Many of the Monks and Abbots belonging to St. Alban's Abbey, became eminent for their learning, and renowned for their ingenuity and skill in various branches of science and of art. Even so early as the time of Abbot Paul, the Monastery had both a Library and a Scriptorium, as clearly appears from Matthew Paris; though Mr. Newcome, by a singular misunderstanding of his author, has affirmed, that " among all the rooms and buildings belonging to the Abbey, there was none called the Library;"* though Paris himself records, that Abbot Paul, in return for a gift of tythes to the Abbey, had bestowed his own library on the warrior who had made the donation; and immediately afterwards, caused some peculiarly chosen books to be written,' to supply the places of the former. Even in the brief account of this very Abbey inserted in the Monasticon, an ancient manuscript of the Bodleian is quoted, as actually reciting the Latin verses that were inscribed upon the windows in the Library-Room.‡ The Scriptorium, or Writing-Room, was of equally distinct appropriation. "A certain Nobleman, (Robert of Hatfield,) says Matthew Paris, "stout in war, and a Norman by birth, in the time, and by the persuasion of, Abbot Paul, conferred upon the Church of St. Alban, two parts of the tithes of his demesne in the manor of Hatfield; and assigned them, at the suggestion of this Abbot Paul, a lover of books, for the formation of volumes necessary to the Church; for that warrior was a literary man, a diligent hearer, and lover too of books. To this office were also annexed additionally (by him) some tithes in Redburn; and he appointed a daily provision of meat to be allowed to the writers, lest the writers should be hindered in their work. And the Abbot caused some Hist. of St. Alban's Abbey, p. 75. + Postquam præfato militi librarium suum, primò paratum, liberaliter contulerat continuò-libros præ-electos scribi fecit. Matt. Paris, p. 1003. In fenestris in domo librari monasterii prædicti. Monasticon, some noble volumes, necessary for the Church, to be there, in the very Scriptorium which he built himself, written by writers selected and fetched from far."* By these writers many books were transcribed, and were afterwards given to the Church by Paul: the collection was further augmented by Abbot Symond; who, himself, gave constant employment to three or four scribes, and ordained that all future Abbots should employ one scribe at least. The increase of books was so considerable, through the above, and other causes, that Leland, but a few years previous to the Dissolution, remained several days in the Abbey, for the purpose of extracting "notes of the Antiquities of Britain, from the treasures of the celebrated Library which is there."+ All these treasures, however, were dispersed in the subsequent wreck of religious foundations; yet a few of the Manuscripts, that are known to have belonged to the Abbey, may still be found in our public libraries. Almost all the monastic buildings appear to have been situated on the south and south-west side of the Church; but of these only the great Gate-House, on the west, and a few cottages, said to have been originally parts of the King's stable, are now standing. The ruins of the various edifices have evidently raised the ground which they occupied considerably, and the sites of some of them may yet be traced. The situation of the principal cloisters can be very clearly ascertained, from the ruined arches that still remain attached to the walls of the Church. The nine which run parallel with the nave, cach consist of three small pointed arches within a larger one, with double trefoil ornaments in the spandrils; all these rise from slender pillars, now almost hidden to their capitals, by the accumulated rubbish: those arches which adjoin the transept are more * Whitaker's St. German's, from Matt. Paris, p. 1003. + Agebam dies aliquot apud Fanum Albani, monasterium propter muros deserti Verolamii situm, ut aliquid antiquitatis Britannica e thesauris bibliothecæ quæ ibidem celebris est, eruerom. Lel. De Script. Brit. P. 166. more plain; but that nearest to the south door, has a canopied bracket for a statue. The Gate-House, a large, and heavy, gloomy building, forming the chief entrance into the Abbey precincts, was built in the time of Richard the Second; and the upper part is now used as the Prison of the Liberty, as the lower part formerly was of the Monastery. The large arch of entrance is obtusely pointed, and has a groined and otherwise ornamented roof. The capacious extent of the court-yard of the Abbey, may still be traced, from the scattered fragments of walls that formed the inclosure. In the fields on this side, but at different distances, are two arched passages, locally termed the Monks' Holes. The opening into that which seems to have been the principal, though both have a very general similarity, is at the side of a small ditch, about 350 or 400 yards from the Church. The present entrance is almost choaked up with weeds, fragments of tiles, broken stones, &c. The extent of this passage in a northern direction, is about 248 feet; at that point all further progress has been impeded by the fall of the arch, and consequent descent of the superincumbent earth. It may be seen, however, from a small aperture on the left, that it has a continuation in the same direction. Its height is three feet, nine or ten inches; and its breadth at the bottom, about