which it was formerly encumbered; the open timber roof was repaired, most of the windows were filled with stained glass, and a fresh paving of ornamental tiles laid down. No portion of the present church would now appear to be of the age mentioned in the inscription referred to above. The oldest parts are the chancel and the base of the tower, which are Early English; the present east window, however, a triplet of lancets, was inserted at the restoration in 1871 in place of a gested the inhuman act of disinterring and hanging the bodies of the Protector and certain of the regicides." On a slab in the church, to the memory of two Bakewells, one of whom died in 1643, is the following quaint epigram : "Here's two in one, and yet not two but one, Two sonnes, one tomb, two heirs, one name alone." In the churchyard is a tomb, embellished with a carved representation of a palette and brushes, to the memory of Henry Edridge, A.R.A., who Perpendicular window of five lights. The chancel | died in 1821, and close by it is an upright slab is separated from the nave by a carved oak screen. The timber roof of the chancel is decorated with paint and gilding, and on the north side of the altar is an ancient ambry. commemorating Thomas Hearne, a once wellknown artist and antiquary, author of the "Antiquities of Great Britain," who died in 1817. "Both these monuments," observes Mr. James Thorne, The monuments in the church are few and in his "Environs of London," "were erected by unimportant. In the floor of the chancel is a Dr. Munro, the physician, of the Adelphi, a marble slab inscribed to the memory of Lady generous friend to young artists, and the early Barnard, wife of Gilbert, Lord Barnard; she died patron of Turner, Girtin, and William Hunt. Dr. in 1728. In 1667 was buried in the chancel Munro had here a country residence, to which he Colonel Silas Titus, a Presbyterian Royalist, who used to invite his young students, that they might has the credit of having planned the escape of sketch in the vicinity. Turner and Girtin have Carisbrooke Castle, and with having written the left hundreds of these sketches." There are also famous tract, entitled "Killing no Murder," with a in the churchyard some memorials of the Cappers, view to procure the assassination of Cromwell, of Wiggen Hall, in this parish, one of whom purand who also has the discredit of having "sug-chased the manor of Bushey at the commencement of the last century; also a tomb of Mrs. Elizabeth St. Peter's Church, which stands in the hamlet of Bushey Heath, is a modern erection of the early English style; its walls are partly concealed in rich clusters of ivy. 307 shops and private houses, with here and there a pleasant shady lane. At the beginning of this century there were about 180 houses in this parish, with a population of about 850. According to the census returns for 1871 the population then reached a total of 4,543, which number in the course of the next ten years had increased to 4,786. About a mile to the west of Bushey, but rather beyond our beat, lies the hamlet of Oxhey, nestFrom the churchyard, a narrow lane through ling cosily on the banks of the Colne. The chapel, Little Bushey leads to Bushey Hall, which has been lately fitted up as a hydropathic establishment. The house is built in the Italian style, and has been fitted up in a most elaborate manner, some of the rooms being inlaid with cedar, at a cost of £200,000. There are several other good residences in the neighbourhood, notably Hartsbourne Manor House, the seat of the Sladens, which lies away to the north-west in a pleasant valley watered by the Harts Bourne rivulet, one of the numerous feeders of the river Colne, which it joins after flowing through Carpenders Park. The main thoroughfare of Bushey stretches for nearly two miles northward on the Berkhampstead road, from Clay Hill, by Stanmore Heath, towards Watford. It is well sprinkled on either side with which was built in 1612, and which is the only remaining relic of the Jacobean mansion of Oxhey Place, is now used as a chapel-of-ease for Watford. Bushey has now become a kind of southern suburb of Watford, from which it is separated by the river Colne, which flows through the lower part of the town. As Watford lies just beyond our jurisdiction, we can do no more than express our regret that we are not able to carry our readers with us to Cassiobury, the seat of the Earl of Essex, with its pleasant park and fine family pictures. We must also, for the same reason, leave unvisited the new London Orphan Asylum, which was transferred hither in 1871 from Clapton. The almshouses of the Salters' Company, founded by Beamond and Nicholas, were lately removed hither from London. A walk of about two-and-a-half miles from Bushey Station, on the North-Western Railway, through pleasant rural lanes, by way of Bushey Grove and Berry Wood, brings us to Aldenham, a quiet and retired village, situated midway between the high road to Rickmansworth and that to St. Albans, and about two miles