XXU PKOCEEDINGS, 



in Saxon times, for the name Aldenham * pointed to the existence 

 of a Saxon settlement. The oldest part of the present building 

 now to be seen he believed to be a small window, the lower of two 

 windows at the west end of the south aisle. It was pure Norman, 

 and was, he supposed, about 700 years old. The most beautiful 

 thing in the church, perhaps, was the roof of the nave, which was 

 of carved and painted oak; it dated from about the year 1460. 

 The reredos over the altar was a fine specimen of Salviati's work. 

 All the screens were modem except the one in the south-chancel 

 aisle. This was standing in 1810 when the church was repaired, 

 the top of it was then taken down and thrown away, and in the 

 restoration of the church in 1840 the remainder was removed and 

 sold to a local builder. The parts had lately been collected to- 

 gether and the screen reinstated, the preservation of its fragments 

 being due to the wood having become so hard by age as to be use- 

 less to the carpenter. The rood-screen was approached by a 

 staircase outside the church, traces of which still remained, and 

 it was reached by crossing the south-ehancel aisle on the top of the 

 old screen just referred to, which was quite broad enough to walk 

 upon, and thence through the arch still remaining in the pier to 

 the screen where stood the rood or cross. The font, of Purbeck 

 marble, standing in the centre of the nave, and the piscina, in the 

 chancel, were between 600 and 700 years old, dating from the 

 building of the present church. 



Referring, then, to the monuments, tablets, and brasses, Mr. 

 Gibbs pointed out, in the south-chancel aisle, two altar-tombs, on 

 each of which is the recumbent figure of a lady under a richly- 

 carved canopy. These beautiful monuments, he said, were about 

 500 years old {temp. Richard II) ; to whom they were erected 

 could only be surmised from the arms on six shields (three on each 

 tomb), one bearing the arms of Sir "William Crowmer, son of John 

 Crowmer of Aldenham, and Lord Mayor of London in 1413. In 

 brasses, both old and new, the church was very rich, though many 

 of the inscriptions on the old brasses had been torn away in 

 by-gone times on account of their containing prayers for the dead. 



In the course of a walk round the chvirch, Mr. Gibbs remarked 

 upon the various stained windows, and pointed out a battle-helmet 

 said to have been worn by the first Lord Falkland, and the unique 

 parish chest. This is nine feet eight inches in length, has been 

 carved out of a solid piece of oak, is strengthened with thick bands 

 of iron which cross and re-cross each other, and has a lid opening 

 on seventeen massive hinges and secured by eight hasps, two large 

 bolts, and several locks. Cussans says that it is the finest parish 

 chest he ever saw. 



In the vestry several old portraits and other interesting objects 



* Or " Eaklenhara " as it was called when given by "Wulfsinus to the 

 Monastery of St. Albans. On the manor being divided between the Abbots of 

 St. Albans and of St. Peter's, "Westminster, "that portion which belonged to St. 

 Albans was laid to the Hundred of Cassio, and the other portion to Dacorum, 

 and so they still remain." (Cussans, 'Hist. Herts.,' "Dacorum Hundred," 

 p. 239.) 



