Hadley Wood with riflemen." And he shows in detail how Warwick, on reaching Hadley Green, or Gladsmore Heath, being first in the field, and having the choice of ground, could hardly have made a different selection, at a time when a tolerably level space was necessary for the movements of heavy-armed horsemen, and horses almost as heavily armed themselves. On the eve of the battle, which took place on Easter Day, in April, 1471, the king and his troops held the northern suburbs of the town, being quartered along the great northern road; while Warwick came up with his forces along the road from St. Albans. On the common they met face to face, the right wing of Lord Warwick being opposed to the king's left. "In the profound darkness of the night and the thick fog," writes Bulwer Lytton, in the "Last of the Barons," "Edward had stationed his men at a venture on the heath at Gladsmoor, and hastily environed the camp with palisades and trenches. He had intended to have rested immediately in front of the foe, but in the darkness he mistook the extent of the hostile line, and his men were ranged opposite only to the left side of the earl's forces-towards Hadley-leaving the right unopposed. Most fortunate for Edward was this mistake, for Warwick's artillery, and the new and deadly bombards that he had constructed, were placed on the right of King Edward's army; and the provident earl, naturally supposing Edward's left was there opposed to him, ordered his gunners to cannonade all night. Edward, as the flashes of the guns illumined by fits the gloom of midnight, saw the advantage of his unintentional error; and to prevent Warwick from discovering it, reiterated his orders for the most profound silence. Thus even his very blunders favoured Edward more than the wisest precautions had served his fated foe." If we may trust the graphic sketch drawn by the novelist's master-hand, the early morning of Easter Day was raw, cold, and dismal; but the signal for battle was given, and the deadly encounter began. On that battle of Barnet, though the numbers engaged in it were small according to modern ideas, depended the ruin or triumph of a dynasty, the fall of a warlike baronage, and the rise of a crafty, plotting, imperious despotism, which ultimately developed into the stern and vigorous rule of the house of Tudor. "The stake was high, the die was cast-the king won, and the Earl of Warwick lost. He proved the last of those power. ful barons who, under the Plantagenets, had held royalty in check. The battle of Barnet secured the crown of England to the House of York, and sent King Henry back a prisoner to the Tower.” Lytton describes in detail, doubtless with some little exaggeration, the chief incidents of that hardfought field, and the doughty deeds of the leaders of either army; but we may accept as true the particulars of the death of Warwick, who, even when he saw that all was lost, refused to fly and save his life. He was hewn down by the battleaxe of one of Edward's officers, and his body, having been placed in a hearse, was carried to London, to be exposed to the gaze of the public in St. Paul's, whence, a few days later, it was carried to its final resting-place in Bisham Abbey, near Marlow. During the battle, if we may believe Lord Lytton, who follows in this respect the annalists, King Edward was kept in countenance by a sorcerer, one Friar Bungay, who took up his position a little to the east of the battle, near the spot where Monken Hadley Church now stands, the captive King Henry also standing by as a sort of hostage. As for the "blood-stained" field of Barnet, various estimates are given of the numbers which fell that day; some writers fix them as low as 1,500, whilst others say that 20,000 were slain. Let us hope that the former figures are nearer the truth. Although the accounts of the numbers engaged in the battle vary very much, and cannot be reconciled, yet as to the details of the engagement there is no doubt. The first shots fired in the early dawn of that Easter Sunday were fired at random, owing to the dense fog which covered the hills, and concealed the foes from each other; but as the morning waxed on to noon, the sun broke forth, and the combatants found themselves face to face. The king and the earl respectively rode along their ranks, each encouraging his followers. One wing of Edward's army was being driven back, when a mistake between the two rival congnizances of the star with five points and the sun with rays threw the hosts of Lord Warwick into confusion, of which Edward was not slow to take advantage, calling into action a reserved force, whilst Warwick's men were too exhausted to answer their leader's call. "The day," writes Mr. Cass, "was visibly lost, and nothing remained but for Warwick to sell his life dearly. By ten o'clock, or at noon according to some writers, victory rested with the Yorkists, and Warwick and Montagu were slain." The Dukes of Somerset and Exeter and the Earl of Oxford escaped with their lives from the field, but only to die elsewhere. The common soldiers who fell in the engagement were buried on the field, but the exact spot of their interment is not known. The conqueror rode back to London immediately the captive King Henry following in his train—and presented himself next day at St. Paul's to offer up his standard, and to return thanks to the God of battles. As a proof that the battle of Barnet was of great practical importance in its results, it is reported that no subsequent Lancastrian rising troubled the reign