from Radlett Station, on the Midland Railway. The area of the parish is nearly 6,000 acres, and the population, according to the census of 1871, exclusive of the separated district of Radlett, amounted to 1,486. In 1881 they had risen to 1,833. They minster, living in that portion of the manor of Aldenham, within the liberty, had been amerced at the last circuit in the sum of five marcs, six shillings and eightpence, whereupon the Abbot of St. Albans seized upon the said cattle. The Abbot of Westminster replied that the same king had granted to his monastery the amercements of all their own men, and the chattels of fugitives and persons condemned. Finally, in Hilary Term, 1256, it was agreed that the abbot and monks of St. Albans should have a View of Franc-pledge in Aldenham once a year, and that on that occasion, whether any fines were levied or not, Westminster should pay St. Albans four shillings, the remainder, if any, to be retained by the metropolitan abbey ; that every villein of Aldenham, within the Hundred of Cashio, should render suit at the Hundred Court once in three years, and should attend on juries, &c., when summoned; and if any of the men of Aldenham were amerced (other than at the View of Franc-pledge) before the bailiffs of either the abbeys of Westminster or St. Albans, the said abbeys should equally share such amercement; and, lastly, that the gallows erected in a place called Keneprowe should be common to both abbots, on which to hang persons condemned to death in the Court of Aldenham." Keneprowe— now corrupted into Kemp Row, or Camp Row-is situated between the church and the railway-station at Radlett, and is now a farm. "A man suspended by the neck was supposed to be a wholesome moral lesson, to be taught to so many of his former associates as possible. The abbots, therefore," Mr. Cussans adds, "acted wisely in their selection of Keneprowe, for on its elevated site the result of unlawfully taking a fish from the abbatial waters could be plainly seen both by the men of Aldenham and of St. Albans." Long before the Conquest the manor of Aldenham-or Ealdenham, as it was then spelt-belonged to the Abbot of St. Albans, to whom it was given by Wulfsinus, or, as some historians have it, by Offa, King of the Mercians. Soon after the Conquest the Abbot of Westminster obtained a grant of it for a period of twenty years, for an annual payment of twentyone hundred shillings and four oxen at Easter, "on condition that he so kept the woods here that persons journeying from St. Albans to London might be safe from the robbers who infested the neighbourhood." The Abbot of Westminster appears to have fulfilled his part of the conditions under which he held the land, but would not give up possession of a wood near Aldenham, which claim the Abbot of St. Albans resisted until long after the expiration of the term. "There can be little doubt," observes Mr. Cussans in his "History of Hertfordshire," "that the manor of Aldenham really belonged to the Abbey of St. Albans, and that they were unlawfully dispossessed of the greater portion. Constant feuds occurred between the abbots of the two houses of St. Albans and Westminster. At length the Abbot of Westminster brought a suit against his brother of St. Albans, for that the latter had, on Tuesday after Pentecost, in the year 1249, taken fifteen beasts from his manor of Aldenham, and driven them to the manor of Parkbury, in St. Albans; and again, on St. John's Day in the same year, had in like manner taken three other beasts (haveros). At the trial St. Albans asserted that the then king had confirmed to their abbey a proportion of the fines coming to the Crown on the circuits of the king's judges within the liberty of St. Albans, a privilege they had held from time immemorial; that certain men belonging to West This unsatisfactory state of things between the two abbots came effectually to an end at the dissolution of monasteries, for the manor then "reverted" to the Crown-if the seizure by Henry VIII. of the property of the Church can be called a reversion. It was, however, shortly afterwards granted to the Stepneys, by whom it was sold to Sir Edward Cary, Master of the Jewel Office to Queen Elizabeth and James I., whose son, Sir Henry Cary, was created Viscount Falkland, and subsequently held for some years the office of Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. In the reign of Charles II. the manor was in the hands of Lord Holles. After a few other changes of ownership, it passed, at the end of the last century, to the Thellussons, afterwards Lords Rendlesham, in whose hands it still remains. The advowson of the vicarage, however, Aldenham.] ALDENHAM HOUSE. 