened in the fourteenth year of the King's reign, threw the 
 whole kingdom into a state of mourning ; for the whole realm, 
 says the Historian, was then like a ship tossed in a tempest 
 without a pilot. This famous man founded two hospitals in our 
 town, dedicated the one to St. John Baptist, the other to St. 
 John the Evangelist. Of these more hereafter. Fitz Piers was 
 indeed a great and good man. If we desire a proof of this, we 
 cannot have a better than the thorough dislike which King John 
 had for him, notwithstanding his fear of him and his submission 
 to his wise counsel. When the King heard of his death, it is 
 related that he uttered words, which no doubt came from the 
 bottom of his heart, to the effect that Fitz Piers had certainly 
 gone to hell, and more than this, that he would certainly meet 
 the Archbishop there. 
 
 Geoffrey Fitz Piers died in 1212, and was succeeded by his 
 son Geoffrey, who assumed the name of Mandeville, and married 
 Avisa, the repudiated wife of King John. He espoused the 
 cause of the Barons, and was thereupon deprived of this and 
 other estates by the King. 
 
 In 1215 (July 15) the Great Charter was signed, but it did 
 not bring peace, and shortly afterwards, when the troubles with 
 the Barons had become most formidable, the King took care to 
 strengthen this castle as a precautionary measure, and entrusted 
 it to the custody of one of his German mercenaries — by name 
 Rainulph. John himself was here superintending these arrange- 
 ments from the 2nd to the 4th April, 1216. He died on the 
 19th of October following. The Barons had already offered the 
 Crown to Prince Louis, the King of France's eldest son, and 
 
HISTORY OF BEliKHAMSTED. 15 
 
 the husband of the Princess Blanche, King John's niece. Louis 
 had been in the country since May, and the movement in his 
 favour was by no means retarded by the news of the King's 
 death. Our castle, however, still remained faithful to his son 
 and successor ; and now took place perhaps the most interesting 
 of all the events in the changeful history of our town, for it was 
 on the feast of St. Nicholas, on the 6th December, in the year 
 1216, that Prince Louis, having already made himself master of 
 Hertford, advanced against our castle at the head of a most for- 
 midable army, and encamped it is said on the north side, proba- 
 bly on the slope of White Hill. All the old writers agree in 
 telling us that the place was most valiantly defended, and by 
 one of these chroniclers (Matthew Paris) a very interesting 
 anecdote is preserved, which fully testifies to the bravery of the 
 garrison. One morning when the besiegers were off their guard 
 a large party of the besieged rushed out of the castle, seized the 
 chariots and provisions of their assailants, and carried off as a 
 trophy the banner of William Earl Mandeville. One would 
 have thought that such a sortie would have taught the besiegers 
 a lesson not easily to be forgotten, but strange to say the very 
 same afternoon, when the Barons were at dinner, the party from 
 the castle sallied forth a second time, bearing at their head the 
 banner they had won, and after throwing the camp of the enemy 
 into the utmost confusion, and disarming the Barons as they sat 
 at table, returned again within the castle walls. From this 
 specimen of the heroism of the garrison we can easily under- 
 stand the statement of Holinshed that " the captain and his 
 people behaved themselves so manfully that a great number of 
 Frenchmen and others of them without were left dead in the 
 ditches." " Finally, however," he goes on to say, " about the 
 20th December, they yet yielded the place, because they were 
 no longer able to keep it. Their lives, goods, and houses were 
 spared." So much for the siege of Berkhamsted Castle, which 
 happened in the reign of King Henry III., more than six hun- 
 
16 HISTORY OF BERKHAMSTED. 
 
 dred years ago. The cause of the young King, however, ulti- 
 mately prevailed, and at the close of the following year Prince 
 Louis was obliged to leave the country, since all his hopes of 
 success were now at an end. This castle, therefore, with the 
 others which he had acquired, came again into the possession of 
 the English royal family. The beginning of King Henry's reign 
 was marked by a curious incident in the history of Berkham- 
 sted, for it was on the 7th May, 1217, that our market day was 
 changed from Sunday to Monday. Soon afterwards the Castle of 
 Berkhamsted was granted by the King to his younger brother, 
 the famous Richard Earl of Cornwall, better known as the King 
 of the Romans. An account of the life of this illustrious man 
 belongs more to English history than to a lecture such as the 
 present. I may, however, be allowed to say that after the death 
 of his second wife,* Isabel Countess of Gloucester, widow of the 
 celebrated Gilbert de Clare, which occurred in child-bed in this 
 castle, the Earl left England for the Holy Land, and whilst 
 there obtained many privileges for the Christians at Jerusalem. 
 During his absence Hubert de Burgh died at the Castle the 4th 
 day of the Ides of May, in the year of our Lord 1243, " after 
 many troubles and interchanges of fortune, being full of days 
 and in good reputation." On Richard's return he married for a 
 third wife Senchea, daughter of Raymond Count of Provence, 
 and sister to his brother Henry's queen. The wedding was 
 celebrated at Westminster in the year 1244, with extraordinary 
 splendour ; indeed the chronicler tells us that thirty thousand 
 dishes were served up at the banquet in honour of the occasion. 
 We can understand this lavish expenditure when we remember 
 that this Earl is said to have had so much treasure, that for ten 
 years he was able to spend a hundred marks a day, i. e. about 
 661. 13s. Ad. (a mark being 13s. 4c?.), no small sum according to 
 the standard of that time. The offspring of this marriage was 
 Edmund, who on the death of Henry III. was made one of the 
 
 * [He was first married as a child to Rose of Dover (Roese de Dovor).] 
 
HISTORY OF BERKHAMSTED. 17 
 
 guardians of the realm until Edward I. returned from the 
 Crusades, and of whom, as the founder of Ashridge, we will 
 speak afterwards. Soon after his third marriage the Earl was 
 unanimously chosen King of the Romans, or heir presumptive 
 of the Holy Roman Empire, as Germany was called in those 
 days, and was crowned at Aix-la-Chapelle in 1257. His wife, 
 the Princess Senchea, died in our castle a.d. 1261. The Earl 
 then married again the daughter of a German nobleman.* Some- 
 time afterwards, when on a visit to his brother the King of 
 England, he came down to his castle of Berkhamsted, where he 
 was taken ill, and died April 9, 1272. His brother the King 
 died seven months afterwards. The Earl at his death was in 
 the 64th year of his age. He was buried at Hailes Abbey in 
 Gloucestershire, which he himself had founded, a.d. 1246. I 
 may mention that in the State Paper Office are two letters 
 written from Richard to the King from Berkhamsted Castle, 
 one bearing the date of 1261, the other of 1263. I may also 
 mention that this famous man obtained the grant of a fair for 
 our town, beginning at the feast of the Invention of the Cross, 
 May 3. No doubt too it was at his request that Henry III. 
 confirmed the charter which, as we have before had occasion to 
 remark, was originally granted to Berkhamsted by his grand- 
 father^ The King of the Romans was succeeded in the Earl- 
 dom of Cornwall, and in the custody of the castle, by his son 
 Edmund, of whom we have already spoken. $ He died without 
 
 * [June 16 1269, Beatrice, a beautiful woman, daughter of Theodoric de 
 Falkenburg, and niece of Engelbert, Archbishop of Cologne.] 
 
 f [In 1254 (Cussans, p. 51) Eichard, according to the annals of Dunstable, 
 added to the castle a new tower of three stories covered with lead. The record 
 states that for the works at the castle he caused much timber to be taken from the 
 wood of Soingdone, which did great harm to the trade of Dunstable by reason 
 of the carts of the neighbourhood being impressed for the carriage thereof. 
 Bearing date 1256, there is an interesting charter of confirmation by Eichard, 
 Earl of Cornwall and Poictou of grants of lands in the honour of Berkhampstede, 
 preserved at Claydon House, communicated by Mr. Clark to Arch. Journal, vol. 
 xxxiv. No. 134.] 
 
 % [In the annals of Dunstable there is a curious entry respecting a cart con- 
 
 C 
 
18 HISTOKY OF BERKHAMSTED. 
 
 issue, and the castle then reverted to his cousin King Edward I. 
 Edmund appears to have neglected the castle, and spent all his 
 energy on the new foundation at Ashridge, for by an inquisition 
 taken immediately after his death, and preserved in the Tower, 
 we find that the castle as to its issues was worth nothing per 
 annum : also that there were houses without the castle, Daerya, 
 Boveya, and Bercar, let to farm for the sustentation of the same 
 houses, also without the castle a certain great stable worth 
 nothing yearly in its present state. This interesting record 
 proceeds to enumerate " a great garden and a small garden; a 
 certain mill -pool, with a ditch round the castle, the fishery 
 whereof was yearly worth twenty shillings : a water-mill ; the 
 mill of Synebemulle, worth yearly 61. 13$. 4d. ; the mill of the 
 castle, worth yearly 8/.; North Mill; a certain park with deer, 
 the pasture with pannage for the support of the deer, worth 
 yearly ten shillings; a certain wood called Del Frith, which 
 contains in itself 763 acres and one rood ; and a common as well 
 for the free-men as the villains of Berkhamsted by the year, 
 excepting the time of pannage — i.e. between the feast of St. 
 Michael and the feast of St. Martin — and common for the 
 Kector of Asherug and all his tenants for the whole year, as 
 well in the time of pannage as at other times, and the said 
 rector shall have house-boot and hey-boot out of the said wood. 
 Also the master of the house of St. Thomas the Martyr of Aeon 
 holds to him one free messuage and one virgate of land in Berk- 
 hamsted; . . also that Bartholomew Cryol, lord of Alderbury 
 in the same vill, had free ingress and regress from the wood of 
 the Frith, and ought to mow in one of the parks with 16 men, 
 provided with food by the lord, one day ; and the work of every 
 man was worth one penny ; and he himself, or his servant, shall 
 ride or go to view the workmen, and he shall have meat of the 
 lord twice in the day. . ." 
 
 taining fish for Edmund's dinner at Berkhamsted stopped for toll in Dunstable 
 market. There seem to have been constant quarrels respecting the liberties of 
 Dunstable and Berkhamsted.] 
 
HISTOllY OF BERKHAMSTED. 19 
 
 I may remark, by the way, on this curious document that 
 portions of the boundary fence of the Castle Park still exist 
 on the common, and that from the wood here mentioned the 
 village of Frithsden derives its name. 
 
 King Edward I. made the castle and manor of Berkhamsted 
 the dower of his second queen, Margaret, daughter of Philip, 
 King of France, who died in the year 1317. It was in this 
 reign that a native of our town, John of Berkhamsted, was pro- 
 moted to the pastoral staff of the Abbey of St. Alban. Weever 
 tells us that he was a man who applied his mind wholly to 
 works of piety and to prayers for the health of his soul. 
 
 By King Edward II. the castle was granted to his favourite 
 Piers Gaveston. It was here that he married the King's niece. 
 Edward himself was present, and the festivities were celebrated 
 on a magnificent scale. After the death of Gaveston the castle 
 was successively granted to William Montacute and to John de 
 la Haye. 
 
 We next come to the long and glorious reign of Edward III. 
 —a reign glorious not only for Berkhamsted, but also for all 
 England. Edward first granted the castle to his younger 
 brother John, and after his death it was chosen by the King 
 himself as his own place of residence, and put by him into a 
 complete state of repair, as befitted the palace of so august a 
 monarch. We find indeed from a curious document to which I 
 shall have occasion to refer afterwards* that it was necessary to 
 expend upon the repairs of the castle no less a sum than 658£. — 
 according to the then value of money a very large amount. 
 Our castle therefore now was one of the chief residences of the 
 King and royal family. There are still in existence several in- 
 teresting letters or warrants written by King Edward from this 
 place, chiefly during the twelfth, thirteenth, and fourteenth 
 years of his reign. One with the date an. 12 contains direc- 
 tions to the Abbot of St. Albans to fortify the coast of Essex. 
 
 * Vide page 28 and Appendix II. 
 
 c 2 
 
20 HISTORY OF BERKHAMSTED. 
 
 Another, written in the same year, is addressed to the Lords 
 Lieutenant of Cambridgeshire and Huntingdonshire, and directs 
 ten oaks to be cut down in those counties in order to repair the 
 habitation of the Royal Scholars at Cambridge. Another, of the 
 same date, regulates the measures in use in North Wales. In 
 the following year we find a letter to the Lord Mayor concerning 
 the establishment of a sort of police in the city of London. 
 Again, in a letter bearing the date an. 13, April 15, the King 
 orders that a silver mine, which was reported to have been dis- 
 covered at " Welles " in Somerset, should be worked, and the 
 proceeds brought into the royal treasury. Another letter of this 
 year is addressed to the Chancellor of Oxford, and contains an 
 order for the erection of a cross prope Bocheriam in the parish 
 of Mary Magdalen in altd strata de petrd et calce. Another 
 (an. 13) is de cerd renovandd circa corpus Edw. /.* Another 
 (an 14) contains inquiries into the burning of Spondon in 
 Derbyshire, and promises a remission of subsidies. 
 
 Such were some of the letters written by the King from his 
 royal residence at Berkhamsted. I may mention here as a 
 proof of the importance of our town in this reign, that, in the 
 council holden at Westminster anno 11 Edw. III. Thomas Glen- 
 ticorps, John le Cok, and John Blakket, were elected to repre- 
 sent this borough ; and in the parliament holden at that place 
 three years after, a.d. 1341, John Bartlet and John Hammond 
 were chosen burgesses for this borough, and are the only per- 
 sons recorded as having served this office. 
 
 The King's eldest son, the famous Black Prince, spent many 
 of his early years within the walls of our castle, and it was 
 to him as Duke of Cornwall that his father gave the castle, 
 manor, and town of Berkhamsted, to hold to him and the 
 heirs of him, and the eldest sons of the heirs of the kings of 
 England and the dukes of the said place for ever. From the 
 Black Prince, in due order of succession, the castle is now 
 
 * Vide Archaeologia, vol. iii. 376. 
 
HISTORY OF BERKHAMSTED. 21 
 
 inherited by the present Prince of Wales as Duke of Corn- 
 wall.* 
 
 Berkhamsted Castle therefore now became the constant resi- 
 dence of the Black Prince's family, and of the Black Prince 
 himself as often as his brilliant victories allowed him to return 
 to England. It was from Berkhamsted that he chose many of 
 his officers ; " Henry of Berkhampstede " was his marshal, and 
 six picked men went over with him from our town to fight the 
 French at Crecy. It was within the walls of our castle that he 
 used to entertain all the princes and nobles of the land ; and 
 one of these festive occasions, interesting as being the last on 
 which he saw his beloved mother Queen Philippa, is thus strik- 
 ingly commemorated by the historian Froissart: "I John 
 Froissart will literally say what in my younger days I heard at 
 a mansion called Berkhamsted, distant from London 30 miles, 
 and which at the time I am speaking of, in the year of our Lord 
 1361, belonged to the Prince of Wales, father to King Richard. 
 As the prince and princess were about to leave England for 
 Aquitaine, to hold their state, the King of England, Queen 
 Philippa my mistress, the Dukes of Clarence, Lancaster, the 
 Lord Edmund who was afterwards Earl of Cambridge and Duke 
 of York, with their children, came to this mansion to visit the 
 prince and to take leave of him. I was at that time twenty- 
 four years old, and Clerk of the Chamber to my Lady the 
 Queen. During this visit, as I was seated on a bench, I heard 
 the following conversation from an ancient knight (Sir Bartho- 
 lomew Burghersh) to some of the ladies of the Queen. He said 
 there was in that country a book called Brut, which many say 
 contains the prophecies of Merlin. According to its contents 
 
 * [By the kindness of Sir Albert Woods (Garter) I am informed that William 
 Augustus, third son of George, Prince of Wales (afterwards George II.), was 
 created Marquess of Berkhampsted, by patent dated 27 July, 1726. He was at the 
 same time created Duke of Cumberland, and was the " victor of Culloden." He 
 died without issue in 1765, when the title became extinct. It has not been 
 regranted since.] 
 
22 HISTORY OF BERKHAMSTED. 
 
 neither the Prince of Wales nor Duke of Clarence, though sons 
 to King Edward, will wear the crown of England, but it will 
 fall to the house of Lancaster. When the knight said this, the 
 Earl of Derby was not born : his birth was seven years after- 
 wards. This prophecy however was verified, for I have since 
 seen Henry Earl of Derby king of England." 
 
 They say that next to seeing a man himself is seeing his 
 house or the scenes amid which he passed his life. Surely 
 then, when we wander amongst the ruins of our castle, we may 
 in some degree be enabled to realize to ourselves the glories of 
 Edward the Black Prince, and even the entertaining gossip of 
 his court. 
 
 Immediately after the departure of the Black Prince for the 
 continent, Berkhamsted Castle was for a time made the resid- 
 ence of his illustrious captive John King of France, who was 
 removed here by order of the King from Somerton Castle in 
 Somersetshire. We are further told that on the final return of 
 the Prince from France it was to this castle that he retired, 
 choosing to pass the latter years of his life in comparative 
 solitude, amid scenes which had naturally become endeared to 
 him, associated as they were with his earliest and happiest 
 recollections. His life was not long spared : he became subject 
 to fits, several of which took place in Berkhamsted Castle. His 
 death however occurred at Westminster, whither he had gone 
 to meet the parliament, an exertion which in his exhausted state 
 proved too much for him. 
 
 Upon the death of the Black Prince the castle passed to his 
 son Richard, afterwards Richard II., during whose lifetime 
 Robert de Vere, Marquis of Dublin and Duke of Ireland, was 
 permitted to reside in it, with leave to take wood and fuel out 
 of the royal woods and park for firing. It was under this 
 monarch that Geoffrey Chaucer, the father of English poetry, 
 held the appointment of clerk of the works at Berkhamsted 
 Castle. On the death of King Richard, the ancient prophecy 
 
HISTORY OF BERKHAMSTED. 23 
 
 related by Froissart was duly fulfilled, and our castle, as one of 
 the royal residences, fell into the possession of Henry IV., the 
 head of the house of Lancaster. He granted it to his eldest son, 
 afterwards the famous Henry V., whom he created Duke of 
 Cornwall. From him it passed to his son, who as Henry VI. 
 often resided here during those fierce and vindictive contests 
 the Wars of the Roses. He was here, for instance, with tho 
 judges when he received news of the second battle of St. Albans. 
 
 When, however, fortune favoured the claims of Edward of 
 York, the Lancastrians were dispossessed, and this castle, 
 together with all the other royal palaces, became the property 
 of the Yorkist king. Upon his accession to the throne he 
 entrusted the stewardship of the castle and lordship to John 
 Lord Wenlock. Edward seems to have regarded Berkhamsted 
 with favour, for in the sixteenth year of his reign he renewed 
 and confirmed the ancient charter, which, as I have before 
 remarked, was granted to our town by King Henry II. The 
 copy of this renewed charter, which is now hung up in the 
 vestry,* is extracted from the records of the manor of New 
 Elm Court, Castle of Wallingford. In it the Constable of 
 Wallingford, the Duke of Suffolk, by command of his sovereign, 
 confirms the privileges granted by previous monarchs to Berk- 
 hamsted and Wallingford, and directs amongst other things in 
 addition that no market be held within eleven miles in any 
 village near Wallingford or Berkhamsted, and also that the men 
 and tradesmen of these towns, their heirs and successors, be 
 not impanelled and summoned in any assize, &c. This renewed 
 and extended charter was u given at the Castle of Wallingford 
 the 24th day of March, in the sixteenth year of the reign of 
 King Edward the Fourth after the Conquest." 
 
 In accordance with the last declaration of this important 
 charter, a claim for exemption from serving on juries was pre- 
 ferred, as you are probably aware, a short time ago, and 
 » * [Now in the custody of the vestry clerk.] 
 
24 HISTORY OF BERKHAMSTED. 
 
 decided by a judgment, bearing date February 7, 1840, in 
 favour of the inhabitants of this town.* 
 
 Soon after the grant of this charter, Berkhamsted Castle was 
 selected as the place of residence for King Edward's mother, 
 the Duchess of York, who lived in it until the time of her 
 death, which occurred here in May 1495. As in duty bound, I 
 must just say a word or two in passing about this remark- 
 able, this right royal woman. Her name was Cicely. Born 
 at Raby Castle, the daughter of Ralph Neville, Earl of West- 
 moreland, she early acquired her well-merited title, u The 
 Rose of Raby." Her mother was Joan Beaufort, and there- 
 fore Cicely was the granddaughter of John of Gaunt, the 
 founder of the House of Lancaster. By her marriage with 
 Richard Duke of York, the head of the house of York, 
 she became connected with this the great rival house, as 
 also with the houses of Cambridge and Mortimer. Thus 
 famous and full of honours in her own right and in her hus- 
 band's, she became yet more famous if not more happy in her 
 children. She lived to see three princes of her body crowned ; 
 namely, her sons Edward IV. and Richard III., and Elizabeth 
 her grand- daughter, the Queen of Henry VII. ; and one also to 
 ascend the throne, but who was not crowned, her grandson 
 Edward V. ; and she lived too to see four who came to untimely 
 deaths, — her son, George Duke of Clarence, drowned in a butt 
 of Malmsey ; Richard III. killed at the battle of Bosworth. 
 Field ; and Edward and Richard her grandsons, who were 
 smothered in their beds in the Tower. All this I say she lived 
 to see ; and, when we consider that during this eventful period 
 she lived in our castle, and that when she had seen all these 
 things it was in our castle also that she died, I think the thought 
 cannot fail to give us an interest in the history of our country 
 at that memorable age such as we should not else possess. 
 
 * [All these ancient exemptions are now abolished by the Act 33 & 34 Vict. 
 cap. 77, sec. 9.] 
 
HISTORY OF BERKHAMSTED. 25 
 
 Some writers have asserted that it was in our castle she gave 
 birth to Richard III., but it would seem hard to prove this when 
 we consider that at the time of his birth the castle was in the 
 possession of the Lancastrians. He was probably born at Fother- 
 ingay, and with that probability I am sure we shall be well 
 content, for, if we may trust Shakspeare, we need not be at all 
 anxious to claim such a monster as a native of Our town. His 
 mother hated him as much as ever we can do. You remember, 
 perhaps, how in the play of Richard III. — a play in which our 
 Duchess is one of the most conspicuous characters, she addresses 
 him as il Thou toad, thou toad." And then again there are 
 those fine lines, Act iv. scene 4, wherein she says to him, 
 
 No, by the holy rood, thou know'st it well, 
 
 Thou cam'st on earth to make the earth my hell. 
 
 A grievous burden was thy birth to me : 
 
 Tetchy and wayward was thy infancy ; 
 
 Thy schooldays frightful, desperate, wild, and furious. 
 
 Thy prime of manhood, daring, bold, and venturous ; 
 
 Thy age confirmed, proud, subtle, sly, and bloody, 
 
 More mild but yet more harmful, kind in hatred ; 
 
 What comfortable hour canst thou name 
 
 That ever graced me in thy company ? 
 
 I must not however detain you with quotations from Shak- 
 speare, for I daresay you did not expect to hear anything about 
 Shakspeare in connection with the history and antiquities of 
 Berkhamsted ; yet there is one more fine passage, in which the 
 Duchess speaks of her troubles and looks forward to her death. 
 Act ii. scene 4 : — 
 
 Accursed and unquiet wrangling days ! 
 How many of you have mine eyes beheld ! 
 My husband lost his life to get the crown ; 
 And often up and down my sons were tossed, 
 For me to joy and weep their gain and loss ; 
 And being seated, and domestic broils 
 Clean over-blown, themselves, the conquerors, 
 Make war upon themselves : brother to brother, 
 Blood to blood, self against self : O preposterous 
 And frantic courage, end thy damned spleen ; 
 Or let me die, to look on death no more ! 
 
26 HISTORY OF BERKHAMSTED. 
 
 Such was the famous Duchess Cicely, — " Proud Cis," — who 
 lived and died in Berkhamsted Castle.* At the time of her death, 
 A.d. 1495, a new dynasty, the house of Tudor, had become 
 firmly settled on the throne in the person of Henry VII., a 
 prince who had been wise enough however to consolidate his 
 title by uniting himself in marriage to the Princess Elizabeth, 
 the daughter of Edward IV., and, therefore, the granddaughter 
 of our Duchess. In the Privy Purse Expenses of this princess 
 is the following entry relating to Berkhamsted : " 5th July, 
 1502. Itm. the same day, to the underkeeper of Berkehampsted, 
 for bringing of a buck to the Quene at Windsore, iiis. ivd." 
 
 After the death of the famous Duchess Cicely,' the castle 
 seems to have been untenanted, and, as is the case even now-a- 
 days with most empty houses, signs of decay were not long in 
 shewing themselves. f We know indeed that about forty years 
 afterwards, when Leland the antiquary visited Berkhamsted, 
 the castle appeared to be " much in ruine " even then. More 
 ruin would soon follow, and the building was no doubt in a 
 very dilapidated condition when in Queen Elizabeth's time it 
 was granted on lease to Sir Edward Cary, at the nominal rent 
 of a red rose, to be paid annually on the feast of St. John the 
 Baptist. It was Sir Edward Cary who built the house now 
 occupied by General FinchJ on the top of the hill, which he 
 considered a more eligible situation. In all probability, there- 
 fore, many of the materials of the old castle would be used in 
 the construction of the new mansion, which, I must tell you, 
 was once nearly three times as large as it is at present. But of 
 this we will say more afterwards. 
 
 Our castle then, whatever honour it may claim, can certainly 
 
 * [Vide Appendix VII. No. 2 and 3.] 
 
 f [King Henry VIII. granted it to Anne Boleyn as dower, 21st March, anno 
 reg. 25.] 
 
 % [Now, 1883, the property of Earl Brownlow — occupied by Lady Sarah 
 Spencer. The Castle, which is granted to Earl Brownlow at a peppercorn rent, 
 is still the property of the Prince of Wales as Duke of Cornwall.] 
 
HISTORY OF BERKHAMSTED. 27 
 
 lot lay claim to that to which so many others pretend, the 
 lonour I mean of having been destroyed by Oliver Cromwell, 
 for we have seen that it came to its end long before his time, 
 and died in fact a kind of natural death. 
 
 I have so far endeavoured to give you an outline of the his- 
 tory of our once famous castle. Let us now try to gather from 
 the remains which still exist, and from any documents which 
 may serve to throw light upon the subject, some idea of what 
 the building used to be in the days of its grandeur. For con- 
 venience sake, let us divide the castle into three parts : the great 
 mound, the inner court or ballium, and the ramparts —which 
 include the walk all round, and the outworks or bastions on the 
 northern and eastern sides leading to the meadow. Each of 
 these divisions is separately protected by a ditch, so that, speak- 
 ing generally, we may say that the castle was defended by a 
 triple moat.* When occasion required, the position of the 
 whole area might be rendered still further insular, since the 
 southern and western sides could obviously be entirely flooded 
 by damming up the stream, which otherwise is allowed to flow 
 on regularly in its course. The canal and railway have of course 
 much altered the capabilities and means of defence f on this the 
 town side of the castle; but we can easily understand, that, 
 with a large lake in front, and perhaps a narrow causeway 
 across, forming the sole mode of access from the town, a hostile 
 approach from that quarter was well nigh impossible. This, 
 however, was the regular road from Berkhamsted to the castle, 
 as is evident from the remains of the great entrance} in the 
 ramparts, in reaching which I conceive a drawbridge from the 
 
 ■ 
 * The actual double external moat terminates however about the middle of 
 
 the eastern side. 
 
 f In talking of the defences of the castle, of course we must bear in mind that 
 these could only be strong so far as bows and arrows are concerned ; because the 
 position is at once commanded both by General Finch's and White Hill. 
 
 % It must be remembered that this is not the present entrance. The entrance 
 of which I speak is in a direct line with Castle Street, and is not now used. 
 
28 HISTORY OF BERKHAMSTED. 
 
 causeway had first to be crossed. From this outer gateway or 
 barbican, as it is called in the interesting document to which I 
 have had occasion previously to refer,* to the great entrance 
 opposite, of which the remains are also plainly visible, there 
 must have been across the deep and broad moat which intervenes 
 a second and more important drawbridge. Having now reached 
 the grand gateway, we enter at once into the inner court. In 
 this area were situated the dwelling-places and the domestic 
 offices. Here too were to be found the chapels, at least three of 
 which seem to be mentioned in the document to which I have 
 referred ; and here also stood the banqueting-hall, described in 
 the same roll as the "great painted chamber" ; so called pro- 
 bably because hung round with tapestry. All the quarried 
 stone of which these buildings were constructed has evidently 
 been removed, probably for the purpose, already alluded to, of 
 building the new mansion at the top of the hill. The existence 
 of the only remains which have survived the hands of the spoiler 
 is owing to the vileness of the materials, composed as they are 
 of nothing but flints and lumps of chalk, with here and there a 
 rough coating of plaster. Such are the ruins which remain to 
 this day : portions of wall of great thickness, with the founda- 
 tions at intervals of massive towers. At the north-east angle 
 of this wall seems to have been what is called in the roll the 
 Derne-gate, from which a road over three several drawbridges 
 formerly led into the park. The wall then runs along towards 
 the west gate of the castle — the road, i.e. by which we enter at 
 the present day. Along this portion of the walls are the remains 
 of the towers, also mentioned in the roll. Here too it is that 
 we discover perhaps the only trace of habitation which occurs in 
 the castle — in what seems to have been the side-wall of a 
 chamber containing a sort of cupboard. There were similar 
 
 * Vide page 19. As this interesting document does not appear to have heen 
 noticed by any of the county historians, perhaps I may be excused for inserting 
 it in the Appendix No. II. 
 
HISTORY OF BERKHAMSTED. 29 
 
 apartments in all the towers, and along the walls ran galleries of 
 )mmunication. 
 
 I must now speak a word or two about the mound or keep. 
 This was the usual appendage of all Norman castles. It was 
 the place of final retreat in case the rest of the castle fell into 
 the hands of the enemy. Our mound has evidently been moated 
 round, and there are still traces of the bridge of communication 
 almost in a line with the two bridges of entrance. The summit 
 is crowned by a circular tower, and a hollow in the centre is 
 still visible, which may have served either as a dungeon or a 
 well.* 
 
 Such are the remains of our castle which still exist — the all 
 that is left of painted chambers and stately halls, well kept 
 no doubt, and nobly adorned as befitted the state of their 
 royal occupants. No sooner however were they untenanted 
 than decay commenced its work. We have heard that when 
 Leland visited Berkhamsted, when the castle had been empty 
 only forty years, it was even then " to his sight much in mine." 
 Its fall seems to have afterwards rapidly hastened on, since in 
 the beginning of the next century Camden tells us that it was a 
 heap of stones and ruined walls. A hundred years more rolled 
 on, and then again we hear it described by another visitor 
 (Salmon), as a building with most of the outer walls and chim- 
 neys remaining, and all the windows opening to the inside. A 
 similar description is given by Dr. Stukeley,f who says that the 
 windows looked inwards, and that the chapel seems to have 
 stood near the west wall, where there are signs of a staircase. 
 Another period of a hundred years brings us down to our own 
 days, and now even these traces are gone — windows, chimneys, 
 
 * [For a further description of the castle, vide Appendix VII. 1.] 
 f There is a scarce print of the castle in Dr. Stnkeley's Itinerary, bearing the 
 date of 1724. It is taken from above White Hill, on which a windmill is a 
 conspicuous object. The view of the castle walls is not obscured by the surround- 
 ing trees. General Finch's avenue occupies a prominent position on the right. 
 There is another plate of apoi*tion of the ruins in Grose's Antiquities, 1773-87. 
 
30 HISTOllY OF BE11KHAMSTED. 
 
 and staircases there are none. Walls there certainly are, but 
 so hopelessly ruinous that the remains do little more than mark 
 their original site. 
 
 I have now tried to give you some idea of what the castle 
 used to be, taking as my guide the remains which still exist and 
 the documents which throw light upon the subject. We have 
 already heard its history, and connecting these two things 
 together — the castle annals, I mean, and the castle walls — we 
 may have been enabled in some degree to realize to ourselves 
 its glories of olden time. Its towers have witnessed many a 
 feat of war, its courts have rung with many a shout of joy ; 
 kings and queens and princes have lived and died within its 
 walls, and now its towers are gone, its courts are grass-grown, 
 its massive walls are crumbling fast to dust. Let us remember 
 what this castle lias been : let us look upon it as it is ; and, if I 
 am not very much mistaken, we may become wiser and more 
 thoughtful men. 
 
 So far the history of our town has been connected with the 
 history of its castle : we must now leave that, and proceed to 
 connect our annals with the antiquities which still remain in 
 full preservation among us. Before doing this, however, it may 
 be worth our while to take a general glance at our town in the 
 period of what may be called its transition state. I have told 
 you that at this time Leland the antiquary visited Berkhamsted 
 — I will now read to you what he says respecting it. He is 
 speaking of the approach "from Dunstable by Marget and St. 
 Leonards (?) and from . . (Great Gaddesden?), where the Lord 
 of Darbye hath a pretty manor place of tymber . . . thens by 
 Chiltern Hilles, and baren, woody, and feme ground for the 
 most parte, the soile waxing chalky and flinty as al Chiltern ys 5 
 a 3. to Barkhamstede, where is an old large castelle, in a roote 
 of an hille standing somewhat low and environed with a motej 
 to the which as I could perceive part of the water of the ryver 
 there hard by doth resorte; I markid diverse towers in the 
 
HISTORY OF BEHKHAMSTED. 31 
 
 midle warde of this castelle and the dungeon hill ; but to my 
 sight it is much in mine. The house of Bonehoms, caullid 
 Asscheruge, of the fundation of Edmunde Erie of Cornwalle 
 and owner of Berckhamstede Castel, is about a mile off, and 
 there the King lodgid. After that I had viewed the castle, I 
 passid over the ryver, wheras is a bridge of wood. . . . Berk- 
 hamstede is one of the best markette townes in Hertfordeshire, 
 and hath a large strete metely well builded from the north to 
 the south) and another, but sumwhat lesser, from the west to 
 the east, where the ryver rennith. The church is yn the midle 
 of the town. In the bottom of the ryver of eche side be very 
 faire meadowes. There I passed by hilly, woody, and much 
 baren ground to Cheynes, a v. miles of." 
 