of King Edward. There is still on the edge of the common an old moated farm-house, or grange, which some of Lord Warwick's men are said to have occupied on the eve of the battle. The place where Warwick made his last stand is marked by an obelisk, erected in the last century, and bearing a brief record of the fact and of the date of the battle. The exact spot where he fell is said by tradition to be marked by two trees 327 planted in the place of others which perished from age, about twenty yards north of the obelisk. The obelisk on the field was erected in 1740 by Sir J. Sambrooke, of Gobions, an estate in North Mimms, more anciently called More Hall, the property of Sir Thomas More. "Barnet," writes Mr. Cass, "has greatly changed from the little town through which Edward passed on his way to a battle on which his throne depended; but still, behind the plastered or brickfaced fronts of the buildings lining its modern street are perhaps hidden the timbers of dwellings from whose windows men and women and little children looked out upon the victor, as, early on that Easter afternoon, he rode past with Henry in his train." Is it not a satire on Christianity itself that, whilst the service of song and praise was being offered in the church which stood by the battle-field, Christians should have been spending their Sunday in cutting each other's throats and cleaving each other's skulls with battle-axes? Etymology of Monken Hadley-Descent of the Manor-Hadley Green-The Village and Common-Hadley Wood-Gladsmore Heath, or Monken Mead-Dead Man's Bottom-Hadley Church-Two Historic Trees-Almshouses-Noted Residents-Population-East Barnet-Lyonsdown-Census Returns-The Parish Church-The Boys' Farm Home-The Clock House-Cat's Hill-Oak Hill Park-Belmont-Totteridge-Its Etymology-Descent of the Manor-Census Returns-Condition of the Roads-The Church- Yew-trees in Churchyard -The Priory-Pointer's Grove-Copped Hall-Totteridge Park-Wykeham Rise. MONKEN HADLEY-or Hadley, as it is colloquially styled as stated in the preceding chapter, adjoins on the north the town of High Barnet, of which it forms almost a suburb. The parish, which was formerly a part of Enfield Chase and a hamlet to Edmonton, is bounded on the north-east by the parish of Enfield, and comprises in its area nearly 600 acres, of which about 240 were allotted in lieu of its right of common, on the enclosure of the royal chase above mentioned. According to Lysons and other topographers, the village owes its name to its elevated situation, being 66 compounded of the Saxon words Head-leagh, signifying a high place. The "ley" in its designation, how ever, would seem to imply a meadow, or clear open space in the forest land, as in the case of Cowley, already referred to.* The adjunct Monken occurs in many ancient documents, and is adopted in the description of this parish in the Act for enclosing Enfield Chase; and it is probable that it See ante, p. 226 was derived from the former connection of the place with the Abbey of Walden, to which it was given by Geoffrey de Mandeville, Earl of Essex, about the middle of the twelfth century, under the name of the "Hermitage of Hadley." Hadley is not mentioned in the Domesday survey; but it appears at a very early period to have belonged to the Mandevilles, from whom it was alienated, as above stated, to the monks of Walden, the abbey of which place was founded by Geoffrey de Mandeville. After the dissolution of monasteries, the manor was granted to Thomas Lord Audley, who shortly afterwards surrendered it to the Crown. In 1557 it was granted by Queen Mary to Sir Thomas Pope. A few years later it was alienated to the Kymptons, but was soon after sold to the family of Hayes, in whose hands it remained for about a century. Towards the end of the last century it was purchased by Mr. Peter Moore, who rendered himself unpopular a few years later by asserting a right to enclose Hadley Green, including the whole of the waste, without the consent of the parishioners. This assumed right he defended in a court of law, but failed in his endeavour, as Sir Thomas Wilson failed at Hampstead, and the immemorial privileges of the parish were fully established on appeal. * We shall have more to say about it presently. The church is a cruciform building in the Perpendicular style, and consists of chancel, nave, aisles, transepts, and an ivy-covered tower at the west end. This church is finer than most parish The village is situated on the east side of the churches, and bears a strong resemblance in its Great North road, on the margin of Hadley general features to those of High Barnet and South Green, and round about the common-a broad Mimms. The church is constructed of black flint open space which stretches away eastward from and Bath stone disposed in alternate squares. the church. The common, with its ponds and On the top of a turret at the south-west angle of trees, much resembles Clapham Common, and is the tower is affixed an iron "cresset" fire-pan or now said to be the only unenclosed portion of the pitch-pot, an almost unique survival of other days. ancient Chase of Enfield. It is a picturesque It is supposed to have been placed there as a guide piece of undulating upland, sloping away rapidly to wayfarers through the neighbouring forest. Mr. towards the east, where it abuts upon Beech Hill Bloxam tells us in his work on "Gothic ArchiPark. The lower or easternmost part of the com-tecture," that it was used and fired so late as the mon, where it is crossed by the railway, is generally year 