309 was sold by Lord Rendlesham in 1877 to Mr. house of brick." It is not quite clear from Chauncy Henry Hucks Gibbs, of Aldenham House. There are in the parish one or two manors of minor importance, notably Titeberst, or Tibhurst, and Kendall. The former of these lies on the south-eastern border of the parish, at Theobald's Street, and is owned by the Phillimores, but its history is of little or no importance. The manor of Kendall, the name of which is preserved in Kendall Lodge and Kendall Hall, which lie on either side of the St. Albans Road in the eastern part of the parish, was, in the reign of James I., granted, together with the manor of Tibhurst, to Robert, first Earl of Salisbury. It was afterwards held by the Jephsons, and about the middle of the last century it was bequeathed to Mr. William Phillimore, grandfather of the present owner. In 1700 Chauncy writes, in his "Antiquities of Hertfordshire":"Pickets, or Newberry, is another small manor, which William Briscoe, one of the Yeomen of the Guard, held in this vill. Upon his death it came to Edward Briscoe, who was his son and heir, and is the present owner thereof." This manor is now known as Piggots, and is situated near Letchmoor Heath. Although it still retains the name of a manor, the independent rights appertaining to it have long been merged into the manor paramount of Aldenham. As it appears from the above quotation from Chauncy, the manor of Newberry was formerly incorporated with that of Pickets, or Piggots; they are now, however, distinct estates. The manor of Newberry, now called Newberries, is near the railway-station at Radlett, and extends into the adjoining parish of Shenley. Aldenham House, the seat of Mr. Henry Hucks Gibbs, is a spacious red brick building, standing in a park about 200 acres in extent. The mansion was formerly known as Wigbournes, which, in its turn, appears to have been the successor of a mansion called Penn's Place, or Aldenham Hall, but which, by the way, stood on a small farm now bearing the name, at a short distance from the present house. In dry weather, Mr. Cussans tells us, the foundations of a large building are plainly to be traced. The site, which occupies an acre of ground, is enclosed by an almost rectangular moat, or, rather, the traces of a moat, the eastern side of which, bordering Grub's Lane, has been filled up. The estate derived its name from the family of Penn, to whom it formerly belonged, and it was afterwards owned successively by the Cades, the Coningsbys, and the Coghills. Chauncy, in his "History" above quoted, speaks thus of Penn's Place:"It is a small manor, situated upon the common where Henry Coghill, Esq., built a fair whether the "fair house of brick" was the mansion known as Penn's Place and Aldenham Hall, or the house mentioned above as Wigbournes. In the will of Sarah Hucks, dated 1767, Penn's Place is spoken of as a then existing mansion; but in a subsequent deed, executed in 1815, it is described as a farm. Under its former name of Wigbournes, Aldenham House passed, early in the seventeenth century, to the Coghills; and on the death of Thomas Coghill, in 1734, it passed to his niece, Sarah Hucks, who had already inherited Penn's Place. Her son, Robert Hucks the younger, made sundry additions to the house. After his death, in 1814, the house remained unoccupied for many years, and was allowed to fall into a dilapidated condition. In 1846 Mrs. Gibbs, the mother of the present owner, took up her residence here; but after her death, in 1850, it again remained unoccupied by the family for nearly twenty years, when Mr. Gibbs came again into residence. This gentleman has since thoroughly restored the old building, making many improvements, but in no way altering the character of the building. The family of the present owner was connected by marriage with the families of the Suttons, Hucks, and Coghills, former owners of the estate. Aldenham is mentioned more than once in the diary of the first Lord Shaftesbury as the seat of Sir Job Harbye, with whom he was an occasional guest. The parish church, dedicated to St. John the Baptist, stands near the centre of the village, and is an interesting building, chiefly of the Perpendicular period. It consists of a clerestoried nave, with aisles; also a chancel, with aisles, and a lofty embattled tower, surmounted by a shingled spire, at the west end. The nave and aisles are separated by three octagonal columns on each side, from which spring high Pointed arches. The nave-roof is of timber, the principal rafters being painted, and the wall-shafts resting on grotesquely-sculptured stone corbels. The church was restored by Sir Charles Barry in 1840, at which time a timber waggon-headed roof was added to the chancel, and a large five-light window of Decorated character inserted over the altar. This window, and several others in the church, are filled with stained glass. At the east end of the north aisle are faint traces of mural painting. Among the monuments is one in the chancel, a large altar-tomb, to the memory of John Coghill of Berry, who died in 1714. On the south wall of the chancel, under flat-arched canopies, are the recumbent effigies of two females, whose names are unknown. They form a single monument, and, according to Chauncy's "Antiquities of Hertfordshire," are supposed by tradition "to represent two sisters here entombed, the founders of this church, and co-heirs to this lordship." "The costume of the figures," observes Mr. Cussans, "shows that the monument was erected towards the end of the reign of Edward II.