two feet. This passage is curiously wrought: the workmanship is good; and, generally speaking, the whole is in an excellent state of preservation. The bottom is formed of large blocks of free-stone, from three to four feet long, and proportionably wide: similar, but smaller blocks form the sides, to the height of from twelve to fourteen inches. Above these, several courses of hewn or dressed flints, are carried up to the spring of the arch, which is semi-circular, and composed entirely of Roman tiles, placed edgewise. The whole passage has a gradual rise to the north. In one part, crossing the bottom, is a vacuity about one foot wide, and eight or nine inches deep. On the surface of the ground immediately above the extremity of the passage, is a hollow of several yards in extent, extent, that has been formed through the sinking of the arch bemeath, and the consequent deposition of the soil. The second Passage opens into a field about 150 yards nearer to the Church; its interior direction is, however, the same; but the entrance is more choaked up than that of the former. The same general description will suffice for this. The blocks of freestone at the bottom and sides, the courses of hewn flints above, and the Roman tiles forming the crown of the arch, are similar; but the internal state is more ruinous, and of consequence the passage is more obstructed. Its length to the point, where the fallen rubbish prevents any further progress, is about ninety-four feet. That these passages were intended for drains, may be presumed from the circumstance of the passage last mentioned having two smaller apertures opening into it; one on each side, but at some distance from each other. The one on the right or east side is stopped up by the upper part of the arch having given way; but that on the west is perfect: it forms a square of about eight inches, and runs off from the larger passage at right angles. Its length appears to be between three and four feet. Its further extremity seems to open into a third large passage; but this cannot be ascertained, unless the ground were opened. The dimensions of this lateral passage render it next to improbable that it could have been intended for any other purpose than a drain; and if this is admitted, it follows, that the larger passages had the same appropriation. Besides the Abbey Church, St. Alban's contains two others, respectively dedicated to St. Michael and St. Peter. ST. MICHAEL'S CHURCH stands at the bottom of the town, on the road to Dunstable, and within the walls of the ancient Verulam. This Church, which, equally with St. Peter's, was founded about the middle of the tenth century, by Abbot Ulsinus, still displays unquestionable specimens of the original Saxon architecture, in its massive piers and plain semi-circular arches. It has, however, been much altered; and the massive tower at the west end is apparently of a later date, though still very ancient: this was originally open to the nave, by a large, plain, pointed arch, but is now excluded from the body of the Church, by a gallery brought from the old Manor-House at Gorhambury. 2 Gorhambury. Some ancient inscriptions, that were here, are re corded by Weever and Chauncy;† others yet remain, but have no particular interest, with the single exception, perhaps, of that to the memory of the illustrious FRANCIS BACON, Baron of Verulam, and Viscount St. Alban's, who, together with his mother, was buried in this fabric. This renowned philosopher and statesman, is represented by a finely-sculptured alabaster statue in a niche on the north side of the chancel. He is sitting in a contemplative posture, Funeral Monuments, p. 344. + Chauncy's Hertfordshire, p. 474. The biographers of Lord Bacon relate, that his health had suffered in the severe winter which followed the infectious summer of 1625; but that, on his partial recovery in the succeeding spring, he was proceeding to make a little excursion into the country, in order to try some experiments in natural philosophy, when he was taken ill, and obliged to stop at the Earl of Arundel's, at Highgate, where he died on the ninth of April, 1626. The immediate cause of his death is thus related by Aubrey, in his Manuscripts now preserved in the Ashmolean Museum, at Oxford: Aubrey himself professes to have received his information from Thomas Hobbes, of Malmsbury, who frequently visited his Lordship at his houses at Verulam, and Gorhambury. "The cause of his Lordship's death, was trying an experiment as he was takeing the aire in the coach with Dr. Witherborne, a Scotch-man, Physitian to the King. Towards High-gate, snow lay on the ground; and it came into my Lord's thoughts, why flesh might not be preserved in snow, as in salt. They were resolved they would try the experiment presently they alighted out of the coach, and went into a poore woman's house at the bottome of High-gate Hill, and bought a hen, and made the woman exenterate it, and then stuffed the bodie with snow; and my Lord did help to doe it himself. The snow so chilled him, that he immediately fell so ill, that he could not returne to his lodgings, (I suppose then at Gray's-Inn,) but went to the Earle of Arundell's house at High-gate, where they putt him into a good bed, warmed with a panne; but it was a damp bed, that had not been layn in for about a yeare before, which gave him such a cold, that in 2 or 3 dayes, as I remember he told me, he died of suffocation." |