this cell, in pure, free, and perpetual alms, quit of all services, customs and exactions.

Upon the dissolution, king Henry VIII. granted it to Sir Richard Leigh, knt. from whom it passed by a daughter to Edward Sadler, second son of Sir Ralph Sadler, bart. in whose family it continued in the issue male some time, but that issue failing, it went in marriage to Thomas Saunders, of Flamsted, Esq. who sold it to Sir Harbottle Grimstone, bart. from whom it is now descended to other branches of that family. It was valued at 681. 8s. per annum. Speed, Weaver. 40l. 7s. 10d. Dudg. It has been said that Henry VIII. was privately married here to queen Anne Boleyn.

This is now called HOLYWELL HOUSE, the seat of earl Spencer, and the residence of the countess dowager Spencer, situate near the river, at the end of the town leading to Watford; it was built by Sarah duchess dowager of the great duke of Marlborough; hath a very pleasant garden, with a bowling green, a fine sheet of water, a canal, and two other pieces of water, well stocked with fish. In this garden is a well, called Holy-well, which gave name to the house and street leading to it. In Holywell House is preserved the portrait of the duchess, in white, exquisitely handsome. "In this," observes Mr. Pennant," are not the least vestiges of her diabolical passions, the torments of her queen, her husband, and herself."-On ascending into the town, up Fishpool Street, is a bottom on the right, which was once a great pool. The Saxon princes are supposed to have taken great pleasure in navigating on this piece of water. Anchors have been found on the spot; which occasioned poets to fable that the Thames once ran this way. Drayton, addressing the river Ver, says;

Thou saw'st great burden'd ships through these vallies pass, Where now the sharp-edged scythe shears up thy springing grass; And where the scal and porpoise us'd to play,

The grasshopper and ant now lord it all the day!

Near the town is a Roman fortification, supposed to have been the camp of Ostorius, the proprætor; the common people call it "The Oyster Hills," but Mr. Pennant, who

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calls this bury or mount, Osterbill, conjectures it to have been the site of the Saxon palace at Kingsbury.

St. Alban's is famous for the victory obtained in 1455, over Henry VI. by Richard duke of York; the first battle fought in the famous quarrel, which lasted thirty years, and is computed to. have cost the lives of eighty, princes of the blood, and to have annihilated, almost entirely, the antient nobility of England. In 1461, a second battle was fought here, in which queen Margaret defeated the great earl of Warwick.

Julian Barns, abbess of Sopwell, wrote a book entitled, "The Gentleman's Recreation," or Book of St. Alban's, so called, because it was printed in that town, in a thin folio, in 1481, soon after printing was brought into England, by William Caxton, a mercer in London.

The town is governed by a mayor, high steward, re-, corder, twelve aldermen, &c. and sends two members to parliament. It has given the titles of viscount, earl, and duke, to the families of Bacon, Jermyn, and Beauclerk. ́

St. Stephen's church is situated nearly one mile southwest from the borough, and was founded in the tenth century by abbot Usinus; it still displays vestiges of its original architecture. In the chancel stands a curious brazen eagle, inscribed "GEORGIUS CREIGHTONII EPISCOPUS DUNKELDENSIS;" with armorial bearings, &c. Over the monument of Mrs. Olive Montgomery, who died in 1696, is a singular small hatchment, the border ornamented with bones, spades, hour glasses, and other emblems of mortality. In the church-yard is a monument in memory of the right honourable lady Anne Paddey, daughter of Charles, duke of Cleveland and Southampton, who died in 1769, aged sixty-six, and of her husband John Paddey, Esq. formerly her father's butler, who died in 1780, at the age of eighty-three.

Among the eminent men who were natives of St. Alban's, are to be noticed Sir John Mandeville, the traveller; Wil liam Alban, LL. D. elected prior of the abbey in 1464; in his time printing was brought into England. John In- VOL. VI. No. 127. somuch,

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somuch, a monk and schoolmaster of St. Alban's, erected a printing press in the monastery, and printed several books at it, viz. "The Fruit of Time, the Gentleman's Recrea tion, the Rules of an honest Life," &c.

John Hereford, an inhabitant of St. Alban's, wrote the Enchiridion of a Spiritual Life, printed for Richard Stevenage, in that town.

He was

Sir John King, descended by his father's side from mon. sieur du Roy, alias King, the French resident in England in the reign of James I. He was educated in Queen's college, Cambridge, where he was contemporary and intimately acquainted with Mr. Samuel Jacomb, Dr. Zach. Cradock, Dr. Simon Patricke, and Dr. Walter Needham. inclined to the study of divinity, but at his parents request, took the profession of the law, in which he became so eminent, that he was made solicitor-general to the duke of York, and one of the counsel in ordinary to king Charles II. who knighted him, and was wont to say, that he delighted to hear him plead at the council board. He was buried in the Temple church, London. "Such was his reputation," says Echard," and so extensive his practice, that in the latter end of his life, his fees amounted to forty and fifty pounds a day."

