Chapter 9
_Hunsdon House_ stands between the church and Gilston Park. During the reign of Edward IV., Sir John Oldhall "built here a fair House after the mode of a Castle ... which building, 'tis said, cost £7,222". This would be an enormous sum of money in those days. The original structure had a high tower and large courtyard. Henry VIII. made the house a palace, and in so doing appears to have almost rebuilt it; it is known that his children were often here, as the King had a high opinion of Hertfordshire air. Queen Elizabeth gave the estate to Sir Henry Cary, Kt., her cousin, and created him Baron Hunsdon. The "palace" was surrounded by a moat, crossed by two bridges; the grand entrance and lofty clock tower, the outhouses and grounds are elaborately depicted in a print in Chauncy's _History_. The present house was erected at the beginning of this century, partly on a fresh site, but some portions of what was the W. extremity of the old palace are built into the E. wing. Two fine Jacobean chimney-pieces still remain; but little else is left of the old Tudor home, and the moat has been levelled. The present house, however, is an imposing, even noble structure of red brick, and its position, backed by the grand old elms in the park, is very picturesque. N.E. stood Hunsdon Lodge, the hunting lodge of Queen Elizabeth.
HUNTON BRIDGE is a pleasant little village at the meeting of the roads from Watford, King's Langley, and St. Albans, on the Grand Junction Canal. The nearest station is King's Langley (L.&N.W.R.), 1¼ mile N. There is a good modern inn and many pretty cottages, and folk in search of rest and quiet might journey farther and find less suitable retirement. The nearest church is at Langleybury (_q.v._).
ICKLEFORD, formerly Ickleton, is a village on the Roman Icknield Way, which at this spot fords the little river Hiz; hence its name. It is 2 miles N. from Hitchin. The church was restored in 1860; but portions of the ancient fabric have been carefully retained, and a small chapel added to the chancel. The tower is Norman, as are also part of the nave arcade and the S. doorway. The chancel arch, pointed, is finely carved; the stairs to the rood-loft still remain; there is a piscina in the chancel. Note brass to Thomas Somer and his wife (_circa_ 1400). S. from the church is _Ickleford Manor_, in a small park, for some years the residence of Commander H. C. Dudley Ryder, R.N. It is not of historic interest.
IPPOLLITTS or St. Ippolitts (2 miles S.E. from Hitchin) was formerly called Hippolits, Eppalets or Pallets, according to the taste of the speaker. It was thought by Norden to owe its name to Hippolits, a supposed Saint, who was very skilful in the treatment of horses. After the Saint's death a shrine was placed to his honour in the parish church, and to this shrine near the high altar divers persons brought their ailing steeds to be healed by the attendant priest with the help of relics of the Saint. The relics were of efficacy commensurate with the gifts of those who desired the Saint's blessing! "The horses," says one writer, "were brought out of the North Street, through the North Gate, and the North Door of the Church, which was boarded on purpose to bring up the horses to the Altar." The church was restored in 1878; it is of flint and rubble, and is now chiefly Perp. and Dec. with a few older portions. Note (1) ambry and double piscina in the chancel; (2) brass in N. transept to Robert Poydres (d. 1401); (3) brasses in chancel, with effigies, to the Hughes family, one of whom, Alice, was daughter of Thomas Bybsworth, "an ancient dweller in this parish"; she died 1594. There is a tumulus about 1 mile S.
KELSHALL (2½ miles S.E. from Ashwell Station, G.N.R.) has a restored, but interesting church, dedicated to St. Faith, partly Perp. and partly Dec. Over the S. porch is a small chamber, and in the N. aisle is a recess, the nature of which is not quite understood, but it was probably used for the safe-keeping of banner-staves, crosses and other pre-Reformation ornaments. There is a brass with two effigies to "Rychard Adane and Maryon his Wyff" (d. 1400 and 1435 respectively). In the churchyard is an old sundial on the shaft of a stone cross. John Janeway, a young divine of astonishing spirituality, whose _Life_, by his brother James, was subsequently prefaced by Robert Hall, was buried here in 1657: Richard Baxter was one of his admirers. The Manor of _Chelesell_ was the property of the Abbot of Ely at the time of the Conquest, having been given to that ancient foundation by the father of Edward the Confessor.
_Kensworth_ was transferred to Bedfordshire in 1897.