1745-probably at the time of the alarm called by the natives Hadley Wood; it is one of caused near London by the Stuart rising in the the most beautiful pieces of woodland scenery to North. It was also again used more recently at be found within many miles of the metropolis. the marriage of the Prince of Wales. This narrow strip of forest scenery runs eastward as far as the hamlet of Cock Fosters. The high ground towards the west and northwest of the common was sometimes called of old Gladsmore Heath, but more often styled Monkey (or Monken) Mead, and is the spot now generally accepted by antiquarians, as shown in the preceding chapter, as that whereon was decided the great Battle of Barnet. The obelisk which has been set up to commemorate that event stands at the upper end of Hadley Green, in the fork of the two roads leading respectively to Hatfield and St. Albans. It bears the following inscription:"Here was fought the famous battle between Edward IV. and the Earl of Warwick, April 14th, 1471, in which the Earl was defeated and slain." The low ground adjoining Monken Mead is named on the early maps "Dead Man's Bottom," either from having been the chief scene of slaughter at the battle of Barnet, or else for being the burial-place of the slain. Hadley Church, dedicated to St. Mary, stands on the very edge of the battle-field of Barnet. But it is not old enough to have witnessed that engagement, having been built in the year 1494. It stands not very far from the mound on which Lord Lytton, in his "Last of the Barons," represents Friar Bungay as carrying on those solemn incantations which were destined to clear away the fog and mist and to give the victory to the House of York. Close by it there is to the present day a gate across the road, marking the fringe of the Chase, and giving entrance to that royal demesne. *See "Old and New London," Vol. V., p. 452. The church was restored, and in part rebuilt, under the rectorship of Dr. Proctor, between the years 1848 and 1850, by Mr. G. E. Street, and the south aisle was added as a memorial of the late rector, Mr. Thackeray. Several new windows were inserted at the time of the above-mentioned restoration. Most of the windows are filled with painted glass; the nave, of four bays, opens into the tower, and it is separated from the aisles by depressed arches resting on octagonal columns. Over the west doorway of the tower is the date 1494, having on one side the device of a wing and on the other that of a rose. Lysons, in his "Environs of London,” says that they are probably "the cognizance either of the abbey, or one of the Abbots of Walden." Mr. Brewer, in the "Beauties of England," observes that the same devices occur in Enfield Church, which likewise belonged to the abbey founded by Geoffrey de Mandeville. "It is certain that these emblems," he adds, "had no reference to the arms of Walden Abbey; but they were possibly meant as the cognizance of the abbot at that time, whose name was John Sabysworth, or Sabrisfort." The south porch was erected in memory of Dr. Proctor's son, the Rev. G. H. Proctor, of Balliol College, Oxford, who died before Sebastopol, where he was serving as an army chaplain. Dr. Proctor was a brother-in-law of Mr. John Payne Collier, the learned dramatic author; and he was said to have been the original of the "Dr. Blimber" of Charles Dickens, in "Bleak House." There are several monuments of the seventeenth century, the most remarkable being that in memory of Sir Roger Wilbraham, solicitor-general of Ireland in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, and his lady, with marble busts of each by Nicholas Stone; and there is a mural brass of the fifteenth century. Among the fragments of ancient painted glass in the church, is a piece containing the rebus of the family of Goodere, who occupied an important position in this parish and neighbourhood in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. It consists of a partridge, with an ear of wheat in its bill, and having on an attached scroll the word "goode" in black letter. On the capital of one of the pillars are two partridges with ears of corn in their beak, an evident reproduction of the above punning device. The Gooderes are thought to have been considerable benefactors towards the rebuilding of the church. Weever, in his "Funeral Monuments," mentions a mutilated inscription to the memory of "John Goodyere, esquyre, and Jone, his wyff," with the date of 1504. This is no longer visible; but a brass still commemorates Anne Walheden, "descended of the Goodere's auncyent race," who was buried in 1575. In the churchyard, to the east of the chancel, lies under a plain flat slab Mrs. Hester Chapone, the once popular authoress of "Letters on the Improvement of the Mind," addressed to young ladies, and which had a great run in the last century. She died in the year 1801. Her maiden name was Mulso; and among her friends were Mrs. Elizabeth Carter, Mrs. Montagu, and Dr. Johnson, who valued her highly, and condescended even to argue with her. In early life she was a frequent guest at the house of Richardson. Here also are buried Dr. John Monro, who acquired some celebrity as a physician and writer on insanity, at the end of the last century, and Dr. Proctor, the late rector, who died in 1882. 