28 MY LIFE AS A NATURALIST 



King Edred. It may here be mentioned that Albanians claim 

 Verulam as the first place recorded in authentic English history 

 under a specific name, my old school as the oldest school in 

 England, and St Albans Cricket Club as the first one established 

 in this country. I am proud to have been brought into touch 

 with all three of these institutions. Near this Great Gateway 

 George Tankerfield was burnt at the stake in 1555. 



On our way back from the site of Verulam, retracing our steps 

 along the Causeway which Alban trod on his way to martyrdom, 

 I omitted to point out the old hostelry on the right, facetiously 

 dubbed " The Fighting Cocks." It was in olden days the 

 boathouse of the Monastery, and is reputed to be the oldest 

 inhabited house in England. It has not lacked a tenant for over 

 a thousand years. 



From the higher ground there can be seen the ruins of Sopwell 

 Nunnery, founded in 1140 by Geoffrey de Gorham, sixteenth 

 Abbot of St Albans. In the Chapel Henry VIII. is said to have 

 been married to Anne Boleyn. It is more interesting to note 

 that here resided Dame Juliana Berners, who wrote the first of 

 a long line of English sporting works, " The Book of St Albans." 

 This was printed at the Monastery Gateway by John Insomuch, 

 and was published in 1486. Many a time when a boy I have 

 explored the flint masonry of this ancient structure of Sopwell, 

 and, in the pool adjoining, remains no doubt of the old fish- 

 pond, angled unsuccessfully. At one time my father and grand- 

 father rented this particular piece of water for angling, but 

 with what result I was never able to discover ! 



Leaving the Great Gateway and ascending the steep hill of 

 George Street, once the old coach road, the spacious High Street 

 comes into view. The Waxen Gate, where the pilgrims to the 

 shrine of Saint Alban lighted their candles, is still to be seen, 

 and, hard by, the Clock Tower, the tower of which was erected 

 between 1402-1410 in order to ring the Curfew. It contains a 

 bell known as Great Gabriel. Where the fountain now stands 

 there previously existed an Eleanor Cross, erected by Edward I. 

 to mark one of the resting-places (the Abbey) for the night of 

 the bier of his dead consort, Queen Eleanor, when being borne 

 to Westminster in June 1292.* 



Near here the redoubtable Cromwell arrested Thomas Con- 

 ingsby in 1643 ; along quaint old French Row, occupied by 

 French prisoners in 12l6, are the remains of ancient hostelries, 

 at one of which, the " Old Christopher," David Garrick stayed 



