Part 8

As regards water-communication, the western side of the county is served by the Grand Junction Canal, which, after leaving Leighton Buzzard, enters the county near Tring, and thence runs by way of Berkhampstead, Boxmoor, Hemel Hempstead, Runton Bridge, Watford and Rickmansworth in a south-easterly and southerly direction to London. A considerable amount of barge-traffic is still carried on this canal, although nothing approaching that in pre-railway times. In those days the whole of the coal-supply for north-western Herts came by canal to Boxmoor, whence it had to be carted for long distances--some 14 miles to Harpenden, for instance. As there are at least two very steep hills--which become impossible for heavily laden teams when the roads are slippery--between Boxmoor and Harpenden, the inhabitants of the latter picturesque village were apt to run short of firing at Christmas.

On the other side of the county the Lea is navigable for barges as far up as Ware and Hertford; and here too a considerable amount of heavy traffic is still carried on by water.

In this place mention may conveniently be made of the New River, running from the valley of the Lea near the Rye House, at a gradually increasing distance from that river, to the metropolis. The New River, or Middleton’s Waters, as it used also to be called, was constructed in the reign of James I, at first almost entirely by Sir Hugh Middleton, but later on by a company with a special charter, for the purpose of supplying north London with drinking-water. The chief sources of the New River are the springs at Chadwell and Amwell. At the present time an original £100 share in the New River Company is worth an almost fabulous price.

20. Administration and Divisions--Ancient and Modern.

The present administration and administrative divisions of Hertfordshire, like those of other English counties, have been gradually evolved and developed from those of our Saxon forefathers; each alteration in the form of local government and of local administrative boundaries being based on the previously existing system. By the Saxons each county was divided into a number of main divisions known as hundreds, or wapentakes, each governed by a hundreder, or centenary (the equivalent of the Old German _Zentgrafen_), and each having a name of its own. Hertfordshire is now divided into eight hundreds, the names of which, commencing on the western side of the county, are as follows: Dacorum (including Tring), Cassio (with the important towns of St Albans, Watford, and Rickmansworth), Hertford, Braughing, Broadwater (occupying nearly the centre), Hitchin and Pirton (on the north-west corner), Odsey (in the extreme north), and Edwinstree (on the north-east). Originally they were more numerous, Cassio, for instance, being much smaller than at present, while the Hitchin division was reckoned only as a half-hundred. The origin of the names of most of the hundreds are self-apparent; but that of Cassio (originally Kayso) appears to be unknown, while that of Dacorum has some connection with the Danes, perhaps referring to a Danish settlement.

One of the most remarkable facts connected with the hundreds of Hertfordshire is that three of them do not lie within what farmers call a ring-fence. Dacorum, for instance, has two outlying areas in the south-eastern corner of Cassio, and a third wedged in between Cassio on the west, Broadwater on the north, and an outlying portion of Cassio on the east. Broadwater, again, has a small outlier on the Middlesex border of the south-eastern “peninsula” of Cassio; while Cassio itself, inclusive of the one already mentioned, has no less than eight of these curious outliers, one situated in the extreme north in the hundred of Odsey.

Each hundred originally had its own court, or “hundred-mote,” which met monthly; and it was divided, as at present, into townships, or parishes. The parish, in turn, had its own council, or _gemot_, where every freeman had a right to appear. This assembly or council made its own local by-laws, to enforce which it had a reeve, a bailiff, and a tithingman, with the powers of a constable. The reeve was chairman of the township _gemot_, and could summon that assembly at pleasure.

Passing on to more modern times, we find Hertfordshire occupying a peculiar position in regard to local government and administration in that it possessed a kind of _imperium in imperio_ in the shape of what was known as the Liberty of St Alban; in other words, a large area on the western side of the county originally under the jurisdiction of the abbots of St Albans, who had the power of inflicting the death-penalty. Originally there was a separate Commission of the Peace for the Liberty, so that a Justice for the County had no jurisdiction in the former unless he had been specially inducted. This arrangement was found, however, to be inconvenient, and the Liberty, as such, was abolished, although it was taken as a basis for the splitting of the county into a western and an eastern division for judicial purposes.