 Such is Leland's description of Berkhamsted as it appeared 
 three hundred years ago. From other sources, we find that the 
 two streets were called then, as now, High Street and Castle 
 Street. In the latter was a great house adjoining the school, 
 with a close behind and a close before, occupied after the Dis- 
 solution by the last Rector of Ashridge, and probably by other 
 members of the Waterhouse family, of whom more hereafter. 
 In the High Street was an inn, called in olden time " The 
 Sarson's Head"; but in Henry VIII. 's time " the signeof the 
 George." This ancient hostel, which was afterwards known as 
 the " Prince's Arms," is now represented by the houses occu- 
 pied by Mr. Norris and Mr. Richard Wood. This property was 
 rented in those days by one John Alle, as was also the next 
 house, then called Monmouth's. Mr. Holloway's house was 
 then " a great tenement called Incents," and in Dean Incent's 
 time was let to one Richard Weller. Mr. E. Austin's house is 
 described in the Dean's rental book as a little tenement by the 
 side of the former, at the corner of Elvey or Elvyne Lane* 
 This lane has lost its pretty title, and received in exchange the 
 rather indifferent one of Grubb, probably from some member of 
 that family which so frequently figures in the pages of the early 
 
32 HISTORY OF BERKHAMSTED. 
 
 registers. I am sure, however, you will all agree with me that its 
 rightful name of Elvey Lane cannot be too speedily restored. 
 The lane next Bridewell was called, — not as now Cox, but — 
 " Cokke Lane," a name which it probably received from an old 
 inn of the sign of the " Cock," which we find to have formerly 
 existed in that part of the street. The foot-road which runs 
 behind the town from this into Gillam's Lane was named 
 Greenway Lane. The end of the town towards Northchurch 
 was called as now Gossam's End, receiving its name probably 
 from some member of the Gossam family, of which also many 
 entries occur in the early registers. The Common was then 
 known by the name of the " common hethe," the river by the 
 mill the common river; higher up, St James's stream, whether 
 from some confusion with St. John's well I cannot say. The 
 fields adjoining this part of the river and behind Mr. Squire's 
 house were called the Spital Meads and the Island Meadow. 
 The whole stream as you are well aware is now known by the 
 name of the Bulbourne. Other local names which existed at 
 this period are Hunger Hill, Oxlade, Philip's Lane, Myddell 
 Hill, the Pightle,* St. Edmund's Field, Coppid Hall, Harefote- 
 end, Whelpley Hill (there are many Whelpleys in the registers), 
 Fridaye Strete, and Rotten Row, near the Castle Mill. So you 
 see there was formerly a Rotten Row in Berkhamsted just as 
 now there is a Rotten Row in Hyde Park. Whether the name 
 be a corruption of " Routine " we cannot say. Doubtless, how- 
 ever, along our Rotten Row, there have passed many routines 
 or processions to and from the Castle. So much for our ancient 
 local names. 
 
 With regard to our proper names, it is interesting to see how 
 many occurring in the early registers are still to be found in 
 our town. I have not attempted to make anything like a com- 
 plete list of them, but amongst those which I have noticed as 
 occurring most frequently are the following : Podefat, Clarke, 
 * A pightle is properly a piece of meadow land between two woods. 
 
HISTORY OF BERKHAMSTED. 33 
 
 Weedon, Pratt, Preston, Norwood, Martyn, Holt, Halsey, 
 Greene, Dell, Cooke, Austin, Butterfield, Tomkyns, Rolfe, 
 Colly ns, Stanborow, Turney, Holyday, Parky ns, Hunt, &c. 
 
 On the other hand, in the early registers we find many names 
 which in our days have no existence among us. Such are 
 Waterhouse (gent.), Axtell, Surman, Babb, Atwell, Blunt 
 (gent.), Gossam, Lessom, Whelpley, Philips, Alle, Borne, 
 Benning, Bower, Hudnall, Grubb, &c. All these names occur 
 in the parish register before the commencement of the seven- 
 teenth century. 
 
 I may here remark that our registers, which are for the most 
 part well kept, commence from a.d. 1538, the year in which 
 register books were first appointed to be kept by the advice of 
 Lord Cromwell. The earlier books contain many quaint entries ; 
 among these are the following : February 1549, Homo Pawper, 
 buried; September 17, 1643, Margery Hollond, an antient 
 mayde, buried; February 9, 1681, Wylliam Axtyll, widower, 
 fiovo(j>0a\fio^, was buried. 
 
 But I must return from this long digression, and proceed to 
 call your attention to the Mansion House, Berkhamsted House, 
 Place, Manor House, Bury or Castle as it has been variously 
 called, for, as it succeeded the old Castle, so the history of the 
 town is to a certain degree involved in its history. The house 
 was built, as we have before remarked, by Sir Edward Cary, 
 to whom the property was granted on lease by Queen Elizabeth, 
 in the second year of her reign. This Sir Edward Cary was 
 Master of the Jewel House to Queen Elizabeth and King James. 
 He is also described as of Aldenham, Herts, where, indeed, ho 
 chiefly resided, and where he was buried in 1618. He was de- 
 scended from an ancient Devonshire family, the Carys of Cock- 
 ington, who trace their origin to Adam de Karry, first Lord of 
 Castle Karry, co. Somerset, in the 13th century. The new house, 
 which is described by Camden in his Britannia as i( a noble 
 and exceeding pleasant seat," was tenanted first whilst Sir 
 
 D 
 
34 HISTORY OF BERKHAMSTED. 
 
 Edward was still living by his brother Adolphus, who was 
 knighted by King James at Whitehall, in the third year of his 
 reign. Sir Adolphus died without issue, and was buried in the 
 church here, April 10, 1609.* It is his helmet which still hangs 
 by the side of a pillar in the north transept. Chauncy tells us 
 that his banners were taken down not long before his time, 
 having hung as long as they could. 
 
 The house was next occupied by Sir Edward's son Henry ,f 
 who was created Lord Falkland, and was father of the cele- 
 brated Lucius Cary the second viscount. It is certainly, there- 
 fore, worth remembering that General Finch's house was built 
 by the grandfather and occupied by the father, and so was the 
 early home of that illustrious boy, destined to play in after-life 
 so conspicuous a part in the history of his country. All who 
 have read the great Lord Clarendon's writings will at once call 
 to mind the passage in which he characterizes Lord Falkland as 
 "a nobleman of most prodigious learning, of the most exem- 
 plary manners and singular good nature, of the most unblemished 
 integrity, and the greatest ornament of the nation that any age 
 hath produced." 
 
 The house which, owing doubtless to some previous agree- 
 ment, was sold by Sir Edward to Prince Henry for its full 
 value, seems however to have remained in the occupation of the 
 Cary family until 1616, i. e. two years before old Sir Edward's 
 death, when it was granted on lease by King James to the 
 Murrays. This lease dates from 19th June, 1616. It was 
 
 * The following entry is taken from the parchment register preserved in the 
 Church:— " 1609, Aprill 10. Sir Adolphus Carye, Knighte, a most loving 
 benefactour to y e poore of this towne, was buried." 
 
 f There is a very interesting account of Sir Henry in Wood's Athene, i. 585. 
 Of his children, Lucius was probably born at Burford. A son and daughter were 
 born here, as may be seen k by the following entries, which occur in the same 
 register : — " 1613. Oct. 5. Lorenzo, ye sonne of Sir Henrye Carye, Knighte, was 
 bapt." According to Wood, Lorenzo graduated at Ex Coll., Oxford, June 30, 
 1630.—" 1614. December 4. Anne, y e daughter of Sir Henrye Carye, Knighte." 
 
 [Sir Henry was cousin of the Queen's cousin Henry Cary, Lord Hunsdon.] 
 
HISTORY OF BERKHAMSTED. 35 
 
 confirmed in 1619. Chauncy says, u These Morays were an 
 ancient family in Scotland, and Mrs. Moray, who lived here 
 in the time of King James I., was nurse to King Charles I., 
 and her husband was also his secretary, as I have been informed." 
 This last circumstance is no doubt true, because we find that 
 Thomas Murray* was tutor and secretary to the Prince, and 
 afterwards Provost of Eton : but, with respect to the first of 
 these statements, Chauncy must probably have been misin- 
 formed. 
 
 It is indeed just possible that Mrs. Murray may have been 
 nurse to the Prince when in Scotland, but it is quite certain 
 that neither she nor any one else ever nursed him here. Her 
 connection with the court may have furnished grounds for the 
 statement which Chauncy records, for we find that she was 
 Lady of the Privy Chamber to the Prince's mother, and was 
 one of the mourners at her funeral. 
 
 She could not however, as I have said, ever have nursed 
 the young Charles here, because he was nursed at Dun- 
 fermline, where he was born in 1600, and where he was left 
 under the guardianship of Lord Fife ; and when he was four 
 years old he was put under the care of Sir Robert and Lady 
 Cary and brought up by them. In the Autobiography of Sir 
 Robert, who afterwards became Earl of Monmouth, is a very full 
 and most interesting account of the education of the Prince. 
 This earl was the son of Queen Elizabeth's cousin, Henry Cary 
 
 * See his life in Harwood's Alumni Etonenses ; also Wood, Ath. i. 468. The 
 children of this Thomas Murray by his wife Jane were Henry ; William (bapt. 
 27th July, 1617) ; John ("agloryeto himself by learning "), bur. 1634, Sept. 17 ; 
 James (? buried in chancel). Henry's children by his wife Anne were Henry 
 (bapt. 16th June, 1631, buried 26th March, 1641); Charles; Ann (bapt. October 
 21, 1641.) 
 
 [Ann, wife of Sir James Walcott, alludes to a lease made by the late King of 
 the park to her mother Jane Murray, 1661, June 17 : " Said Anne pleads that 
 she lost the lease of Berkhamsted, not daring to stay in England after the Duke 
 of York's escape, and now it is otherwise disposed of." — Communicated by Mrs- 
 E. Green, Cal. of Roll Papers, p. 10.] 
 
 D2 
 
36 HISTORY OF BERKHAMSTED. 
 
 Lord Hunsdon, whose family was a younger branch of the 
 Carys of Cockington, the representative of the elder branch of 
 which was the Sir Edward Cary of whom we have spoken as 
 residing at Berkhamsted. 
 
 His son Henry, the second Earl of Monmouth, who is buried 
 at Rickmans worth, was educated with the Prince. It is pro- 
 bably, therefore, owing to some confusion made by Salmon or 
 his informants between these two branches of the Cary family, 
 added to a hasty acquiescence in the tradition preserved by 
 Chauncy, that the further and fuller statement occurs in his 
 (Salmon's) History, that " Prince Henry and Prince Charles 
 were bred up in the Manor House here." As for Prince Henry, 
 he was born at Stirling in 1594, and nursed there by Lord and 
 Lady Marr, so that his being brought up here is out of the 
 question ; and as for the tradition that Prince Charles was 
 nursed here, the circumstances I have just mentioned may pos- 
 sibly furnish a sufficient explanation. 
 
 The next event on which we have to remark will serve to shew 
 us in what light we ought to regard Prince Charles as con- 
 nected with our town. It was about two months after the 
 Murrays had entered upon the property, when the king had 
 been thirteen years on the throne, that Berkhamsted was 
 honoured by a visit from the young Prince, then sixteen years 
 old. In all probability he would be accompanied by his tutor, 
 and he may have come down to see the country house which Mr. 
 Murray had just rented from his royal master as a residence for 
 his family. We find the following curious entry of this interest- 
 ing event quoted by Clutterbuck from an old vestry book which 
 is now unfortunately lost : " The noble Prince Charles came the 
 14th August, 1616, from Windsore, by Beaconsfield, to this 
 towne. A number of twenty or thereabouts of the townsmen 
 mett him at the hithermost or nearest corner of Brickilne 
 Green, and rode before his highnesse two and two into the 
 towne: then they uncovered their heads, and so roade on 
 
HISTORY OF BERKHAMSTED. 37 
 
 till they came att the church stile in the Castle Street, where 
 his highnesse made a stand to hear an oration pronounced by- 
 one of the schollers of the free schole. Now, which being 
 ended, the same townsmen roade on as before up unto the hill 
 before the gate,* where partynge themselves one from another to 
 the righte and to the lefte, a lane was made for his highnesse to 
 pass up to the gate; and in the afternoon his highnesse hunted 
 and killed a fat buck, which he gave to those the townsmen that 
 attended him. The next day his highnesse road towards Abbot's 
 Langley, and dyned at the house of Sir James Fullarton — the 
 townesmen attended him from the gate to the town's-end lane, 
 and roade on before him till they came to Boxe-Moor, and then 
 returned." 
 
 It is plain, from this interesting narrative, that the Prince 
 slept at the Mansion House (General Finch's), then recently 
 rented by his tutor ; though, from the fact of no reception being 
 mentioned, we may conclude that in all probability the new 
 tenants had not yet established themselves in the house; indeed, 
 we have no proof positive of their residence here until the year 
 following, when we find in the old register the following entry: 
 "William, son of the worshipfull Thomas Murrie, esquire, was 
 baptized y e xviith of July, 1617." 
 
 As we have now arrived in our annals in the middle of a 
 reign of so much importance to Berkhamsted, it may be well to 
 remark upon the many proofs of his regard which King James 
 exhibited for this town. First, we may mention that he gave 
 100/. as a benefaction to the poor of the parish. With this 
 money a piece of land was bought at Ashley Green, the rent of 
 which is now carried to the bread fund ; but chiefly it becomes 
 us to narrate, that it was this King who, by a new charter, dated 
 Westminster, July 18, in the sixteenth year of his reign, con- 
 firmed all the ancient privileges which we have already alluded 
 
 * i. e. the old gateway to General Finch's house ; it is now pulled down : for a 
 description of it, hereafter. 
 
38 HISTOEY OF BERKHAMSTED. 
 
 to as granted to this town by earlier monarehs. On the 12th 
 June, 1598, the ancient charter had been confirmed by Queen 
 Elizabeth, and Princes Kisborough made to share its benefits ; 
 but by King James, at the request of the inhabitants, these 
 former privileges were so far extended and enlarged as fully to 
 justify in the case of this new deed the application par excel- 
 lence of the title, u The Charter." The original document, a 
 copy of which is preserved in the parish chest, is so long, that I 
 must not attempt to give it to you in full, more especially since 
 it is all written in Latin. I will however read to you an 
 abstract made at the same time, and also preserved in the chest. 
 It is as follows : — 
 
 " Barkhamsted created a free borough towne ; 
 
 " That y e inhabitants should bee one body corporate and 
 
 politicke ; 
 " By y e same name to have a perpetuall succession ; 
 "By y e name of Bayliffe and Burgesses to implead and 
 
 answer ; 
 " The bayliffe and burgesses to have a common seale ; 
 " Fra. Barker, sen., appointed to be y e first bayliffe, who was 
 to be sworne before y e twelve chiefe burgesses, and to con- 
 tinue from the date of the lett s pattents untill Michas. foil., 
 and from thence untill another of y e burgesses and inhabi- 
 tants should be elected and sworne ; 
 " To be twelve of y e burgesses, who should be called y e chiefe 
 burgesses,* who, together with the bayliffe for y e time being, 
 should be and be called y e common councell, and should be 
 assistant to y e bayliffe in all causes and matt s concerning y e 
 towne ; 
 " Twelve .psons nominated and made y e cheife burgesses, to 
 continue in that office quamdiu se bene gererent, who were 
 
 * It may be interesting to notice that, amongst the twelve original burgesses 
 appointed by the charter, we find the following names: — Thomas Newman, B.D., 
 Rector of the parish, and Thomas Hunt, M.A., Master of the Grammar School, 
 
HISTORY OF BERKHAMSTED. 39 
 
 to take their oaths before y e bayliffe for y e true execution 
 
 of their office ; 
 u That it should be lawfull for y e bayliffe and burgesses to 
 
 have a certain councell-house or guild-hall within y e 
 
 borough ; 
 " That there should be a recorder, to be elected as afterwards 
 
 expressed; 
 "That he should exercise y e office at y e will and pleasure of 
 
 y e bayliffe and burgesses, or y e major pte of y m , whereof y e 
 
 bayliffe was to be one, and that y e recorder was to take his 
 
 oath before y e bailiffe and chiefe burgesses, or four of y m ; 
 " That y e bayliffe and burgesses should yearely elect, on 
 
 Monday next before Mich as , a cofnon clerke, who was to 
 
 execute y e office for one whole yeare, and if he should 
 
 happen to dye within y c yeare, then to choose another 
 
 within eight days to continue clerke for y e residue of y° 
 
 yeare ; 
 " That a principall burgesse or bayliffe designed, being one of 
 
 y e twelve chiefe burgesses, should be elected yearly on 
 
 Munday before Mich as , and to be sworne, and to continue 
 ' for one whole yeare, and then to be elected and chosen into 
 
 y e offiee of bayliffe of y e borough for one whole yeare ; 
 "If y e bailiffe or principall burgesse should happen to dye or 
 
 be removed from his office within y e yeare, then another, 
 
 being one of y e cheife burgesses, to be chosen in his roome 
 
 for y e residue of y e yeare; 
 " That y e bayliffe, recorder, and principall burgesse for y e time 
 
 being, and every of y m , should be justice of y e peace within 
 
 y e borough ; 
 " That there should be two officers, who should be called 
 
 ^vientes ad clavam, to be elected yearely on Munday before 
 
 Mich 98 for one whole yeare ; 
 " That y e bayliffe and burgesses should have and hold within 
 
40 HISTORY OF BERKHAMSTED. 
 
 y e borough, one court of record, to be holden on Tuesday, 
 
 once in every month ; 
 " That they should have within y e borough a prison or goale, 
 
 and that y e bailiffe should be y e keeper of y e same ; 
 " That they should keep one markett on Thursday in every 
 
 weeke, besides y e ancient markett kept on Munday ; 
 " Two faires granted, viz., one on Shrove Munday and y e 
 
 other on Witson-Munday in every yeare, besides y e ancient 
 
 faire on St. James's day." 
 Such is the outline] of our charter, which concludes with the 
 expression of the royal will to restore the town and re-establish 
 it in all its pristine dignity and opulence, and to that end, says 
 the monarch, " for ourselves, our heirs, and successors, we grant 
 and confirm to the aforesaid bailiff and burgesses of the aforesaid 
 borough and their successors, all and each of the customs, liber- 
 ties, privileges, franchises, immunities, exemptions, quittances, 
 exonerations, rights, and jurisdictions, which have been granted 
 and given either by our charter or by the charters of our ances- 
 tors, the Kings and Queens of England, or by the charter or 
 charters of our most dear son Prince Charles, to have, to hold, 
 to enjoy, and to use freely and quietly, without impediment or 
 hindrance, either from us, our ministers, our heirs, or our 
 successors." 
 
 I will now say a few words on one or two matters alluded to 
 in this famous document. You may remember that, amongst 
 other things, the grant of a common seal was made to the cor- 
 poration. There is an interesting paper connected with this 
 subject preserved amongst our parish records, and, if you will 
 allow me, I will read it, since it is not very long. It is the first 
 draft of the grant, and is labelled with the name of the man to 
 whom most probably the execution of the work was entrusted, — 
 " Kymby, a painter, in Litle Britaine, neare to D. Frier." 
 
 " Whereas our Sovereign Lord the King hath, by his letters 
 patent, bearinge date the xviiith day of July last past, incor- 
 
HISTORY OF BERKHAMSTED. 41 
 
 porated the Burrough of Barkehamsted St. Peter, in the county 
 of Hertford, by the name of the Bailiffe and Burgesses of the 
 burroughe of Barkhamsted St. Peter, in the said county of Hert- 
 ford, and withal hath granted unto them to have a mace adorned 
 with the armes of his most deare sonne Prince Charles, with a 
 peculier sealo for the administration of their aifayres, and the 
 said bailiffe and burgesses have requested mee, William Camden, 
 Clarenceux King of Armes, to assigne them armes fitt for their 
 seale, I upon deliberate consideration that the glory of that place 
 hath proceeded from the ancient castle there, a principall seate 
 of the Dukes of Cornwall, have assigned unto them these armes : 
 In a shield, — Or, a triple towred castle azure, w th n a border of 
 Cornewall, viz., sables besanted. The which armes I doe give, 
 graunt, ratifie, and confirme unto the aforesaid bailiffe and bur- 
 gesses, by virtue of my office. In witness whereof I have here- 
 unto set my hand this xxvth daye of September, in the sixteenth 
 yeare of the raigne of our Sovereign Lord James, by the grace 
 of God of Great Brittaine, France, and Ireland, King, Defender 
 of the Faith." 
 
 Accordingly in the old inventories of the goods belonging to 
 the corporation and deposited in the Town-hall, we find the 
 following entries : 
 
 " Item — The cofnon seale with a silver head. 
 
 " Item — The armes of the burro we." 
 
 In these inventories, which were delivered to and signed by 
 each bailiff on his accession to office, we always find the most 
 valuable piece of property at the head of the list. 
 
 " Inprimis — The Charter." 
 
 Further down we read — 
 
 M Item — The grant from y° Prince to y e bayliffe;" and also 
 " two letters to y e sheriffe." 
 
 I may remark with regard to the Prince's (Prince Charles's) 
 grant, that it bears the date of 16th June, 1619, and constitutes 
 the bailiff the Prince's bailiff, and coroner, with power and 
 
42 HISTORY OF BBRKHAMSTKU. 
 
 authority to receive all market-dues, &c, for the term of thhty- 
 oue years, on payment of twenty shillings a year to his high- 
 ness's particular farmer for his highness's use. 
 
 With respect to these letters to the sheriff, it seems that even 
 after the grant of the great charter the inhabitants of Berkham- 
 sted were occasionally summoned on juries, and, complaint being 
 made by them to Prince Charles, he at first expostulated with the 
 sheriff of the county, and afterwards obtained from James I. full 
 authority to insist upon the exemption heretofore granted them 
 in that behalf, and which was thereupon commanded and 
 ordered by the Prince in the following letter, the original of 
 which is now inserted in one of the church books : 
 
 " After our hartie commendations : Whereas the Prince's 
 Highnes' Tennants and Inhabitants of the Towne and Burrough 
 of Barkhampsted St. Peter, in the county of Hertford, being 
 parte of His Highnes' Duchie of Cornewall, and the chiefe seate 
 of His Highnes' honor of Barkhampsteed, who have heretofore 
 enjoyed divers liberties and privileges (as appeareth by sundrie 
 ancient records), and amongst those have been freed and 
 exempted from their attendance at assizes and sessions, and all 
 other services before y e Sheriffe ; and His Highnesse being 
 desirous to advance the said towne to a former or a better 
 estate, hath obtained from the Kinges Ma tie the revyving 
 and confirmacion of the said former priviledges, for the ease and 
 benefit of the said Tennants and Inhabitants : And for the better 
 usage and enjoying of the said exemption, wee did heretofore 
 addresse our letters unto the then Sheriffe ; thereby praieing 
 him to forbeare to somon or retourne anie of the said Tennants 
 and inhabitants to appeare at the assizes, sessions, or other ser- 
 vices before him : yet neverthelesse (as wee are informed) either 
 he or some Sheriffe since have called, somoned and retourned, 
 and yet intend to call, somon and retourne, divers psons of the 
 Towne and Burrough aforesaid, at sundrie tymes to the said 
 services, contrary to His Highnes' pleasure by our former 
 
HISTORY OF BERKHAMSTED. 43 
 
 letters signified : Wee have therefore thought fitt to addresse 
 this our second letter as well unto you the High Sheriffe as for 
 your undersheriffe for the tyme beinge, which letter wee will 
 to remaine in the custodie of the Bayliffe of the Burrough 
 aforesaid, to be shewed unto you and your successor successively 
 from tyme to tyme as often as wee shall require ; thereby 
 willinge and requiringe you to take knowledge both of His 
 Ma t1es graunt and of His Highnes' pleasure herein, and hence- 
 forth to forbeare to somon or retourne anie of the said Tennants 
 or Inhabitants for the services aforesaid, as you tender His 
 Highnes service and favour. Soe, not doubtinge of your careful 
 respect herein, wee bid you hartilie farewell. From His 
 Highnes' Councell Chamber in Fleete Streete, London, y e xv th 
 of May, 1620. 
 
 a Yoiu' verie lovinge friendes," &c. &c. &c. 
 
 Amongst the signatures occur those of Thomas Murray and 
 James Fullerton. You are probably aware that this letter formed 
 a principal evidence before Lord Abinger, when, as we have 
 previously had occasion to remark, the Inhabitants of Berk- 
 hamsted were declared fully entitled to the exemptions and 
 privileges which they then claimed. 
 
 Before leaving the subject of the charter, I would just mention 
 that to the grant of the additional fairs is added curia pedis pul- 
 verizati, " a court of pie powder." This is a name derived from 
 the French (poudre des pieds), and is as much as to say "a court 
 of dusty feet," — an odd enough title certainly, but one which 
 will appear plain and appropriate when we consider that a 
 " dusty-foot " was the ancient name for a pedlar, and that 
 pedlars when met together at market often required a court 
 authorized to adjudge summarily on any dispute which might 
 arise amongst them. 
 
 Agreeably to the powers vested in the bailiff and capital bur- 
 gesses by the charter of incorporation, certain orders and 
 constitutions were agreed upon u for the better government of 
 
44 HISTORY OF BERKHAMSTED. 
 
 the corporation of the borough," on the 13th Nov. 1620, which 
 continued to be the standing orders for the government of the 
 same. The business of the corporation, judging from the records 
 which have been preserved, seems to have been carried on 
 regularly and well. For instance, as a proof of judicious 
 government, we find the following order in 1659. 
 
 " Item, that there shall not be more than six alehouses 
 lycensed to draw or sell beare or ale within the burroughe, with- 
 out the consent of the major pte of the whole company." 
 
 The corporate officers seem to have been regularly elected till 
 about 1662 or 1663,* at which time Chauncy tells us "they let 
 their government fall, having grown very poor in the time of 
 the late war." We find, however, an attempt to revive the 
 charter by a petition to the King, to which His Majesty gave a 
 favourable answer in these terms. " His Majesty is graciously 
 pleased to refer this peticon to Mr. Atturney Gen* 11 , to consider 
 the same and to draw a confirmacon of the charters of Berk- 
 hamsted, with such alteracons,f enlargements, and addicons, 
 as he shall think fitt. Whitehall, Nov. 3, 1664." Notwith- 
 standing this reply, we hear of no result, and the attempt 
 appears to have been ultimately dropped. 
 
 At the beginning of the next century, however, when Chauncy 
 wrote his history, he tells us that there were four of the chief 
 burgesses still living in the town, who by the charter might 
 choose a bailiff, and fill up the number of burgesses. This, I 
 need hardly say, was never done. 
 
 With the decay of the corporation the town generally seems 
 to have become less prosperous. The market was almost 
 
 * The last entry in the old Corporation-book, preserved in the church chest, is 
 as follows : "The second day of September, 1662, Christopher Woodhouse, gent, 
 sworne bayliffe for the tyme being." 
 
 f Among the desired alterations seem to have been, as we find from a note in 
 the church chest, " Barkamsted St. Mary al s Northchurch (y e towne and parish) 
 to be incorporated into one," and " y c weekly markett on Thursday to be changed 
 to Friday." 
 
HISTORY OF BERKHAMSTED. 45 
 
 entirely disused — a circumstance which may have been ac- 
 celerated by several virulent attacks of the small-pox, to which 
 our town was unfortunately subjected, and to which the existence 
 of a parish pest-house bears testimony. These repeated attacks 
 seem properly to have created greater vigilance on the part of 
 the authorities, for an entry in the parish book, Aug. 18, 1779, 
 directs the "prosecution of an apothecary for bringing cases of 
 the small-pox into the town from Ivinghoe. Though however in 
 commerce it did not prosper, JBerkhamsted did not languish 
 altogether, for we find it thus described in an itinerary of the 
 period, " Berkhamsteed has a shabby, decayed market, but 
 genteel inhabitants and neighbours, and splendid assemblies." 
 (Lipscomb's Journey, 1799 ; and Gent. Mag. 1804.) 
 
 But I must return to the Berkhamsted of the days of Charles 
 1. We have already heard much of the esteem in which that 
 monarch held our town, an esteem evinced not only by the 
 charter which he granted to our corporation, but also, as we 
 may now remark, by his benefactions to the poor of the parish. 
 Whilst Prince, in 1620, he gave \00l. to employ the poor of 
 this town at work in Jersey, which, says Chauncy, was ac- 
 cordingly performed until the undertakers broke. Of this sum 
 82Z. only seems to have been recovered, with which was pur- 
 chased a row of houses called Ragged Row, to be tenanted by 
 paupers rent free. These houses were pulled down 59 Geo. III., 
 and sold for 40£., which money went towards the fund for 
 building the new workhouse on the same site. 
 
 In 1626, when King, Charles gave a further benefaction of 
 100/. for firing for the poor. The chief part of this has also 
 been lost ; what has been preserved goes to the bread fund ; so 
 that the bread which is given away every Sunday in church is 
 in part the gift of this unfortunate King, and in part, as we have 
 before remarked, the gift of his father King James. 
 
 We do not hear much of Berkhamsted during the period of 
 the Great Rebellion. The state of feeling here was probably 
 
46 HISTORY OF BERKHAMSTED. 
 
 similar to that throughout the country — a certain acquiescence 
 in the proceedings of the Parliament up to the time of the 
 King's death, followed by a violent reaction after that unjusti- 
 fiable murder, which it required all the vigour and authority of 
 Cromwell to suppress. Accordingly w r e find that some of our 
 townsmen who had dared to express their opinions strongly were 
 brought up for examination before the bailiff and chief bur- 
 gesses, by an order from the Council of State. 
 
 We discover this from a paper dated 14 Aug. 1 649, in which 
 "Jeremy Whelply upon oath saith, that Nathan Paine, having 
 a spiritt of malice, declared at a wedding about the 24th of May, 
 that it grieved him he had ever entered into the service of the 
 Parliament, and that their proceeding against the late King was 
 the most horrid murder that ever any history made mencon of — 
 that it was a plot worse than the gunpowder treason, and that 
 there was no difference, but that one was underground and the 
 other above ground : and again, that the Parliament was not in 
 the right way, and if hee had thought the Parliament would 
 have gone on in that way hee would never have drawen his 
 sword for them, and would never drawe it againe for them going 
 in that way." This Nathan Paine was a man of importance in 
 our town, and served the office of churchwarden. Whether he 
 and his co-patriots suffered for their loyalty we know not ; they 
 may have been imprisoned in what is now the Engine House, 
 which was, says Salmon, made a prison for the Cavaliers, as 
 was also the furthest house in the town, called Marlows, to which 
 a chapel anciently belonged. This may have been on the site 
 where the hall now stands. These traditions however must be 
 received for what they are worth. 
 
 To return to the Mansion House as connected with the history 
 of the town. As you may remember, we left it in the possession 
 of the Murrays. During their residence here, in the year 1627, 
 it may be well to mention that the great park, which at that 
 time contained 1252 acres, was disparked and reduced to 376 
 
HISTORY OF BERKHAMSTED. 47 
 
 acres. The Murrays appear to have left this neighbourhood 
 about the time of the King's death, and we find their interest in 
 the unexpired term of nine years assigned to Major John Alford, 
 in the month of February, 1650. The recurrence of the same 
 name in the lease of the property after a lapse of so many years 
 is certainly a curious fact. It was in this same year that the 
 parliamentary commissioners made a survey of the Mansion 
 House, preparatory to the intended sale of Crown lands. In this 
 survey, which is preserved in the office of the Duchy of Corn- 
 wall, the house is thus described : — 
 
 u All that capitall mess' mansion-house scituate on a hill (in 
 the middle of th' aforesaid parke), called Barkhamsted House, 
 built w th flint and Tatternell stone, cheq r fashion, w ch doth much 
 adorn and sett fourth the same, and covered w th slatt ; consistinge 
 of one large and spacious hall, wainscotted, and well floored, 
 seeled, and lighted : one little parlo r , . . . one pantrey, and one 
 other small room thereunto adjoyning, . . also the great parlo r , 
 . . w th a small roome at the end of the same heirtofore used for 
 a chappell, w th one other darke roome beyond the same, .... 
 and above stayres in the first story . . one roome called the 
 dyneing-roome, also one large gallery, . . on y e west side of the 
 said house, . . seeled w th a freet seelinge, ... all th' aforesaide 
 roomes lye round a square court. At the entering in of the 
 house, standeth a porter's lodge, built w th flint and Totternoll 
 stone as aforesaid, w th four pinacles at each corner, and in the 
 middle standeth a light turret covered w th blew slat w th a payne 
 on the topp of the same, which said turret and lodge doth much 
 adorne the said house ; and between the lodge and the house is 
 one greene square court paved in the middle w th stone, leadinge 
 
 12 stepps in ascent into the aforesaid hall There is no 
 
 water belonginge or neere to the same, the pipes being cut and 
 carryed away theise troublesome tymes, and the watermill 
 standeth afarre of w ch conveyeth water to the said house is also 
 broken and carryed away." 
 
48 HISTORY OF BERKHAMSTED. 
 
 Such is the interesting description of General Finch's house 
 as it existed two hundred years ago. During Cromwell's time 
 it was occupied by Colonel Axtel ; a most remarkable man, who 
 was born in this parish a.d. 1622.* He was originally appren- 
 ticed to a grocer in London, but soon got mixed up in the 
 politics of the day. He became before long one of the most 
 violent of the parliamentarians, and distinguished himself espe- 
 cially by his zeal in promoting the execution of the King. 
 During the Protectorate he was most active in reducing Ireland 
 to the government of this country. At the Kestoration he was 
 hanged as a regicide at Tyburn on the 19th of October, 1660. 
 
