SESSION 1891-92. XXV 



The party included members of the Geologists' Association of 

 London, and numbered upwards of sixty. 



Field Mreting, 25th June, 1892. 

 GORHAMBURY, ST. ALBANS. 



The life of Francis Bacon having formed the subject of the 

 President's recent Anniversary A.ddrcss,* this meeting was ar- 

 ranged to illustrate those portions of it which relate to our great 

 philosopher's residence at Gorhambury, and Mr. Hopkinson acted 

 as Director, having obtained the permission of the Earl of Verulam 

 for Pre Wood and Gorhambury Park to be visited. 



The members assembled on St. Michael's Bridge, and those who 

 first arrived visited Kingsbury, the residence of Mr. Willshin, to 

 see the handsomely-carved oak front door, a relic from the house 

 which Francis Bacon built. 



St. Michael's Church was then visited, and the Vicar, the Rev. 

 ^N". Hutchinson, pointed out some of the more interesting features 

 of the building, and showed the monument erected in the chancel 

 to Bacon's memory by his Secretary, Sir Thomas Meautys. The 

 Latin inscription, by Sir Henry Wotton, will be found in the 

 Addi'ess referred to above. It may be thus translated : — 



Thus sat Francis Bacon, Baron Venilam, Viscount St. Albans ; or, by 

 more illustrious titles, the Light of Science, the Eloquence of the Law ; who, 

 after he had revealed the secrets of Nature and of Civil Life, yielded to Nature's 

 law that compounds must be dissolved, in the year of our Lord 1626, and in 

 the 66th year of his age. 



In memory of this great man, Thomas Meautys, his faithful friend while he 

 lived, his admirer now that he is dead, has placed this monument. 



Meautys was himself interred in the chancel, close to this 

 beautiful monument to his patron, as is shown by the remains of 

 an inscription on a stone near the altar-rails. 



The private road to Gorhambury, once part of the high road 

 from London to Holyhead, was then traversed as far as the park, 

 from which Pre Wood was entered in order to see the reservoirs 

 made by Sir Mcholas Bacon to supply water to the house he built. 

 The site of these reservoirs, which are about an acre in extent, is 

 indicated on our Ordnance Maps by the word "camp," — but there 

 is even now some water in them, which we should be much sur- 

 prised to find in any camp of Early British, or Boman origin. The 

 water appears to have been conveyed from each reservoir, probably 

 by filtration through gravel, into a deep tank or well, and thence 

 to old Gorhambury House, distant three quarters of a mile, through a 

 leaden pipe, portions of which have been dug up and are preserved. 

 A valley intervenes, into which the pipe had been carried, and up 

 the opposite hill to the house, the position of which is from ten to 

 fifteen feet lower than the reservoirs. 



In the middle of a field adjoining Pre Wood, and within sight of 

 the reservoirs, a nearly circular mound with several trees upon 



* ' Transactions,' Vol. YII, pp. 1-36. 



VOL. VII. — PART VIII. 