The chief officers of the county are the Lord Lieutenant and the High Sheriff; the former (who in Hertfordshire is always a nobleman) being the direct local representative of the sovereign, and having the appointment of magistrates and the officers of the territorial forces, while the latter (who is a commoner) is the head of the executive department in the administration of justice. The Lord Lieutenant holds office for life, or during the sovereign’s pleasure, but the Sheriff is appointed annually by the Crown. Deputy Lieutenants are supposed to act, in case of need, for the Lord Lieutenant.

Formerly the greater part of the business of the county was conducted by the Justices of the Peace, or Magistrates, at Quarter Sessions, but most of this is now transferred to the County Council, which, as previously stated, often meets in London. This County Council, which was first established in 1888, is composed of Aldermen and Councillors; the latter of whom are elected, while the former are what is called “co-opted,” that is to say, selected by the Council itself, either from its own body, or from the general public. The duties of the County Council include the maintenance of high roads and bridges; the appointment and control, in conjunction with the magistrates, of the police; the management of reformatories and lunatic asylums; and, in a word, the general carrying out of the laws enacted by Parliament.

According to a scheme elaborated in an Act of Parliament passed in 1894, the more important minor local bodies are denominated District Councils, and those whose function is less Parish Councils; the former having control of the more populous towns and villages, other than cities and boroughs, and the latter those with fewer inhabitants. For this purpose many parishes are divided into a more populous Urban and a less populous Rural District. Certain towns in the county rank, however, as cities, or boroughs, and have larger powers and different forms of government; being ruled by a Mayor and Corporation, and having magistrates and a police force distinct from those of the county. Among these privileged towns, St Albans ranks as a city, while Hertford and Hemel Hempstead are boroughs. Hemel Hempstead is a very ancient borough, and has, in addition to its Mayor, an official known as the High Bailiff.

The county is likewise divided into a number of Poor Law Unions, each with a Board of Guardians, whose duty it is to manage the workhouses, and appoint officers to carry out the work of relieving the poor and those incapacitated by age or other cause from earning their own living.

As regards the administration of justice, Assizes are held by His Majesty’s Judges three or four times a year at the Shire Hall, Hertford, for the whole county; the Grand Jury on such occasions being composed entirely, or mainly, of magistrates. Quarter Sessions, on the other hand, are held four times a year at Hertford for the eastern, and at the Court House, St Albans, for the western division of the county; these courts being constituted by the magistrates for the county and the mayors of the boroughs and city. Petty Sessions are held weekly, fortnightly, or monthly at a number of the towns and larger villages. In most cases the county magistrates in the immediate neighbourhood preside at these sessions; but the city of St Albans and the two boroughs have magistrates of their own, who also hold petty sessions for trying cases which occur within the area of their jurisdiction.

St Albans is the centre of an episcopal diocese, which includes most of that portion of London situated within the county of Essex. Arrangements are, however, now in progress for relieving the Bishop of St Albans of the care of that part of the diocese commonly known as “London Over the Border.”

The diocese, so far as Hertfordshire is concerned, is divided into archdeaconries, rural deaneries, and parishes. The latter are very numerous, although somewhat less so than the civil parishes, for the purposes of which, as already mentioned, the ecclesiastical parishes are frequently split into an urban and a rural section. There are 170 ecclesiastical parishes situated wholly or partly within the old county, of which 164 are included in the diocese of St Albans; while three belong to Ely, two to Oxford, and part of one (Northwood) to London.

The larger towns, the city, and the two boroughs have Education Committees of their own; but for the rest of the county a Committee of this nature is appointed by the County Council.

Hertfordshire has four parliamentary divisions, namely, Hertford, Hitchin, St Albans, and Watford, each of which returns one member to the House of Commons. The county is thus represented only by four members, as against fifteen for Kent.