 From a paper endorsed " The case of Harry Guy and Bark- 
 hamstead Park," it would appear that Charles II. had left the 
 estate in the care of this Henry Guy, who both paid a certain 
 purchaser of the house, perhaps Major John Alford, the sum of 
 32/. that it might not be pulled down, and moreover repaired 
 and preserved it when Colonel Axtel possessed himself of it. 
 Accordingly, on the King's return, Guy applied for the grant of 
 a lease for himself, which however seems to have been refused, 
 since we find from a warrant bearing date 3d September, 1660, 
 that the estate was leased for a term of thirty-one years to the 
 Lord Treasurer, Jerome Weston, Earl of Portland. It was 
 during this nobleman's residence here that the great fire occurred 
 by which two-thirds of the mansion were destroyed. The cen- 
 tral portion, which escaped, received the necessary repairs, and 
 forms the present house. The two wings, which formed the 
 sides of the court-yard, were never rebuilt. These repairs were 
 
 * The following entry of his baptism occurs in the parish register : " 1622. 
 Danniell, y c sonne of William Axtill, was baptized y e 26th of May." The name 
 Axtill, Axtell, or Axtoll, is of very frequent occurrence in the registers. The last 
 entry is, " 1734, May 26th. Anne Axtel, an almshouse woman, was buried." 
 
 [This family is now settled in America. The Rev. S. J. Axtell, jun., West 
 Medway, Mass., wrote to me in 1879 requesting information to make his 
 "genealogical tree complete."] 
 
HISTORY OF BEBKHAMSTED. 49 
 
 probably effected by John Sayer, to Avhom Lord Portland 
 assigned the remainder of his term on December 11, 1662. 
 
 It was about this time that tradesmen began to issue what are 
 called tokens. Of Berkhamsted tokens there are four in the pos- 
 session of Mr. Evans of Nash Mills : — 
 
 1. Obv. iohn seeling of. In the field i. e. s. 
 
 Rev. barkhamsteed. In the field 1655 between two roses. 
 
 2. Obv. iohn cabvell, 1667. In the field his halfe penny. 
 Rev. IN barkhamsted. In the field I. M. c. 
 
 3. Obv. william babb, 1667. A knot ending in two roses 
 
 between w. k. b. 
 Rev. in barkhamsted. In the field his half peny. 
 
 4. Obv. william preston. In the field his halfe penny. 
 Rev. at barkhamsted, 1668. In the field w. I. p. 
 
 So much for our tradesmen at the period of the Restoration 
 It was about this time also that there happened a curious cir- 
 cumstance connected with our town, which it may be well not 
 to pass over. In the parish register we find that on March 17, 
 1664, Robert Toefield was buried ; and then we see written in 
 another hand, " poysoned by his wife, burnt alive at Hertford." 
 Now death by burning until Geo. III. 30, c. 48, was the author- 
 ised capital punishment for women in all cases of high or petty 
 treason, and husband-murder was petty treason in the strictest 
 sense. In poisoning cases, however, the female criminal was 
 often suspected of witchcraft. Whether this particular indi- 
 vidual were guilty or not of the charge of having poisoned her 
 husband, and whether or not she was thus summarily punished 
 as a witch, I cannot say : but it is certain — and that is the 
 reason why I mention the circumstance — that about this period 
 numbers of aged women suffered death as witches. The san- 
 guinary statutes against witches, such a disgrace to English 
 law, were not repealed until 1736. Belief in witchcraft, however, 
 seems to have lingered in Hertfordshire until even a later period, 
 
 E 
 
50 llISTOltY 0¥ BERKHAMSTED. 
 
 for there is extant a very curious account of a woman murdered 
 as a witch at Tring even so late as 1751. 
 
 To return. I have stated that Lord Portland was succeeded 
 in the tenancy of the house by John Sayer. He had been with 
 King Charles II. in exile. I shall have to speak of him after- 
 wards in connection with the alms-houses which he founded and 
 which bear his name. 
 
 From the Sayers, the house passed in 1718 to the Atwells, 
 and in 1 720 to the Ropers, by which family the lease was re- 
 newed several times; until on the 17th March, 1807, John 
 Roper assigned over the residue of his term to John William 
 Earl of Bridgewater.* 
 
 Having now given an outline of the history of the town, as 
 connected with the old castle and its successor on the hill, 
 I must bring this my first lecture to a conclusion. When we 
 next meet, if I have not already tired you, I may proceed to 
 consider the various other objects of antiquarian interest which 
 still exist in our town. 
 
 * [The house and manor have been since purchased of the Prince of Wales 
 by Earl Brownlow.] 
 
Parish Church of Berkhamsted ST Peter. 
 
 Notes. 
 
 a,. Old Vestry Door 
 
 b . 0> icfinaL rood .screen reHaseei. 
 
 c. Mniurn al' -slab to the OraiuhrwOier, 
 Mather, Brothers <F- Sister,? of 
 tJiePiut fow[>er (wmovedhvnv 
 t/i& chancel) 
 
 D Brasses on/ floor. 
 
 O Wall> inc/run-uHs . 
 
 Theiiqarej-: I to 20 refer to hst 
 in,Appen3w VIE 3 J'age. 130. 
 
 PLAN. 
 
 It) 5 
 
 Batterbmy & Huxley, del 
 
HISTORY OF BERKHAMSTED. 51 
 
 LECTURE II. 
 
 DELIVERED ON THE EVENING OF TUESDAY, JANUARY 30, 1855. 
 
 You may remember that at the close of my last lecture I pro- 
 mised to consider in their order the various objects of antiquarian 
 interest which still exist in our town. Among these, without 
 doubt, the chief post of honour must be assigned to our Church. 
 Forming, as it does, so prominent and picturesque a feature in 
 our town, we must all feel proud that we can call so fine a work 
 of architecture our own. The church, as you all know, is dedi- 
 cated to St. Peter, and St. Peter's day is on June 29th. Now 
 churches in former times were always built east and west, or, as 
 the story goes, with the chancel pointing to that part of the 
 heavens in which the sun rises on the day of the patron saint. 
 Whether this be the reason why our church deviates so much 
 from east and west I cannot say ; but certain it is, that from 
 some cause or other Berkhamsted Church stands pretty nearly 
 north-east by south-west* It is built in the most approved 
 ecclesiastical form, the form, that is, of a Latin cross. The 
 architecture of our church, as of most others, belongs entirely 
 to no one age, but extends over a lengthened period, and has in 
 the course of its existence been subjected to much change and 
 many alterations. The east end of the church, which forms a 
 good specimen of what is called Early-English f architecture, is 
 plainly the oldest portion of the existing building. I say of the 
 existing building, because it is uncertain, at the time for instance 
 of the Conquest, when we know there was a " presbyter " here, 
 whether a church then existed independently of the castle chapel. J 
 
 * [E.N.E. by W.S.W.] 
 
 f For a table of the different styles of ecclesiastical architecture, vide App. 
 III. 
 
 % [An arch in the west wall of the north transept appears to be pre 
 Norman. Vide App. VIII. with which this description of the Church must 
 always be compared. 
 
 E 2 
 
52 HISTORY OF BERKHAMSTED. 
 
 The eastern portion, however, is the oldest part of the present 
 church. From the narrow lancet windows of the chancel, and 
 from the massive supports of the tower, we may assign to these 
 portions so early a date as the beginning of the thirteenth cen- 
 tury, more that is than 600 years ago. 
 
 It is interesting to know that from this early time we are able 
 to trace the successive Rectors of Berkhamsted down to the 
 present day.* 
 
 From the east end the work of building seems to have pro- 
 ceeded rapidly westward, the peculiarly elegant arches of the nave 
 having been erected immediately after. At this time also that 
 part of the building seems to have been erected which now forms 
 the eastern aisle of the north transept, and which still retains its 
 original groined roof. The roof of the nave then probably rose 
 from above the arches, and, if we can picture this to ourselves 
 and fancy central transepts similar to the aisle above mentioned, 
 and further, imagine a triple lancet instead of the great window 
 which now fills the west front, we shall probably have an idea 
 of what our church used to be 600 years ago. In this state the 
 building seems to have remained till perhaps the latter part of 
 the reign of Edward II. or the beginning of Edward IIL's 
 reign, when the style of ecclesiastical architecture had attained 
 its highest degree of perfection. Our architecture at this period 
 is known by the name of Decorated, and to this date we may 
 attribute the existing transepts f and the Chapel t of St. Katha- 
 rine on the south side. These portions of the building are 
 remarkable for the beauty and purity of their style ; indeed 
 
 * Vide App. IV. 
 
 f [The transepts are evidently Early-English, the Decorated portions being 
 insertions. The chapel on the north side of the chancel is the Chapel of our 
 Lady ; vide in Appendix VIII. 5, the interesting will of Nicholas Talbot.] 
 
 % The small doorway now blocked up, leading from the chapel into the chancel, 
 is plainly the ancient priest's door from the outside [rather the entrance to the 
 rood-loft.] 
 
HISTORY OF BERKHAMSTED. 53 
 
 there is one window, that I mean on the west side of the north 
 transept, which in the elegance of its tracery it would be diffi- 
 cult to surpass. The next addition to the building must have 
 been the chantry of St. John Baptist, to which the date of circa 
 1350 may be assigned. This chantry probably received its 
 name from the fraternity of St. John Baptist. When by the 
 King's licence it became Dean Incent's, it was by him beauti- 
 fied and adorned, and on its altar the rent of the Dean's school 
 estates was ordered to be paid. But of this more hereafter. 
 
 About the close of the fourteenth century, we may suppose the 
 windows to have been inserted in the Early-English aisle on the 
 north side. These form very beautiful and interesting specimens 
 of the transition from the Decorated to the Perpendicular style 
 of architecture. 
 
 With these additions we may suppose the church to have 
 remained unaltered until the reign of Henry VI. (circ. 1450), 
 when the old roof must have been taken off, a clerestory added 
 to the nave, and the present roof constructed. To this same 
 date also we may probably assign the singularly beautiful timber 
 pillar which supports the roof of St. John's Chapel. About this 
 time also, the west window, with all the original windows of the 
 nave, must have been removed and new ones inserted. Tradi- 
 tion, indeed, asserts that the west window was given to the 
 church by Mrs. Murray in the reign of James I. Possibly she 
 may have given new glass; though if so it must have been 
 destroyed during the Civil wars, because we find from an entry 
 in the churchwardens' accounts, which I shall presently quote, 
 that the window was reglazed and repaired at the expense of the 
 parish in 1660. 
 
 The most recent addition to the church is the tower.* What 
 sort of steeple Berkhamsted Church originally possessed we can- 
 not say, but we may well rest satisfied with the fair proportions 
 of the present one. In all probability, however, it is a copy of 
 * [?'. c ., the upper part of it.] 
 
54 * HISTORY OF BERKHAMSTED. 
 
 its predecessor.* In the old rental-book of the Grammar School 
 occurs this entry under the 27th year of Henry VIII. " Y e yeare 
 y e steeple was new made" (a.d. 1535). Now tradition says it 
 was rebuilt by 3tofltt i|fl£l£J)J) atttr &lgrc flgg fogffe, whose 
 names are inscribed on the south wall of the exterior. In the 
 old register occurs the following entry among the burials : 
 " 1540, Dec. Ales y e wife of John Phillips, bur. 6." The tra- 
 dition, therefore, that the tower was built by these good people 
 is in all probability perfectly correct. 
 
 Since this period the church has received no additions or im- 
 provements. In a petition from the inhabitants of Berkhamsted 
 to the then diocesan, the Bishop of Lincoln, it is described as 
 being in the year 1628 " a large and goodlye church for the 
 publique service of Almighty God, which by reason of antiquity 
 and former neglect is very much and dangerously decayed in 
 many partes thereof." Whether or not it received the necessary 
 repairs we know not. None of the churchwardens' accounts 
 during this period have been preserved, with a single exception.f 
 
 * [Originally, perhaps, the tower was low and surmounted by a short spiro. 
 — Parker.] 
 
 t [In the British Museum (Add. MS. 18773) there is a most valuable MS. 
 unfortunately lost to the parish, but happily well cared for, containing the church- 
 wardens' accounts for 1584-1748. On the fly-leaf is written " Purchased at Put- 
 ticks, Dec. 4, 1851." It contains 366 folios. The earlier ones are very fragmentary, 
 and a portion of the writing (notably the entries during a part of the reign of 
 Chas. I.) difficult to decipher. On the first sheet is written " The Book of the 
 Church accompts made this present year of our Lord God 1584, the 1 st of Feb- 
 ruary, in the xxvii th year of the reigne of our Sovreign Lady Elizabeth, and given 
 
 to the Py sh by Thomas , cittizen & vintner of London." This book 
 
 must have been lost to the parish before the late rector's time, when certain 
 enquiries were being made respecting the parishioners' rights under the charter. 
 Having been purchased at public auction by the Museum authorities, it is believed 
 that they have a legal claim to its possession. At all events it is now safe. The 
 custody of the parish documents is in the hauds of the rector and churchwardens, 
 and they are kept in the ancient chest in the church, according to old custom, 
 under triple lock and key. May the abstraction of this book be a warning to all 
 future guardians of these records !] 
 
HISTORY OF BERKHAMSTED. 55 
 
 That exception, however, is an interesting one, being the account 
 
 for the year of the restoration of King Charles II. 
 
 Among the items we observe : — 
 
 £ s. d. 
 
 " For our charges at the perambulations . . 11 
 
 " Payd for a pint of sack for y e minister that 
 
 preached on Lord's Day .... 10 
 
 " Payd for the ringers the 5th of November 1 659 2 6 
 
 " Payd to the ringers when the King came in 
 
 and when he was proclaimed . . .10 
 u Payd for a barill of beere when the King was 
 
 proclaimed 10 
 
 " Payd in the two years to poore travellers that 
 
 were distressed 13 
 
 Among the receipts is an interesting one as connected with 
 
 the Grammar School : — 
 
 £ s. d. 
 " Receved of the Schollmasters for ringing the 
 
 six o'clok bell three yeares . . . . 18 
 
 Among the expenses for repairs are as follows : — 
 
 " Payd for a new Chancell doore . . . 11 
 
 "Payd to William Arrowsmith for glassing the 
 
 great windowe 2 8 
 
 In the next century repairs were again needful, if not at the 
 hands of the churchwardens, at all events at the hands of the 
 authorities of the Grammar School; because Salmon, after 
 telling us in his history that the chapel of St. John is used only 
 by the master, usher, and scholars of the Free School, proceeds 
 to relate that " about five years since (i. e. about 1723), as soon 
 as they were all gone into the body of the church to attend the 
 catechising, the main beam gave way and the roof of the chapel 
 fell in." Time fast wore awa} r , the church unfortunately wore 
 away also, until at last it was resolved in the year 1820 — that 
 
56 HISTORY OF BERKHAMSTED. 
 
 most unpropitious of all architectural periods — thoroughly to 
 repair and renovate it. This has been done thoroughly indeed, 
 so thoroughly and so substantially that in our time there seems 
 but little chance of any real restoration being possible. I leave 
 you to admire or not as you please this work of renovation, 
 so called. I merely mention the deeds done, and add no 
 comment. 
 
 The parapet of the south aisle of the nave was reduced in 
 height about four feet. Fancy foliations were inserted in the 
 east and south windows. The font was removed from the west 
 end to the south porch, which was then blocked up. The Tor- 
 rington altar-tomb and brass (of which hereafter) were removed 
 from the nave to the transept. The church was new floored and 
 many old inscriptions covered up. The six bells were recast and 
 made into eight. Substantial pews were erected. The gallery 
 which stood between the tower arches was removed and a new 
 one erected at the west end, under the direction of Sir Geoffrey 
 Wyattville. It is only fair to remark that this famous architect's 
 advice was gratuitous, his sole remuneration being the unanimous 
 thanks of the whole parish in vestry assembled. Furthermore, 
 the roof was renewed and plastered ; and last, though not least, 
 the whole of the exterior of the church was encrusted with 
 stucco. 
 
 I have now spoken generally of the architecture of the church. 
 It may, however, be well just to make one or two remarks on 
 its more particular details. Of stained glass, with which pro- 
 bably many of the windows were originally filled, there is hardly 
 any remaining* Perhaps the most interesting remnant is the 
 coat of Cicely Neville, wife of Kichard Duke of York, of whom 
 we have had occasion to speak previously. This is in one of 
 the windows of St. John's Chapel. The rood screen, so called 
 because formerly a rood or crucifix was placed over it, is still 
 existing, as is also the muniment-room or parvise above the 
 * [Far the glass ancl monuments, see App. VIII.] 
 
HISTORY OF BERKHAMSTED. 57 
 
 porch, where the priest was lodged, though the staircase which 
 leads to it is now blocked up. In the strong room, now used as 
 an engine-house, we probably see the ancient sacristy, where 
 the plate, vestments, and relics were preserved. I may also 
 remark here that the font, which as I have said is not in its 
 original place, was the gift of Francis Withered, Esq. of Ashlins, 
 Comptroller of the Works to his Majesty Charles II.* In the 
 nave were several frescoes, representing the twelve Apostles 
 and St. George and the Dragon. Of these however there are 
 now no traces remaining. Of the coats of arms which were 
 formerly placed in the church, that of Queen Elizabeth is still 
 preserved in the vestry.f This is remarkable, when we remember 
 that during the Protectorate strict orders were given to remove 
 all such regal emblems from our churches. Underneath these 
 arms are the quaint lines : — 
 
 This mighty Queen is dead and lives, 
 And leaves the world to wonder, 
 How she a maiden Queen did rule, 
 Few Kings have gone beyond her. 
 
 Weever tells us that in his time Edward the Sixth's arms were 
 also in the church, in St. John's Chantry, with the following 
 verses beneath : — 
 
 Quid sextum dicis nulli virtute secundus, 
 
 Ingenio nulli, nullus in arte prior, 
 Edwardi insignis sunt hsec insignia ? ludis, 
 
 In »ignis ilium deliniare nequis. 
 
 Weever also gives us the following lines which were inscribed 
 in the same chantry under the coat and crest of Dr. Incent : — 
 
 Mira cano nondum denos compleverat annos, 
 
 Cum Pater est Patriae Edwardus musisque Patronus, 
 
 Hie tuis avibus sublatas reddidit alas, 
 
 * [In the churchwardens' accounts (British Museum) for 1662 : 
 '• To John Turner bringing the font 11 6 
 
 To Richard Ward about the font 1 3 "] 
 
 f [Now in the nave.] 
 
58 HISTORY OF BERKHAMSTED. 
 
 Incenti : obtusis aciem pugionibns ille, 
 Hie cruci vires, Infanti adjecit amictum, 
 Ille Rosam suavi perfndit odore caducam. 
 
 The arms of Incent are, Argent, on a bend gules an Inno- 
 cent or. 
 
 Next a few words about some of the more remarkable monu- 
 ments in the church. 
 
 For the sake of convenience these may be divided into altar- 
 tombs, brasses, and mural tablets. 
 
 1st. Altar-tombs. There are three of these in the church, 
 and all in the north transept. 
 
 First I will say a few words about the altar-tomb with the 
 recumbent effigies, concerning which there has been so much 
 dispute. I have already remarked that neither this monument, 
 nor the brass now adjacent to it, are in the positions in which 
 they were originally placed. They were both in the body of 
 the church — the altar-tomb under the second of the northern 
 arches from the tower westwards, and the brass in the centre of 
 the nave. Now it is asserted both by Weever and Chauncy, 
 that these two monuments are memorials of the same persons, 
 Richard Torrington and Margaret his wife. It is further 
 asserted by both these antiquaries, that this Torrington, accord- 
 ing to tradition, was the founder of the church, and a man in 
 especial favour with Edmund Plantagenet, the founder of Ash- 
 ridge. I need not stop here to refute the first part of this 
 tradition : the church itself refutes it, and when I tell you that 
 this Torrington, from the date on the brass, died 56 years after 
 his supposed patron, I will only leave it for you to imagine the 
 patriarchal age which, if the second part of the tradition be 
 credited, he must of necessity have attained. And now for the 
 opposite side of the question : Salmon and Clutterbuck argue, 
 and I think with reason, that these monuments do not represent 
 the same persons, but different members of the same family. 
 They instance the fact that the one, the altar-tomb, represents a 
 
HISTORY OF BEHKHAMSTED. 59 
 
 knight ; the other, the brass, a civilian ; and also that the arms 
 are not precisely similar, but differenced by a martlet. Besides 
 which, it is scarcely probable that the same persons should have 
 two monuments actually in the same church, excepting in the 
 case of a commemorative mural tablet, with a simple slab on the 
 grave. Thus far then I think we may agree with Clutterbuck, 
 but we cannot follow him when he goes on to assert, with 
 Chauncy, that the Torrington represented on the brass is pro- 
 bably the founder or rebuilder of the nave of the church. He 
 rests his arguments for this on the similarity of the arms which 
 he says existed on the corbels which support the roof of the 
 nave : of these there is now no trace. Chauncy too says that 
 the same coats were round the church on every pillar, and on 
 the woodwork on the side of the church. Now, however this 
 may have been, it is abundantly evident that this Torrington 
 neither rebuilt, nor even re-roofed, the nave ; the nave being 
 built more than 100 years before, and the clerestory and roof 
 being added about 100 years after his time. 
 
 From what I have said, you will perceive that I agree with 
 Clutterbuck in the supposition that the altar-tomb and the brass 
 commemorate different members of the Torrington family. He 
 assigns the earlier date to the altar-tomb, though from the style 
 of dress and architecture I should be inclined to differ from him, 
 and to suppose that the altar-tomb was not erected till towards 
 the close of the fourteenth century. In this case it may possibly 
 be the son of the Torrington represented on the brass ; and, if 
 in any way we are to account for the tradition that these Tor- 
 ringtons were the builders of the church, it will be by supposing 
 that they erected those portions of it which correspond in their 
 style of architecture with the times in which they lived. Thus 
 the elder Torrington may have rebuilt the transepts, whilst the 
 younger Torrington was perhaps the founder of the St. John's 
 Chantry. Of this however it is needless to say we have no 
 record, neither indeed does it appear from any authentic docu- 
 
60 HISTORY OF BERKHAMSTED. 
 
 ment even who these Torringtons were. In the College of Arms 
 there are no records or pedigrees concerning them. They seem 
 however to have been residents in this town, and, from a com- 
 parison of armorial bearings, to have intermarried with the 
 Incents. They must have been people of importance, since of 
 their monuments the altar-tomb especially is so remarkably 
 handsome. It even now bears testimony to its former rich 
 decoration in traces of gold and of red and blue paint, and when 
 in its glory must have fully borne out this description by 
 Weever, written more than two hundred years ago : " In the 
 body of this church stands a stately tombe of an antique rich 
 fabricke, strangely depainted, whereon the shape of a man in 
 knightly habiliments, with his wife lying by him, are cut in 
 alabaster."* 
 
 The Purbeck marble altar-tomb is the next which demands 
 attention. There is no inscription remaining, but from the 
 armorial bearings we find that it is in memory of one of the 
 Cornwallis family. Accordingly we look for a Cornwallis in the 
 register, and there we find the following entry : — 
 
 "Maii( S r John Cornewallis Knyghte, t of y e Prince | . M 
 1544. (Ed 8 Cowncell who died at Asshurridg "l here buried y e j 
 
 Surely then we have a right to presume, as did Chauncy, that 
 this is the Cornwallis who lies buried beneath the Purbeck 
 marble tomb. But here comes a dispute. A monument is 
 found to exist at Broome in Suffolk, representing the recumbent 
 effigies of a knight and his lady, with an inscription in memory 
 of this same Sir John, and also of his wife. Clutterbuck at 
 once seizes upon this as a certain refutation of Chauncy 's error, 
 and tries further to prove his point by asserting that Chauncy 
 made a mistake in reading the register, that for u here " he 
 
 * [Mr. Cussans in a letter to me, Oct. 8, 1877, and also in his History, p. 63, 
 shows that the altar-tomb is in memory of an Incent who married a Torrington 
 and the brass in memory of a Torrington who married an Incent. The arms in the 
 latter case have been relaid and reversed. There is a fine engraving of the altar- 
 tomb in Clutterbuck.] 
 
HISTORY OF BERKHAMSTED. 61 
 
 ould have read " there," in which case, Sir John Cornwallis 
 might have been buried first at Ashridge and afterwards re- 
 moved to Broome. But the error is plainly Clutterbuck's, and 
 not Chauncy's. The word is evidently "here," and not " there." 
 Besides, supposing Sir John to have been buried at Ashridge, 
 what possible inducement could there have been to have inserted 
 a record of the event in the Berkhamsted register ? Such, then, 
 being the state of the case, to what point have we arrived in the 
 dispute ? Just to this. We find two monuments — in different 
 churches, however, recollect — which bear every mark of having 
 r>een erected in memory of the same person. But there is this 
 difference. The monument at Broome is in memory of Sir 
 John and his wife. The monument here we ascribe to Sir John 
 only. What then more natural than that he, dying in this 
 neighbourhood, should in this neighbourhood be buried; and 
 that she, dying in the neighbourhood of her home, should in 
 that neighbourhood be buried, and that when a tomb is erected 
 over her remains her husband should be represented by her side, 
 buried though he be at a distance from his home. We all know 
 what cenotaphs are. A cenotaph for Sir John Cornwallis would 
 be unmeaning here, but in the place of his home there could be 
 nothing more natural, more in accordance with English family 
 feeling. I think then I may fairly ask you to go along with me 
 in supposing that the grey Purbeck tomb in the north transept* 
 is the veritable tomb of Sir John Cornwallis, Knight, and of the 
 council of Prince Edward (Edw. VI.), who died at Ashridge, 
 April 26, 1544. 
 
 The remaining altar-tomb bears the date of 1682. The 
 inscription, which is in Latin, tells us that it was erected in 
 memory of John Sayer, who was " Archimagirus," i. e. chief 
 cook, to his most serene Highness King Charles II., to whose 
 fortunes he constantly attached himself in difficult times, both 
 at home and abroad, in his kingdoms of England and Scotland. 
 * [Now in north aisle of nave.] 
 
62 HISTOllY 01' BEBKHAM8TED. 
 
 This tomb was originally surrounded by railings, which are 
 now removed. We have already alluded to this John Sayer as 
 living at General Finch's house, and as founder of the alms- 
 houses which bear his name. He died Feb. 11, 1682, aged 62. 
 
 My next division leads me to speak of the brass memorials in 
 the church. The fashion of representing on tombs the likeness 
 of the deceased graven on a plate of brass, and inserted in a 
 slab of marble or stone, appears to have been adopted about the 
 middle of the thirteenth century. This species of sepulchral 
 memorial was imported probably by the Flemings, and may 
 shortly be described as a copper-plate engraving from which 
 impressions could be easily obtained. You will be surprised 
 then to learn that, with all these sepulchral plates in existence, 
 the art of engraving remained as yet undiscovered for the space 
 of about 200 years, and during the whole of that interval the 
 simple art of taking impressions remained unknown. To pro- 
 ceed however with a description of this class of monuments in 
 our own town. 
 
 The oldest brass in the church is that to which we have already 
 alluded, as being in memory of Richard and Margaret Tor- 
 rington,* This memorial bears the date of 1356, just one 
 hundred years that is before the art of engraving was dis- 
 covered. On this brass the figure of the wife is represented on 
 the dexter or right side, and the husband on the sinister or left 
 side. Above the lady are represented the arms of In cent, so 
 that in all probability that was her maiden name. I may remark 
 that in this brass the fashion of the day in the lappet sleeves is 
 admirably shown. I may now leave this brass,t as I have 
 
 * [A Frankelin or merchant. This, according to Haines, is one of the oldest 
 civilian brasses in existence. It is now on the north side of the choir stalls.] 
 
 f It may be well however just to notice how it is described by Weever. After 
 speaking of the altar-tomb, he proceeds — " and about the verge of a large marble 
 thereunto adjoining is this description engraven in brass: 'Hie jacet Kichardus 
 Torynton et Margareta uxor ejus, qui quidem Richard us obiit 4 die Martii 130G, 
 et Margareta ob. 9 Martii, 13 . .' This Torynton, as I have it by relation, was 
 
HISTORY OF BEKKHAMSTED. 63 
 
 already spoken of it in connection with the Torrington altar- 
 tomb. In the same transept is a brass with a full-length effigy 
 and the following fragment of an inscription : — 
 
 H tr facet itttcartmg Wltstbtokt qui obiit b . . . 
 
 Sqpte'fcrt* a fl tJ'ttt mtii'mo tttt.Vwpb t 
 
 Sbupplttans boiris t? taritate b'ra p a'ta $ . . . . 
 
 The name suggests a probable connection with Westbrook 
 Hay. 
 
 In the chancel are two brasses, the inscriptions to both of 
 which are gone. One represents the head and shoulders of a 
 priest with the hands clasped in prayer. It may possibly be the 
 memorial of some early rector of Berkhamsted.* The other is a 
 full-length medium-sized effigy of a lady. This is engraved in 
 BoutelPs Monumental Brasses of England, and the date assigned 
 is circ. 1360 (34th Edw. III.) Boutell says, "A loose super- 
 tunic, without any buttons, is the only outer garment repre- 
 sented in this simple yet highly-effective effigy. Upon the head 
 is a kerchief, which partly covers the reticulated head-gear. 
 The singular lines upon the arms, introduced apparently as a 
 
 the founder of this church, a man in special favour with Edm. Plantaginet, Duke 
 of Cornwall, who was son of Kichard Plantagenet, second Sonne of King John , 
 Earl of Cornwall and King of the Romans." Chauncy quotes this nearly ver- 
 batim. He and Salmon, however, differ both from Weever and from each other 
 in their versions of the inscription. It is indeed notorious how little reliance 
 can be placed on copies of inscriptions by old writers. Gough, who gives an 
 engraving of this brass, and on whom alone we can depend, says that in his time 
 (1796) he could read thus much : — 
 
 North side. Ofcttt quarto tsit mtn&ti Mxttii 
 East side. anno oamtnt muTo. ccc.l rferia 
 South side. et iHarjjareta aiiit jcjft ate mm&ti JHatt 
 anno aomtnt ccc.jrt nana. 
 
 All that remains of this now is a small portion- of the last line. Even in 
 Gough's time there was no trace of the name Torrington — a name which it must 
 be borne in mind we receive solely on the authority of Weever and Chauncy. 
 For engravings of this brass, vide Cluttcrbuck, and Boutell's Mon. Brasses, p. 106. 
 
 * [Thomas Brydde, ob. 1405 ?] 
 
64 HISTORY OF BERKHAMSTED. 
 
 species of shading, may be also observed in the brass of Richard 
 and Beatrice de Heylesdone, at Hellesdon in Norfolk."* 
 In St. John's Chapel are four brasses. 
 
 1. A full-length medium-sized effigy of a man in armour, 
 with a lion supporting his feet. No inscription remains, though 
 there are traces of a legend round the stone. If, however, we 
 may connect it with an inscription preserved by Chauncy as 
 existing in this chapel in his time, we shall behold in the brass 
 before us an esquire of the reign of Richard II. Chauncy's 
 inscription is as follows : %fyic )&CU 3toftatttttg $UbCtt 
 
 &rmtger qui otmt 15 trie Martii anno tromuu I395.f 
 
 This brass is also engraved by Boutell, who assigns to it the 
 earlier date of circ. 1365. 
 
 2. A small effigy of a man with a label proceeding from the 
 mouth, on which is inscribed H?r$U fill tfti migtTtVt IttCt* 
 By his side hangs an anlace. This was a short weapon between 
 a sword and a dagger, which was usually worn by civilians 
 until the end of the fifteenth century : it was always worn from 
 a strap apparently attached to the uppermost part of the scab- 
 bard. Underneath is this fragment of an inscription : — 
 
 . . . Cooft qui obiit w 
 . . . 'tit m. cere* nono.i 
 
 Chauncy states incorrectly that the head of the effigy is 
 broken off. He gives the inscription as existing in his time : — 
 
 . . ©Drmuttlrt €ooft qttt otottt 24 Xfit 
 4$trn0t0 Wunii anno from* 1409. 
 
 This brass therefore bears the date of the next reign, 
 Henry IV. 
 
 3. The following inscription on a square brass let into a stone 
 apparently modern : — 
 
 * [Now in north transept. Margaret Briggs (Haines).] 
 f [John Raven was the Black Prince's Esquire, and fought at Crecy. This 
 brass is now on the south side of the choir stalls.] 
 J [Lost in the Restoration.] 
 
HISTORY OF BERKHAMSTED. 65 
 
 $ere Igeth imrgetr tintr* thgsf stone tfit Uotrg of 
 Uobtvt Jtteeitt, (Betttgintatt, late g'Uattt unto the 
 noUie pvincttitit lairg Cergle trutheiaisse of gorfce, 1 
 mother unto the foorths fting ©trfoartr the 5JHHL antr 
 l&tehartr the thgrtre, fohgrhgagtrifcooertJftttettt&selr 
 of tht grete gfoetgttg ggftettesige the finest gete of tht 
 UcgQnc of htitg hettrg the WM. upon Uiho.se gotoi^s 
 3fh'tt haUe wertg* ametu 
 
 Chauncy makes mention of his effigy and coat of arms, also of 
 another inscription. 
 
 4. A medium-sized female figure in a shroud. Underneath 
 is this inscription on a square brass : — 
 
 P?ere igeth imrgetr tuttr* thgs Stone the Uotrge of 
 itatergne jetamtgme the fogf of Robert Xttcent, gent*, 
 father antr mother Unto 3fohtt fateent, lrocto r of g* latoe, 
 Umo hath Irone mattg Uettgfgt 1 ornament ggUett 
 unto th$$ chapell of Sagnt 3John, fohtrhe gagtre 
 Itatergne trgelr the rt trag of i&arche £* rat sere of the 
 rrggne of itgng i^enrg the WW$ • 
 
 There are traces also of a legend round the stone. 
 