KIMPTON (about 2¾ miles N. from Wheathampstead Station) lies between the hills that lead N. to Whitwell and S.E. to Ayot St. Lawrence. The village is very ancient, and was called _Kimeton_ in Saxon days. The church, a little N. from the centre of the village, has been much restored: the N. aisle was added in 1861; the tower and the N. porch (over which is a parvise, as at Kelshall) were restored in 1887-8; the chancel in 1890, when the reredos was added. The building is E.E. Note the finely carved oak screen separating the S. aisle from the Dacre Chapel, formerly the rood screen, the piscina in the chapel itself, and the stained glass in the E. window to Thomas, twenty-second Baron Dacre (d. 1890), to whom the reredos is also a memorial. _Kimpton Hoo_, in a beautiful park of about 250 acres, is 1 mile N.E. from the village. It is the seat of Viscount Hampden. Pretty walks may be taken E. _viâ_ Kimpton Mill to Codicote, N. to Bendish and Whitwell, W. to Peter's Green, or S. to Lamer Park.
KING'S LANGLEY is a large and interesting village. The river Gade flows between the main street and the station, L.&N.W.R.[k] Paper and straw plait are both made largely. The village owes its name to the fact that Henry III. built a palace on a spot still marked by a few fragments of ruin a little W. from the church, and the royal manor became known as Langley Regis, whereas the Langley on the E. side of the river belonged to the Abbey of St. Albans, and was called Abbot's Langley (_q.v._). Edmund de Langley, fifth son of Edward III., was born in this palace in 1344. He became Duke of York, Earl of Cambridge and Lord Tivedale, and married Isabel, a younger daughter of Don Pedro of Castile. In 1392 Richard II., with his first Queen, Anne of Bohemia, and many bishops, earls, lords and ladies, kept Christmas at King's Langley Palace.
Near the palace was founded, by one Roger Helle, a priory of Dominican monks, which was enriched by Edward II. and several successive monarchs. The body of Piers Gaveston was brought from Oxford and buried in the church of this priory in 1315--he was beheaded on Blacklow Hill in 1312--and what was then believed to be the body of Richard II. was brought to the same spot in 1400 for temporary sepulture. The priory was dissolved, like most priories, in the days of Henry VIII.; but it was restored by Mary. It was finally suppressed soon after the accession of Elizabeth. The church, at the S.E. extremity of the village street, is a Perp. structure of flint and Totternhoe stone; the W. tower is embattled and has an angle turret. It has been partially restored. On the N. side of the chancel stood formerly the tomb of Edmund de Langley and Isabel of Castile (both mentioned above) which was brought from the priory church at the Dissolution; it is now in the chapel at the end of the N. aisle. There is, I believe, no absolute proof that this is the tomb of Edmund and Isabel, but the evidence that it is so is very strong. Chauncy, two centuries back, wrote: "On the north side of the chancel there is a Monument raised about five foot, with the Arms of France and England, with three Labels upon it, also the Arms of Peter, King of Castile and Leons, by which Coats it seems to be the Tomb where Edmond de Langley, the Fifth Son of Edward III. and Isabel his Wife, one of the Daughters of Don Pedro, King of Castile, was [were] interr'd". During the removal of the tomb to its present position the bones of a male and two females were discovered; they are presumably those of Edmund and Isabel, and of Anne Mortimer, the wife of Edmund's second son, Richard, Earl of Cambridge. The tomb is covered by a slab 7 feet 3 inches long; the sides are embossed with Plantagenet shields within cusps. Note the beautifully carved open screen between chapel and chancel, and the reredos, partly of marble, erected in 1877. The oaken pulpit is Perp. There are several other monuments: (1) to Hon. Sir W. Glascocke of Aldamhowe, Kt., Admiralty Judge in Ireland under Charles II. (d. 1688); (2) brass to John Carter, "late of Gifres" (d. 1588); the inscription states that he had two wives, that the first bore him four sons and five daughters and the second five sons and four daughters; (3) brass to William Carter and Alice his wife, 1528.
Sir John Evans, in 1862, found an almond-shaped river-drift flint implement on a heap of stones in this neighbourhood.
KING'S WALDEN (about 5 miles S.W. from Hitchin) has an ancient church, carefully restored in 1868. It stands in the park of _The Bury_, a large mansion, Elizabethan in style. The embattled tower has masonry probably older than fourteenth century, and much of the nave arcade is Norman. Note the sculptured capitals of pillars, curiously similar to those at Old Shoreham. The chancel arch is E. Perp.; probably substituting its E.E. predecessor on very close lines; the corbels bear busts thought to resemble Henry VI. and Margaret of Anjou. In the chancel are a double piscina, and two E.E. lancet windows. The chancel screen is a really wonderful piece of work, in excellent preservation. In the N. aisle is an ambry, and in the S. aisle a sedile and two piscinæ, and on the N. side another ambry. The font stands at the E. end of S. aisle, formerly the Chapel of the Virgin Mary.