21. The Roll of Honour of the County.

Hertfordshire cannot hope to rival such counties as Norfolk or Kent in its roll of distinguished names, but it can show a fairly long list of persons connected with the county who have been famous.

Since reference has already been made in several of the foregoing sections to the visits of English sovereigns to the county, or to their residence within its borders, very brief mention of the connection between royalty and the county will suffice in this place. Neither here nor elsewhere in these pages is any attempt made to give a complete list of such visits.

The names of Boadicea, queen of the Iceni, and of Offa, king of Mercia, who had his palace at Offley, dying there in 796, will always be specially connected with Hertfordshire. In a somewhat less degree the same may be said of William the Conqueror, to whom, as already mentioned, the crown of this realm was offered at Berkhampstead. Edward II and Edward III frequently resided at Langley Palace, where Edmund de Langley, the founder of the White Rose faction, was born in 1341; and the same residence was also used by Richard II. Henry I and his consort Matilda were present at the dedication of St Albans’ Abbey on its completion by Abbot Paul; and Henry VI was at the first battle of St Albans, where he was wounded. Henry VIII, as mentioned on page 82, was still more intimately connected with Hertfordshire, and the manor of Hitchin was conferred by him in turn on Anne Boleyn and her successors. Reference has already been made to the residence of Queen Mary, in her youth, at Ashridge, and of Queen Elizabeth (before her ascent to the throne) both there and at Hatfield; while, as sovereign, Elizabeth also visited St Albans on two or three occasions as the guest of Sir Nicholas Bacon at Gorhambury, and also went to other great houses in the county. James I, as mentioned on the same page, spent much time at Royston, and died at Theobalds. The Rye House plot, so called from the meeting-place of the conspirators at Broxbourne, as stated in an earlier section, was devised for the purpose of assassinating Charles II while on his way through the county.

In connection with personages of royal blood, mention may be made of Humphry, Duke of Gloucester, whose name is so intimately associated with St Albans’ Abbey, to the monastery of which he was admitted a member in 1423; and also of Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough, who was born at Sandridge in the eighteenth century, and built and endowed the almshouses bearing her name in St Albans.

Among great statesmen connected with the county a prominent place must be assigned to Queen Elizabeth’s councillors and favourites, Lord Burleigh and the Earl of Essex. To her reign likewise belongs Sir Nicholas Bacon, Keeper of the Great Seal, and owner of Gorhambury, where he died in 1578. Nearly a century later (1652), Gorhambury came into the possession of Sir Harbottle Grimston, well known as Speaker of the House of Commons.

Passing on to the Victorian age, we have two great statesmen, namely, Lord Melbourne and Lord Palmerston, both of whom lived at Brocket, where the former died; and, subsequently, the late Marquis of Salisbury, owner of stately Hatfield. The first Viscount Hampden, sometime Speaker of the House of Commons, was also a Hertfordshire man, with his residence at Kimpton Hoo. Cecil Rhodes, the South African premier and “Empire-builder,” likewise claims a place in the roll of honour of the county, having been born at Bishop’s Stortford rectory, and Commodore Anson, the great circumnavigator, though not a native, lived at Moor Park, where he died in 1762.

Dame Juliana Berners, imaginary prioress of Sopwell nunnery, who was supposed to have written the immortal _Treatyse on Fysshynge with an Angle_, the first work on angling ever published in England, has been shown to be a myth. Among names famous in literature and science the greatest connected with the county is perhaps that of the great philosopher Sir Francis Bacon, afterwards Lord Verulam and Viscount St Albans, who, during his father’s residence at Gorhambury, lived in Verulam House, at the Pondyards. On the death of his father Sir Nicholas Bacon he succeeded to Gorhambury. By a curious error he is frequently called Lord Bacon, although no such title was ever in existence. John Bunyan claims a place among Hertfordshire literary worthies as he was connected with a chapel at Hitchin.