 Of these Incentswe shall have occasion to speak afterwards 
 in connection with the Grammar School. 
 
 I have now described all the flat brasses which still exist. 
 There are traces of several others which are now lost. One, for 
 instance, in the chancel, with marks of an inscription and a coat 
 of arms, and one in St. Katharine's Chapel, perhaps to be con- 
 nected with the memory of " Sir Kawfe Verney." In this 
 chapel too Chauncy mentions as existing in his time the full- 
 length effigy in brass of Edmund de la Hay. We cannot too 
 deeply regret its loss. The inscription preserved by Chauncy is 
 as follows : — 
 
 l^tefacet^trUtaetrustrela^agarmtget^utom'tttntrectmo 
 n m'nto mentis Statu anno Irom* mUcr* Cttjtt* ammae 
 jjroju'etnr Henseu &metu 
 
 F 
 
66 HISTORY OF BERKHAMSTED. 
 
 As I cannot describe to yon his effigy, I will read you some 
 portions of his will, which is very interesting, as containing 
 much that may remind us of the state of religious worship in 
 England before the Reformation. It is dated 20 May, 1510. 
 In it he first bequeaths his soul to Almighty God, and his blessed 
 moder and virgin, our Lady St. Mary, and to all the holy com- 
 pany of heaven. He then orders his body to be buried in the 
 church of Berkhamsted, in the chapel of St. Katherine, at the 
 south end of the altar. He gives to the high altar of the said 
 church 6s. 8d., to the use of the light of our Lady of Grace in 
 the church 6s. 8d. (this was probably the north transept chapel 
 to the north of the chancel), to the use of the rood lights where 
 they sing mass at the south door of the same church 6s. 8d. 
 (this must have been St. John's Chapel), to the church workes 
 of the Church of Berkhamsted 20s., to the reparation of the 
 bells 13s. 4d., to the reparation and maintenance of the torches 
 in the same church 13s. 4d, to ten priests who should be re- 
 quired to be at his obsequies 6d. a piece. He gives also 10Z. to 
 his brother Sir William de la Haye, and a house in Berkhamsted 
 formerly Dourdant's; and another there formerly Tumours, 
 and then used as a stable to the former, to Sir Raufe Verney, 
 K*, whom he appoints one of his executors. He leaves the rest 
 of his real estate (which was very large) to his three daughters 
 Luce, Mary, and Joan, and if either of them, or any of them, 
 should make any strife, or debate against the will, her portion 
 was to be sold by his executors to the best value, and to be dis- 
 tributed in good works for the said Edward de la Hay's soul, 
 and all christian souls. He then leaves legacies for the executors, 
 and directs them so to fulfil his will as shall seem most expedient 
 for the health of his soul, and his fader's and moder's souls, and 
 all his friends' souls, with all christian souls. Such is the will of 
 the last of the de la Hays, a family than which in early times 
 there was none more noted in the county. 
 
 It is interesting, in illustration of this will, to find the follow- 
 
HISTORY OF BERKHAMSTED. 67 
 
 ing entry in the Grammar School accounts, an. 2 and 3 Edw. VI. 
 No. 59. 
 
 " Lands formerly Edward de la hays, Esq., which descended 
 to Lucy wife of Eobert Parre, and Agnes wife of Thomas 
 Butler, of Berkhamsted, daughters and heirs of Edward de la 
 hays ; also Eastbrokehay in helmehampstedde, which descended 
 to Marie Goodyere, daughter of Edward de la hay wife of R. 
 Goody ere of St. Albans, purchased by Sir Robert Dormer K l , 
 and from him by the Dean (Incent)." But of these purchases 
 more hereafter. 
 
 We must not forget that we are, or rather ought to be, 
 speaking of the monuments in the church. 
 
 The brasses on the walls of St. Katharine's Chapel come more 
 naturally under the third division which I proposed to consider — 
 mural monuments. Of these there are several in the church. 
 Many that are modern come not within the scope of this lecture, 
 and of two, the Baldwin and Cradock monuments, we may ob- 
 serve that they are only remarkable for their size. The latter, 
 by the way, commemorates a great benefactress to the parish, 
 and there is a curious clause in her will, that if ever her vault 
 be opened, all her benefactions are to go to her executors and 
 their heirs. But let us now return to the Chapel of St. Katharine, 
 where we shall find three very interesting mural monuments, all 
 to members of the same family. 
 
 1 . A tablet on the south wall with an inscription on brass, in 
 memory of John Waterhouse and Margaret his wife. He died 
 in 1558, and was brother of the last rector of Ashridge. 
 
 2. A handsome monument, now much defaced, on the east wall, 
 with an alabaster figure of a lady kneeling. This represents 
 " that worthy Lady Dame Margaret Waterhouse," first wife of 
 Sir Edward Waterhouse, who was son of the John Waterhouse 
 commemorated in the last-mentioned tablet. The inscription, 
 which is on polished marble, tells us that Sir Edward caused 
 this monument to be erected in memory of his wife's virtues 
 
 F */ 
 
68 HISTORY OF BERKHAMSTED. 
 
 and clearest love. She died in 1587. This Sir Edward is 
 reckoned by Fuller as one of the worthies of England. He 
 comes in Hertfordshire under the class of statesmen. We may 
 remark in passing, that Berkhamsted has contributed no less 
 than four worthies to Fuller's collection. As statesmen, this 
 Sir Edward Waterhouse and Henry Viscount Cary, of whom we 
 have already spoken; and as memorable persons, Thomas 
 Waterhouse, the last rector of Ashridge, and Dr. Incent, to 
 whom we shall come presently. With regard to the worthy of 
 whom we are now speaking — Sir Edward Waterhouse — the 
 witty historian tells us that his employment was so great that he 
 crossed the seas thirty-seven times, until deservedly at last 
 he came into a port of honour, wherein he sundry years anchored 
 and found safe harbour, for he received the honour of knight- 
 hood, and was sworn of Her Majesty's Privy Council for Ireland, 
 and was made Chancellor of the Exchequer there. 
 
 3. A marble tablet inserted outside the belfry staircase,* in 
 memory of Thomas Waterhouse, who died in 1600, and Mary 
 his wife. This Thomas was Sir Edward's elder brother, though 
 he outlived him. He served the office of churchwarden of 
 Berkhamsted, and we find his signature in the register down to 
 the year 1598. He had six sons and five daughters. His son 
 John, probably the eldest, who was baptized, as we find from 
 the register, on Nov. 12, 1570, distinguished himself in after 
 life as physician to the Parliamentarian forces in Ireland, on 
 which account Oliver Cromwell, when Chancellor of the Uni- 
 versity of Oxford, gave orders that he should be admitted to the 
 honorary degree of M.D. in that university. 
 
 In the chancel above the vestry doorf there is a mural monu- 
 ment in memory of two of the young Murrays, erected, accord- 
 ing to the inscription, by their mother. The tradition, in 
 accordance with the one alluded to in the first lecture, asserts 
 
 * [Moved to the south wall of the upper vestry.] 
 f fNow the Credence recess.] 
 
HISTORY OF BERKHAMSTED. 69 
 
 that these were the foster brothers of the Royal Princes Henry 
 and Charles. This has been shown to be incorrect. They may 
 possibly however have been sons of Prince Charles's tutor, but 
 even of this we can make no positive assertion, because in the 
 inscription we have no date for our guidance. 
 
 There are two monuments still remaining which do not come 
 under either of the heads of my division. 
 
 1. A stone-coped tomb in the north transept,* with a floriated 
 cross. This is without doubt the earliest monument in the 
 church, and is most probably coeval with the chancel. 
 
 2. The monument which has been called Friar Bacon's, but 
 for which title I cannot find the slightest authority : indeed we 
 know as a matter of fact that the friar was buried in Oxford. I 
 doubt indeed whether originally this was a monument at all. 
 The Purbeck slab seems to be out of place, and the recess 
 appears to have been filled up subsequently. Formerly it was 
 probably a simple mural recess, intended no doubt for sepulchral 
 purposes,! and exactly like its neighbour, through which the 
 small entrance door has unfortunately been cut. The inscrip- 
 tion on the brass plate let into the slab is in evident com- 
 memoration of the Waterhouses, there probably buried, as 
 recorded on the mural tablet above. This brass is in itself a 
 curiosity, inasmuch as it is an instance of what are called 
 palimpsests. On the back, if you turn it up, you will find part 
 of another inscription, so that the plate has either been carried 
 off from its original position and made to do duty a second 
 time, or else it has been cancelled on account of some imper- 
 fection. The more modern inscription is as follows : and you 
 will observe the rather unfortunate assertion of the Waterhouses, 
 that they never robbed anybody of anything : — 
 
 <&ttt gtti) hoc tttimtlo cottftttiK ttjrorquc jarcmug 
 &etrtttam jiacem tnmet ittrtque Heujs 
 
 * [Now by the side of the Cornwallis tomb.] 
 f [? an Easter sepulchre.] 
 
70 HISTORY OF I3ERKHAMSTED. 
 
 Htl rm'qitam abstuhmuo gt quttr fcrnefmrnttS tiUt 
 <£st qui pro mtritin pracmta trigna Xtabit. 
 
 ©fit tamcit una sfalttsi Cristt nugmtto quam qui 
 ^rangis amboimg scpe jimare preror* 
 
 The inscription on the reverse consists of the following frag- 
 ment, beautifully engraved, probably by the Goldsmith's 
 apprentice, and with an initial letter, representing St. Jerome 
 as a cardinal, with a lion : — 
 
 ^ffcf gourc riiartte prag for the gout* 
 ^^ : of SThomas fttttufre late of iotttro' 
 goitrjemtgthe antr 3fone h£g fo£ffe the trott 
 Qhttv of &LI i>U i>a m iiagttttt' frmer fohgch 
 Stone trggsesSBtr the m j irag of trecember 
 
 Above this inscription are the remains of a representation of 
 the goldsmith and his family, consisting apparently of six sons 
 and three daughters, all kneeling : between them has been a 
 figure of St. Michael weighing souls. The date, according to 
 the costume, would be about 1470.* 
 
 Among the many other and more modern monuments and 
 sepulchral inscriptions in the church, I think there are none 
 which fall exactly within the scope of my lecture. I may just 
 however allude to the gravestone of Christopher Woodhouse, a 
 great man in his day and the last of the bailiffs of Berkhamsted. 
 I mention his tomb, which is in the north transept, because of 
 the long and quaint Latin inscription, in which, after being told 
 that he was " omnis generis morborum curator," we are in- 
 formed i: ita candelae instar dum aliis prodest sibi consumitur 
 die 26 Julii, A.s. 1682, setatis 61." 
 
 1 have purposely abstained until now from any allusion to that 
 monument which is perhaps a source of greater interest than 
 
 * [This palimpsest is now on the sill of window in north transept, with a 
 hinge.] 
 
HISTOJtY OF BERKHAMSTED. 71 
 
 any other in the church — ■the tablet I mean in the chancel, put 
 up to the memory of Ann Cowper, the mother of the poet. The 
 lines on the tomb, I need hardly say, are not the poet's own, 
 but written by Lady Walsingham. On the stone * within the 
 communion rails which actually covers the remains of the poet's 
 mother is this inscription, which has reference to the adjacent 
 memorial of Catherine Donne : 
 
 " Here also lyes interred the body of Ann Cowper her daugh- 
 ter and late wife of John Cowper, D.D., rector of the parish, 
 who died Nov. 13, 1736. As also the bodies of Spencer, John, 
 Ann, Theodosia, Judith, and Thomas, the children of the said 
 John and Ann Cowper, who all dyed infants, and Mrs. Cowper 
 died in the thirty-fourth year of her age." You all, of course, 
 know that the poet himself was born at Berkhamsted, in the old 
 rectory house, on the 15th Nov. O.s. 1731. The entry of his 
 baptism is in his father's handwriting in the parish register. 
 
 " 1731, Dec er , 
 y e 13, Will" 1 y c son of John Cowper, D.D., rector of this 
 Parish, and Anne his wife, was baptized." 
 
 He died at East Dereham, in Norfolk, on the 25th April, 
 1800, and there he was buried. I shall not now enlarge upon 
 the life of a man of whom we may all well be proud — a man of 
 whom it has been truly said that if ever any one was born a 
 poet it was Cowper, the poet of Christianity. The life, indeed, 
 and writings of one who has been characterised by Hazlitt as 
 the most popular poet of his generation and the best of English 
 letter-writers, and as one whose poems contain a number of 
 pictures of domestic comfort and social refinement which can 
 hardly be forgotten but with the language itself — the life, in- 
 deed, and writings of such a man so characterised by such a 
 critic would in themselves form a most suitable subject for a 
 lecture before this Institution, and I take this opportunity of 
 expressing a sincere hope that ere long some one capable of so 
 * [Removed to north transept.] 
 
72 HISTORY OF BERKHAMSTED. 
 
 doing may bo induced to give this subject its deserved attention. 
 On the present occasion, however, as in duty bound, I must just 
 read to you the well-known passage in the beautiful poem which 
 was written on the receipt of his mother's picture, in which he 
 speaks of this his native place. You will recollect that he was 
 just five years old when his mother died. Hear, then, the lines 
 in which he refers to that sad time, and the associations con- 
 nected with it : — 
 
 I heard the bell tolled on thy burial day, 
 I saw the hearse that bore thee slow away, 
 And, turning from my nurs'ry window, drew 
 A long, long sigh, and wept a last adieu ! 
 
 * » * ♦ 
 
 Where once we dwelt, our name is heard no more, 
 Children not thine have trod my nurs'ry floor ; 
 And where the gard'ner Robin,* day by day, 
 Drew me to school f along the public way, 
 Delighted with my bauble coach, and wrapp'd 
 In scarlet mantle warm and velvet cap, 
 'Tis now become a history little known 
 That once we call'd the past'ral house our own. 
 
 We may now leave the subject of the church and the asso- 
 ciations connected with it, and speak a few words about the 
 other religious foundations of our town. Of these there seem 
 to have been several. The only two, however, of which we 
 know anything are the hospitals of St. John the Baptist and St. 
 John the Evangelist. Both were for poor and infirm persons. 
 Of the former, we shall have to speak more particularly in con- 
 nection with the history of the Grammar School. Of the latter, 
 which appears also to have been sometimes called St. James, and 
 was a hospital for lepers, brethren and sisters, the only remnant 
 is the beautifully clear spring in Mr. Lane's nursery garden, 
 which is still known by the name of St. John's Well. The 
 
 * Robert Pope, buried January 18th, 1767. 
 
 f The house recently pulled down by Mr, Martin was pointed out by tradition 
 as the poet's school, 
 
HISTORY OF BERKHAMSTED. 73 
 
 M Spital mead," as it is still called, behind Mr. Squire's house, 
 and the " Spital trees" which used to stand in front of it, would 
 both tend to prove the extent and importance of this religious 
 foundation. Salmon tells us that in his time many bones were 
 found in digging on the site, and Mr. Lane corroborates this 
 fact by the assertion that even now foundations of buildings and 
 human remains are constantly discovered very near the surface. 
 Both these hospitals appear to have been founded in the reign of 
 King John by Geoffrey Fitz Piers, Earl of Essex, of whom we 
 have had occasion to speak previously in connection with the 
 history of the castle. By him they were piously transferred to 
 more sacred keeping. He gave, says Dugdale, to the brethren 
 of the hospital of St. Thomas of Acres,* in the city of London, 
 the guardianship of St. John Baptist in Berkhamsted, and also 
 the hospital of St. John the Evangelist of Lepers. We hear 
 nothing further of this leper hospital until the time of Henry 
 VIII., when we find the following entry in the inventory of the 
 possessions of Sir Ralph Yerney, Knight, of Albury, who was 
 buried at Berkhamsted, April 26, 1545. u Le over Spittle 
 Howse, otherwise St. John Evangelist's Spittle House ; the 
 second called the Nether Spittle Howse, otherwise St. Leonard's 
 Spittle Howse." 
 
 Of the hospital here mentioned as St. Leonard's we know 
 nothing further, except that Chauncy tells us it was situated at 
 the south-east end of the High Street. Other religious founda- 
 tions, of which the names only have been preserved, seem to 
 have been, St. Edmund's, which may have been situated near 
 the rectory, since u the close behind the parsonage " is " called 
 St. Edmund's " ; and St. Clement's, on the site of Egerton 
 House, if we may venture to indulge in such a supposition 
 from the fact that a seal inscribed with the name of the frater- 
 nity of St. Clement was recently discovered in the garden 
 
 * Thomas a. Becket was called St. Thomas of Acres or Aeon, from the assist- 
 ance he was supposed to have rendered to the Crnsaders at the siege of Acre, 
 
74 HISTORY OF BERKHAMSTED. 
 
 behind it. Tanner also mentions a hospital of St. Thomas the 
 Martyr, but suggests with much probability that either of the 
 hospitals of St. John the Baptist or Evangelist may have re- 
 ceived this name because granted to the hospital of St. Thomas 
 of Aeon, in London. 
 
 Perhaps here I may be expected to say a few words about the 
 ruin called Marlin's Chapel, which though not actually within 
 our limits is still just on the borders of our parish. In Marlin's 
 or Maudlin's we see probably the remains of the domestic 
 chapel of the adjacent house, dedicated to St. Mary Magdalene, 
 of which the modern name is a corruption. In Salmon's time 
 it was used as a malt-house ; it is now going fast to decay. 
 The moat which still remains round the house attests the im- 
 portance of the place in former time. Now, as Marlin's is 
 called a mesnalty in Northchurch parish, and as in Dean 
 Incent's rental-book rent for certain property is paid to the 
 u Lord of Magdalene," 7s. 2d. per year altered to 5s. 4d., and 
 further, as there is no mention of the place in the King's books, 
 I think we shall not be wrong if we regard it, as I have done, 
 not as a religious foundation, but as an ancient residence with 
 a domestic chapel attached. It has often been regarded as a 
 ruined chapel of ease to Northchurch, a supposition which may 
 have arisen from the fact that Chauncy tells us there were for- 
 merly many chapels of ease in Northchurch parish which in his 
 time were demolished and converted into barns. 
 
 There is a great religious foundation still remaining un- 
 noticed, which, though only partially within the actual bounds of 
 our parish, is still so intimately connected in many ways with this 
 town, that I feel sure you will wish me to say something about 
 its history. Of course you will perceive at once that I am 
 alluding to Ashridge. The founder of Ashridge was Edmund 
 Earl of Cornwall, son of the King of the Romans, and nephew 
 of King Henry III. We have already spoken of this royal earl 
 as residing at Berkhamsted. Edmund spent much of his time 
 
HIST011Y OF BEltKHAMSTED. 75 
 
 abroad, and during one of his travels procured a most valuable 
 relic : this was no less than a particle, as it is called, as being 
 less than a drop, of our Saviour's blood. He met with this 
 precious treasure in Saxony, and succeeded in obtaining it, not- 
 withstanding many difficulties which he had to encounter. He 
 brought it home to Berkhamsted and founded a college in its 
 honour at Ashridge,* or as it was then called Aescrugge, a 
 name derived either from the ashes which grew on the adjacent 
 ridge, or from its situation on the eastern ridge of the Chiltern 
 Hills. To guard this sacred relic, and to pray for the soul of 
 his father, Edmund introduced a new religious order into Eng- 
 land called Bon Hommes, an order under the rule of St. Augus- 
 tine, and supposed by Mosheim to have been a remnant of the 
 Paulicians. They wore a grey or ashy-coloured dress. The 
 foundation at Ashridge consisted of a rector and nineteen 
 brethren, thirteen of whom were obliged to be in holy orders. 
 
 The charter of the foundation of Ashridge was confirmed by 
 the King (Edward I.), at Langley, on the 17th April, in the 
 14th year of his reign. 
 
 Soon after the foundation of the college, it was distinguished 
 by a parliament which was holden in it in the presence of the 
 King. The founder died at Ashridge on the first of October in 
 the year 1300. His bowels were immediately buried, but his 
 heart and flesh were more solemnly interred on the 12 th 
 January, in the presence of Edmund Earl of Kent the King's 
 son, several of the bishops, and many others. After this, his 
 bones were carried to the Abbey of Hailes, which his father had 
 founded, and wore there honoured with a magnificent funeral. 
 The sepulture of his heart at Ashridge was with the heart of 
 Thomas de Cantelupe, Bishop of Hereford, which, according to 
 a MS. in the Bodleian Library, had been removed from Here- 
 
 * [He bestowed a third of it on the Abbey of Hailes and the other two por- 
 tions he gave to Ashridge. Cf. an interesting Paper read at Hailes Abbey by 
 Mr. Brock and printed in The Athec-neum, Aug. 28, 1875.] 
 
76 HISTORY OF BERKHAMSTED. 
 
 ford Cathedral to Ashridge by the Pope's particular appointment, 
 and placed with the particle of the Saviour's blood in a golden 
 tabernacle with the respect it deserved. 
 
 The next great benefactor to Ashridge was the Black Prince. 
 So great indeed was the munificence of this illustrious hero that 
 he has not unfrequently been styled a founder ; indeed such 
 seems to have been his own desire. In his will, for instance, he 
 thus expresses himself, " Item, we give and devise our great 
 table of gold and silver all full of precious reliques, and in the 
 midst a cross of the sacred wood of the cross : and the aforesaid 
 table is set with stones and pearls, i. e. 25 rubies, 34 sapphires, 
 15 large pearls, and several other sapphires, emeralds and small 
 pearls —to the high altar of our house of Asherugge, lohicli is of 
 our foundation." The Prince's chief claim to the title of founder 
 seems however to lie in the fact that he made up the full com- 
 plement of brethren, only seven of whom had been in holy 
 orders before his time, the rest existing only in name. 
 
 Many more names are enrolled in the list of benefactors, and 
 among them, the famous Cardinal Henry Beaufort, Bishop of 
 Winchester. Among the rectors occur no remarkable names. 
 The last was Thomas Waterhouse, whom the King always called 
 his " gentleman priest." King Henry was on a visit to his 
 friend in 1530, as appears from the first of the following items 
 in the Privy Purse Expenses : 
 
 " xvij Aug. 1530. It m the same daye to a slvant of S r Edward 
 Donnes for bringing of a bucke to the Kinge at Ashridge 
 vijs. vjd. 
 
 " It m the same daye to the keper of Berkhamstede parke in 
 reward vijs. \]d. 
 
 u It m the xviij daye to Edmonde the foteman for so muche by 
 him gyven in rewarde at Assherige to one that made the dogges 
 to draw water iiijs. viijd." 
 
 This was five years before the dissolution of the college, for 
 
HISTORY OF BERKHAMSTED. 77 
 
 Watcrliouse and his brethren surrendered in the year 1535. 
 
 Waterhouse survived the dissolution many years. He lived in 
 
 retirement, first in Castle Street, and afterwards at Hemel 
 
 Hempsted, in the church of which place he desires in his will 
 
 that he may be buried. He died in the third year of Queen 
 
 Mary, and bequeathed to the parish church of Great Bark- 
 
 hamsted his vestment of crimson velvet. 
 
 The Poet Skelton seems to have been a visitor at Ashridge 
 
 just before the dissolution. His allusion to the place is most 
 
 interesting. It occurs in the poem called " The Crowne of 
 
 Lawrell," and is as follows : — 
 
 Of the bone horns at Ashridge beside Barcanstede, 
 
 That goodly place to Skelton most kynde, 
 
 Where the sange royall is, Christis blood so rede, 
 
 Whereupon he metrified after his mynde, 
 
 A pleasanter place than Ashridge is hard were to finde ; 
 
 As Skelton reherseth with words fewe and playne, 
 
 In his distich on made in verses twayne, 
 
 Fraxinus in clivo frondetque viret sine rivo, 
 
 Non est sub divo similis sine flumine vivo. 
 
 Such are the verses about Ashridge which occur in the 
 " pithy, pleasant, and profitable workes of maister Skelton, 
 Poete Laureate." 
 
 I may here mention that the relic of the blood to which 
 Skelton alludes, and of which we have spoken previously, was 
 discovered to be honey clarified and coloured with saffron, and 
 as such was publicly exposed at Paul's Cross by Holbeach 
 Bishop of Kochester, 24 Feb. 1538. 
 
 After the dissolution, Ashridge unquestionably became the 
 residence of royalty. To whatever tenant it may have been 
 assigned during the remainder of King Henry's days, we find 
 that it was bestowed on the Princess Elizabeth by her brother 
 King Edward,* and we know that she resided here in the reign 
 
 * We are told by Browne Willis that Edward VI. was nursed at Ashridge, and 
 Archdeacon Todd suggests that this may be the origin of the name " Prince's 
 Riding," as applied to the western avenue. 
 
78 HISTORY OF BBRKHAMSTED. 
 
 of Queen Mary. It is from Ashridge that she writes to her 
 brother in 1351, when the sweating sickness was raging; and 
 she was residing there after Queen Mary's accession, when 
 Wyatt's rebellion broke out. On a groundless suspicion that 
 she was connected with it, commissioners were instantly dis- 
 patched to Ashridge with orders to remove her immediately to 
 London. When they arrived it was ten o'clock at night. The 
 Princess was ill and in bed. The commissioners, declaring 
 that they would take her whether alive or dead, rushed un- 
 ceremoniously into her bed-room and bade her be ready without 
 fail by nine o'clock in the morning. She was accordingly 
 hurried off, weak and feeble as she was, and on her arrival in 
 town was committed a close prisoner to the Tower. It was by 
 water that she was conveyed to her prison, and it was on land- 
 ing, with one foot on the stairs, that she uttered those ever 
 memorable words, " Here landeth as true a subject, being a 
 prisoner, as ever landed at these stairs, and before thee, God, 
 I speak it, having none other friend but Thee alone." 
 
 After Elizabeth's accession to the throne, she granted Ash- 
 ridge to one of her gentlemen pensioners, William Gorge ; 
 afterwards, in the 17th year of her reign, to John Dudley ; and 
 finally, in 1580, to Lady Cheney. From Lady Cheney, Ash- 
 ridge passed through the hands of Ralph Marshal and Randolph 
 Crew, the last of whom, by an indenture dated 21 Oct., in the 
 2d year of James I., made it over to Sir Thomas Egerton, Lord 
 Ellesmere, who had been Lord Keeper to Queen Elizabeth, and 
 was now Lord High Chancellor to the King. He was succeeded 
 by his son John, Lord President of Wales. The Lord President 
 was the first Earl of Bridgewater, and it was before him in 
 Ludlow Castle that Milton's " Comus" was originally presented. 
 The Lord President's son, the second earl, was the next posses- 
 sor of Ashridge. During the Civil war this accomplished noble- 
 man embraced the cause of the King, and therefore we are not 
 surprised to find that in 1643 his mansion was plundered by the 
 
HISTORY OF BERKHAMSTED. 79 
 
 Parliamentarian soldiers, and all the plate carried off. He him- 
 self was several times in danger ; fortunately, however, he sur- 
 vived until the Restoration, when his great abilities were par- 
 ticularly noticed by the sovereign. He was a distinguished 
 patron of the arts and sciences, and the friend of all the learned 
 men of his time, and he it was who especially encouraged the 
 learned Pole in his celebrated work Synopsis Criticorum. Before 
 we proceed, it may be interesting to notice a royal warrant 
 which was granted to this earl in the September following the 
 King's restoration. From this document, which as to game is 
 curious respecting Ashridge and its neighbourhood, I have made 
 the following extract : — 
 " Charles R. 
 
 1* . . . Whereas we are informed that our game of hare, 
 pheasant, partridge, heron, and other wilde fowle about Ash- 
 ridge ... is much destroyed by divers disorderly persons with 
 greyhounds, mongrells, setting doggs, guns, trammells, tunnells, 
 netts, and other engines, contrary to the statutes of this our 
 realme, For the better preservation hereof, and that our game 
 may be the better preserved for our sport and recreation, at 
 such times as we shall resort unto those parts : We do hereby 
 will and command . . . that no person doe hereafter use any of 
 the said unlawfull meanes ... to hurt, or kill, our said game 
 . . . within ten miles compasse of the said Ashridge . . . We 
 doe hereby give full power and authority unto you, . . to seise 
 and take away . . the said engines, and to certify us of the 
 names of any persons soe offending, to the end such further 
 order may be taken for their punishment as shall be fitt. . . 
 Given under our signet at our Palace att Whitehall, this 25th 
 day of September, in the twelfe yeare of our Reigne." 
 
 On the death of this nobleman, he was succeeded by his son 
 John the third earl ; he again by his son Scroop the fourth earl 
 and first duke, from whose daughter, Lady Louisa Egerton, is 
 descended the present Lord Ellesmere. The two elder brothers 
 
80 HISTORY OF BERKHAMSTED. 
 
 of this Scroop were burnt in the great fire at Bridgewater 
 House, Barbican, April, 1687. The duke was succeeded by his 
 son John, who died unmarried, aged twenty. His successor 
 was his brother Francis the third duke, and the illustrious 
 "father of inland navigation." It was in memory of this 
 nobleman, as you all know, that the Ashridge column was 
 erected. You will all probably be also aware that it was by him 
 that the old college was pulled down. To give some idea of 
 what the building was before its demolition, I may perhaps be 
 allowed to quote the words of its accomplished historian, the 
 late Archdeacon Todd. He tells us that the front of the man- 
 sion or college was inclosed within a court, to which the entrance 
 was through a handsome gateway, formerly the porter's lodge ; 
 but large enough to contain several good apartments, in which 
 the late Duke of Bridgewater resided. . . Being entered into 
 the court, the principal front presented itself to view, and along 
 the middle part ran the seven high gothic windows of the hall. . . 
 The account of this noble room, as preserved by Browne Willis, 
 corresponds nearly with its last appearance, some of the painted 
 glass only being then wanting ; but the beautifully fretted roof, 
 as well as the gallery over the screens, escaped the notice of that 
 famous antiquary. He says, " The Kefectory or Convent-hall, 
 which seems to answer to one area or side of the cloisters, is 
 very high and lofty. 'Tis in length forty-four feet, and in 
 breadth twenty- two, and is a very well proportioned room." 
 The next object of delightful curiosity which here presented 
 itself was the cloisters. They formed a quadrangle, the length 
 of them, according to Browne Willis, being forty-one feet, and 
 the breadth ten and a half. On the walls were beautifully 
 painted in water colours forty compartments representing scenes 
 from the sacred narrative. . . The conventual church, according 
 to Mr. Gough's statement, stood in what was the garden ranging 
 with the cloisters, " What sort of fabrick it was," says Browne 
 Willis, in a letter to Scroop Duke of Bridgewater, " it is not 
 
HISTORY OF BERKHAMSTED. 81 
 
 easy to guess, tho' I presume it was two-thirds longer than the 
 cloysters, which in religious houses generally made a third part 
 of the church. ... By a legacy of 100 11 of Cardinal Beaufort, 
 Bishop of Winchester, A 1447, I judge the cloyster and good 
 part of the house now standing were built temp. Hen. VI., 
 within less than a hundred years before the Reformation, and 
 being a good building occasioned its being preserved." 
 
 So much for the old college, which, as I have said, was pulled 
 down by the duke — " the father of inland navigation." It was 
 his intention to build a new mansion on a magnificent scale, 
 and in furtherance of this design he had accumulated many 
 materials. He did not however live to accomplish his designs, 
 but died on the 8th March, 1803, three years after the demo- 
 lition of the college. As he died unmarried, the property came 
 to his cousin John William, son of the bishop of Durham, who 
 was earl, and not duke, since the dukedom descended only in 
 the direct line. The new earl zealously carried into effect the 
 intentions of his predecessor, and was the builder of the present 
 mansion.* It may be well to remark, in the words of Todd, 
 that it is built nearly upon the site of the ancient house, 
 belonging to which no room retaining a roof remained when the 
 Earl of Bridge water came into possession of the estate. There 
 were indeed remaining two lodges ; one the entrance gateway to 
 the house, the other to the stable-yard; and the engine-house, 
 which covered a well 275 feet deep. Of the ancient offices 
 nothing useful was left except the conventual barn, a stable, 
 and a cellar, f 
 
 Having thus brought down the history of Ashridge to the 
 period of the erection of the present mansion, it is time for me 
 
 * John William Earl of Bridgewater died Oct. 21, 1823. He was succeeded 
 in the title by his brother Francis, the prime mover of the " Treatises," who died 
 in Paris in 1829, and was the last Earl of Bridgewater. 
 
 f [There is an excellent paper on Ashridge, printed in the Saturday Jleview, 
 Sept. 9, 1876.] 
 
 G 
 
82 HISTORY OF BERKHAMSTED. 
 
 to change the subject, and say a word or two about other things 
 which demand attention : and first the Grammar School. I have 
 before alluded to the Grammar School when I had occasion to 
 mention the Hospital of St. John the Baptist; as however the 
 connection between these two foundations is not generally very 
 clearly understood, it may be well just to say a few words on 
 this subject: and first as to the Hospital of St. John the Baptist. 
 This, as we have said, was founded as a hospital for poor and 
 infirm persons, by Geoffrey Fitz Piers, Earl of Essex, in the 
 reign of King John, and given by him to the guardianship of 
 the College of St. Thomas Aeon in London. "We hear nothing 
 further of the brotherhood until the time arrived when all such 
 foundations were more generally brought into notice, the time 
 I mean when the whole of Europe was roused as it were from 
 slumber by the general revival of learning, and the consequent 
 reformation of religion. It was in the ninth year of King 
 Henry VIII., as we find from documents belonging to the school, 
 that certain property was let on lease to one John Hewitt of 
 Berkhamsted, sadler, by " John Long, citizen and Salter of 
 London, and President, William Petitt, Thomas Benner, and 
 Thomas Hickman, Wardens, of the Brotherwhode of St. John 
 Baptist within the borough of Berkhamsted Peter, and the 
 feoffees of lands belonging to them." From the fact therefore 
 that the then President was a London tradesman and non- 
 resident, we are naturally led to the conclusion that the hospital 
 had dwindled into a sinecure. And so perhaps it might have 
 remained, had not the next President been a man fully alive to 
 the responsibility of his position, and pre-eminently anxious for 
 the good of his fellow-creatures. This was none other than the 
 famous Dr. Incent, a man whom Fuller justly classes amongst 
 the worthies of England. The Incent family appear to have 
 intermarried with the Torringtons, of whom I have already 
 spoken in treating of the history of the church. We have also 
 seen that Robert, the father of the doctor, is described on his 
 
HISTORY OF BERKHAMSTED. 83 
 
 tomb as the servant, i. e. probably the Secretary, of the famous 
 Cicely Duchess of York. 
 