329 Near the church are the Priory, a modern Gothic edifice, with pleasant grounds and gardens, and also two rows of almshouses: the one was founded by Sir Roger Wilbraham, in 1616, for six “decayed housekeepers," each of whom receive a sum of £18 per annum; the other, founded by Sir Justinian Paget, in the seventeenth century, for three poor men and a like number of women, was rebuilt about fifty years ago. The mansions facing the east side of Hadley Common have had some celebrated tenants in their day. Mrs. Trollope, the novelist, lived in the house nearest to the Wilbraham Almshouses; and it may be remembered that Anthony Trollope, in his novel, "The Bertrams," alludes to his sister being buried in the adjoining churchyard. The house at the southern end of the same row— called the Grange-was formerly occupied by the grandfather of William Makepeace Thackeray, of the same name, at the beginning of the present century. At The Mount House, on the north-west side of the common, lived for many years Professor Joseph Henry Green, F.R.S., the author of "Spiritual Philosophy, founded on the teachings of the late Samuel Taylor Coleridge." Professor Green died in 1863, about thirty years after the friend whose philosophy he had done so much to interpret and popularise. In Fuller's "Worthies" it is stated that Sir William Starmford, or Stamford, an eminent lawyer of the sixteenth century, was a native of this place. He was the author of a legal work, entitled "The Pleas of the Crown," and is said by Fuller to have been born in 1509, and to have been buried at Hadley in 1558. Hadley was also the birthplace of Sir Robert Atkyns, the learned author of the Nearly opposite the church, close by the gate "History of Gloucestershire." He was born in the that leads to the common, still stands the weather-year 1647, being a son of Sir Robert Atkyns, Lord beaten trunk of an aged oak, long ago divested of Chief Baron of the Exchequer, who was himself its bark, which is mentioned by Lord Lytton in the author of several political pamphlets. his "Last of the Barons," when describing the closing events of the battle of Barnet, as the "gaunt and leafless tree" whereon the wizard Friar Bungay, mentioned above, hangs his hated rival, Adam Warner, whilst at its foot lay the lifeless form of his daughter Sibyll, "and the shattered fragments of the mechanical'eureka' on which he had spent the labours of his life." The old trunk was upset a few years ago by some drunken volunteers, but it has been replaced in position, and railed in. Not far distant is another tree which has become historic, called "Latimer's Elm," from a local tradition that Latimer once preached beneath its branches, In 1871 the number of houses in the parish of Hadley amounted to 200, the population at the same time numbering 978. In consequence of the increased railway facilities of late years, for com‐ munication with the metropolis, the number of the inhabitants has since increased to nearly 1,200. East Barnet, whither we now direct our steps, lies in a pretty valley about a mile east of the great high road to the north, and some mile and a half south-eastward from Hadley. The parish is bounded on the east by Enfield, on the south by Friern Barnet and Southgate, and on the west by High Barnet and Elstree. The rural aspect of the neighbourhood has been somewhat curtailed since the formation of the Great Northern Railway, and the consequent growth of a town. This, however, is the mother or cradle of the other parishes bearing the name of Barnet, and it is called East Barnet to distinguish it from High (or Chipping) Barnet, and Friern Barnet immediately adjoining. Within the last few years, even, another ecclesiastical district, generally called New Barnet, but legally known as "Lyonsdown," has sprung up, having been formed out of the parishes of Chipping Barnet and East Barnet. A church of Gothic been erected by an abbot of St. Albans as far back as early in the twelfth century. North Wall, with its small round-headed deep-splayed windows, still remains in its original state. The fabric seems to have remained in its tiny dimensions for centuries; for it was not till the middle of the seventeenth century that the chancel was built, the cost of its erection being defrayed by Sir Robert Bartlet, who was probably a native of the parish. The tower is modern, and poor in the extreme; design, in the Decorated style, was built in 1865. It is constructed of coloured bricks, and has an apsidal chancel. In 1871 the number of houses in East Barnet (including the district of Lyonsdown) was 531, the inhabitants being nearly 3,000. According to the census returns for 1881 the population has now reached nearly 4,000. The manor of East Barnet has been part and parcel of that of Chipping Barnet since the time of the Conquest. The church, dedicated to St. Mary the Virgin, is the original and mother church of the district, and it is partly Norman. It consists of a nave, chancel, south aisle, with a brick-built tower at the west end. The nave is the oldest part of the building, having (See page 328.) the south aisle, which is constructed of Kentish ragstone, with Bath stone dressings, was added as recently as 1868, at which time the interior of the church was thoroughly restored and refitted. In the churchyard is the tomb of General Augustus Prevost, a native of Geneva, who died in 1786. He served with distinction in the British army, taking part, in 1779, in the gallant defence of Savannah "against the combined armies of France and America, supported by a powerful fleet." In the corner of the churchyard is a tall Gothic structure, almost like a market cross, erected to the memory of Sir Simon Clarke, who lived at Oak Hill Park, in the parish. Dr. Richard Bundy, a Prebendary of West |