_Kinsbourne Green_ is on the Bedfordshire border, 2 miles N.E. from Harpenden. The Kennels of the Hertfordshire Hunt are here. The hamlet is close to Luton Hoo Park.
_Kitter's Green_ is a hamlet 1 mile S.E. from King's Langley Station (L.&N.W.R.). Abbot's Langley old church (_q.v._) is ½ mile N.
KNEBWORTH, famous as the home of Bulwer Lytton, lies on high ground 1 mile W. from the station (G.N.R.). The village is small, and in itself of little interest; it was formerly called Chenepeworde, and Knebbeworth. It is, however, ancient, and was valued in _Domesday Book_.
Sir Thomas Bouchier, K.G., who fought for the Earl of Richmond at Bosworth Field, sold the manor of Knebbeworth to Robert Lytton, Esq., Keeper of the Wardrobe to Henry VII., whose son William was buried in this parish. This Sir Robert began to erect a huge Tudor mansion on the site of a fortress which had stood since the days of the Conquest; it took several generations to complete it. The present house is the result of the work of demolition and reconstruction in the days of the novelist's mother, and of the enlarging of 1883, when the S. wing and entrance were added; it is pseudo-Gothic. The castellated parapet, cupola-topped turrets, griffins upon pinnacles and many mullioned windows are noticeable features from the grounds. Within, the finest sight is the grand old banqueting hall, with its gallery for minstrels, its Elizabethan oak-screen, and wainscots by Inigo Jones. Around, on all sides, are suits of armour, some dating from the days of Henry VII. The room is associated with memories of Elizabeth, who was sometimes entertained at Knebworth by Sir Rowland Lytton, whom she knighted; he was buried in the chancel of the little church in the park (see below) in 1582. The room in which Elizabeth slept on these occasions is still shown as "Queen Elizabeth's Chamber," and contains a finely carved over-mantel (oak) and an oaken bedstead of colossal proportions. Among the distinguished guests so often entertained here by Bulwer Lytton were Dickens, Forster and Jerrold.
The grounds are nearly perfect, art and nature seaming to strive to out-do one another. Well-kept lawns are figured by flower-beds of all shapes and sizes; the rosery is very large; the great variety of evergreens imparts every hue and shade to the extensive walks stretching W. from the house. The lawns are divided here and there by stone balustrades and overlooked by statues of classical and modern figures. There are many nooks, pleasure houses and alcoves. A long avenue of limes leads to the lake.
The church, a little N. from the house, is approached through lodge gates. It is for the most part E.E. The oaken pulpit is octagonal; the finely carved panels represent scenes in the life of Christ, one of them bears the date 1567. At the N. side of the chancel, which has a piscina, is the Lytton Chapel, "a little Chapel or Burying Place, built by the Family of the Lyttons". Among the members of the family buried in the chapel were (1) Dame Judith Barrington, daughter of Sir Rowland Lytton, and wife to Sir Thomas Barrington of Hatfield Broad Oak (d. 1657); (2) Sir William Lytton, Kt. (d. 1660); (3) Sir Rowland Lytton, Kt. (d. 1674). To the Sir Rowland Lytton who died in 1582 (see above) there is a fine brass with effigy, which also commemorates his wives Margaret and Anne, and his three children. There are other memorials both in the church and Lytton Chapel, among which note (1) brass to Simon Bache, Treasurer of the Household to Henry V. and Canon of St. Paul's (d. 1414); (2) brass to John Hotoft, who filled the same office in the Household of Henry VI. (d. _circa_ 1430). This brass formerly showed effigies of Hotoft in armour with his wife beside him. Note also, near the S. porch, two headstones with interesting inscriptions to servants of the Lytton family, and close by, in the park, the mausoleum erected by the mother of the novelist, who was buried within its walls. The epitaph to her memory on the exterior was written by her son. Passing out at the lodge gates we may turn left and reach a pretty dip, from whence a walk of 3 miles N. over open country leads to Stevenage.
_Knebworth Green_ skirts the S. side of the park.
_Langley_, a hamlet on the Hatfield-Hitchin road, is 2 miles S.W. from Stevenage Station (G.N.R.). Langley Bottom is a few minutes' walk N.