—perhaps as late as the year 1400, but certainly not ten years later. The arrangement of the arms shows that the ladies were not the two wives of one man, nor were they sisters." Near the above is a monument, in the form of a sarcophagus, of coloured marble, embellished with a medallion of white marble, on which are carved in low-relief portraits of Robert Hucks, and Sarah his wife, to whom the monument was erected. In the floor of the chancel are four or five small brasses, but none of any importance. The south aisles of the chancel and nave were formerly separated by a carved oak screen, which was swept away when the church was restored, in 1840; parts of it, however, remained in the village, and these scattered fragments have lately been collected by Mr. Gibbs, of Aldenham House, and replaced in their original position. A somewhat similar screen on the north side still remains. In the vestry are preserved two helmets of ancient date. There is also in the church a curious muniment chest, nearly ten feet in length, carved out of a single block of oak, and firmly bound and clamped with iron. The font, in the centre of the nave, between the north and south entrances, has a square bowl of Purbeck marble, resting on a solid circular stem, with detached columns at the corners. It is ascribed to about 1250, the date of the present church, which, by the way, was built on the foundations of an earlier structure. Aldenham Grammar School, a large red-brick building, of Elizabethan design, is situated on Boydon Hill, in the south-eastern part of the parish. It was founded and endowed, along with six almshouses, in 1599 by Richard Platt, a brewer of London, who entrusted the government of both institutions to the Brewers' Company. In 1875 a new scheme was sanctioned by the Queen in Council, under which the Grammar School was a strictly high-class school, and two lower schools were established out of the endowment, for the use of the parishioners. There are several scholarships, tenable in the school; and there are also three exhibitions a year, tenable at any university. In 1878, while excavations were being made for the purpose of forming a swimming-bath on the north side of the school, the workmen came upon a large quantity of broken Roman tiles and pottery, at a uniform depth of four or five feet from the surface. It is supposed that there was a pottery factory close by, and that the fragments which were here so plentifully scattered about were broken in the course of manufacture. Radlett, whither we now direct our steps, is an outlying hamlet of Aldenham, about two miles to the north-east. In 1863 a separate district was assigned to it for ecclesiastical purposes. It lies in a valley, through which runs a stream, called the Leat, or Lete, one of the feeders of the Colne. This stream, before the introduction of the present system of land-drainage, passed through a gravelly soil, and thereby became of a red colour, as it does now in wet weather; and it is from this circumstance that the place is presumed to have derived its name. Rad-lett, or Red-lett, would therefore signify the red mill-stream. About a quarter of a mile south of Radlett station, on Cobden Hill, stands Christ Church, which was built in 1864 to meet the requirements of the newly-formed ecclesiastical district. It is a cruciform building, constructed of flint and stone, with bands of red brick, and is in the Early Decorated style. The mullions and dressings of the windows are of Bath stone, and the tower is surmounted by an octagonal spire of the same material. Most of the windows are filled with stained glass. The church stands near the site of a small chantry, belonging formerly to the Abbey of St. Albans. In old deeds the name of Cobden Hill is written Copdene Hill, signifying the "Hill at the Head of the Valley." The chantry is stated by Mr. Cussans to have been founded about the year 1510, by Sir Humphrey Coningsby, who endowed it with the following lands lying in the parishes of Aldenham and Elstree :-Paynes, Organ Hall, Tyttescroft, Hilles Stowe, Mole Hill Acre, Chalk Croft, and Woodwards. On the dissolution of religious houses these lands came to the Crown, and were granted by Henry VIII. to Thomas Strete, one of the grooms of his privy chamber. On the accession of Queen Mary, John White, the ejected incumbent of the chantry, was allowed a pension of £5 per annum. The country round about Radlett is exceedingly rural, much of the land being used for agricultural purposes, the remainder being preserved as parklands. The district is of too recent growth to have a "history;" but early in the present century it acquired some celebrity from the murder of William Weare, of Lyons Inn, whose body, as already stated, lies buried in Elstree churchyard.* The • See ante, P. 303. |