 They were thus residents of some standing* in our town, 
 and in all probability lived in Mr. Holloway's house, which in 
 the Dean's rental-book goes by the name of " Incent's," and is 
 described as inherited property rented at that time by one 
 Kichard Weller. We may assume therefore that John Incent 
 was born in Incent's house. Where he received his early educa- 
 tion we know not ; probably he discovered thus early the want 
 of a school in his native town. When ready for the university, 
 we find that he first went to Cambridge, where he spent a year in 
 studying the canon law. He then however entered All Souls 
 College, Oxford, where he took the degree of LL.B. Jan. 26, 1507. 
 In 1513 he supplicated for LL.D., but Wood says he was not then 
 admitted. In the same year he was made Commissary to Fox, 
 Bishop of Winchester, and President of the Episcopal Consistory. 
 In 1519 he was collated to the prebend of Wildland. Some time 
 between this and 1523, if not before, he must have been appointed 
 President of our brotherhood, because it was in this year, 
 according to Chauncy, that active measures were first taken 
 for extending the usefulness of the brotherhood, by the diver- 
 sion of its income towards the general purposes of education. 
 How this idea was first suggested we know not. Chauncy 
 says that it was by the agreement or petition of the people 
 of the town. However this may have been, and whatever 
 authority over the lands of the brotherhood may have been 
 vested in the inhabitants of the town, it is certain that this 
 plan of making the fraternity useful for purposes of education 
 was one in which Dr. Incent as President entirely acquiesced. 
 According to Chauncy, he forthwith sent a schoolmaster to teach 
 the children of the townspeople in the brotherhood house ; and, 
 
 * It is interesting to remark that the name occurs as late as 1621, when we find 
 one Richard, the son of Jasper Innocent deceased, apprenticed to Thomas Ran- 
 doll, a tailor in Berkhamsted. 
 
 G2 
 
84 HISTORY OF BERKHAMSTED. 
 
 though this may have been done nominally by the President and 
 Wardens of the fraternity, we may be sure that the good work 
 was largely supported by the private liberality of Dr. Incent. 
 Chauncy asserts, indeed, that he then made over considerable 
 landed property to the brotherhood, though of this we have no 
 proof beyond the bare statement of the historian. We can easily 
 understand, however, that in this manner things went on for 
 some years, all being still done in the name of the brotherhood, 
 but chiefly and really through the munificent liberality of the 
 President himself. In the mean time, Dr. Incent had been 
 collated (13th June, 1524) to the mastership of the hospital of 
 St. Cross at Winchester. He had also been made Canon Resi- 
 dentiary of St. Paul's ;* and when canon, in 1534, we find that 
 he with his brethren took the oath of supremacy to the King. 
 He seems, indeed, throughout to have been a firm supporter of 
 the reformed doctrines ; and as a final and deserved reward for 
 his energetic conduct he was promoted in 1540 to the deanery 
 of St. Paul's, and it was as dean that he signed the document 
 in which a synod of divines sanctioned the King's divorce from 
 Anne of Cleves. Thus raised to eminence in the Church, and 
 thus, with all his preferment, in the receipt of what must in 
 those days have been an enormous income, we might easily have 
 imagined that our little brotherhood at Berkhamsted would have 
 been totally forgotten in the midst of so much honour and glory. 
 But not so : the dean did not forget his native town ; he had 
 set his heart upon its improvement, and he determined, from 
 the insignificance of a petty guild, to raise a foundation which 
 should ennoble his name for ever. He was not one of those who 
 
 * [Foxe (Acts and Monuments) seenis to have had a special dislike to Dr. 
 Incent. He narrates that he was present in the choir of St. Paul's, 20 Nov. 
 1531, when Richard Bayfield, alias Somersam, was sentenced to death for heresy; 
 and he further states (edit. 1857, vol. v. p. 220), that Dr. Incent, Dean of St. 
 Paul's, confessed on his death-bed that he had hired an Italian " for 60 crowns or 
 thereabouts to do the feat " of murdering Robert Packington, mercer, of London, 
 in 1538 !] 
 
HISTORY OF BERKHAMSTED. 85 
 
 are content with the state of things as at present existing ; he 
 thought, and wisely too, that in those days of commotion, lands 
 were unsafe so long as they remained under the title of a 
 brotherhood. Accordingly he applied to the King for a licence, 
 which was granted October 14, 1541, and by which, through letters 
 patent, he was empowered to u make, erect, and found one 
 chauntry perpetuall of two chaplains or of one chaplain within 
 the parish church of Barkhampstedde, and a schole for boys 
 not exceeding 144, to be called ' Dean Incent's Free Schole and 
 Chauntry in Barkhampstedde ' for evermore." The yearly value 
 of the property of this foundation was not to exceed 40Z. At 
 Incent's death, the King was to nominate the Master, and the 
 Dean of St. Paul's the chaplain and usher. Thus empowered, 
 the dean set about consolidating his long-cherished design on a 
 liberal and extended scale. By a deed dated 23rd March, 36 
 Hen. VIII., he gave to the master, chaplain, and usher his own 
 inherited property in Berkhamsted, i. e. Mr. Holloway's and the 
 adjacent house. This is the first gift mentioned in the deed. 
 We are next told that he gave to them all the lands which he 
 purchased of the wardens of the fraternity of St. John Baptist. 
 From this, therefore, it would appear that as President he had 
 made compensation to the wardens for the brotherhood property 
 which was then let on lease, dated 9 Hen. VIII., for 60 years 
 to one John Hewett at the yearly rent of 6s. 8d. We further 
 find from the dean's rental-book, dated 33 Hen. VIII., that he 
 paid a quit-rent of 17s. 8d. for this property to the King, who 
 had probably assumed the guardianship which was originally 
 granted to the Hospital of St. Thomas of Aeon. The dean then 
 made this property over as a part of his liberal benefactions to 
 the school : a part, I say, and indeed it was but a very small 
 part, for the value of the brotherhood property is insignificant 
 when compared with the grants which the deed proceeds to 
 enumerate. There is house property and land purchased by the 
 clean in Berkhamsted from various "possessors, landed property 
 
8Q HISTORY OF BEBKHAMSTED. 
 
 purchased from the heirs of the celebrated Delahay, called 
 " Sommers, with the Baylywyke of the honor of Berkhamsted, 
 as also Eastbroke Hay in helmehamstedde." There is land in 
 the county of Southampton purchased by Robert Sherborne, 
 Bishop of Chichester, which was subsequently claimed by the 
 master of the Hospital of St. Cross, and there is land purchased 
 in Northchurch parish called Amberlains, which still belongs to 
 the school. All this Dean Incent bought, and with all this he 
 proceeded to endow his newly-founded school. 
 
 We may now say a few words about the building in which 
 all the munificence was to be turned to good account. The 
 brotherhood house, wherever that may have been, would obvi- 
 ously be too insignificant for the fulfilment of the dean's liberal 
 intentions ; besides which, it was at this time let on lease as a 
 residence. We find tenants in it in 1552 and 1557, on tho 
 former of which occasions a curious entry occurs in the lease- 
 book, to the effect that William Puddefat and William Lessom, 
 the then tenants, paid to Richard Reeve the master and John 
 Awdley the usher of the school a penny a-piece in token of 
 peaceable possession. The brotherhood house therefore being 
 insufficient for the dean's intended plans, he proceeded to erect 
 a building more in accordance with his designs. Salmon tells 
 us that this school-house was twenty years in building : he must 
 have meant the school in founding, as indeed we find from 
 Chauncy was really the case. The actual assertion is impos- 
 sible, because the dean lived to see the accomplishment of his 
 work, and he would hardly begin even to think of building it 
 before he received the royal licence, and this licence was re- 
 ceived by him only three years before his death. Chauncy 
 gives us a very interesting account of the erection of the school. 
 He says, " Then " (i e. when the dean had received the royal 
 licence) u with the assistance of the inhabitants of the town and 
 his friends, he erected a fair large school of brick and free 
 stone, with a lodging for the schoolmaster adjoyning to thp west 
 
HISTORY OF BERKHAMSTED, 87 
 
 end thereof, where the clean himself did lye and kept house 
 divers times before his death : and at the east end of the school 
 were two other lodgings erected, one for the usher, the other 
 for the chaplain or chantry priest, which building remains at 
 this day very fair and strong:" and if it were very fair and 
 strong in Chauncy's time, it is not less so in our own. When 
 Camden wrote about Berkhamsted in the time of James I. he 
 declared that the Grammar School was the only thing worth 
 seeing in the place, and, though I scarcely think we shall all 
 agree with him in this unmeasured praise, I am sure we must 
 all feel that the building is decidedly ornamental, and con- 
 tributes not a little to that characteristic picturesqueness for 
 which Berkhamsted is famous. 
 
 After describing the erection of the school, Chauncy proceeds 
 to give us an account of the ceremonial which attended its 
 opening. He says, " When the school was finished, the dean 
 sent for the chief men in this town, and gave thanks with them 
 upon their knees to Almighty God for having given him life to 
 see the perfection of that work which both he, the town, and the 
 country had been performing about the space of twenty years ; 
 then he called Mr. Reeve and placed him in the seat there made 
 for the schoolmaster, and so did ordain, make, and pronounce 
 him the first master of the school : then gave to him and his 
 successors for ever possession of the lodgings appertaining to 
 that office ; also he constituted Mr. John Audley usher, and 
 Mr. John East chaplain. This done, he gave possession by his 
 deed dated 23rd March, an. 36 Henry VIII., to Richard Reeve, 
 John Audley, and John East, and their successors for ever, of 
 all the lands granted to the school, which are particularly ex- 
 pressed in the said Act of Parliament. Then the dean began 
 Te Deum laudamus, which being finished, with certain other 
 prayers and ceremonies, the whole company drank together and 
 departed." 
 
 Such is the account of the opening of our Grammar School 
 
88 HISTORY OF BERKHAMSTED. 
 
 and the installation of its first master. Of this master we have 
 a very interesting notice in Wood's " Athenae," and I will read 
 it to you, because it serves to shew us the good common-sense 
 and sound churchmanship of the dean in selecting such a man 
 for such a place. " Richard Reeve," says Wood, " of All 
 Souls College, was admitted M.A. the same day (May 11, 
 1537). He was afterwards the first Prebendary of the ninth 
 prebendship of Westminster, an. 1560, Canon of Windsor in 
 1561, and the Queen's Chaplain. This person is remembered 
 by John Foxe in his book of the Acts and Monuments of the 
 Church, to have been the noted schoolmaster of Berchamstede 
 in Hertfordshire, and that for his zeal to Protestancy he was 
 brought into some kind of trouble in the reign of Queen Mary. 
 He died in 1594, leaving behind him the character of a reli- 
 gious and learned man ; whereupon Cuthbert Bellot, M.A. 
 succeeded him in his prebendship, and Alex. Nowell, Dean of 
 St. Paul's Cathedral, in his canonry." 
 
 Such was the man selected by Dean Incent as a fit and proper 
 person to promote the interests of sound learning and religious 
 education at Berkhamsted. 
 
 It is a matter of regret that the dean himself did not live long 
 to enjoy the fruits of his labours, for he died in the year 1545, 
 about a year after the opening of the school which he had 
 erected. Clutterbuck tells us that he was buried in the church 
 in his own chancel : of this, however, there is now no memorial. 
 
 The year after the dean's death, according to Chauncy, some 
 evil-disposed persons attempted to show that more revenue had 
 been granted to the school than was permitted by the royal 
 licence. This assertion was immediately disproved, on the autho- 
 rity of a royal commission. The sum allowed in the licence 
 was 40Z., and the whole rental of the land was shown not to ex- 
 ceed 301. 13s. 8d. In the first year of the reign of Edward VI. 
 the school experienced much trouble at the hands of a man of 
 the name of Forster, who professed to be the dean's heir, and is 
 
HISTORY OF BERKHAMSTED. 89 
 
 supposed, according to Chauncy, by some means or other to 
 have gained possession of the will and licence of incorporation. 
 It was feared therefore that the legal foundation of the school 
 might be considered imperfect. 
 
 The schoolmaster accordingly petitioned Parliament to con- 
 firm the erection and foundation of the school. The prayer of 
 this petition was granted. The master however had to be em- 
 powered to sell some of the property in order to pay fifty marks 
 to the right heir, "Andrew In cent, cosyn and heir of John 
 Incent," who appears to have been inclined to profit by the 
 disturbance occasioned by the pretended one. 
 
 The final establishment therefore of the school on a firm 
 foundation dates from this time, when by Act of Parliament, in 
 the third and fourth year of his reign, Edward VI. incorporated 
 it by the name of " The Master and Usher of the Free School 
 of King Edward the Sixte in Berkehampstedde." Here, you 
 will observe, is no mention, as in the original foundation, of a 
 chaplain, because all chantries had in the interim been sup- 
 pressed. Another alteration too may be noticed. The appoint- 
 ment of usher was taken from the deans of St. Paul's and put 
 into the hands of the master. The gift of the mastership still 
 remains in the Crown.* King Edward also assigned to the 
 school a common seal, bearing the arms of Dean Incent, and 
 constituted as visitor the warden of the dean's college, All 
 Souls, Oxford. The history of the school since this period is a 
 matter of notoriety. It is perhaps, however, not so generally 
 known that the famous Dr. Field, who was born at Hemel 
 Hempsted, and who in King James I.'s time wrote the very 
 learned book of "The Church," received his education at Berk- 
 hamsted School, from which he proceeded to Magdalene College, 
 Oxford, f 
 
 * For a list of Masters and Ushers, vide App. V. 
 
 f [The Grammar School is now administered under a scheme dated 23 Oct. 
 1877.] 
 
90 HISTORY OF BERKHAMSTED. 
 
 I may now leave the Grammar School and proceed to make 
 a few remarks upon another excellent foundation in our town — 
 I mean the Bourne Charity School ; for, although it has no 
 pretensions to antiquity, I feel sure you will all agree with me, 
 that a lecture such as the present would be incomplete without 
 some allusion to it. Of Thomas Bourne, the founder, we know 
 very little. The only memorials of his life are connected with 
 the memorials of his death. It is on his tomb in Camberwell 
 churchyard that we find him described as of Lambeth, though 
 during the latter part of his life he seems to have lived at 
 Camberwell. It is on this same monument, which it appears 
 he himself erected, that he mourns the loss of an only son, a the 
 object of his joy, the flower of all his hopes," who died in 1724, 
 in the 41st year of his age. In the following year Mr. Bourne 
 was again thrown into mourning by the death of his wife. He 
 survived her four years, and died on the 7th November, 1729, 
 aged seventy-three. In his will he makes ample provision for 
 nis son's widow, who married again, and for all his nearest 
 relatives, and then, as God had put it into his heart, leaves the 
 rest of his substance in charity. There is now an almshouse in 
 Kingsland Road, Middlesex, built in 1734, pursuant to his 
 Will, for twelve poor men or their widows of the company of 
 Framework Knitters, of which he himself was a member ; but 
 we of this place have received the largest share of his bounty, 
 and the reason why he made selection of our town may in some 
 degree be accounted for by the fact that he had a married sister 
 living in Berkhamsted, at whose house in all probability he 
 must have been a frequent visitor. She was married to a Mr. 
 Rolfe, and in the parish register is the following entry of her 
 burial: u June y e 15, 1732, Sarah, y e late wife of John Rolfe 
 was buried." She and her children, all of whom were chris- 
 tened here, are severally mentioned in Mr. Bourne's Will. 
 Whether this were the sole connection between Mr. Bourne and 
 Berkhamsted we cannot say. There are certainly many entries 
 
HISTORY OF BERKHAMSTED. 91 
 
 in the early registers of the name " Borne." These date from 
 1543 to 1569. Again, in 1682, we meet with the baptisms of 
 Ann and Abigail the daughters of an Edward Bourn. 
 
 After Mr. Bourne's time we find several of the name. A 
 William Bourne was chosen church and vestry clerk in 1794, 
 and the late mistress of the school was Ann Bourne, a relative 
 of the founder. But we must leave the family history, and 
 proceed with an account of the public munificence, of this good 
 man. 
 
 By his Will, dated 14 Aug. 1727, Mr. Bourne left 8,000Z. 
 for the establishment of a charity school in our town, 700/. 
 of which was to be expended on the erection of a building. 
 Some delay occurred on the part of the executors in carry- 
 ing out these instructions, and accordingly the then rector 
 Dr. Cowper and the churchwardens instituted legal pro- 
 ceedings against them. The result was an order from the 
 Attorney-General, dated 20 May, 1735, that the money which 
 had accumulated by the delay to 9,300Z. should forthwith 
 be paid, and that 700Z. of this should be spent, according 
 to the Will, in the erection of a school-house. The money 
 was invested in New South-Sea Annuities, in the name of the 
 Accountant-General of the Court of Chancery, and the manage- 
 ment of the school was placed in the hands of a board of gover- 
 nors. A school-house was forthwith erected, and Edward and 
 Eliza Eastmead were appointed the first master and mistress. 
 He was schoolmaster twenty years, and died Oct. 1, 1761. His 
 wife survived him three years. They are both buried in the 
 nave of the church. I need hardly tell you that the charity of 
 the pious founder is still commemorated annually, according to 
 his Will, on his birthday, Dec. 16. Of the re-builder, the re- 
 founder I might say, of the Bourne School, it is not for me to 
 speak : it will be for others in after ages as they speak of him 
 to bless his memory.* 
 
 * [This foundation is now regulated by Scheme, dated 28 Oct. 1879.] 
 
92 HISTORY OF BERKHAMSTED. 
 
 Perhaps, now that I have spoken of the educational founda- 
 tions of our town, it would not be out of place to say a few 
 words about that remarkable person on whom not all the schools 
 and all the schoolmasters of England, much less of Berkhamsted, 
 could ever make the slightest impression : you will at once per- 
 ceive that I am alluding to Peter the Wild Boy. We cannot 
 certainly claim him as a fellow-parishioner ; but, as no doubt he 
 was very often in our town, 1 dare say I may be excused if I 
 once again transgress our parish bounds. 
 
 It was in the month of July, 1724, that Jurgen Meyer, a 
 townsman of Hamelin, in Hanover, found in his field, in the 
 act of sucking a cow, a naked, brownish, black-haired boy, 
 apparently about twelve years old. Bound his neck were frag- 
 ments of a shirt, otherwise he was without clothing of any kind. 
 Upon two apples being shown him, he was enticed into the 
 town, and placed for safe custody in a hospital, by order of the 
 Burgomaster. He was called Peter by the boys of the place, 
 who were greatly delighted with his odd and harmless pranks. 
 He gradually became accustomed to many of the usages of 
 society, but could never be taught to speak. In the year 1726, 
 he was sent for by George I. to Hanover, upon which, by order 
 of Queen Caroline, then the Princess of Wales, he was brought 
 over to England and put under the care of Dr. Arbuthnot. 
 Masters of every description were now provided for him, but by 
 none of them could he ever be taught to speak articulately. 
 The plainest words he was ever known to utter were, Peter ; Ki 
 Sho, and Qui Ca, the two latter being attempts at pronouncing 
 King George and Queen Caroline. Peter being pronounced a 
 confirmed idiot by Dr. Arbuthnot, was next entrusted to the 
 care of Mrs. Tichborne, one of the Queen's bedchamber women. 
 This lady was a periodical visitor at Mr. Fenn's farm at Hax- 
 ter's-end, and there she placed Peter, with 351. a-year from the 
 Crown for his maintenance. After the death of Mr. Fenn 
 Peter was removed to Broadway, a farm then in the occupation 
 
HISTORY OF BERKHAMSTED. 93 
 
 of Mr. Fenn's brother Thomas, with whom and his successors 
 in the farm Peter remained until his death. I may here notice 
 that Broadway, besides being thus remarkable as the residence 
 of the Wild Boy, is also famous as being the first farm in Eng- 
 land on which red clover and Swede turnips were ever grown. 
 Surely then Broadway, graced too and distinguished as it now is 
 by the beautiful little chapel of ease to Northchurch, is a locality 
 full of interest to us all. But to proceed with the life of Peter : 
 whilst at Broadway he was a constant frequenter of the woods 
 in the neighbourhood, where he used to find pleasure in feeding 
 upon the buds of young trees and eating acorns. On one occa- 
 sion he extended his wanderings rather too far, so far indeed as 
 the county of Norfolk, where he was arrested as one of the 
 Pretender's spies. When brought before the magistrates, as of 
 course he did not speak, he was forthwith committed to Norwich 
 gaol as contumacious. The night after his committal a fire 
 broke out in the prison. Peter seemed in no way alarmed, but 
 on the contrary greatly amused, in watching the progress of 
 the flames. Indeed it was with great difficulty that he was at 
 length rescued. In the meantime Mr. Fenn had put an adver- 
 tisement in the papers, and it was thus at last that he was dis- 
 covered. To prevent the recurrence of such an event, he ever 
 afterwards wore a brass collar inscribed with his guardian's 
 address.* Peter was particularly fond of music : indeed, 
 scarcely anything else seems to have made any impression 
 on him. He was well made: his only peculiarity being that 
 two fingers of his left hand were webbed up to the middle 
 joint. It was satisfactorily ascertained by Dr. Arbuthnot that 
 he was an ordinary idiot, and hence we need feel no alarm 
 
 * This collar is now preserved at Ashridge, and was, with other relics, ex- 
 hibited at the lecture by the kindness of Lady Marian Alford. The collar is of 
 leather, with a brass rim, on which is this inscription: " Peter the Wild Man 
 from Hanover. Whoever will bring him to Mr. Fenn, at Berkhamsted, Hertford- 
 shire, shall be paid for their trouble." 
 
94 HISTORY OF BERKHAM8TED. 
 
 at any of the extraordinary philosophical speculations which 
 have been advanced concerning him. Whilst at Broadway he 
 was visited by Lord Monboddo, and it was probably owing to 
 this interview with Peter that that eccentric philosopher started 
 his peculiar notion that men are mere monkeys without tails. 
 I may remark that Peter is mentioned by Paley in that portion 
 of his Moral Philosophy in which he treats of the moral sense, 
 and is also made the subject of pungent satire by the famous 
 Dean Swift under the prefix " It cannot rain but it pours ! " 
 But it is time that I should tell you of Peter's death: he had 
 no regular illness, but refused his food and pined away. He 
 died Feb. 22nd, 1785, aged about seventy-two. He lies buried 
 at Northchurch, in the churchyard near the south porch, and 
 a brass tablet has been erected in the church with his por- 
 trait and an inscription to his memory.* 
 
 I must now return to Berkhamsted, and see what else demands 
 our attention. Perhaps the subject of our late Market-house may 
 occur to some of you, and probably you would like to hear all 
 the more about it because now we can look on it no longer.f 
 It formed the last of a set of buildings of which now every trace 
 is gone. I cannot give you a better idea of what they were than 
 by reading to you some extracts from the Report of the Par- 
 liamentarian Commissioners in July, 1653. It is preserved in 
 the parish chest, and entitled u A survey of the Markett Howse, 
 Shambles . . and Markett within the Towne and Burrough 
 of Barkhamsted St. Peters . . parcell of the possessions of 
 Charles Stuart late King of England." 
 
 We then read as follows : — 
 
 " All that Markett House standing and being within the Towne 
 
 * For further particulars of the life of Peter, see the Northchurch Register, in 
 which is an insertion by the Rev. W. Bland, the then master of the Grammar 
 School. This is copied into the Gent. Mag. 1785. See also Gent. Mag. lv. 113; 
 Penny Mag. May 1833, and Jan. 1834. 
 
 f The Market-house was destroyed by fire Aug. 23, 1854. [A handsome new 
 one built on different site 1859.] 
 
HISTOKY OF BEKKHAMSTED. 95 
 
 . . aforesaid, being the Corne Markett, built with Timber and 
 covered with Tyle and lofted overhead, and now in the possession 
 of the churchwardens . . conteyning in length 70 foote of 
 assize or thereaboute, and in breadth 18 foote or thereaboute, 
 which were value to be worth by the yeare, xxxs. 
 
 " All that Markett House called the Butter Markett . . . 
 conteyning 18 foote square, xs. 
 
 " . . . All those Shambles called the Butchers' Shambles, 
 divided into severall stalles, near y e Markett Howses . . con- 
 teyning in length 50 foote, and in breadthe 12 foote, xvs. 
 
 " The Profitt of the Tolles, Fayres, and Markett wee value to 
 be worthe by the year the sum of sixe poundes, viV 
 
 Now from a paper in the chest, endorsed " Certificate of Toll, 
 No. 25," we find that these shambles were built by subscription 
 during the reign of Queen Elizabeth. This information is copied 
 from "a very faire large book styled the Booke of the Church, 
 made the fifth day of Feb. 1584, and given to the Parish by 
 Thomas Penn, Citticen and Vintner of London." 
 
 We have previously had occasion to lament the loss of this 
 valuable book.* There are several curious entries in the paper 
 copied from the book, among which are the following : — 
 
 " For timber for framing and finishing the markett crosse, 
 with all carpenters worke, xljs. 
 
 " To Thomas Gates, for his worke and his man's, about the 
 Church House, Shamble House, Crosse House, Markett House, 
 and the Church, Zl. 
 
 "Also for lath nailes for the Crosse House, 2,000, 3s. 
 
 " Also paid to Edward Cooper for carriage of chalk to make 
 the Crosse House, 8cL" 
 
 Several other entries are next quoted to shew that on divers 
 occasions the toll was paid to the churchwardens, they paying a 
 quit-rent to the Crown. 
 
 So matters seem to have gone on until Mr. Sayer became His 
 Majesty's tenant at Berkhamsted. What followed will be best 
 
 * [Vide?. 54.] 
 
96 HISTORY OF BERKHAMSTED. 
 
 explained by the accompanying Petition, which is also pre- 
 served in the church chest: — 
 
 " To the most serene and mighty Prince Charles the Second, 
 by the grace of God King of England, Scotland, France, 
 and Ireland, Defender of the Faith, &c. 
 
 " The humble Petition of your Inhabitants of y r 
 
 Majesties Towne and Borough of Barkhamsted St. 
 
 Peter, in the county of Hertford, 
 
 " Sheweth, 
 
 " That whereas the Church belonging to the said Towne, being 
 
 an ancient and large fabrique and yo r Ma tes Free Schoole therein 
 
 situate, have time out of mind injoyed Markett Houses and Baly- 
 
 wick, w tb severall other Kevenues for the upholding of the said 
 
 Church, maintenance of the Free Schoole, and reliefe of the 
 
 Poore, for w h only a quitt rent of 2s. 8d. per annum hath been 
 
 paid unto y r Ma ties Predecessors for some hundreds of yeares, 
 
 as by divers surveyes and recordes of y e Church clearly and 
 
 fully appeares, The Premises notwithstanding are now and for 
 
 some years past have been unjustly detained from the said 
 
 Church, Free Schoole, and Poore, by y r Ma ties Servant and 
 
 Cooke John Sayer, Esq r ., who doth much trouble your 
 
 Petitioners with suites in y r Ma ties name, under pretence of a 
 
 grant from your Ma tie , to the great and singular prejudice of 
 
 the above-named particulars : 
 
 " May it therefore please y r Most Excellent Ma tie out of y r 
 princely care and compassion to referr the grievance either to 
 the Eight Hon We the Lord Keeper or some other person or 
 persons of honour, to take some speedy and effectuall course 
 for y e redressing of soe scandalous a depredation. 
 
 " And your Ma ties loyall subjects and servants, as in duty 
 bound, shall ever pray, &c. 
 
 Joh. Napier, Rector. Thomas Topping, ) Church* 
 
 Chris. Woodhouse, Medicus. William Gelling, J wardens. 
 Thomas Aldridge. 
 
HISTORY OF BERKHAMSTED. 97 
 
 Nathan Payne, Thos. Fossau, } Schoolc- 
 
 Williara Babb, Senior, John Seare, ) masters." 
 
 &c. &c. &c. 
 
 Such was the Petition to the King. The case was tried in 
 the Court of Exchequer, and by an award of Sir Francis North, 
 dated Nov. 27th, 1674, was decided against the inhabitants and 
 in favour of Mr. Sayer. 
 
 Mr. Sayer was, as we have before noticed, the founder of 
 our alms-houses ; and it may be well to mention his charitable 
 bounty here, in order that we may not regard him altogether in 
 the light of the enemy of the parish. By his Will, dated 2nd 
 July, 1681, he left for the founding of this alms-house 1,000?. 
 After his death his widow erected the building which now 
 exists. 
 
 To her late husband's 1,000?. she added 300?. and upwards. 
 By her Will she appointed as executors Sir John Sayer, Kt., 
 His Majesty's Attorney-General, and the Rev. Joseph Sayer, 
 Archdeacon of Lewes and Rector of Northchurch. The alms- 
 houses are built for six poor widows, and in Mrs. Sayer's Will 
 8s. a month is directed to be paid to each of them u on the 
 tombstone in the parish church of Berkhamsted, near the 
 monument lately erected for the said John Sayer, Esq., on the 
 Sunday after evening service." The indistinctness of this in- 
 junction is quite a sufficient excuse for its non-fulfilment. 
 
 We have already in speaking of the Market House alluded 
 to the Church House or Court House, or, as it is called in a 
 petition to King Charles II., also concerning Mr. Sayer, ii the 
 Church House, with a hall thereto called the Towne Hall." 
 This building, as you know, is still in existence, and in it are 
 held the Courts of the Honor and Manor of Berkhamsted.* 
 This Honor and Manor is very extensive. Chauncy tells us 
 
 * [Granted by Earl Brownlow to trustees at a nominal rent, and now used aa 
 the National School.] 
 
 H 
 
98 HISTORY OF BERKHAMSTED. 
 
 that the whole number of towns in Hertfordshire, Buckingham- 
 shire, and Northamptonshire belonging to it are fifty-five. The 
 Courts which used to be held twice in the year, at Whitsuntide 
 and Michaelmas, are now held for Berkhamsted, as we have 
 said, at the Court House, and for Northchurch at the Castle 
 only once a year at Michaelmas. At these Courts, besides the 
 usual business, the following officers are still nominated : 
 Constables, Vice-Constables or Headboroughs, Flesh-tasters, 
 Leather-sealers, Tasters of Bread and Beer, and Water-bailiffs. 
 
 Many leases of the property from the churchwardens to suc- 
 cessive tenants are preserved in the chest, the former always 
 reserving to themselves the right of using the great loft, as well 
 at other times as when they shall keep their feast. Now, from 
 a fragmentary document in the chest without any date, but 
 apparently written about the reign of Henry VIII., we may 
 perhaps be enabled to picture to ourselves the kind of fare at 
 one of these Berkhamsted parish feasts in former times. 
 
 u These ben y e expenses of dyner at harry dawnsserris 
 howsse. 
 
 Imprimis to hewe bocher for beffe, xiiid. 
 
 payid to william gome for beffe, iid. 
 
 payid to the same hewe for motton, xid. 
 
 payid to John cawpyon for felle, xvd. 
 
 payid to symkyn long for a legke of motton, iid. 
 
 payid for sewette for bak mettes, id. 
 
 payid di. a pecke salte, id. ob. 
 
 payid iii pykys, xvd. 
 
 payid iii gesse, xviiid. 
 
 payid for xix pygonys, viiid. 
 
 payid for xix checonys, xxd. 
 
 payid to John berd for i kapon, \iiid. 
 
 payid iii kaponys, xiid. 
 
 payid for 1 oz. peper, Hid. 
 
 payid 1 unce clowys & masys, iiiid. 
 
HISTORY OF BERKHAMSTED. 99 
 
 payid for di unce safferon, vid. 
 
 payid for di. li raysonys of corradines, id. ob. 
 
 payid for 1 oz. powder geenger, and synemond, vid. 
 
 payid for ii unce sewger iid. 
 
 payid for hony, id. 
 
 payid for heyggys, vd. 
 
 payid for wenegor and wergews, iid!. 
 
 payid musstard, id. 
 
 payid for mylke & krem, iid. 
 
 payid for batter, id. 
 
 payid for perys, iid. 
 
 payid for chesse, id. 
 
 payid for bred, xxd. ob. 
 
 payid to jane plomer for hale, xxii galonys, iis. Yd. 
 
 payid to hurdys wyffe for hale, iii galonys, iiiid ob. 
 
 payid to willm gonvys wyffe vi galonys hale, viiid. 
 
 payid iii pottellys smale hale, id. ob. 
 
 payid for wode to harry dawnsserys wyffe, iiiid. 
 
 payid for kaldyng for piggys & poltry, iid. 
 
 payid to the koke & to hys man, ixs. 
 
 payid to sqweeler ■& turner of spytys, iid. 
 
 payid to y e botteler, iiiidf. 
 
 payid to y e turner of the spetys, ob. 
 
 payid for karpys, id. 
 
 payid flowre, iiiid. 
 
 payid formetie, id. 
 
 Sofh. xxis. yd. 
 
 Also for horsmete, xviiid" 
 
 The parish feast being over, and the bill duly paid, we will 
 suppose an adjournment to the Buttfield. 
 
