Dashwood, of Halton. This gentleman rents it of

Barker,

Esq. to whom it was bequeathed by the widow of the late Mr.

Sayer.

ALDBURY was given by the Conqueror to Robert, Earl of Mortaigne; but, on the rebellion of his son, it was again seized by the Crown. The next owner on record was Bertram, or Bartho lomew de Crioll, who was Sheriff of this county, and Essex, in the thirty-third of Henry the Third. From this family it came to the Hydes, of whom Nicholas Hyde, Esq. was created a Baronet by Letters Patent of the nineteenth of James the First. On the death of Thomas, his successor, who was Sheriff of Herts in the third of Charles the First, Aldbury became the property of the Dukes of Leeds, through the marriage of Bridget, only daughter and heiress of the deceased, with Peregrine Osborn, heir-apparent to the then Duke. In the Church, which is dedicated to St. John Baptist, are several ancient monuments in commemoration of the Verneys and Andersons of Pendley; and of the Hydes, the former Lords of this Manor: one of the Dukes of Leeds was also buried here; but neither inscription, nor any other memorial, has been consecrated to his memory.

LITTLE GADDESDEN, or Gaddesden Parva, called Gadesdene in the Domesday Book, from its situation on the river Gade, descended in the same manner as Berkhamsted to Edmund, Earl of Cornwall, who granted it to his foundation for Bon-Hommes at Ashridge, to which it was attached at the time of the Dissolution. Queen Elizabeth, in her thirty-second year, granted it to Jane, Lady Cheney, and her heirs, from whom it passed by sale; and in the second of James the First, was conveyed, by an indenture tripartite, to Thomas, Lord Ellesmere, and Sir John Egerton, his son, afterwards Earl of Bridgewater, in whose posterity it yet remains.

The Church is a small fabric, with a tower at the west end. The chancel is the burial-place of the Egertons, Lords of the Manor, of whom SIR JOHN EGERTON, Knight of the Bath, and first Earl of Bridgewater, died at the age of seventy, in December, 1649; and JOHN, Viscount Brackley, his third son, who succeeded him

in the earldom, died in October, 1686, in his sixty-fourth year. Most of the Egerton monuments have long inscriptions, which are inserted at length in Chauncy. In this parish was born the eminent Physician JOHN DE GADDESDEN, who was educated at Merton College, and flourished at the beginning of the fourteenth century. He wrote many learned Treatises on professional subjects; and is mentioned by Chaucer, in his preface to the Canterbury Tales.

GREAT GADDESDEN anciently belonged to the Earls of Salisbury, and afterwards passed to the Zouches, and from them, by an heir female, to the Hollands, afterwards Earls of Huntingdon. On the death of the last Earl, who was wounded fighting on the side of the Earl of Warwick, at the battle of Barnet, it was seized by the Crown; and was granted, by Henry the Seventh, to Thomas, Lord Stanley, Earl of Derby. In the fortythird of Elizabeth, the daughters and co-heiresses of Ferdinando, Earl of Derby, conveyed it to Sir Robert Cecil, who granted it to Sir Adolphus Carey, of Berkhamsted, in the following year; and by his heiress, it was sold to the Lord Chancellor Ellesmere, from whom it has descended in the same manner as Gaddesden Parva. In the Church are various monuments of the Halseys, of GADDESDEN PLACE, whose Mansion, an elegant building, was erected about the year 1773, by the late Thomas Halsey, Esq.

4

BEECHWOOD, or BEECHWOOD PARK, the seat of Sir John Sebright, Bart. in the parish of Flamsted, was anciently called Woodchurch, or St. Giles in the Wood, from a Benedictine NUNNERY founded here for a Prioress and ten Nuns, by Roger de Toni, in the time of King Stephien. The possessions were increased by other benefactions; and on the suppression of the smaller religious houses, in the twenty-sixth of Henry the Eighth, the annual reve nues of this foundation were returned, according to Dugdale, at 301. 19s. 8d. but according to Speed, at 461. 16s. 1d. The Manor was then granted to Sir Richard Page, Knt. whose daughter married Sir Skipwith; and afterwards they conveyed this

estafe

Chauncy's Herts, p. 555, 6.

estate to Thomas Saunders, Esq. of Puttenhamn, from whose family it passed in marriage to Sir Edward Sebright, Bart. of Worcestershire, from whom the present owner is descended. The Mansion of the Sebrights is a handsome fabric, standing in a delightful and well-wooded Park, particularly abounding in fine beech. All the original papers relating to the Nunnery, as well as the manuscript collections of the learned Humphrey Lluyd and others, are in the possession of Sir John Sebright: this gentleman directs a considerable portion of his attention to the improvement of agriculture, and has a farm here of about 700 acres.