_Langleybury_ (1 mile S. from King's Langley Station, L.&N.W.R.) is practically part and parcel of Hunton Bridge, the church standing W. and the village E. of the main road from Watford to Hemel Hempstead. The church is modern, a Gothic structure; on the S. is a good lich-gate. Close to the S. porch is the large cross of Sicilian marble, by the Florentine sculptor Romanelli, to the memory of the late W. J. Loyd, at whose expense the church was erected. The walk from Langleybury to Buck's Hill (W.), by way of West Wood, leads through some lovely bits of scenery, and should on no account be omitted. At the outset the confines of Grove Park are on the left and the road dips up and down as the woods are passed, and is shaded by fine beeches in many spots.
_Layston_ was a village in Saxon times, but nothing now remains save the ruins of the church, still almost intact, at the meeting of two lanes, 1 mile N.E. from Buntingford. It is a flint structure, E.E. and Perp. The S. porch is in part demolished. There are monuments to the Crowch family of seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.
LEA, river. (See Introduction, Section II.)
LEAVESDEN (about 2½ miles N. from Watford) is a village in the pretty district between Grove Park and Bricket Wood. The ecclesiastical parish was formed seventy years ago from the parishes of Watford and St. Albans. The huge brick building on high ground a little N. is the Metropolitan District Asylum for Idiots; it was erected in 1869. The church dates only from the formation of the parish and is situated at Garston, 1 mile E. It was designed by Sir Gilbert Scott and is E.E. _The Grove_, a large mansion of red brick, was erected in 1760 by one of the Villiers family, but has been restored and altered. The house contains a part of the pictures collected by Clarendon; comprising portraits by Vandyck, Lely, C. Janssens, Zucchero, Van Somer, Kneller, Hogarth, etc. The park is extensive and beautiful.
LEMSFORD is another modern ecclesiastical parish, formed sixty years ago. It is nearly 3 miles N. from Hatfield, on the S.E. side of _Brocket Hall Park_. It is widely known for its large mill on the river Lea. The church, erected in 1859 as a memorial to the sixth Earl Cowper, is E.E. and Dec., with a good E. window, also to the memory of the earl. The tower (W.) is lofty and embattled.
_Letchmore Heath_ (1½ mile S.W. from Radlett Station, M.R.) is a small village.
_Letchworth_ (2 miles N.E. from Hitchin) has a small Perp. church, containing a curious old brass to Thomas Wyrley, an early Rector (d. 1475). The effigy represents him with a heart in his hands. Another brass, much defaced, dates from _circa_ 1400; it is to William Overbury and Isabel his wife. The village, which almost adjoins that of Willian (_q.v._), is ancient, and was once the property of Robert Gernon, a Norman warrior who fought at Hastings. There was a church at _Leceworth_ at least as early as _temp._ Henry I., for during the reign of that monarch it was given "with all its appurtenances and twelve acres of land" to the monastery at St. Albans. _Letchworth Hall_, now a manor house containing some good carved oak, was built by Sir William Lytton (_circa_ 1620), and still bears on the S. front the arms of that family.
_Letty Green_ is close to Cole Green Station, G.N.R.
_Levens Green_ (1 mile S. from Great Munden) has a tiny chapel-of-ease erected in 1893. The nearest station is Standon, G.E.R., 2½ miles E., between which and the hamlet lies the Old North Road.
LEVERSTOCK GREEN (1½ mile S.E. from Hemel Hempstead Station, M.R.) is in a pleasantly diversified district, at the junction of the roads from St. Albans and Abbot's Langley. It has a modern church, Gothic in style, erected just before the district was constituted an ecclesiastical parish in 1850.
_Ley Green_ is a hamlet 1 mile N. from King's Walden Church, and about 4 miles S.W. from Hitchin. It is on high ground.
LILLEY, a village on the Bedfordshire border, is 4 miles N.E. from Luton (Beds). It was formerly called Lindley, and Lilly Hoo, and the old manor, like so many others, was given to a Norman (Goisfride de Bech) for services rendered at Hastings. The church is of ancient foundation, but was rebuilt, in E. Dec. style, in 1870-71. Several old memorials are still preserved, notably those to the Docwra family, early seventeenth century. _Putteridge Bury_ (1 mile S.) is in the centre of a park of 450 acres; on or near the site of the house built by Thomas Docwra, J.P. and High Sheriff of Herts, who died there in 1602. The present mansion dates from the beginning of last century.
_Little Heath_ is on the Middlesex border, 1 mile N.E. from Potter's Bar Station. The Dec. church, just off the Barnet-Hatfield road, is new.