 The Butts, Buttricke, or Buttfield, is situated behind the 
 King's Arms, and was left to the parish by an unknown donor. 
 The rent which it produces is carried to the Bread Fund. 
 
 The Buttfield tells us of the manners and customs of our fore* 
 
100 HISTORY OF BERKHAMSTBD. 
 
 fathers. It was by shooting at the butt that our ancestors were 
 trained for war. In the time of the Edwards and Henrys, 
 when Berkhamsted was in its glory, u the myghte of the realme 
 of Englonde stode upon archeres " ; in fact the battles of Crecy 
 and Agincourt and many others were decided by the English 
 long-bows. At Crecy certainly the English had some pieces 
 of cannon, but these were the first that had ever been used on 
 any remarkable occasion. Many laws on the subject of archery 
 shew how anxious the successive monarchs were to make their 
 subjects skilful in the use of the bow, and as many incidents 
 related by the ancient historians shew how powerful it was in 
 their hands. The armour of the knights was itself scarcely 
 proof against the force of the English arrows. 
 
 Now, it was a law that butts should be erected in every 
 parish, and the inhabitants were obliged to practise at them on 
 Sundays and holydays, and in Edward IV.'s reign, for in- 
 stance, were liable to the fine of a halfpenny for every time they 
 omitted so to do. The length of the bow seems to have been 
 equal to the height of a man : the arrow measured generally a 
 " cloth-yard." The use of the long-bow was common among 
 the Anglo-Saxons : though it does not appear to have been of 
 general or efficient use in war before the twelfth or even the 
 thirteenth century. Abroad the arbalest or cross-bow was more 
 in fashion, particularly among the Italians. The long-bow how- 
 ever was found to be the more formidable of the two, but it 
 required more skill, and we find that at least in the fifteenth 
 century the cross-bow began to supersede it in England. Or- 
 dinances were made to counteract this tendency, and the cross- 
 bow was sometimes forbidden, except under certain restrictions. 
 In the Buttfield behind the King's Arms we can distinctly 
 trace the position of the butt, and the place where the archers 
 of Berkhamsted stood to shoot. How long this ground con- 
 tinued to be used for archery practice I cannot say ; but in the 
 reign of Elizabeth, when the use of the gun was superseding 
 
HISTORY OF BERKHAMSTED. 101 
 
 that of the bow, there arose a warm controversy on their 
 respective merits, and many asserted that the former weapon 
 would never succeed in the general practice of warfare. One 
 writer of that time, after discussing the question, concludes 
 "that there is no doubt but archers with their volleys of 
 arrowes would wound, kill, and hurt above an hundred men 
 and horses for every one so to be done by the shot." 
 
 Shooting at the butt however seems to have been generally 
 practised as a recreation until a very much later period. Ac- 
 cordingly we find the following entry in the court-book of the 
 manor of Berkhamsted, under the year 1716 : ''Metae, Anglice 
 the Butts, in decasu sunt et reparari debent." 
 
 At the same time too it is ordered — and the order is interesting 
 as being of so comparatively recent a date — that the parish 
 "tumbril" be repaired — a proof this that the Court was as 
 anxious to preserve the morals and good character of the 
 townspeople as to promote and encourage their useful sports 
 and innocent pastimes. 
 
 Perhaps, however, some of you do not know what sort of 
 thing this moral instrument was. Let me therefore inform you* 
 In Boswell's Life of Johnson, the doctor says, u We have dif- 
 ferent modes of restraining evil. Stocks for the men ; a ducking- 
 stool for women ; and a pound for beasts." Now a tumbril 
 and ducking-stool were one and the same thing. Sometimes it 
 is called a Cucking or Choking stool, and it would seem indeed 
 to have deserved the name when we read that it was " an engine 
 invented for the punishment of scolds and unquiet women 
 by ducking them in the water, after having placed them in a 
 stool or chair fixed at the end of a long pole, by which they 
 were immerged in some muddy or stinking pond." So much 
 for the history of the parish butts and the parish tumbril. 
 
 I think I may now safely say that I have exhausted my stock 
 of information concerning the history and antiquities of Berk- 
 hamsted. 
 
102 HISTORY OF BERKHAMSTED. 
 
 Many alterations have taken place in our town within the 
 memory of the present generation, but with events of modern 
 times my subject has necessarily no connection. 
 
 I cannot, however, close a lecture on the history of the past, 
 without expressing a . conviction that the signs of improvement 
 which at present we see around us are full of hopeful augury for 
 the future. 
 
 Our canal, our railway, our gas, and last, though not least, 
 our Mechanics' Institute, are all proofs of advancement in 
 civilization. They are evidences of the liberal spirit which 
 pervades our town and neighbourhood, and they are tokens of 
 essential prosperity. They are improvements which in them- 
 selves call for real congratulation, and the more so because 
 they fill us with hopes of a flourishing future. Earnestly de- 
 siring that these hopes may be realized, and in the confident 
 expectation that they will be, I conclude by the expression of 
 a wish in which I am sure you will all unite — 
 
 PROSPERITY TO THE TOWN OF BERKHAMSTED. 
 
APPENDICES. 
 
APPENDICES. 
 
 APPENDIX I. 
 
 List of fifty different ways of spelling Berkhamsted, 
 arranged as far as possible in chronological order. 
 
 Beophhamrtebe. 
 
 Bepjhamrtybe. 
 
 Berghamstedt. 
 
 Beorcham. 
 
 Berchehamstede. 
 
 Berchamstede. 
 
 Berkhamsted. 
 
 Berchampstede. 
 
 Berchamestud. 
 
 Berchammestud. 
 
 Bercamested. 
 
 Bercamestede. 
 
 Berchamestede. 
 
 Berkamestude. 
 
 Berchamested. 
 
 Bekhemestede. 
 
 Bercam. 
 
 Bercham. 
 
 Berkhampstede. 
 
 Berkkampsted. 
 
 Bercamstede. 
 
 Berkamsted. 
 
 Berkchamsted. 
 
 Berckhamstede. 
 
 Barkhemsted. 
 
 Berkhamstede. 
 
 Barcanstede. 
 
 Barkhamsted. 
 
 Barkehamsted. 
 
 Berchamsted. 
 
 Barkhamstede. 
 
 Barkhamstead. 
 
 Barkamsted. 
 
 Barkhampstedde. 
 
 Barkehampstedde. 
 
 Berkekampstedde. 
 
 Berkkampstedde. 
 
 Berkehamstedde. 
 
 Berkekamsteed. 
 
 Berkekamstede. 
 
 Berkemsted. 
 
 Barkamsted. 
 
 Barkhamsteed. 
 
 Barkhamsted. 
 
 Bercomsted. 
 
 Bercamsted. 
 
 Berkamstead. 
 
 Berkhempsted. 
 
 Berkhempstead. 
 
 Berkhampstead. 
 
 [A very common way, " Berkhamstead," is not included in the above list. 
 The Railway Company, the Post Office, and all the parish authorities, have 
 now adopted the spelling " Berkhamsted."] 
 
106 APPENDIX. 
 
 APPENDIX II. 
 
 Among the Kecords in the custody of the Master of the Rolls, pur- 
 suant to Stat. 1 and 2 Vict. cap. 94, and preserved in the 
 Tower of London, to wit, Inquisition a. q. d., 11 Edward III., 
 No. 41. it is thus contained : — 
 
 Edwardus Dei gra Rex Angi Dns Hibn f Dux Aquit diicis t 
 fidelib3 suis Pfto de Aylesbury t Thome de la Hay. Sattrn. 
 Quia datum est nob intelligi qd in castro nro de Berkhampsted 
 quod Johes nup Comes Cornub fr nr jam defunctus sub eta 
 forma tenuit t quod p mortem ejusdem Comitis captii est in 
 manu firam ut in domib} muris turellis pontib3 i aliis edificiis 
 q"~mplures defectus ac in boscis ad castrum illud ptinentib} 
 divsa vasta t destruccoes fca existul qui quidem defectus magna 
 repacoe i emendacoe indigent Nos volentes inde plenius 8ciorari 
 assignavim vos ad supvidend castrum pdem i defectus in eodem 
 ac destruccoes % vasta in boscis pdcis existencia 1 ad inquirend p 
 sacrm pbora % leg holm de Com Hertf p quos rei vitas melius 
 sciri potit p quora defectu seu incuriam defectus hujusmodi 
 
 (The following Translation has been kindly made by the 
 Rev. J. R. Crawford.) 
 
 Edward, by the grace of God King of England, Lord of Ireland, and 
 Duke of Aquitaine, to his beloved and faithful Philip of Aylesbury and 
 Thomas de la Hay greeting. Whereas it hath been given us to under- 
 stand that in our Castle of Berkhampsted which John late Earl of 
 Cornwall our brother now deceased held under a certain form, and 
 which by the death of the same earl has been taken into our possession, 
 that in the houses, walls, turrets, bridges, and other buildings are many 
 defects, and in the woods belonging to that castle divers wastes and 
 destructions have been made, which defects require great repair and 
 emendation : We, willing to be thereof more fully informed, have 
 assigned you to survey the aforesaid castle and the defects in the same, 
 and the destructions and wastes existing in the aforesaid woods, and to 
 inquire by oath of honest and lawful men of the county of Hertford, 
 by whom the truth of the matter may be better known, through whose 
 
APPENDIX. 107 
 
 evenerint % destruccoes t vasta Jdca fca extiterunt t que is cujus- 
 modi defectus destruccoes is vasta quib} temporib3 qualit is quo 
 modo is in quo statu domus muri turelli pontes i alia edificia ac 
 bosci castri pdci jam existunt. Et ideo vob mandam qd dcm 
 castrum ac defectus in eodem et destruccoes ac vasta in boscis 
 pdcis supvideatis is inquisicoem pdcam in forma pdca fac earnc^ 
 distincte i apte fcam nob sub sigillis vris is sigillis eora p quos 
 fca fuit sine ditone mittatis is hoc bre is nos de quanto defectus 
 illi cofnode repari is emendari poPunt Stificantes indilate Man- 
 davim enim vie nro Com pdci qd ad ctos diem i locu quos ei 
 scire fac venire fac coram vob tot is tales pbos is leg hoies de 
 batlia sua p quos rei vitas in pmissis melius sciri potit i inquiri. 
 In cujus rei testimoniu has Iras nras fieri fecim patentes. T' me 
 ipo apud Novii Castrum sup Tynam xx. die Octobr anno r. n. 
 decimo. p ipm R. 
 
 The foregoing is a true copy of the original record in the custody 
 of the Master of the Kolls, preserved in the Tower of 
 London, and stamped with the seal of the Public Eecord 
 Office, pursuant to Stat. 1 & 2 Vict. c. 94, § 12, 13. 
 
 T. DUFFUS HAKDY, 
 
 Assistant Keeper of Kecords, 
 Record Office, Tower. 
 
 fault or carelessness such defects may have happened, and the destruc* 
 tions and wastes aforesaid have been done, and what and of what kind 
 be the defects, destructions, and wastes, and at what times, and howj 
 and in what manner they happened, and in what state the houses, walls, 
 towers, bridges, and other buildings, and the woods of the said castle 
 now are. And so we command you to survey the said castle and 
 defects in the same, and the destructions and wastes in the woods 
 aforesaid, and make the inquisition aforesaid in the form aforesaid, and 
 send the same to us distinctly and openly made under your seals and 
 the seals of those by whom it shall be made without delay, together 
 with this writ, and certifying us without delay at what cost those 
 defects can be conveniently repaired and mended ; for we have com- 
 manded our sheriff of the said county that at the certain day and place 
 which you may make known unto him he shall cause to come before 
 
 I 2 
 
108 APPENDIX. 
 
 Inq's tea apucl Berkhampsted die venis in f to Sci Valentini 
 anno regni Reg Edwardi tcij a Conquestu xj mo . coram Pho de 
 Ayllesbury i Thorn del Haye assignat p fere dni Reg ad 
 inquirend de artlis in dco brevi content cui ista inquiS 9suit r 
 p s a ctm Henric Norman Phi atte Slo Willi fit Rici de Doun- 
 hampsted Willi fit Willi de Dounhampsted Johnis le Hunts 
 Ro| Tydy Johnis Cook' de Dodeswelle Stephi Chaimpouneys 
 Johnis Cokerugge Johnis atte Wyncli Elye le Peek i Rogi atte 
 Hulle xij. juratory et Johnis Glorye Carpentar i Johnis de 
 Rysseburgh cementarij jurat qui dicut p sac tin suii qd q"~nt ad 
 defect Cast 1 de Berkhampsted porta extior dci Cast 1 cu toto 
 barbicano ibidm dirruit in toto et optet repari de novo t indiget 
 p repacone ejusdin tarn in muris lapideiis q"~m in merio f. capud 
 porte pdce ad min 9 xL ii. Itm turelt porte inferior indiget de 
 una boterato largit de fundamento usq 7 ad sumum vsus fossatu i 
 de uno boterato infra dcam portam p eodfn turelt et eciam p dco 
 
 you so many and such good and lawful men of his jurisdiction, by 
 whom the truth of the matter in the premises may be better known and 
 inquired. In witness whereof we have made these our letters patent. 
 Witness myself at Newcastle-upon-Tyne, on the twentieth day of 
 October, in the tenth year of our reign. 
 
 An Inquisition made at Berkhampsted on Friday on the feast of 
 St. Valentine, in the eleventh year of the reign of King Edward the 
 Third since the Conquest, before Philip of Aylesbury and Thomas de 
 la Haye, assigned by writ of our Lord the King to inquire concerning 
 the articles contained in the said writ to which this inquisition is 
 attached, by oath of Henry Norman, Philip at Slo, William son of 
 Richard of Dounhampsted, William son of William of Dounhampsted, 
 John le Hunte, Roger Tydy, John Cook of Dodeswelle, Stephen 
 Chaimpouneys, John Cokerugge, John at Wynch, Elias le Peek, and 
 Roger at Hulle, twelve jurors, and of John Glorye, carpenter, and 
 John of Rysseburgh, mason, sworn, who say on their oath that, as 
 regards the defects of the castle of Berkhampsted, the outer gate of 
 the said castle, with the whole of the barbican there, is entirely in 
 ruins, and must be repaired afresh, and requires for the reparation of 
 the same, both in the stone walls, and in the timber-work, and head of 
 
APPENDIX. 109 
 
 tureft punctand p totu k herneft ej 5 dm de novo crescando de novo 
 g"~du de novo faciend de tra usq> in camam sriorem et estimat t 
 taxant defect dci t r ris tam in ope lapideo q^m in carpent'a ad 
 xlv. fi. Itm qd mur 9 dci Cast 1 a dca porta uscfe ad magnam 
 t r rim vs oriente cu duob3 turret! ibidm ita debilitant r tam in 
 fundamto q"~m in c e stacone g""dih} i aluris p qd estimant t 
 taxant p repacoe eoradfh mur t tfreft ad xl. ti. Itm qd cam e 
 infra dcos t r relt sunt ita debit t ruinose qd repaco eordm tam 
 in merio carpent'a q^m in cooptura plubi estimant ad x ti. 
 Itm qd magna fris fissa est in duob3 locis vidtt ex pte boriat a 
 fundameto usq> ad sumum ex pte orientali a medio usq^ ad 
 sumu. Ita qd n 1 repetur in brevi totu corruet in tra Et qd 
 coept r a p . . . ejusdrn est valde debit t estimant ^ taxant defect 9 
 dci fris tam in ope lapideo i carpent'a q'^m coopt r a plubi ccxv 
 ti. Itfn defec? muri t . . t a dca magna t r ri uscjj ad porta infr a 
 inferiorem balliam Cast 1 vs campii indiget repacoe V3 ope lapideo 
 merio t carpent'a ad min 9 xl. ti. It porta inf 1 dcam balliam q 
 
 the gate aforesaid, 401. at the least. Item, the tower of the lower 
 gate is in want of one large buttress from the bottom to the top towards 
 the ditch, and of one buttress below the said gate for the same tower, 
 and also for the said tower to be pointed throughout, and the battle- 
 ments of the same to be crested anew, and the staircase to be made 
 new from the ground to the upper chamber ; and they estimate and tax 
 the defects of the said tower, as well in stonework as in carpentry, at 
 45/. Item, that the wall of the said castle from the said gate, as far 
 as the great tower towards the east, with the two turrets therein, are 
 so weakened, as well in the foundation as in the roof, staircases, and 
 passages, that they estimate and tax the repairs of the same walls and 
 turrets at 40Z. Item, that the chambers below the said turrets are so 
 weak and ruinous, that the reparation of the same, as well in timber- 
 work, carpentry, as in the lead roof, they estimate at 1 01. Item, that 
 the great tower is split in two places, viz., on the north side from the 
 bottom to the top, and on the east from the middle to the top, so that 
 unless it be repaired it will soon fall to the ground, and the lead roof 
 of the same is very weak ; and they estimate and tax the defects of the 
 s:iid tower, as well in stonework and carpentry as in lead roofing, at 
 215/. Item, the defects of the wall and . . , from the said great tower 
 
110 APPENDIX. 
 
 dr Dernegate eu porta ibid: v*satuli ult a fossatu eu ponte qui dueit 
 vs pcii ult a scdm fossatu ibidm et eu tcio ponte qui dueit ad 
 alluras et qui diruunt 1 * quor^ defect tarn in ope lapideo q n merio 
 * carpent et aliis necc"is fac estimanf ad lx ti. Itm qd dom 9 
 infi' a pcinctu dee T r ris indigent emendacone t in muris lapideiis 
 qui sut ruinosi et emendaco eorxd estiraat 1 ad xxx. ti. Itm qd 
 mur 2 lapideus a dca porta vocat Dernegate uscjj ad magna porta 
 Cast 1 vs occidente et duor& t r rett et muri ibid: siit min 9 debit i 
 ruinosi quo& emendaco estimat r ad xl. ti. Et qd defect aliaa 
 domofc t cama^ V3 magne cam e depicte it alia* pva£ cam a* f 
 capelt adjunctaa et ecia magne capeft ut in ope lapideo merio 
 carpent'a t coop r a plub % tegul cu appenticis gutteris plub t 
 caminis estimant r ad cexx. ti. 
 
 Itm pdei xij. jurati dicut quo ad divs vasta % dist u ccones fctas 
 in bosc t aliis loc ad cast m pdem ptinentib3 qd tepe Joftnis Com 
 
 as far as the gate below the lower ward of the castle towards the low 
 land, i.e. the swamp, needs repairing, viz., in stone-work, timber-work, 
 and carpentry, at least 40Z. Item, the gate below the said bailey which 
 is called the Dernegate, with the gate in the same, likewise the draw- 
 bridges beyond the ditch, with the bridge which leads towards the park 
 beyond the second ditch in the same part, with the third bridge which 
 leads to the alures (galleries), and which are in ruins, the defects 
 whereof, both in stone-work and in timber-work and carpentry and 
 other needful things, are estimated at 601. Item, that the houses 
 below the precinct of the said tower require repair, and in the stone 
 walls, which are ruinous, and the mending of the same is estimated at 
 30Z. Item, that the stone wall from the said gate called the Derne- 
 gate, as far as the great gate of the castle towards the west, and of the 
 two towers, and the walls in the same, are less weak and ruinous, the 
 mending whereof is estimated at 40/. And that the defects of the 
 other houses and chambers, viz., of the great painted chamber, and 
 other small chambers and chapels adjoining, and also of the great 
 chapel, both in stone-work, timber-work, carpentry, and lead roof and 
 tiles, with the pent-houses, lead gutters, and chimneys, are estimated 
 at 2201. 
 
 Item, the said twelve jurors say, as regards the divers wastes and 
 destructions made in the woods and other places appertaining to the 
 
APPENDIX. Ill 
 
 Cornuft venditu fuit de bosco pdco ■? in aliis loeis in vasto ibidm 
 k in haiis p pcept dci Com ad valenc ciiij xX xix li. p? expii suas 
 ibidfh p suos advent et in phendinacoib} suis ibidm Itm qd post 
 morte dci Com vendi! fuit de bosco pdco p Wiftm le T r nour 
 p'us assignat tempe dci Com ad boscii vendend ad valenc xxxv. 
 ii. Itm p Robtfn le pear t Johem garcoem ejusdm venditu 
 fuit in bosco ibidm an morte dci Coin ad valenc ut in arborib} 
 et frondib5 x. ti. Itm p eosdm p 9 morte dci Com ut in arborib5 
 t frondib5 vidlt Rico de Northcote Wifto Reygner t Rofcto le 
 Sliovelere scientib3 ipos no huisse potestate boscu vendend ad 
 valenc xx. li. Itm Johnes Preen succidit i asptavit de bosco 
 pdco p 9 morte dci Com iij. fagos pc iij. s. Itm Henr atte 
 Fourghous succidit t asptavit de bosco pdco p 5 morte dci Com 
 xij fagos pc xijg. Itm qd Ric de Norhcote succidit "t asptavit 
 de bosco pco p 5 morte dci Com xxij. fagos pc xxij. s. Itm 
 Witts Reygner post morte dci Com succidit ? asptavit de bosco 
 pdco xij. fag pc xij. §. Et qd Rics Dyrold succidit ** asptavit 
 p morte dci Com de bosco pdco viij. fag pc xiij. s. Et qd 
 
 said castle, that in the time of John Earl of Cornwall there was sold 
 from the said wood, and in other places in the waste there, and in the 
 hayes (or hedged copses), by order of the said earl, to the value of 
 199£. besides his consumption there at his comings, and in his resi- 
 dences there. Item, that after the death of the said earl there was sold 
 out of the said wood by William the Turner, before appointed in the 
 time of the said earl to sell timber, to the value of 351. Item, through 
 Robert the park-keeper, and John his boy, was sold in wood, before 
 the death of the said earl, to the value of 101. in trees and branches. 
 Item, by the same after the death of the said earl, in trees and 
 branches, viz. : to Richard of Northcote, William Reygner, and 
 Robert the Shoveler, knowing that they had not power to sell wood, 
 to the value of 201. Item, John Preen cut down and took away from 
 the said wood, after the death of the said earl, 3 beech trees worth 3s. 
 Item, Henry at Forghaus cut down and took away from the said wood, 
 after the death of the said earl, 12 beeches worth 12s. Item, that 
 Richard of Northcote cut down and took away from the said wood, 
 after the death of the said earl, 22 beeches worth 22s. Item, William 
 Reygner, after the death of the said earl, cut down and took away 
 
112 APPENDIX. 
 
 Rics Toly succiclit t asptavit p 9 morte dci Com de bosco pdco 
 vj. fagos pc vj. s. Et qd Robts le Shoveler succidit t asptavit 
 de bosco pdco post morte dci Com xl. fagos pc xl. s. Et qd 
 Rics le Gariere succidit i asptavit de dco bosco p 9 morte dci 
 Com vj. fag pc vj. S. Et qd Radulphs de Alstowe suceid i 
 asptavit de bosco pdco p 9 morte dci Com j. fag pc xij.d. Et 
 qd Witts Reygner Rics de Grafton t Robts le Shoveler succidert 
 et asptavert de bosco pdco p 9 morte dci Com xij. fag pc xiij.s. 
 iiij. d. Itm dicut qd pdci Robtus le Parker 1 Jon garc ej^dm 
 falso signavert pdcas arbores in pdco bosco venditas p qdd""m 
 signm p se ymaginatu signii dci Com ad boscu vendend depu- 
 tatu cont""factu. In cuj 9 rei testimoniu pdci juratof huic Inq's 
 Bi'gifi sua apposuert Dat apud Berkh a mpsted die t anno s a dcis. 
 The foregoing is a true copy of the original record in the custody 
 of the Master of the Rolls, preserved in the Tower of London, 
 and stamped with the seal of the Public Record Office, pur- 
 suant to Stat. 1 & 2 Vict. c. 94, § 12, 13. 
 
 T. DUFFUS HARDY, 
 
 Assistant Keeper of Records. 
 Record Office, Tower, 4 April, 1855. 
 
 from the said wood 12 beeches worth 12s.; and that Richard Dyrold 
 cut down and took away, after the death of the said earl, from the 
 said wood 8 beeches worth 8s. ; and that Richard Toly cut down and 
 took away, after the death of the said earl, from the said wood 6 
 beeches, worth 6s. ; and that Robert the Shoveler cut down and took 
 away from the said wood, after the death of the said earl, 40 heeches, 
 worth 40s. ; and that Richard the Gariere cut down and took away 
 from the said wood, after the death of the said earl, 6 beeches, worth 
 6s.', and that Ralph of Alstowe cut and carried from said wood, after 
 the death of said earl, 1 beech, worth 12c?.; and that William Reygner, 
 Richard of Grafton, and Robert the Shoveler, cut down and took away 
 from the said wood, after the death of the said earl, 12 beeches, worth 
 13s. 4c?. Item, they say that the aforesaid Robert the Parker and 
 John his boy falsely marked the said trees sold in the said wood with 
 a counterfeit mark made by them to resemble the mark of the said 
 earl, used expressly for the sale of timber. 
 
 In testimony whereof the aforesaid jurors have to this inquisition set 
 their seals, Given at Berkhampsted in the day and year said above, 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 113 
 
 APPENDIX III. 
 
 Chronological Table of Ecclesiastical Architecture. 
 (Vide Oxford Glossary, vol. ii. page 104.) 
 
 Kings. 
 William I. 
 William II. 
 Henry I. 
 Stephen 
 Henry II. 
 
 Ilichard I. 
 John 
 Henry III. 
 
 Edward I. 
 Edward II. 
 Edward IH. 
 
 Style. 
 
 Remarks. 
 
 Date. 
 1066 \ 
 
 1087 Norman (or Eng- I 124 
 
 1100 > lish Roman- / really known to be more ver y early. 
 1135 esqne). than a few years older FonTc.Tiso.] 
 
 1154 to 1189 J { than the Conquest. 
 
 ( Prevailed little more than [Doorway 
 years; no remains T u r ^ e e p £- 
 
 1189 
 
 1199 
 
 1216 to 1272 
 
 Early English (or 
 1st Pointed). 
 
 1272 j Decorated Eng- 
 1307 lish (or 2nd 
 
 1327 to 1377 ) Pointed). 
 
 Prevailed about 100 years. [Cross 
 The reign of Richard I. JJgg* 
 was the chief period of Chapels 
 the transition from the n. Transept.] 
 Norman to the 
 
 English style. 
 
 Early- 
 
 Prevailed about 100 years. [Windows of 
 
 The transition from the N. Transept 
 
 Chapels 
 Early-English to the De- c. 1377.] 
 
 corated style took place 
 
 chiefly during the reign 
 
 of Edward I. 
 
 Richard II. 
 Henry IV. 
 Henry V. 
 Henry VI. 
 Edward IV. 
 Edward V. 
 Richard III. 
 Henry VII. 
 Henry VIII. 
 
 1377 v 
 
 
 1399 \ 
 
 1413 
 
 1422 ( Perpendicular 
 
 1461 
 
 * English (or 3rd 
 
 1483 
 
 Pointed). 
 
 1483 
 
 
 1485 
 
 
 1509 to 1546/ 
 
 
 ^ Prevailed about 169 years. [Clerestory 
 
 In the latter part of the ?; 1450 - 
 
 r Upper part 
 
 long reign of Edward III. of Tower 
 the transition from the c ' 
 Decorated to the Perpen- 
 dicular style began, and 
 was almost completed by 
 the time of the accession 
 of Richard II. Few, if 
 any, old buildings erected 
 in this style later than 
 Henry VIII., though it 
 was used in addition and 
 re-building, but often 
 much debased, as late as 
 1630 or 1640. 
 
114 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 APPENDIX IV. 
 
 Clutterbuck, p. 299. 
 
 The Kectory of Berkhamsted St. Peter. 
 [Cussans, p. 75.] 
 
 This Kectory was formerly in the diocese of Lincoln, and in the 
 archdeaconry of Huntingdon. It is now in the diocese of Rochester,* 
 the archdeaconry of St. Alban's, and the deanery to which it gives 
 name. 
 
 It was anciently appropriated to the Abbot and Convent of Gresteinf 
 in Normandy, who seem to have regularly presented to it until the 
 latter end of the fourteenth century, from which time it has been vested 
 in the Crown. 
 
 In the ecclesiastical taxation made by order of Pope Nicholas IV., 
 a.d. 1291, it was rated at 101. per annum. 
 
 In the survey made upon the dissolution of monasteries, an. 26 
 Hen. VIII., it was valued at 20/. per annum. 
 
 The Commissioners appointed by Parliament in 1650 to inquire 
 into the state of ecclesiastical benefices, found that this rectory was 
 at that time worth 60Z. per annum ; that the cure was supplied by 
 David Bramble, clerk,} by order of the Committee for Plundered 
 Ministers ; that it was sequestered from John Nappier, clerk ; that 
 the late king was patron, and that there were no donatives or chapels 
 belonging to it. 
 
 Rectors. 
 
 Bishops by whom 
 instituted. 
 
 Time of 
 Institution. 
 
 Patrons. 
 
 Robert de Tuardo 
 
 Wells 
 
 A.o. 1222 \ 
 
 
 Hugh de London, clerk 
 
 H 
 
 1223 
 
 
 John de Merse, capell' 
 
 Grosthead 
 
 1238 
 
 
 "Walter de Braclesham, sub- 
 
 Gravesend 
 
 May 5, 1270 
 
 
 deacon 
 
 
 
 
 Roger de Castro, sub-deacon 
 Richard Abel, acolite 
 Thomas Bamville 
 Walter de Bamville 
 John Conde 
 
 Sutton 
 Dalderby 
 
 Burghersh 
 
 Feb. 4, 1294 
 May 4, 1306 
 
 Jan. 11, 1331 
 Dec. 5, 1333 
 
 Abbot and 
 Convent of 
 * Grestein in 
 Normandy. 
 
 Richard de Ochecott, presbyt 
 
 jr „ 
 
 June 3, 1334 
 
 
 William 
 
 
 
 
 William Wenlock, acolite 
 
 Gynwell 
 
 June 5, 1349 
 
 
 Philip de Leghe 
 
 » 
 
 Mar. 3, 1352 
 
 
 Ralph de Iddebury 
 
 5) 
 
 Sept. 3,1356 
 
 
 * [Now St. Alban's.] 
 
 f [The site of this abbey may still be seen. A house is built on the spot by 
 a merchant of Honfleur, near which it is situated. The last monk died in 1814. 
 Arietta, William the Conqueror's mother, was buried there.] 
 
 J [In 1645, one John Phippon was commended to the Committee for exami- 
 nation, but does not appear to have been appointed.] 
 

 APPENDIX. 
 
 
 115 
 
 Rectors. 
 
 Bishops by whom 
 
 Time of 
 
 Patrons. 
 
 
 instituted. 
 
 Institution. 
 
 
 Nicholas le Rede 
 
 Gynwell 
 
 Nov. 4, 1367 
 
 The King. 
 
 John Oshorn 
 
 
 ) 
 
 Abbot and 
 
 Nicholas Turney 
 
 Buckingham 
 
 Apr. 17, 1368 | 
 
 Convent of 
 
 Thomas Somenor 
 
 >> 
 
 May 1, 1369 ( 
 
 Grestein in 
 
 John Waltham 
 
 » 
 
 ) 
 
 Normandy. 
 
 Peter de Burton 
 
 » 
 
 Apr. 23, 1381 \ 
 
 
 John Long, clerk 
 
 » 
 
 May 13, 1382 
 
 
 Robert de Bolton, phr. 
 
 » 
 
 Aug. 22, 1384 
 
 
 John Milton 
 
 » 
 
 Mar. 24, 1384 
 
 
 John Creeton 
 
 » 
 
 June 30, 1386 
 
 
 Thomas Brydde 
 
 
 
 
 Robert Hodersale 
 
 Repingdon 
 
 Feb. 22,1405 
 
 ► The King. 
 
 William Watford 
 
 Gray 
 
 June 3, 1432 
 
 
 John Staunton 
 
 >» 
 
 Oct. 13,1432 
 
 
 Michael James 
 
 » 
 
 May 14. 1435 
 
 
 John Goddeslond 
 
 
 
 
 Richard Plomer, pbr. 
 
 Lumley 
 
 Nov. 18, 1462 
 
 
 John More, pbr. 
 
 Rotherham 
 
 July 17, 1478 J 
 
 
 Henry Matthew 
 
 Russell 
 
 Mar. 29, 1484 j 
 Nov. 19, 1490 ! 
 
 Cicely, Duch- 
 
 Thomas Lee, clerk 
 
 » 
 
 ess of York. 
 
 John Harden, pbr. 
 
 Smith 
 
 Sept. 11, 1501 \ 
 
 
 William Hone 
 
 5> 
 
 July 15, 1504 
 
 
 Richard Lessy 
 
 
 
 
 John Dent, cap. 
 
 Longland 
 
 Apr. 27, 1522 
 
 
 Thomas Abell, M.A. ' 
 
 >> 
 
 Sept. 11, 1522 
 
 
 Richard Baker, B.D. 
 
 ») 
 
 June 28, 1530 
 
 > The King. 
 
 John Chamberlain 
 
 White 
 
 1554 
 
 
 William Parker 
 
 Bullingham 
 
 1560 
 
 
 [John Lane 
 
 >> 
 
 1568 
 
 
 Thomas Wethered 
 
 Cooper 
 
 1573 
 
 
 Nicholas Clayton 
 
 » 
 
 1578 
 1584]' 
 
 
 William Painter 
 
 j> 
 
 
 Thomas Newman 
 
 Chaderton 
 
 1598 
 
 The Queen. 
 
 John Napier* 
 
 Williams 
 
 1639 ■ 
 
 I 
 
 (David Bramley or Bramble 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 intruder) 
 
 
 Restored June 
 14, 1670 
 
 The King. 
 
 John Napier, clerk, M.A. 
 
 Fuller 
 
 I 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 * He was ejected by the Parliament from this benefice, but afterwards had a 
 small donative in Bucks, and lived to be restored [14 June, 1670]. 
 