KENSWORTH was given, by Edward the Confessor, to the Church of St. Paul, in London, and it still forms parcel of the possessions of the Dean and Chapter. The Church is a small Norman edifice of one pace, with a tower at the west end, opening into the nave by a recessed semi-circular arched Door-way, curiously ornamented. The south Door-way, which opens into the Church from the porch, has a similar arch; but is somewhat more elaborately wrought. The stones which form the inner circle of this arch, are rudely sculptured in demi-relief, with a kind of diamond check-work; yet the evident dissimilarity of the carvings on many of these stones, renders it probable that some device might have been intended, though not any figure can now be distinctly made out, but that of a cross, which occupies the centre of the arch. The mouldings are supported by pillars, the capital of the westernmost of which exhibits on one of its faces, the well-known fable from Esop, of the Wolf and the Crane; the Crane is represented as standing on the back of the Wolf, and extracting the bone from his throat. The other face seems to be designed to represent the fable of the Eagle and the Hare. The Door-way within the tower has capitals of birds and small human heads: its other ornaments are in the same style with those already described: both Door-ways are built of Caen stone.

FLAMSTED, or FLAMSTEAD, anciently called Verlamstedt, according to Chauncy, from its situation on the river Ver, was parcel of the possessions of the Abbots of St. Alban. Leofstan, the twelfth Abbot, gave it to Thurnoth, a valiant Knight, and his fellow

K 3

fellow-soldiers, Waldeof and Thurman, on condition that they should secure the roads from robbers, and strenuously defend the Church of St. Alban. After the Conquest, it was seized by the King, and granted to the family of Toni, or De Todeni, from whose descendants it finally passed by an heiress, in the time of Edward the Second, named Alice, who married Guy de Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick, whose descendant, the Great Earl of Warwick, being killed near Barnet, fighting against Edward the Fourth, his possessions were seized by that Sovereign, and being afterwards legally alienated in favor of Henry the Seventh, the manor of Flamsted continued in the Crown till the twenty-seventh of Henry the Eighth. It was then granted to George Ferrars, and his heirs; and has since passed through various families, by purchase and otherwise.

Flamsted Church is dedicated to St. Leonard, and consists of a body, chancel, and side aisles, with a tower at the west end. Of the "three wondrous ancient monuments" mentioned by Weever, only one remains, the others are lost: this stands between the nave and the north aisle. It is a plain altar-tomb, about four feet high; having the figures of a male and female in demi-relief, under an angular canopy of quatrefoil arches, ornamented with foliage, and smaller archies. At their feet are two dogs; that on the left has a label proceeding from its mouth, which curls round, and terminates on the back of the other, but the inscription is defaced. On a slab in the chancel, is a Brass of a Priest under a pointed canopy, containing traces of a representation of the Trinity. This, as appears from the inscription preserved by Salmon, marks the place of interment of JOHANNES OUDEBY, who was a Rector of this Church, and died on the seventh of May, 1414. Several monuments and memorials of the Saunders and Sebright families, of Beechwood, are also preserved here: and in the wall near the altar, is an inscription in memory of SIR BARTHOLOMEW FOUKE, who was Master of the Houshold to Queen Elizabeth and James the First, and died in July, 1604, at the age of sixty-nine. The capitals of the pillars of the nave are richly carved with foliage: and the naye is separated from the chancel by a lofty Screen, ele,

gantly

gantly carved in the pointed style, over which is the ancient Roodloft. On the south side of the chancel are two ancient Stalls, with a Piscina adjoining: all these have pointed arches, though differently shaped and ornamented.

REDBURNE is a pretty considerable village, extending about half a mile on the road to Dunstable, and chiefly supported by the passage of travellers. The Manor was granted to the Abbots of St. Alban in the time of Edward the Confessor, and his Queen Editha, who gave their joint consent to its former owners, Egelwine the Black, and Wincelfled, his wife, for that purpose. It now belongs to Lord Viscount Grimston, having passed to that Nobleman from the Rowlats, in the same manner as Gorhambury. The Church was re-built by Abbot Whethamsted, in the time of Henry the Sixth. It stands at some distance from the village on the west. On Redburn Green, the relics of St. Amphibalus, the pious instructor of St. Alban, are recorded by Matthew Paris to have been dug up, with the bones of many of his fellow-sufferers, in the year 1178, and to have been translated with much solemnity to St. Alban's, where a sumptuous shrine was prepared for their reception, and many miraculous cures are said to have been performed by their influence. A small PRIORY, or CELL of Benedictines, subordinate to St. Alban's Abbey, was founded here previously to the year 1195, and dedicated to St. Amphibalus, and his martyred companions. The number of houses in this parish, were returned under the Population Act, at 239; that of inhabitants, at 1153.

HARPENDEN, or, as it is more familiarly termed, HARDEN, was originally included in Whethamsted, to which parish, according to Chauncy and Salmon, the Church here is a Chapel of Ease. In the time of Edward the First, this Manor was possessed by the ancient family De Hoo, of whom Robert de Hoo obtained liberty of free-warren for this Lordship, in the twentieth of the above Sovereign. From the co-heirs of this family, Harpenden was sold to Matthew Cressy, in the time of Edward the Fourth; and it continued in his descendants till the reign of Henry the Eighth, when K 4

* See under Offley, p. 161.

it