LONDON COLNEY, a village on the main road from Barnet to St. Albans, is on the river Colne. The nearest station is that of the G.N.R. at St. Albans, 2¼ miles N.W. The church, built by the third Earl of Hardwicke in 1825, is a plain brick structure of Gothic character. Half a mile E. is _Tittenhanger Park_, a large brick mansion with tiled roof and dormer windows, built by Sir Henry Blount in 1654. The manor had belonged to the Abbots of St. Albans, who had a residence on the same spot, commenced during the abbacy of John de la Moote and completed during that of John Wheathampsted. Henry VIII. and Catherine of Arragon stayed here during the "sweatinge sicknesse" (1528).
_Long Lane_ is a hamlet near the river Chess, 1½ mile S.W. from Rickmansworth.
_Long Marston_, 1 mile N. from the Aylesbury Canal, is a village and ecclesiastical parish in the extreme W. of the county. The nearest station is Marston Gate, 1 mile N. The old church, a small Dec. structure, was pulled down twenty years ago with the exception of the tower, which stands in the disused graveyard. The new building, adjoining the present burial ground, is Gothic, and contains some portions of the old structure, and its two piscinæ.
_Lower Green._ (See Tewin.)
_Ludwick Hyde_ is in the parish of Hatfield, 3 miles N.E. from that town.
_Luffenhall_, a little hamlet, is in the hollow between Weston and Cottered, 5 miles W. from Buntingford Station. The district is one of winding lanes and field footpaths so characteristic of the county.
_Lye End_, 2 miles S. from Sandon Church, is a hamlet lying W. from the Buntingford-Royston road.
MACKERY END, 1½ mile N.W. from Wheathampstead Station, G.N.R., is close to Batford and Pickford mills on the river Lea. Charles and Mary Lamb had talked about the place "all their lives" and the essay by the former entitled "Mackery End in Hertfordshire" need only be named here. The place, as Lamb mentions, was also called Mackarel End. John Wheathampsted, who became thirty-third Abbot of St. Albans in 1420, was the son of Hugh Bostok or Bostock of the village from which he took his name; his mother was the daughter of Thomas Makery, "Lord of Makeyrend".
_Mangrove_ is a hamlet, partly in Offley and partly in Lilley parishes; Mangrove Green is on the S. outskirts of Putteridge Bury Park, on the Bedfordshire border. The nearest station to the latter is Luton (Beds).
_Maple Cross_, a hamlet 2½ miles S.W. from Rickmansworth, is near the river Chess. It lies between Mill End and West Hyde, on the road to Uxbridge.
MARAN, or MIMRAM, river. (See Introduction.)
_Marford_, _Old_ and _New_, are hamlets on the river Lea. The latter adjoins the E. side of Wheathampstead village; the former lies ¼ mile farther E.; the cress-beds, the hand-bridge over the river, and some dilapidated cottages render it a picturesque spot. On the opposite side of the road from Hatfield to Wheathampstead lies The Devil's Dyke, a long, narrow gorge most beautifully wooded. It is a favourite haunt of the nightingale, as the writer can testify.
MARKET or MARKYATE STREET (3½ miles S.W. from Luton, Beds) is a village on the high road from St. Albans to Dunstable. The church, a little N. from the village, in Cell Park, is small and uninteresting, with a chancel added in 1892. The mansion called Markyate Cell, a little farther N., is old, and occupies the site of the old Benedictine nunnery built by Geoffrey de Gorham, sixteenth Abbot of St. Albans, at the instigation of Roger the Monk, the church of which was consecrated in 1145. Cowper the poet was at school in the village, at the house of Dr. Pitman.
MARLOWES is a suburb of Hemel Hempstead (_q.v._).
_Marsh Moor_ lies between Hatfield Park and Mimms Park. It is a hamlet in the parish of North Mimms, 2 miles S. from Hatfield.
_Marston Gate_ is little more than the station (L.&N.W.R.) for Long Marston, 1 mile S. It is nearly the extreme W. point of the county.
_Mayden Croft_, or Maiden Croft, is near the source of the river Hiz, with the hamlet of Gosmore adjoining (S.E.). Some remains of a moat may be traced, which are supposed to mark the site of a nunnery. The manor is ancient; in the time of Edward III. it belonged to Sir Robert Nevill, Kt.
MEESDON (6½ miles N.E. from Buntingford) has a very ancient flint church, probably erected in the thirteenth century, but restored in 1877. The S. porch is Jacobean. The pavement of the Sacrarium is a mosaic of many coloured, vitrified tiles; it is almost unique in the county and is undoubtedly of great age. There is also in the chancel a curious monument and inscription to Robert Young, gent. (d. 1626). Most of the population are to be found at Meesdon Green, ½ mile W. from the church.