Two of the greatest literary names connected with the county are those of William Cowper the poet, and Charles Lamb, author of the _Essays of Elia_, unsurpassed as a master of delicately humorous prose, whether as essayist or letter-writer. The former was born at Berkhampstead rectory in the year 1731; but Lamb was chiefly a visitor to the county, though, as he tells us in the _Essays_, he was once a Hertfordshire landowner, and his cottage at West Hill Green, about 2½ miles from Puckeridge, still exists. Mackery End Farm was the residence of the Brutons, who were his relatives, and it was to their house that his visits were made; so that the neighbourhood is essentially Lamb’s country. It is a question whether the Lyttons or the beauties of Knebworth, their home, are the more famous. The great novelist, author of _The Last Days of Pompeii_, _The Caxtons_, and innumerable other tales, as well as such successful plays as _The Lady of Lyons_ and _Money_, was best known to readers in the middle of the last century as Sir Edward Bulwer-Lytton, though he began life as Mr Bulwer and died Lord Lytton. His son, poet, Ambassador, and Viceroy, who wrote under the name of “Owen Meredith,” was scarcely less distinguished, and received an Earldom in 1880. Here, too, mention may be made of Mrs Thrale, the friend of Dr Johnson, who was often at Offley Place, where her husband, whose family was long connected with St Albans, was born. Offley Place was at this time a fine old Elizabethan mansion, although it has since been rebuilt. Gadebridge Park, Hemel Hempstead, was the residence of the great surgeon Sir Astley Paston Cooper. But a greater distinction attaches to the name of Rothamsted, near Harpenden, as being the residence of the late Sir John Bennet Lawes, Bart., who, with his scientific colleague Sir Henry Gilbert, conducted the experiments which made their names famous throughout the agricultural world. Sir John Lawes first obtained the idea of using fossilised phosphates for manure from Professor Henslow, the great Cambridge botanist (himself sometime a resident at Hall Place, St Albans), who sent him specimens obtained from the Essex “Crag,” with a suggestion that they might be used as a source of phosphoric acid. Yarrell, the naturalist, lies buried in Bayford churchyard, with many members of his family. Last in the scientific and literary list, we have the name of Sir John Evans, the great antiquarian and numismatist of Nash Mills, Hemel Hempstead, who died so recently as 1908. To Evans, in conjunction with the late Sir Joseph Prestwich, is mainly due the credit of definitely establishing the fact that the so-called flint “celts” are really the work of prehistoric man. His most important and best work is _Ancient Stone Implements_.

Among great ecclesiastics mention must be made of Nicholas Breakspear, born near Abbot’s Langley towards the close of the eleventh century, who subsequently became Pope as Adrian IV; being the only Englishman who has occupied the papal chair. Reference may also be made to Cardinal Wolsey, who spent a considerable portion of his time at Delamere House. Nor must we omit Young, the author of the _Night Thoughts_ and Rector of Welwyn, or that great maker of hymns, Dr Watts, who as the 36-year guest of Sir Thomas Abney resided at Theobalds, where he died. Among distinguished lawyers, the most prominent name is that of Lord Grimthorpe (formerly Sir Edmund Beckett), who was, however, connected with the county, not in his professional capacity, but as the restorer of St Albans’ Abbey and other churches in the neighbourhood. Much criticism has been expended on Lord Grimthorpe’s modes of “restoration,” which were certainly of a drastic character. It must, however, be remembered that when he undertook the restoration of St Albans’ Abbey it was in a dangerous condition, and sufficient money was not forthcoming to make it secure. The result is that the abbey, although in many ways unlike its former self, will stand for centuries. Lord Grimthorpe, who was a Yorkshireman, built himself a residence at Batchwood, near St Albans.

As another well-known lawyer and also a judge, mention may be made of Lord Brampton (Sir Henry Hawkins), who came of a family long connected with Hitchin, at which town he was born.

Sir Henry Chauncy, the antiquary and historian of the county, to whom reference has so often been made in this book, lived, and died in 1700, at Yardley; and Balfe, the composer, made his home at Rowney Abbey, close by, till his death in 1870.