116 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 
 
 Rectors. 
 
 Bishops by whom 
 
 Time of 
 
 Patrons. 
 
 
 instituted. 
 
 Institution. 
 
 
 Robert Brabant,* clerk, M.A. 
 
 Barlow 
 
 Mar. 6, 1681 
 
 The King. 
 
 John Cowper, M.A. 
 
 Gibson 
 
 May 11, 1722 \ 
 1756 
 
 
 John Jeffreys, clerk 
 
 Thomas 
 
 
 Charles du Gniffardiere, clerk 
 
 Pretyman who 
 
 Dec. 26, 1798 
 
 
 M.A. 
 
 changed his 
 
 
 The Prince of 
 
 
 name to Tom- 
 
 
 Wales as 
 
 
 line 
 
 
 1 Duke of 
 
 John Crofts, clerk, M.A. 
 
 >> 
 
 Jan. 12, 1810 
 
 Cornwall. 
 
 James Hutchinson, M.A. 
 
 George Murray, 
 Bishop of 
 
 Feb. 21, 1851 
 
 
 
 Rochester 
 
 ) 
 
 
 [John Wolstenholme Cobb, 
 
 Thomas Legh, 
 
 July 26, 1871 
 
 f Earl Brown- 
 ( low.] 
 
 M.A. 
 
 Bishop of 
 
 
 
 Rochester now 
 
 
 
 St. Alban's 
 
 
 1 
 
 APPENDIX V. 
 
 Names of the Masters and Ushers of the Grammar School, 
 as far as can be ascertained from documents in the 
 possession of the school. 
 
 The first and only Chaplain was the Rev. John East. 
 
 Ushers. 
 Rev. John Audley, B.A. 
 Roger Norwood. 
 Roger Norwood. 
 Leonard Stepney. 1561. 
 Henry Adkens. 
 
 Masters. 
 
 1. Rev. Richard Reeve, B.D., All 
 
 Souls Coll., Oxford. 
 
 2. Rev. William Barker. 
 
 3. Rev. William Saltmarsh. 
 
 4. Rev. Thomas Hunt, 1599- 
 
 5. Rev. Henry Hunt, 1635. 
 
 6. Rev. William Pitkin, 1636, 
 
 buried at St. Dunstan's, Fleet 
 Street. 
 
 * In one of the Registers is this entry: * Dr. Brabant, Rector of Berkhamsted 
 and St. Andrew Undershaft in London, and Prebendary of Worcester, Lincoln, 
 and St. Paul's, and Chaplin under 8 crownd heads, and Doctor of Divinity, 
 1719." « John Boardman, Curate," 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 117 
 
 Masters. 
 
 7. Rev. Timothy Taylor, died of 
 
 the plague in 1648. 
 
 8. Rev. Archibald Ogle, 1648. 
 
 9. Rev. Thomas Hawes, M.A., 
 
 buried in the School chancel. 
 
 10. Rev. Burgenhead, 1661. 
 
 11. Rev. Thomas Fossau. 
 
 12. Rev. Edmond Newboult, after- 
 
 wards Rector of Chedding- 
 ton, Bucks. 
 
 13. Rev. Thomas Wren, after- 
 
 wards Rector of Kelshall, 
 Herts. 
 
 14. Rev. John Theed, M.A., Oriel 
 
 Coll., Oxford. 
 
 15. Rev. Evan Price, 1734 
 
 16. Rev. Thomas Bland, M.A., 
 
 1753. 
 
 17. Rev. John Dupre, D.D. 
 
 18. Rev. Thomas Dupre, M.A., 
 
 Exeter Coll., Oxford, after- 
 wards Rector of Willoughby, 
 Lincolnshire. 
 
 19. Rev. Edward John Wilcocks, 
 
 afterwards Treffry, M.A., 
 Lincoln Coll., Oxford, 1841. 
 
 Ushers. 
 
 Thomas D agnail. 
 
 John Seare. 
 
 Woodkin, buried 1681. 
 
 John Bennett, B.A. 
 
 William Lake. 
 
 Rev. Evan Price. 
 
 Rev. Rice Price. 
 
 Rev. Thomas Allett, 1742. 
 
 Rev. James Price. 
 
 Rev. Michael Dupre. 
 
 20. Rev. John Robert Crawford, 
 M.A., Lincoln Coll., Oxford, 
 1850. 
 
 [21. Rev. Edward Bartrum, M.A., 
 Pembroke Coll., Oxford, 1864.] 
 
 Thomas Scott. 
 
 Rev. John William Bramah, 
 B.A., Merton Coll., Oxford, 
 1846. 
 
 Frederick Burn Harvey, 1847. 
 
 Rev. Frederick Burn Harvey, 
 S.C.L., Magd. Hall, Oxford 
 [now Rector of Cheddingtonj. 
 
118 APPENDIX. 
 
 APPENDIX VI. 
 
 List of Books Consulted. 
 
 Norden, John, Speculum Britannia? : the first parte : an Historicall 
 and Chorographicall Description of Middlesex and Hartfordshire. 
 First edition, 1598. 
 
 Chauncy, Sir Henry, Kt. The Historical Antiquities of Hertford- 
 shire. London, 1700. 
 
 Salmon, Nathaniel, LL.B. The History of Hertfordshire. London, 
 1728. 
 
 Clutterbuck, Robert, F.S.A. The History and Antiquities of the 
 County of Hertford. London, 1815. 
 
 Camden's Britannia. London, 1607. 
 
 Leland's Itinerary. Ed. Hearne. 1710. 
 
 Stukeley, William. Itinerarium Curiosum. London, 1776. 
 
 Brayley, E. W. The Beauties of England and Wales. London, 
 
 1823. 
 Todd, Archdeacon. History of the College of Ashridge. London, 
 
 1823. 
 
 Scriptores Anglici post Bedam. Frankfort, 1601. 
 
 Paris, Matthew. Ed. London, 1640. 
 
 Froissart's Chronicles. Ed. Johnes. 
 
 Holinshed's Chronicle. London, 1587. 
 
 Stow's Annals. London, 1615. 
 
 Dugdale's Monasticon. 1817. 
 
 Dugdale's Baronage of England. London, 1675. 
 
 Wood's Athenre Oxonienses. London, 1721. 
 
 Spelman's Concilia. London, 1639-64. 
 
 Leges Anglo-Saxonicai. London, 1721. 
 
 Weever's Funerall Monuments. 1631. 
 
 Newcourt's Repertorium. 1708. 
 
 Tanner's Notitia Monastica. 1754. 
 
 Gough's Sepulchral Remains. 1796. 
 
 Itymer's Fcedera. Ed. Clarke. London, 1816. 
 
 Archaeoloeria. 
 
APPENDIX. 119 
 
 Gentleman's Magazine. 
 
 Skclton, John. Workes now collected. London, 1568. 
 
 Cary, Robert, Baron of Lepington, Memoirs of the Life of. London, 
 
 1759. 
 Harwood, Thomas. Alumni Etonenses. Birmingham, 1797. 
 Tower Records. 
 The Parish Records. 
 Report of the Charity Commissioners. 
 
 [Monumental Brasses. By H. Haines, M.A. Parker, 1861. 
 Painted Windows. By P. B. Harvey, M.A. Longmans, 1869. 
 Life of Edward III. By W. Longman. 1869. 
 In and out of London. By W. J. Loftie, B.A. 
 
 History of Hertfordshire. By J. E. Cussans. Austin. Hertford. 
 A most valuable Work, now complete.] 
 
 &c. &c. &c. 
 
120 
 
 The following Appendices are inserted for the first 
 time in this Second Edition. 
 
 APPENDIX VII. 
 
 The Castle. 
 
 1. The following description of the Castle, by G. T. Clark, 
 Esq., is taken from an account of a visit of the Archaeo- 
 logical Institute to Berkharasted, printed in the Archaeo- 
 logical Journal, No. 120, 1873 :— 
 
 Berkhamsted stands within a gorge of the chalk, less sharply defined 
 than that of Guildford, but not less important in a military point of 
 view, and traversed, like it, by a stream tributary to the Thames. 
 The stream here is the Bullbourne, a tributary of the Coin, which falls 
 into the Thames at Colnbrook, about 26 miles below the castle. Ham- 
 stead, indicating a dwelling-place, is not an unfrequent English name. 
 In this case it is distinguished by the prefix of " Berk " or " Burg," 
 referring to the burgh or fortress which it contains. The position is 
 well chosen. The castle stands at the point at which a small lateral 
 combe, descending from the north and east, opens upon the main 
 valley, and contributes to it a small brook, the waters of which have 
 reduced the low ground to what must have been a deep marsh, in the 
 midst of which, about a low tump of gravel, the defences are arranged. 
 North and south the ground rises rapidly to considerable elevations ; 
 on the south or south-east runs the main stream, about 400 yards from, 
 and a few feet below, the castle. The river, the Grand Junction Canal, 
 and the Birmingham railway, lie close together in the bottom, the latter 
 encroaching somewhat upon the outer ditch of the fortress. The high 
 road, the Roman Akeman Street, traverses the little town of Berk- 
 hamsted about a furlong away upon the slope of the opposite hill. 
 Thus the road, always an important highway, was effectually watched, 
 and the castle covered from an attack on that side. The castle is com- 
 
APPENDIX. 121 
 
 posed of an inner ward, a mound, an inner ditch, a middle bank, a 
 second ditch, and an outer bank and works. 
 
 The Inner Ward is an oval area, about 500 feet north and south 
 by 300 east and west. It is level, dry, and surrounded by the remains 
 of a wall, which stands on the line of what perhaps may be regarded 
 as the trace of a light bank. This ward is no doubt a natural tump, 
 levelled and scarped all round. It is rather higher than the outer 
 defences. Towards the north-east quarter the outline of this ward is 
 indented to make room for the mound. The Mound is a truncated 
 cone, about 60 feet high, and 40 feet diameter on the top. The sides 
 are very steep. It is wholly artificial. On its outer two-thirds it rises 
 out of the ditch of the place, which includes it and the inner ward. 
 The ditch, however, formerly also encircled the whole mound ; a loop, 
 now partially filled up, as at Tonbridge, dividing it from the ward. 
 What remains of the ditch is deep and wet. The inner ditch, which 
 thus surrounds the inner ward and the mound, and by a loop divides 
 the two, is somewhat triangular in plan, a figure produced by the very 
 considerable widening of it at the south-east and south-west points, as 
 well as, in some degree, of the intervening base. This ditch is for the 
 most part full of water, the overflow of which escapes by a modern 
 culvert in the south-eastern quarter. It is deep, and at its narrowest 
 pai-t 50 or 60 feet broad, and must have proved a very formidable 
 defence. Outside of, and forming the counterscarp of this ditch, and 
 dividing it from the. second ditch, is a steep narrow bank, of irregular 
 outline and variable breadth. This is the middle bank. It is, gene- 
 rally, about 8 feet broad at the top, but it makes two angles towards 
 the south-west and south-east, and at these it expands into two mounds 
 or cavaliers, the one about 20 feet diameter at the top and the other 
 about 30 feet, and each about 20 feet higher than the ordinary bank. 
 These mounds are so placed as to flank the base of the triangle, that 
 is, the front facing the open valley and the Koman road. This bank 
 is succeeded by the outer ditch, which also seems to have surrounded 
 the whole work, though now filled up upon the south point, where it 
 is encroached upon by the railway and a diverted accommodation road. 
 The lateral brook flowed into this ditch, and continues to do so along 
 its western part, running off at the south-west angle. This also is a 
 formidable defence. There is besides a partial line of defence beyond 
 this second ditch, forming the outer bank. This is a broken and com- 
 plex line of earthworks, covering the two sides of the triangle, but 
 
 K 
 
122 APPENDIX. 
 
 ceasing at the base, where probably the low ground about the Bull- 
 bourne afforded a sufficient defence. It is broken at the north end or 
 apex of the figure by a deep cross cut, through which the stream from 
 the combe enters the outer ditch. To the east of this gap the bank is 
 strengthened by three bold rounded bastions of earth, about 150 feet 
 apart, and measuring about 30 feet at the gorge by 40 feet projection. 
 West of the gap are five of these bastions, from 80 to 120 feet apart, 
 and of unequal size ; and beyond them, towards the south-west angle, 
 is a kind of half-moon work or ravelin in advance of the outer ditch, 
 and with a ditch of its own, and connected with it a sort of rectangular 
 tank or pool, through which a part of the water of the ditches flows 
 into the main stream. These bastions have no parapets, and are con- 
 nected with no masonry, but they are high and with steep slopes, and 
 along their front is a ditch, which may have been wet, as in places it 
 still is. 
 
 The full exterior dimension of the whole work is in length about 
 330 yards, and in breadth about 220 yards. Of masonry there remains 
 but little. The inner ward was contained within a wall about 7 feet 
 thick, and from 20 to 25 feet high, of which a good deal still remains. 
 It stood about 7 feet within the edge of the slope of the ward, leaving 
 a path between its base and the crest of the ditch. There are traces 
 of the battlements here and there. There is a fragment of a mural 
 tower on the west face, much mutilated, but apparently rectangular. 
 In the east face are two openings, of which one may have been a pos- 
 tern. In the north-east quarter there remains a fragment of a cross 
 wall, probably a part of the domestic buildings. The gap for the main 
 gateway is at the south end, near the middle of that front. There are 
 no traces of gate-house or gate towers, nor do there appear to have 
 been any. There were also some buildings on the west side, and 
 probably a bye-gate at the north-west corner, leading to the outer 
 defences in that direction. The mound has been crowned by a circular 
 or multangular shell keep, of which only traces of the foundations 
 remain. Much remains of a strong curtain or spur wall, 8 feet thick, 
 which projected from the wall of the inner ward and ascended the 
 mound, connecting the keep with the inner enceinte. Possibly there 
 was a second wall a few yards to the east, but it is pretty clear that 
 the northern three-quarters of the keep stood outside the inner area, 
 and formed a part of its defences. It is remarkable that here, as at 
 Tickhill and Tamworth, the battlements of the connecting wall do not 
 
APPENDIX. 123 
 
 seem to have risen much higher than the top of the mound or base of 
 the keep, as though the object was to detach the keep, and to prevent 
 it being assailed advantageously by those who, having taken the inner 
 ward, might proceed along the curtain towards the citadel. Upon the 
 inner bank, and therefore on the counterscarp of the inner ditch, near 
 the middle of the southern face, are two parallel walls, 12 feet apart, 
 which represent the exterior main entrance. There are no traces of 
 towers, and probably these walls stood nearly alone, as at Conings- 
 borough. There is no other trace of masonry, and the banks are far 
 too slight to have supported a regular curtain wall, and had such been 
 built it would have been liable to be mined and brought down with but 
 lfttle labour. Probably there was a third or outer gateway on the 
 outer edge of the ditch, now obliterated by the railway. An early 
 survey mentions the "derngate" leading to the park, no doubt a pos- 
 tern at the north-west corner of the inner ward; and three draw- 
 bridges, of which the outer had "allures" and galleries. Probably 
 these were all of timber, for the slender earthworks show no trace of 
 masonry. There were also a painted chamber or hall, a great chapel, 
 and two others. Leland speaks of "divers towers in the middle ward," 
 but he does not seem to have entered it. By the middle ward he means 
 the ward in the midst. That is the "inner ward." 
 
 Berkhamsted is a very peculiar fortification. The mound was 
 clearly the original keep, having, as was usual, its own proper 
 defences. The inner ward, though its earth bank is now slight, is 
 of course also original, and intended to be defended by palisades and 
 the ditch. There probably the original works stopped, and within 
 them may have been held the Council of a.d. 697. The outer works 
 are apparently much later. The outermost bank may, from its bas- 
 tions, be as late as the reign of Charles I., though works not altogether 
 unlike these seem to be sometimes thrown up in the fourteenth cen- 
 tury. The middle bank is too slight, and too sharp in its profile, too 
 well preserved, to be of very high antiquity. It is evidently later than 
 the Conquest, and probably the work of the Earl of Moreton, or some 
 early Norman lord. It is curious that though there are concentric 
 lines of defence there is no middle ward. The lines of defence include 
 only ditches, and nothing of the space which was usually left between 
 the walls of concentred castles to allow the defenders to be drawn 
 up. Here there is barely room for a single line* of troops to be 
 extended in the rear of the stockade. The rectangular pool on the 
 
 K 2 
 
124 APPENDIX. 
 
 south-west front may be a modern fish-stew, excavated by some of the 
 grantees of the place. The masonry that remains is all of chalk, flint 
 rubble, bathed or grouted in a pure white mortar, and was probably 
 faced with picked and coursed flints, no doubt with quoins and dress- 
 ings of ashlar. The work may be Norman, or it may be later, but 
 probably not much. The absence of towers, with one exception, and 
 of ashlar, is remarkable. No doubt what there was was removed when 
 Berkhamsted Place was built. 
 
 2. For the transcription of the following interesting " Orders 
 and Rules of the Princesse Cecill," and for much other 
 valuable assistance, I am indebted to the kindness of Mr. 
 J. F. Rolph :— 
 
 Orders and Rules of the Princess Cecill. 
 
 A compendous recytation compiled of the Order, Kules, and Con- 
 structione of the House of the Kighte Excellent Princesse Cecill, late 
 Mother unto the Right Noble Prince, Kinge Edward the Four the. 
 
 Me semeth yt is requisyte to understand the order of her owne per- 
 son, concerninge God and the worlde. 
 
 She useth to arise at seven of the clocke, and hath readye her 
 chapleyne to saye with her mattins of the daye, and mattins of our 
 lady ; and when she is fully readye she hath a lowe masse in her 
 chamber, and after masse she takethe somethinge to recreate nature ; 
 and soe goeth to the chappell hearinge the devine service, and two 
 lowe masses ; from thence to dynner ; duringe the tyme whereof she 
 hath a lecture of holy matter, either Hilton of contemplative and 
 active life, Bonaventure de infancia, Salvatoris legenda aurea, St. 
 Maude, St. Katherin of Sonys, or the Revelacions of St. Bridgett. 
 
 After dinner she giveth audyence to all such as hath any matter to 
 shewe unto her by the space of one hower ; and then sleepeth one 
 quarter of an hower, and after she hath slepte she contynueth in 
 prayer unto the first peale of evensonge : then she drinketh wyne or 
 ale at her pleasure. Forthwith her chapleyne is ready to saye with 
 her both evensonges ; and after the last peale she goeth to the chap- 
 pell, and heareth evensonge by note ; from thence to supper, and in 
 the tyme of supper she recyteth the lecture that was had at dynner to 
 those that be in her presence. 
 
APPENDIX. 125 
 
 After supper she disposeth herself to be famyliare with her gentle- 
 women, to the secac'on of honest myrthe ; and one howre before her 
 goeing to bed, she taketh a cuppe of wyne, and after that goeth to her 
 pryvie closette, and taketh her leave of God for all nighte, makinge 
 ende of her prayers for that daye : and by eighte of the clocke is in 
 bedde. I truste to our lordes mercy that this noble Princesse thus 
 devideth the howers to his highe pleasure. 
 
 The Eules of the House. 
 
 Upon eatynge dayes at dynner by eleven of the clocke, a first dynner 
 in the tyme of highe masse, for carvers, cupbearers, sewers, and 
 offycers. 
 
 Upon fastinge dayes by xii of the clocke, and a later dynner for 
 carvers and for wayters. 
 
 At supper upon eatynge dayes for carvers and offycers, at foure of 
 the clocke ; my lady and the housholde at five of the clocke, at 
 supper. 
 
 When my lady is served of the seconde course, at dynner, at supper, 
 the chamber is rewarded and the hall with breade and ale, after the 
 discretyon of the usher. 
 
 Rewardes from the kytchin is there none, savinge to ladyes and 
 gentlewomen; to the heade offycers if they be present ; to the Deane 
 of the Chappelle, to the Almoner, to the gentlemen ushers, to the 
 carvers, cupbearers, and sewers, to the Cofferer, to the Clerke of the 
 Kytchin, and to the Marshall. 
 
 There is none that dyneth in their offyces, savinge onely the cookes, 
 the scullery, the sawcerye, the porters, the baker if they be occupyed 
 with bakeinge. 
 
 Uppon Sondaye, tuesdaye, and thursdaye, the housholde at dynner 
 is served with boyled beefe and mutton, and one roste ; at supper 
 leyched beefe and mutton roste. 
 
 Uppon mondaye and wensdaye at dynner, one boyled beefe and 
 mutton ; at supper, ut supra. 
 
 Upon fastinge dayes, salte fyshe, and two dishes of fresh fishe ; if 
 there come a principall feaste, it is served like unto the feaste honor- 
 ably e. 
 
 If mondaye or wensdaye be hollidaye, then is the houshold served 
 with one roste, as in other dayes, 
 
126 APPENDIX. 
 
 Upon satterdaye at dynner, saltfyshe, one freshfishe, and butter ; at 
 supper saltfishe and egges. 
 
 Wyne daylie to the heade offycers when they be presente, to the 
 ladyes and gentlewomen, to the Deane of the Chappell, to the 
 Almoner, to the gentlemen-ushers, to the Cofferer, to the Clerke of 
 the Kytchin, and to the Marshall. 
 
 Upon frydaye is made paymente for all manner of freshe cates ; at 
 every moneth ende is made paymente for all manner other thinges ; 
 on every quarter ende the chappell is payde of their wages. 
 
 At every halfe yeare the wages is payde to the housholde ; and 
 livery clothe once a yeare. Payment of fees out of the houshoulde is 
 made once a yeare. 
 
 Proclamacion is made foure times a yeare about Berkhamsted in 
 market townes, to understande whether the purveyors, cators, and 
 other, make true paymente of my ladyes money or not ; and also to 
 understande by the same whether my ladyes servantes make true pay- 
 ment of their owne debts or not ; and if any default be founde, a 
 remedy to be had forthwith for a recompence. 
 
 Breakfastes be there none, savinge onely the head officers when they 
 be present; to the ladyes and gentlewomen, to the Deane and to the 
 Chappell, to the Almoner, to the gentlemen ushers, to the Cofferer, to 
 the Clerke of the Kitchin, and to the Marshall. 
 
 All other offycers that must be at the brevement, have their break - 
 faste together in the Compting-house, after the breavementes be 
 made. 
 
 The remaynes of every offyce be taken at every moneths ende, to 
 understande whether the offycers be in arrearadge or not. 
 
 Lyvery of bread, ale, and fyre, and candle, is assigned to the heade 
 offycers if they be presente ; to the ladyes and gentlewomen as many 
 as be marryed ; to the Deane and to the Chappell ; to the Almoner, 
 to the chapleynes, to the gentlemen ushers, to the cofferers, to the 
 Clerk of the Kitchin, to the Marshall, and to all the gentlemen 
 within the house, if they lye not in the towne ; that is to saye, whole 
 lyverye of all such thinges as is above specyfied, from the feaste of 
 allhallowe unto the feaste of the purifycation of our ladye ; and after 
 the purificatyon, half lyverie of fyres and candles nnto good frydaye ; 
 for then expireth the tyme of fyre and candle alsoe. 
 
 To all sicke men is given a lybertye to have all such thinges as may 
 be to theire ease ; if he be a gentleman and will be at his owne dyett, 
 
APPENDIX. 127 
 
 he hath for his boarde weekelye xvi d. and ix d. for his servante, and 
 nothing out of the house. 
 
 If any man fall impotente, he hath styll the same wages that he had 
 when he might doe best service, duringe my ladyes lyfe ; and xvi d. 
 for his boarde weekelye, and ix d. for his servante. If he be a yeoman 
 xii d. a groome or a page ten pence. 
 
 The Orders and Rules are from a collection of papers which formerly 
 belonged to Sir Julius Cassar ; now {i.e. 1790) at the Board of Green 
 Cloth, St. James's. Published in 1790 by the Society of Antiquaries 
 in " A Collection of Ordinances and Regulations for the Government of 
 the Royal Household, made in divers reigns : from Edw. III. to Wil- 
 liam and Mary." (Brit. Mus. 683h. 14.) 
 
 N.B. — The same word is in several instances spelt differently in 
 this copy, but is according to the original. — J. F. R. 
 
 3. Extract from the Will of the Duchess Cicely. 
 
 By her will dated 1 April, signed 31 May, and proved 27 August, 
 1495, Cicely directs that, " all my plate not bequeithed be sold, and 
 the money thereof be putte to the use of my burying, that is to say, 
 in discharging of such costes and expensis as shalbe for carying of my 
 body from the Castell of Berkehampstede unto the colege of Fodring- 
 hey (where her husband Richard Duke of York was buried). And 
 if any of the said plate be lefte unexpended I woll the said Colege 
 have it. . . . Also I geve to the house of Assherugge a chesibule and 
 ij tunicles of crymsyn damaske embrawdered with thre albes. Also I 
 geve to the house of Saint Margaretes twoo auter clothes with a 
 crucifix and a vestiment of grene vellet. . . . Also I geve to the 
 parisshe church of Much Barkehampsted a coope of blewe bawdekyn, 
 the orffreys embrawdered. . , . Also I give to Edward Delahay twoo 
 gownes of musterdevilers furred with mynckes and iiij° li. of money. . . 
 
 In witnesse whereof I have sette my signet and signe manuell, at 
 my Castell of Berkehamstede the last day of May the yere of our 
 Lord abouesaid. (1495). — Cussans, p. 53. 
 
 4. In connection with the Castle I would refer to " Berkham- 
 
 sted Castle, an Historical Reverie," by J. R. Crawford, 
 M.A., Master of Berkhamsted School, 1861. 
 
1 28 APPENDIX. 
 
 APPENDIX VIII. 
 
 The Church. 
 
 1. The following is an extract from a very able Paper read in 
 the Church on June 11, 1881, to the members of the St. 
 Paul's Ecclesiological Society, by the Rev. Canon Davys, 
 Rector of Wheathampsteacl : — 
 
 In the western wall of the north transept externally is a very old 
 rough arch, which probably is a portion of a church which stood here 
 before the present one ; for it appears that there was a presbyter here 
 at the time of the Conquest who probably officiated in the church, of 
 which this rough arch forms the only visible remnant. However — 
 say about the year 1220 — a new chinch, a vast improvement upon 
 anything that had existed here before, was begun. This Mr. Parker, 
 I understand, when describing the church some few years ago to the 
 members of the Archaeological Institute, considered to have been of 
 the form of a Greek cross, with a low tower and short spire at the 
 intersection. I see no reason to differ from this view, though no clue 
 at present remains for determining the length of the nave. The piers 
 and arches of the tower of that date are before you, and are admirable 
 examples of the earliest period of what we call Early English. Some 
 of the original lancet windows are still to be seen in the chancel, and 
 I think that a portion of the corbel table under the original over- 
 sailing roof is in situ ; but it is rather difficult to be sure of this, for 
 the whole chapel of St. Katherine, from which this is to be seen, is a 
 puzzle. It appears to have been built out during the great works 
 accomplished during the later portion of the Early English period ; 
 in fact, to have been about the last work accomplished during that 
 time. It took the form of a large south chancel aisle, an arch having 
 been cut into it through the original earlier wall, and its windows 
 seem to have been adapted for geometrical tracery ; but when this 
 chapel was further "glorified," at the time when the beautiful and 
 elaborate sepulchral recess, now curiously enough associated with the 
 name of Friar Bacon, was inserted, tracery of late Decorated character, 
 which has recently been restored, was placed in the windows, which 
 originally contained geometrical tracery. The original transepts 
 
APPENDIX. 129 
 
 probably had eastern chapels ; that on the south now gave place to 
 this larger addition, and was entered from the transept by an arch, 
 now filled by the organ. You must notice, too, a staircase to the 
 tower, which seems also to have led to the rood-loft, which was over 
 the screen, now twisted round and crossing the arch between the 
 chancel and St. Katherine's Chapel, it having till recently occupied 
 its original place across the chancel arch. But the great addition to 
 the church of 1220 was the new nave which we now see, a long and 
 splendid structure, which renders this church one of the grandest for 
 the reception of a congregation that I know. On the south side 
 of the south aisle of this extended nave is the Chapel of St. John, 
 originally provided for the brotherhood of that order, and now used 
 for the accommodation of the members of the foundation raised thereon 
 by the munificence of Dean Incent. I have already expressed my 
 sorrow at the loss of the lower portions of the screen-work of the 
 structure. I must also direct your attention to " the singularly beau- 
 tiful timber pillar which supports its roof." 
 
 We will now pass in review the north transept. The piers and 
 vaulting of the eastern aisle here appear to be of Early English date ; 
 and here are the inserted windows of rich Decorated character to the 
 restoration of which I have already alluded ; here, too, is a remnant 
 of a very interesting ancient font. Passing to the south transept, we 
 find a clustered pillar of very great beauty, while in the north aisle of 
 the nave is a window with very singular tracery, which appears to 
 have formed one of many insertions in the geometrical period. The 
 great west window, the whole addition of the clerestory, and many 
 window insertions, belong to the Perpendicular style, while the upper 
 portion of the tower is an addition very late in the Tudor period, and 
 of very considerable interest. 
 
 2. Memoranda of the recent Restorations — 1870-1881 : — 
 
 In the year 1870 the church (with the exception of the north 
 transept and part of the south aisle) was restored, under the direction 
 of Mr. Butterfield. During this restoration the chancel was raised 
 both floor and roof : the former paved with marble and encaustic tiles, 
 the latter renewed. 
 
 The extent to which this was done may be seen by examining the 
 recess in which the credence table is placed. This originally formed 
 
130 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 the door into the vestry, which was pulled down. The whole church 
 was re-floored, and consequently many of the memorial slabs and 
 brasses moved. The roof of the south transept was raised to its 
 original pitch. The rood screen was removed into St. Katherine's 
 Chapel, which was fitted up as a vestry and organ chamber. The 
 organ, a very fine one, was built by Walker. The screen in St. 
 John's Chapel was cut out, the top being left. The south porch with 
 " reclusary" over, of which the window still remains, Avas thrown into 
 the church. A doorway was re-opened in the south wall of the south 
 transept, and a former priest's door removed. Wyattville's great west 
 gallery was removed, and a new children's gallery constructed. Oak 
 benches were substituted throughout the church for the former pews. 
 A new font was erected near the west entrance. The Caroline font 
 and the Norman fragment are preserved in the north transept. The 
 choir stalls were placed under the central tower. In 1880 the south 
 aisle of the nave was externally restored as a memorial to Colonel 
 Smith-Dorrien, and in 1881 the north transept was also externally 
 restored, and the beautiful tracery of its windows carefully renewed, 
 also under the direction of Mr. Butterfield. 
 
 3. List of the most noteworthy Monuments in the Church :■ 
 
 {Arranged in Chronological Order.) 
 
 1. Robert cle Tuardo? 
 
 2. Richard and Margaret Tor- 
 
 rington, the elder (a 
 " Frankelein ") 
 
 3. Margaret Briggs 
 
 4. " Friar Bacon " 
 
 5. Richard and Margaret Tor- 
 
 rington, the younger [or 
 ? Incent] 
 
 6. John Raven, Esq. 
 
 7. Thomas Brydde, Rector ? 
 
 8. Thomas Humfre 
 
 9. Richard Westbroke 
 
 10. Robert Incent 
 
 11. Katherine Incent 
 
 12. Sir John Cornewallis, Kt. 
 
 13. John and Margaret Water- 
 
 house 
 
 Stone coped Tomb 
 
 N. Aisle of Nave c 
 
 . 1222 
 
 Brass 
 
 N. side of Tower 
 
 1356 
 
 do. 
 
 N. Transept c 
 
 . 1360 
 
 Sepulchral Recess 
 
 Vestry c 
 
 . 1370 
 
 Altar Tomb 
 
 N. Transept c, 
 
 . 1377 
 
 Brass 
 
 S. side of Tower 
 
 1395 
 
 do. 
 
 Chancel c. 
 
 1400 
 
 Palimpsest 
 
 N. Transept (in 
 
 
 
 window-ledge) c, 
 
 ,1470 
 
 Brass 
 
 N. Transept 
 
 1485 
 
 do. 
 
 S. John's Chauntry 
 
 
 
 (on pillar) 
 
 1509 
 
 do. 
 
 do. 
 
 1521 
 
 Altar Tomb 
 
 N. Aisle of Nave 
 
 1544 
 
 Brass 
 
 Vestry 
 
 1558 
 

 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 
 131 
 
 14. 
 
 Dame Margaret Water- 
 house 
 
 Mural 
 
 Vestry. 
 
 1587 
 
 15. 
 
 Thomas Waterhouse 
 
 do. 
 
 do. 
 
 1600 
 
 16. 
 
 Thomas Baldwin, Esq. 
 
 Mural Altar Tomb 
 
 S. Aisle of Nave 
 
 1641 
 
 17. 
 
 Brothers Murray 
 
 Mural 
 
 Chancel 
 
 c. 1649 
 
 IS. 
 
 John Sayer (" Archima- 
 girus " Chief Cook to 
 Charles II.) 
 
 Altar Tomb 
 
 N. Transept 
 
 1682 
 
 10. 
 
 Mrs. Elizabeth Cradock 
 
 Mural 
 
 S. Transept 
 
 1704 
 
 20. 
 
 Ann Cowper (Mother of 
 the Poet) 
 
 Mural 
 
 Chancel 
 
 1736 
 
 4. List of Stained Glass Windows : — 
 
 Ancient. 
 In the westernmost north lancet window in the chancel some fine 
 
 fragments of fourteenth-century glass. 
 In the easternmost, the arms of the See of Canterbury impaling 
 Chichele, c. 1420, and two fine royal coats, France mod. quartered 
 with England. 
 Coats of Kichard Duke of York in St. John's chauntry and Cicely 
 
 Neville in west window of north aisle. 
 Torrington arms in north transept. 
 
 Modern. 
 