Sir Francis Pemberton, son of Ralph Pemberton, gent. twice mayor of St. Alban's, was descended of the Pemberton's of Pemberton, in the county palatine of Lancaster. Sir Goddard Pemberton was the first of this family who settled at St. Alban's in 1615. Sir Francis was educated to the law in the Inner Temple, and was so great a proficient in it, that he was made lord chief justice of both benches successively, knighted, and sworn of the privy council. He died in 1697, aged seventy-two, and lies buried in the chapel of Highgate, where he built an house, and resided. Lord keeper Guildford said, that "in making laws he had outdone king, lords, and commons;" to which Mr. Granger adds, "that Sir Francis was a better practitioner than a judge, extremely opinionated of his abilities, and rather made than declared law."

There

There are divers lesser manors in this vicinity, which antiently belonged to the monastery; but since the Dissolution are in day hands, 1. NEWLAND SQUILLERS, which king, Henry VIII. gave to Sir Richard Lee. 2. BUTTERWICK. 3. BeecH, so called from Godfrey de Beeche, to whom it was given by the Conqueror. King Henry at the Dissolution, gave both these manors to Sir Anthony Denny, one of the gentlemen of his privy chamber. 4. KINGSBURY, SO

termed from the Saxon kings, who were the antient lords of it, and often kept their court here; Bertulph, king of the Mercians, held a parliamentary council here, anno 857, in which the bishops and nobles treated of the public affairs of that kingdom, and settled the bounds and parishes. belonging to the territories of the monastery of Croyland. Here was also a large fish pool, belonging to the Saxon kings; and on account of the frequent resort of their nobles and officers to court and to partake of the diversion of fishing, they were a burden to the monks, whereupon the abbot and monks purchased the manor. At the Dissolution it was conveyed to John Cox, whose grandson, Richard Cox, sold it to Sir Francis Bacon. 5. GORHAMBURY. 6. CHILDWICK, possessed by the crown at the Dissolution, from which it passed to the family of Preston. 7. WINDERIDGE, SO called from the hill on which it is situated. It came to the crown at the Dissolution, and was conveyed by James I. to John Crosby, Esq. whose brother and heir sold it to Sir Harbottle Grimstone.

The manors of WELD RANDOLFES and NEWBURYES, never seem to have belonged to the abbey; they are not mentioned in Domesday Book.

In the road to Barnet, at two miles from St. Alban's, lies TITTENHANGER, which was began by John Moot, the thirty-first abbot of St. Alban's, and finished by abbot Whethamsted, as a place of retirement from the duties and fatigues attached to the abbey. At the Dissolution it was granted to Sir Hugh Pawlet, whose second daughter conveyed it to her husband Sir Thomas Pope; he left it to the issue of a subsequent wife, of the Blount family. Thomas Blount,

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Blount, Esq. of Blount Hall, Staffordshire, was the father of Sir Henry, the great traveller; the latter rebuilt Tittenhanger, of brick, and planted a garden, &c. It was the residence of the Blount family, till its extinction in the middle of the eighteenth century. This house then came into the possession of the family of Hardwicke; it is now the property of the earl of Hardwicke, and inhabited by his brother the right honourable Charles Yorke.

Sir Thomas Pope, was the founder of Trinity College, Oxford, and appointed the fellows and scholars to be chosen upon a vacancy, out of those counties and dioceses where they had lands, particularly out of those manors belonging to the founder; Ridge and Tittenhanger are particularly mentioned.

There are monuments in the church to the memory of the family of Blount; the following is worthy of notice:

"Here lies the Lady Busby, wife of Sir John Busby, of Addington, Co. Bucks, Knt. daughter to the Lady Blount, by her first husband, Sir William Manwaring, who was slain in the defence of Chester for the king; she died the 28th of December, 1667, in the nineteenth year of her age, in childbed of her second child, a daughter, which survives to succeed her in those admirable perfections which made her memory dear to all who knew her."

COLNEY HOUSE, in the parish of Shenley, was built about thirty years since by governor Bourchier, at the expence of 53,000l.; he afterwards sold it to the late margrave of Anspach, who having lived in it three years, again disposed of it to the earl of Kingston, of whom it was purchased in 1804 by the present possessor, George Anderson, Esq. The house is a handsome regular structure, with two fronts, and wings. The park is well supplied with oaks and elms, and the pleasure grounds are tastefully laid out.

The neighbouring seat of PORTERS, the residence of the marchion. ss of Sligo, will be famous as having been the retreat of her ladyship's father, the gallant admiral earl Howe.