22. THE CHIEF TOWNS AND VILLAGES OF HERTFORDSHIRE.

(The figures in brackets after each name give the population in 1901, and those at the end of the sections give the references to the text.)

Abbot’s Langley (3342), a village situated on the Gade, with a station on the North-Western Railway; it was bestowed in the time of Edward the Confessor upon the then abbot of St Albans, whence its name. Hunton Mill, on the Gade, was granted to Sir Richard Lee in 1544, and both this and Nash Mills were farmed from the abbot of St Albans between 1349 and 1396. The present church, dedicated to St Lawrence, cannot be traced farther back than the close of the twelfth century. A west tower was added about 1200. (pp. 72, 90, 105, 149.)

Aldenham (2437), a village and manor lying to the north-east of Watford. It has a grammar school; and near by is Aldenham Abbey, the seat of Lord Aldenham. In 1898 two Roman kilns were discovered in the parish. The church, which has been restored, contains one small twelfth-century window; no trace of the chancel remains.

The Amwells--Great Amwell (1421), and Little Amwell (930)--small villages not far from the Rye House. Amwell is associated with the name of the Quaker poet, John Scott, who lived there for some time after 1740. Near by is Haileybury, formerly the training college for the officials of the East India Company, but now a public school. (p. 135.)

Ashridge, a domain in Little Gaddesden parish, situated on the Buckinghamshire border of the county, and celebrated for its splendid beech woods. It was formerly the property of the Dukes of Bridgewater, being acquired by the Egertons in 1604, but it is now owned by Earl Brownlow. A building, formerly the porter’s lodge, includes some remains of an old monastic college. The present house, which stands partly in Buckinghamshire, was built by the eighth Earl of Bridgewater. (pp. 115, 142.)

Ashwell (1281), a village on the Cambridgeshire border of the county, with a station some distance away on the Royston and Cambridge branch of the Great Northern Railway. Ashwell, which was formerly a town, had a fair and a market in the time of William the Conqueror. It was severely visited by the plague. Its church-tower is the only one in the county built wholly of stone. (pp. 92, 113.)

Baldock (2057) is a market-town on the Icknield Way, to the north-west of Hitchin, with a station on the above-mentioned branch of the Great Northern Railway. It dates from Norman times, when it was known as Baudok. During the Crusades, Baldock, like St Albans, Berkhampstead, and Hoddesdon, had a lazar-house for lepers, who were at that time numerous all over England. The list of Rectors is complete from the days of the Knights Hospitallers in 1317. The church contains much Decorated and Perpendicular work. (pp. 90, 94, 128.)

Barkway (661), originally Berkway, is a small town and manor situated a few miles to the north-east of Buntingford. (p. 96.)

Barnet, or Chipping Barnet, originally Chipping Bernet (7876), a large and important market-town near the Middlesex border of the county, with a station (High Barnet) on a branch of the Great Northern Railway. Near by are New Barnet and East Barnet, with a station on the main line, and having a population of 10,024. The name Barnet is a corruption of the Saxon _Bergnet_, signifying a little hill; the site of the town then forming a small rising in the midst of the great forest; the prefix Chipping = market is a word of Scandinavian origin, represented in the Swedish Jonköping and the Danish Kjøbenhavn = (Copenhagen). Barnet was the scene of a battle in 1471, when the Yorkists defeated the Lancastrians, killing their leader, Warwick the king-maker. The market was famous for its cattle; and in addition to this there is an annual horse-fair, which formerly attracted dealers from all parts of the country. (pp. 9, 53, 54, 82, 99, 128.)

East Barnet (2867), known as La Barnette in the thirteenth century, and Low Barnet in the fifteenth century, is situated on the stream known as Pymmes’ Brook, on the western side of the valley of which stands the almost deserted old parish church.

Bayford (330), a village nearly midway between Hatfield and Hoddesdon. In the churchyard is buried William Yarrell the naturalist. Bayfordbury is celebrated for its collection of portraits of members of the Kitcat Club painted by Sir Godfrey Kneller. (p. 147.)