 1. North transept, formerly in east window. Powell. 1852. 
 
 2. North transept, Dorrien Memorial. Powell. 1852. 
 
 3. Chancel. South lancet. Gift of Eev. A. B. Wrey, Curate. 
 
 4. St. John's chauntry. Crawford Memorial. Heaton and Butler. 
 
 1865. 
 
 5. St. John's chauntry. Bartrum Memorial. Heaton and Butler. 
 
 1869. 
 G. West window.* Gift of T. Whately, Esq. Heaton and Butler. 
 1866. 
 
 7. East window. By subscription, in memory of the Poet Cowper. 
 
 Clayton and Bell. 1872. 
 
 8. North aisle. Bullock Memorial. Gibbs. 1872. 
 
 9. South transept. Curtis Memorial. Clayton and Bell. 1872. 
 10. South aisle. " Mary " window. Cooper Memorial. Clayton and 
 
 Bell. 1874. 
 
 * For a detailed account of this window, vide " Painted Windows," by F. B. 
 Harvey, M.A. Longmans, 1869. 
 
132 APPENDIX. 
 
 11. North aisle. Longman Memorial. Heaton and Butler. 1877. 
 
 12. South aisle. Smith-Dorrien Memorial. Kempe. 1880. 
 
 To this list of memorials of the departed may well be added two 
 remarkable features in the adornment of the church. The mosaic 
 reredos by Powell; artist, Burrows; subject, "The Crucifixion" 
 (erected by public subscription) ; and the great fresco of the " Ascen- 
 sion," by the same artist, over the tower arch (dedicated by his 
 widow), both in memory of my revered and beloved predecessor in this 
 rectory, the Rev. James Hutchinson. 
 
 The very handsome eagle lectern (Barkentin and Krall), a family 
 memorial of the late Colonel Smith-Dorrieu, should also not pass 
 unnoticed. 
 
 5. Nicholas Talbot's Will :— 
 
 Cussans (p. 85) quotes from the interesting will of Nicholas Talbot, 
 who was in the service of the Duchess Cicely (Camden Society, vol. 49), 
 as follows (8th June, 1501): — 
 
 He directs that should he die within seven miles of Great Berk- 
 hamsted he was to be buried in the church there within the Chapel of 
 Our Lady, between the image of our Lady of Pity and our Lady of 
 Grace. After giving 6s. 8d. to the high altar and 20s. towards the 
 reparation of the church, he directs that a good and virtuse prest rede 
 and synge for me after my decesse the space of vii. yeeres, and if he be 
 not vertuose I prey you that be myn executors let hym be changyed. 
 I will that a prest syng for Jane my wyff the space of an hole yeer. 
 I will that a prest syng for my Lady Cecyle, late Duches of Yorke, 
 the space of a hole yeer. He wills that masses be sung for David 
 Gryffyd, his wife's first husband, his brother and sisters, and his 
 parents, also for the souls of Henry Matthew, John Moyr (More) and 
 Thomas Ly (Lee), late parsons of Berkehamstede. 
 
 6. Chantry Certificate, Co. Hertford. Roll 27, No. 60.— Com- 
 
 mission dated 14 Feby. 2 Edw. VI : — 
 
 The valuacon off all the Londf tentf ^ hereditament f, stokkf 
 off cattail °l redie money, w ch were geven willed and assigned 
 
APPENDIX. 133 
 
 for and toward^ the manuten^nce of any lampes lyghte obbitf 
 1 annivsaries w*iil the said countie oif Hertfff viz in 
 
 B. 
 
 d. 
 
 60. Barkli"~m- A Rent goynge out of a Tente w 1 
 sted : burgg. thapp r termcf in* Rofet Grufce geven 
 to the fyndinge of a Lampe by the 
 yere .... iiij ij 
 
 A Rente also geven to the same 
 Intente goynge out of a Tente of 
 Rich Grover by the yere . . vj 
 
 iiij viij 
 
 7. Inventory of Furniture and Ornaments remaining in the 
 Parish Church of Berkhamsted in the last year of the reign 
 of King Edward the Sixth. (Extracted from List by J. E. 
 Cussans, F.RHist.S. Parker, 1873):— 
 
 Maid the ffirste Day of Novembre &c And John Alley of 
 Barkham Barkh a mstede Peter &c Tanner &c Belonginge to 
 
 stede the Pyshe Church of Barkh a mstede &c 
 
 Imprimis iiij or Belles in the Steple 
 
 The gret Bell by estemacion po$ xviij hundrethe 
 
 the next Bell by estymacion po£ x hundrethe 
 
 The next Bell by estimacon poa viij hundrethe 
 
 The lest Bell By estimacon vj hundreth 
 
 Itm a Saunce Bell po^ di hundreth 
 
 Itm another Saunce Bell pojp xvj pound e 
 
 Itm ij handbelles po^ xij poundf 
 
 Sin poundres m 11 m li m 11 viijC xxviij 11 
 Itm a Challise of Silluer & guylte po^ xviij onces 
 
 piaytt Itm a Challise of Silluer & guylte po^ xi onces 
 
 * Sic. ? in the tenure of. 
 
134 APPENDIX. 
 
 pro ecciia Itm another Challise of Siluer and guilte po& xj onces 
 
 ornaments Imprimis ij° Coppes of vellet one Bedde thother Tawnye 
 
 Itm ij° other Coppes of Silke verry Sor worne 
 
 Itfri a vestment of Clothe of silluer 
 
 Itm a vestment of Blew Damaske and Deakones of Blew Silke 
 
 Itm a vestment of Tawnye Silke 
 
 Itm a vestment of Redd silke 
 
 Itm a vestment of Taffata & another of Grene silke 
 
 Itm an Alter Clothe of redd Sattine 
 
 Itm a Canape of Blew Damaske 
 
 Itm ij° Crose Clothes of Silke 
 
 Itm a vestment of Blewe vellet 
 
 Itm ij° vestment^ of whit ffuschian 
 
 Itm a vestment of Russet Dammaske 
 
 Itm a vestment of Sattyne of Brydgf 
 
 Itin a Deakon and a Sub deakon of Blewe Sattine 
 
 Itm a vestment of redde Say 
 
 Itm a vestment of Blake dornex w th Swannes 
 
 Itm ane Alter ffrounte of Red and Grene Sattine of Brudges 
 
 pro ecciia Itm a pair of Organnes and a pair portatives 
 
 Itm too Sacringe Belles 
 
 APPENDIX IX. 
 
 The Manor and Honour. 
 
 (Transcribed by Mr. J. F. Kolph. Lands. MS. 805, fol. 25-65. Brit. Mus.) 
 
 " The Honour of Barkhamsted, in the County of Hertfordshire. 
 The verdict & answers of us the jurors whose (names are) here- 
 under written being tenants of the severall Manors (of the) Borough 
 and Hallimott within the Honour unto certeyne (Articles) after- 
 mencioned upon full consideracion and deliberacion had (thereunto) 
 being given us in charge to be enquired of at the Co rt holden for y c 
 Honour at the Castle at Barkhams d the xxij th day of October 1616 
 and in the years of the raigne of our Sovraigne Lord King James by 
 
APPENDIX. 135 
 
 the Grace of God of England Scotland France and Ireland Defender 
 of the Faith, &c. viz. of England France and Ireland y c ffortith and 
 of Scotland the fiftith before Edward Salter High Steward of the sayd 
 Honour for the Prince. 
 
 Francis Barber, gent. Willm. Pitkyn. 
 
 George Dover. Henry Feild. 
 
 Willm. Edlyn. Eobte. Attwell. 
 
 John Ewer. Tymothy Dawbney, 
 
 John Brewer. John Southen. 
 
 James Fenn. Tho. Hill. 
 
 John How of Luton. Henry Sear. 
 
 John Norris. Robte. White, 
 
 Willm. Willett. Willm. Lake. 
 
 John How of Little Heath. Francis Russell." 
 Oliver Haines. 
 
 (Here follow twenty-four Articles of enquiry, to which these 
 are the answers) : 
 
 "The Verdict and Answere of us y c s d Jurors unto ye Precedent 
 Articles." 
 
 To the first the jurors reply, that " Thomas Murry, Esq r . holdeth 
 the Scite Circuite and Precinct of the Castle of Barkhams d w th the 
 Parke conteyning together by estimacion seaven hundred acres. And 
 alsoe divers Meddowes conteyning by estimacion twoo & twenty acres 
 & a halfe lying by the Rivers Side betweene the Parke gate & Gossams 
 end & w ch sometymes were fower or five severall meadowes scituate 
 lying or being in the Parish of Barkhams d S* Peter and one other 
 Meadow called Lord's Mead cont. by estimacion seaven acres be it more 
 or lesse lying in y e Parish of Barkhams d St. Mary als Northchurch. 
 But how he holdeth the same we know not." 
 
 Other landowners were William Baldwin, William Edlyn, Oliver 
 Haines, William Royce, Francys Wethered, &c. 
 
 " There are also Twoo Mills, viz. the Upper Mill in the occupacion 
 of George Collins & the other in the occupacion of Richard Besouth 
 w tu the Banks to the said Neither Mill cont. by estimacion one acre & a 
 halfe or thereabouts as they are now inclosed but how they hold them 
 or w* rent they pay we know not. 
 
136 ' APPENDIX. 
 
 There is alsoe one Great Comon or wast ground of pasture and 
 wood called the ffryth & one other greate wastgrounde called Bark- 
 hams d Heath and one other little wastgrounde called The Little 
 Heath. 
 
 There are alsoe twoo other little plotts of wastgrounde knowne 
 by the name of Brickhill Greene and Shuter's Way. 
 
 There is also one wast plott or moore lying by the river neare the 
 Upper Mill and one little wast plott or moore lying at a place called 
 Bankmill in all w ch wast grounds or commons the tennants of ye sayd 
 Borough and Hallimote have tyme out of memory of man used to 
 have, commons " There are certeyne Spittle houses w ch Ed- 
 mund Younge, Esq. holdeth by Lettres Patents, viz. : the Over Spittle 
 house als St. John the Evangelist Spittle house. And the other the 
 Neither Spittle house als St. Leonards Spittle house w th ffower 
 tenemt 8 . or cottages belonging to the same and divers parcells of 
 arrable land pasture and wood grounde cont. by estimacion one hun- 
 dred threescore and ffower acres be they more or lesse together w th 
 the scites circuits and precincts thereof and thirteene shillings ffower 
 pence rent w ch as we are informed he holdeth in capite by certeyne 
 Lettres Patents whereunto wee referr ourselves w ch Lettres Patents 
 were showed to the commission 8 of the former survey on ye behalfe of 
 Prince Henry * about tenn yeares last past/' The length of the jurors 
 reply, the MS. in all fill 80 pages, precludes my giving in extenso the 
 answers to the other queries. " The divers Mannor belonging unto 
 the Honno r of Berkhamsted w th in the lymits or bounds of the Borough 
 or Hallimote of Barkhams d lying w th in the seve*rall parishes of Bark- 
 hams' 1 St. Peter and Barkams d St. Mary als Northchurch," were 
 "tkeManno r of Durrance als North Barkhams d .... One other 
 
 Manno r called Northcott Hill Co mn alsoe one other Manno r or 
 
 scite of a manno r called Maudlyns." .... also " divers ancient capi- 
 tall messuages w ch are conceived by some of the owners thereof to be 
 
 Mano rs and to have divers quit rents belonging unto them 
 
 viz. : The Kectory or Parsonage house of Northchurch whereof John 
 Hopkins, clarke, one of the King's Ma ties Chaplayns in ordinarie is 
 endowed in the right of his church. One other capitall messuage called 
 campions in the tenure of James Mayne, Esq. One other capitall 
 
 * We find in the reply to the second article mention of " a former survey " in 
 the twelfth yeare of the raigne of late Queene Elizabeth." 
 
APPENDIX. 137 
 
 messuage called Pilkingtons in the tenure of Francys Barker, Gent. 
 And one other capitall messuage called Combs in the tenure of Wil- 
 liam Hodgson " 
 
 To the third article the jurors " answere and present all the names 
 of y e ffreehold rs together w th their lands and tenem ts , and w 1 rents are 
 due for the same to the Prince his Highnesse." .... The 
 freeholders were very numerous ; among them were James Mayne, 
 Esq. ; Thomas Duncombe, Esq. ; Thomas Newman, parson of Berk- 
 hamsted St. Peter ; Francys Barker, Gent. ; Arthur Blunt, Gent. ; 
 Thomas Hunt, Francys Wethered, Gent. ; George Dover, William 
 Hodgson, Kichard Oxley, Edward Attwood, Thomas Babb, Kichard 
 Lawrence, John Shermantyne, Edward Clarke, Roman Clarke, Oliver 
 Haines, William Lake, Robert Tinker, John Grover, James Frane, 
 Thomas Norcot, John Serman, Roger Whitchurch, Edward Howe, 
 Richard Warde, John Cooke, Richard Speede, Henry Axtell, Henry 
 Feild, Thomas Roberts, John Hopkins, Edward Hopkins, Thomas 
 Hill, Nicholas Gossame, John Brewer, Thomas Eggleton, William 
 Pitkin, William Dagnall, Richard Thomas, Jeremy Holdkin, John 
 Tripp, William Oxley, Robert Abower, Robert Haidon, John Harris, 
 William Axtell, Robert Finch, Raphe Newman, Edward Shovler, 
 William Martyne, &c. all of Berkhamsted St. Peter ; and Edmond 
 Yonge, Esq., Thomas Hunt, " Scoolemaster of the ffree Scoole of 
 Barkhamsted," William Howe, James Fenn, William Willet, Philip 
 Russell, Robert White, Richard Partridge, James Hardinge, Richard 
 Woode, John Cock, Robert Bradleie, Richard Dell, Jeffery Bampton, 
 John Dogget, Jchn Brisco, John England, Richard Whelpley, Thomas 
 Wethered, Henry Randall, William Baldwine,* &c. of Berkamsted St. 
 Mary. Many of them were freeholders in both parishes, and appear 
 from the reply to the fifth article to have been also "customary 
 tenants" of the Manor. The jurors answer that every customary 
 tenant ought to pay unto the Lord of this Honnor, " upon his admit- 
 
 * " William Baldwine holdeth by lease of tenn yeares twelve acres of land by 
 estimaeion, be it more or lesse, lying in the parish of Barkhams d St. Mary als 
 Northchurch, late the land of Kalph Axtell, dec d , since whose death there hath 
 bynn suite commenced in chancery betweene Edward Axtell and the daughter of 
 Tho. Axtell, touching the title thereof, whereby the evidence is kept in chancery 
 and soe noe evidence given unto us thereof, neither doe wee know the true state 
 thereof. But as we have heard the rent thereof is a gilliflower when any Kinge 
 or Queene shalbe crowned in y e Castle of Barkhams d ." 
 
138 APPENDIX. 
 
 tance upon death or surrender the ancient yearly rent according as the 
 
 Lord's rent is yearly and noe more " that they " know not 
 
 any customary Lands or Tenem ts aliened in fee" and " that 
 
 noe customary Tenements ought to pay any Herriott upon death or 
 surrender nor upon any forfeiture committed by any customary 
 Tenante" nor ought they "to pay Twoo Henns & Twoo Cocks at the 
 feast of Christs nativity for ought wee know." To the thirteenth 
 article they " answere that the s d Towne of Barkhams d is an ancient 
 Borough & Merkett Towne & very likly hath bynn a corporacion & 
 tyme out of memory of man alwaies reputed to be a Borough & for 
 ever continued & intitled by the name of a Borough in all ancient & 
 Later Co rt rolls and as wee have heard hath had divers ancient bene- 
 ficiall Lib ties & prevelidges & other means for inriching of y e sayd 
 Towne being then in great trading & in flourishing estate at such 
 tyme as y e castle was meynteyned & inhibited or much frequented by 
 the Kings of this Realme and concourse of people by reason thereof 
 And that the sayd Bayliffes of the said Borough have & doe usually 
 receive the waifs and strays & such like profitts happening w th in the 
 sayd Borough to their own use w^out making any Ace 1 for the same, 
 for w ch s d profitts happening wi th in the said Borough the s d Bayliffes 
 have bynn tyme out of memory of man & yet are charged and charge- 
 able with the safe custody of all felons apprehended w th in the s d 
 Borough during the tyme of there keeping there at the proper charges 
 of the sayd Bayliffes wi th out any allowance for the same other then y e 
 sayd profitts & other casualitys happening w th in the sayd Borough 
 And concerning y e yearly value of the sayd waifes strayes &c. soe 
 happening w th in the s d Borough we cannot certeynly set downe being 
 in themselves soe uncerteyne but wee esteeme them not to be worth 
 above x 8 p and neither doe wee know certeynly of any yearly rent p d 
 for the same. But as wee have heard That the said Bayliffs doe pay 
 yearly for the same & for the ffaire and markett Twenty shillings to 
 the Prince his highnesse or to his Bayliffe or Receiver there for the 
 sayd Honnor." 
 
 They also " answere That the churchwardens of y e Towne of Bark- 
 hams' 1 St. Peter for the tyme being have tyme out of memory of man 
 received the profitts of a Tenem 1 & Orchard and likewise of the Co r - 
 house & Church-house for the Releife of the poore for w ch Tenem* & 
 Orchard there is a rent of foure pence payd yearly to the Lord of the 
 Manno 1- & for the Church-house a rent of Twelve pence p d yearly to 
 
APPENDIX. 139 
 
 Francys Barker and that the Co rt Loft being now used for a markett- 
 house was buylt as wee conceive at the charge of the Towne by the 
 consent of the Lord of the Mano r for the tyme being for the necessary 
 use of the markett. And twoo shillings & twoo pence rent payd for the 
 same. And for the more fitter use of the markett there hath bynn of 
 late a Litle house buylt at the charges of the Towne for a buttermarkett 
 house for w ch as it seemeth there is an increase of twoo pence per 
 annum." 
 
 They affirm that they "know not the names of any Burgages . . . 
 
 .... w th in or belonging to the Borough of Barkhams d 
 
 or whether they or any of them ought to doe any harvest worke as in 
 the sayd Article is mencioned," and that they "know not such land by 
 
 the name of the old Assart Land " or " any such 
 
 Tenures by the name of the greater or the lesser tenure " 
 
 They state that they know not "of any such Co rt as is mencioned in 
 that (20 th ) Article by the name of the Great Co rt of Barkhams d or 
 other Co rt except the Court Leet & Court Baron holden severallie for 
 
 y e Borough & Hallimote nor of any Co rt called by the name 
 
 of the Portmote Co rt except it be intended to be that w ch is called the 
 
 Borough Co rt " and " That there is only one ffaire 
 
 holden yearly in the Towne of Barkhams d afores d w ch is on St. James 
 his day only where anciently as wee are credibly informed there was 
 another ffaire there holden about the Third of May w ch continued 
 seaven dayes and- but one Merkett weekly w ch is on the Munday 
 
 In their answer to the 23rd article the jurors say " That 
 
 there is noe such name or use of a yard land w th in this Manno r now in 
 being nor of any carewes of land w th in the tyme of our memory but wee 
 hold a plow land doe conteyne one hundred and ffifty acres or there- 
 abouts and that sixteene foote and a halfe is accounted for a pole or 
 perch by the custome of this Honno r . But as wee have heard that 
 his Highnesse lands are accounted here and elsewhere to be eighteene 
 foote to the pole." 
 
 In conclusion the jurors assert that " our desire is to present the 
 truth in all things to the uttmost of our knowledge and understanding 
 and in testimony thereof wee have hereunto sett our hands." 
 
 Here follow the same names as are appended to the prefatory para- 
 graph (excepting that of John Southen, which is omitted) also some 
 
140 APPENDIX. 
 
 additional ones, viz., William Pope, John England, Hen. Pntman, 
 Mich. Gossame, Rich. Deane, and Jam. Gregory. — J. F. R. 
 
 There is another enquiry under date 1755 (Brit. Mus. Lands. 
 MS. 656), to which reference may be made, but it is too long 
 for insertion here. 
 
 APPENDIX X. 
 
 The Poet Cowper. 
 
 It may be well to quote in connection with the History of Bevkham- 
 sted the opening words of Southey's Life of Cowper : — 
 
 " William Cowper, the most popular poet of his generation, and the 
 best of English letter-writers, was born on the 15th of November (old 
 style), 1731, in the rectory at Great Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire. 
 
 " The place of his birth is remarkable in English history. The 
 Mercian Kings had a palace there, and it again became a royal resi- 
 dence under the first of the Plantagenets, who granted to the men and 
 merchants thereof liberty to trade through all his lands of England 
 and Normandy and Aquitain and Anjou without paying either customs 
 or exaction, and that they should be quit of all servile works, and be 
 exempt from all tolls, and enjoy the same liberties, laws, and customs 
 as in the time of Edward the Confessor, and that the market should 
 be held within seven miles of the town. From Henry the Fourth's 
 time the honour and castle of Berkhamsted went with the Earldom of 
 Cornwall. Twice they were granted to unfortunate favourites : by 
 Edward II. to Piers Gaveston, and by Richard II. to Robert de Vere. 
 Cicely Duchess of York, and mother of the last of the Plantagenets, 
 resided here during the latter years of her unhappy life, and from the 
 time of her death the honour of Berkhamsted has descended to the 
 successive Princes of Wales with the Dukedom of Cornwall. Notable 
 as these circumstances are this little town will be more known in after 
 ages as the birthplace of Cowper than for its connection with so many 
 historical personages who figured in the tragedies of old." 
 
 Noteworthy also is a letter to Mr. Rose (Southey's Life, vol. i. p. 30), 
 written October 19, 1787;— 
 
APPENDIX. 141 
 
 " At that time" (1756, when he lost his father) "I was young— too 
 young to have reflected much. It had never occurred to me that a 
 parson has no fee simple in the house and glebe he occupies. There 
 was neither tree, nor gate, nor stile in all that country to which I did 
 not feel a relation, and the house itself I preferred to a palace. I was 
 sent for from London to attend him in his last illness, and he died just 
 before I arrived. Then and not till then I felt for the first time that 
 I and my native place were disunited for ever. I sighed a long adieu 
 to fields and woods from which I once thought I never should be 
 parted, and was at no time so sensible of their beauties as just when I 
 left them all behind me to return no more." 
 
 Cowper writes from Berkhamsted, Thursday, October 18, 1759. 
 He seems to have been arranging his father's affairs. Dr. Jeffreys 
 was then rector. His mother-in-law continued to live here, as we find 
 from a letter to Mr. Hill. She died July 31, 1762, aged 63, and is 
 buried in Bath Abbey Church. 
 
 His own mother's portrait was in the possession of her descendant, 
 the late Mr. Donne, who kindly brought it to Berkhamsted, and ex- 
 hibited it at a lecture which he gave on Cowper at the Town Hall. 
 It is engraved by Blake, in Hayley's Life. A book containing the 
 originals of Cowper's correspondence with Mr. Hill was lent to me by 
 its possessor, the late Mr. Jekyll, of Wargrave, and shown on the 
 same occasion. There are portraits of Cowper by Lawrence (engraved 
 by Blake, in Hayley's Life), by Komney, and by Abbot. 
 
 Canon Davys says that his brother-in-law, Canon Pratt, has a por- 
 trait of the poet's father, and also many others of the family. 
 
 The only relic of the old rectory (pulled down in the time of the Rev. 
 John Crofts, who built the new house higher up) is the well-house, 
 by the side of the drive in the garden — " Cowper's well." 
 
 The following lines, written by my friend, the Rev. G. S. Cautley, 
 author of the " Afterglow," I caused to be inscribed on a marble 
 slab and affixed to the well : — 
 
 " The shy perennial fountain here the ivy-tods among, 
 Just emblem of his modesty and pure undying song, 
 With daily crystal draught refreshed the poet's fragile youth, 
 Amid the precious opening buds of genius, grace, and truth ; 
 Ere spectral wrath had clouded in despair the noble mind, 
 Self-loathing, yet so loving still, so boon to all mankind. 
 Oh, stranger, in your heart of hearts, let tender reverence dwell, 
 And love of love revived to-day at gentle Cowper's well." 
 
142 APPENDIX. 
 
 The memorial window is mentioned in connection with the Church. 
 The Rev. J. E. Greathead, the son of one of Cowper's intimate friends, 
 aided greatly in the selection of the subjects, which are all chosen with 
 reference to Cowper's poems. On the topmost light will be observed 
 the spotless lamb, with the angelic choir around. 
 
 APPENDIX XI. 
 
 The following lines, kindly written by Mr. Cautley for our parish 
 magazine in 1874, may be inserted here, as a tribute to the surpassing 
 beauty of what may be truly regarded as one of our chiefest antiquities, 
 and at the same time one of our greatest present glories : — 
 
 Berkhamsted Common. 
 
 When Berkhamsted Common we traversed at noon, 
 In the sweetest of months, between April and June, 
 The furze was in flower with splendour untold, 
 And the heath was an ocean of verdure and gold. 
 
 Little lambs in green pathways enchanted the eye, 
 Like drops of white sunshine distilled from the sky ; 
 The stonechat was busy, and faint from the vale 
 Was heard the shy cuckoo's monotonous tale. 
 
 O'er the sweet-scented gold-fields the sunbeams career, 
 They flood the wide distance and sparkle anear ; 
 And like angels all fresh from the glory above, 
 They kindle our hearts with the fervour of love. 
 
 We think of Linnasus and share his amaze, 
 When he glanced o'er these miles of magnificent blaze; 
 And we honour the faith of the sage as he knelt, 
 To thank the good God for the beauty he felt.* 
 
 * There is a tradition to this effect concerning the gi'eat Swedish philosopher, 
 who visited England in 1736. 
 
APPENDIX. 143 
 
 beauty, nature, sunshine and hues ! 
 Whence, whence comes the rapture your visions infuse ? 
 Ye are earth's, ye are transient, your end is in sight, 
 Ye shift with the season, and fade with the light. 
 
 Yes, they shift these bright visions, but only make way 
 For others that paint our life's wonderful day ; 
 Till we kneel in the presence by myriads adored, 
 At the home of all beauty, the throne of the Lord. 
 
 Now He in whose image our essence is framed, 
 His love and His glory once more hath proclaimed ; 
 For He beautifies earth with this gorgeous toy, 
 And gives with the beauty the soul to enjoy. 
 
 Nettleden, 1874. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 Plan of the Castle facing Lecture I. 
 „ Church „ II. 
 
 Akeman Street, 6, 120. 
 Alms House, 50, 97. 
 Ashridge, 17, 31, 74. 
 Axtell, Col. 48. 
 
 Bacon, Friar, 69, 128. 
 Beckett, Thomas a, 12. 
 Berkhamsted, Arms of, 41. 
 
 ,, Borough of, 38. 
 
 „ Common, 19, 32,136, 142. 
 
 „ Corporation of, 43. 
 
 „ Etymology of, 2. 
 
 „ Honor and Manor of, 97, 
 
 134. 
 
 „ House or Place, 33,46,48. 
 
 „ Market, 23, 44. 
 
 „ „ House, 94. 
 
 „ Marquis of, 21. 
 
 „ Members of Parliament 
 
 for, 20. 
 
 „ Merchants and Manu- 
 
 facturers of, 13. 
 
 „ Orthography of, 4, 105. 
 
 „ Pronunciation of, 5. 
 
 „ Rectors of, 52, 114. 
 
 „ Rectory, 71, 141. 
 
 „ Tokens, 49. 
 
 Books of reference, 118. 
 Boleyn, Ann, 26. 
 Bourne's School, 90. 
 Brasses, 62. 
 Broome, 60. 
 Brownlow, Earl, 26, 50, 97. 
 
 Bridgewater, 1st and 2nd Earls of, 78. 
 
 „ Francis, Duke of, 80. 
 
 „ John William, Earl of, 
 
 50,81. 
 
 „ Treatises, 81. 
 
 Broadway, 93. 
 Brut, 21. 
 
 Burghersh, Sir Bartholomew, 21 
 Butts, 99. 
 
 Camden, 4, 29, 41. 
 Cary, Sir Adolphus, 34. 
 „ Sir Edward, 26, 33. 
 „ Sir Henry (Lord Falkland), 34, 
 
 68. 
 „ Lucius (2nd Lord Falkland), 34. 
 „ Sir Robert (Earl of Monmouth), 
 35. 
 Castle, 9, 27, 120. 
 
 „ Inquisition, temp. Edw. I., 18. 
 „ Edw. III., 19, 
 28, 106. 
 „ Siege of, 15. 
 Cautley, Rev. G. S., 141, 142. 
 Charles I., 36, 45, 79. 
 
 „ II., 55, 96. 
 Charter of Henry H., 12. 
 Henry HI., 17. 
 „ Edw. IV., 23. 
 „ James I., 38. 
 Chaucer, 22. 
 Church, 51, 128. 
 
 „ Arch, ancient, 128. 
 
146 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Church, Chapel of Oar Lady, 52,66, 132, 
 „ „ St. Katherine, 52, 66, 
 
 67, 128. 
 „ Chauntry of St. John Baptist, 
 
 55, 66, 129. 
 „ „ Lamp, 132. 
 
 „ Dates of, 1 13. 
 „ Font, ancient, 129. 
 „ „ Caroline, 57. 
 
 „ Monuments, list of, 130. 
 „ Ornaments of, temp. Rdw. VI ., 
 
 133. 
 ,, Restoration of, 1820, 55. 
 „ „ 1870-81, 129. 
 
 „ Windows, list of, 131. 
 Cicely, Duchess of York, 24, 56, 65, 
 83, 132. 
 ,, Household of, 124. 
 „ Will of, 127. 
 Clark, G. T., Esq., 120. 
 Cornwall, Edmund, Earl of, 17, 74. 
 Cornwallis, Sir John, 60. 
 Court-house, 97. 
 Cowper, the Poet, 71, 140. 
 „ Birthplace of, 71, 141. 
 „ Mother's tomh, 71. 
 
 Well, 141. 
 „ Window, 38. 
 Crecy, Battle of, 21, 64. 
 
 Davys, Canon, 128. 
 Delahay, Edward, 65. 
 Domesday Book, 9. 
 Dunstable, 5, 12, 17, 30. 
 Durocobrivis, 5. 
 
 Edward I., II., and HI., 19. 
 „ the Black Prince, 20, 76. 
 „ IV., 23, 100. 
 „ V, 24. 
 
 „ VI., 57, 77, 89. 
 Elizabeth, Queen, 26, 57, 78. 
 
 Feast, Parish, temp. Hen. VIII., 98. 
 Field, Dr. Edward, 89. 
 Finch, General, 26, 91. 
 Fitz Piers, Geoffrey, 14. 
 
 Frederick, Abbot of St. Albans, 8. 
 Frithsden, 19. 
 Froissart, 21. 
 Fuller's Worthies, 68. 
 
 Gaveston, Piers, 19. 
 Grammar School, 72, 82. 
 
 „ School-house, 86. 
 
 „ Masters of, 116. 
 Grestein, Abbey of, 114. 
 Grymes Dyke, 5. 
 
 Hailes Abbey, 17, 75. 
 Henry I. and II., 12. 
 „ HI., 16. 
 
 „ IV, V., and VI., 23. 
 
 „ VII., 26. 
 
 „ VHL, 26, 54, 76, 98. 
 
 Hospital of St. Clement, 73. 
 
 „ St. Edmund, 73. 
 
 „ St. John Baptist, 14, 72, 
 
 82. 
 „ St. John Evangelist, 72. 
 „ St. Leonard, 73. 
 Hutchinson, Rev. James, 132. 
 
 Incent, Dean, 57, 65, 83. 
 
 „ Robert and Katherine, 65. 
 Isabel, Countess of Gloucester, 16. 
 Isabella, Queen, 14. 
 
 James I., 35, 37, 134. 
 John of Berkhamsted, 19. 
 
 „ King of England, 14 
 
 „ „ France, 22 
 Juries. 23. 
 
 Ken, Bishop, 3. 
 
 Lanfranc, 8. 
 Leland, 30. 
 Linnsens, 142. 
 Louis, Prince, 14. 
 
 Mandeville, Geoffrey, 14. 
 William, 15. 
 
 Marlin's Chapel, 74. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 147 
 
 Monboddo, Lord, 94. 
 Moreton, Earl, 9. 
 
 Murray, Thomas, Esq., 35, 36, 43, 135. 
 Mrs., 35, 53. 
 „ Brothers, 68. 
 
 Names, local and proper, 31, 135. 
 Neville, Ralph, 24. 
 Northchurch, 3, 44, 74, 93. 
 
 Paine, Nathan, 46. 
 Palimpsest, brass, 70. 
 Paul, St., 6. 
 
 Peter the Wild Boy, 92. 
 Philippa, Queen, 21. 
 Phylypp, John, 54. 
 Pie Powder, 43. 
 Pole's Synopsis, 79. 
 Portland, Earl of, 48. 
 
 Randulphus, 12. 
 Raven, John, Esq., 64. - 
 Reeve, Richard, 88. 
 Registers, 33. 
 Richard LL, 22. 
 
 „ III., 25. 
 Romans, Richard, King of the, 16. 
 
 Sang real, 75, 77. 
 Sayer, John, 50, 61, 95, 97. 
 Senchea, 17. 
 Shakspeare, 25. 
 Skelton, 77. 
 Stukeley, Dr., 5, 29. 
 
 Talbot, Nicholas, 132. 
 
 Torrington, Richard and Margaret, 
 
 58, 62. 
 Tumbril, 101. 
 
 Vestry book, 54, 95. 
 
 Wallingtord, 8, 23. 
 Waterhouse, John, 67. 
 
 „ Thomas, Rector of Ash- 
 
 ridge, 76. 
 „ Thomas, Churchwarden, 
 
 68. 
 ,, Lady Margaret, 67. 
 
 Withraede, Council of King, 6, 123. 
 William the Conqueror, 7. 
 
 „ Rufus, 11. 
 Willis Browne, 77, 80. 
 Witchcraft, 49. 
 Woodhouse, Christopher, 44, 70. 
 
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