30 MY LIFE AS A NATURALIST 



always lived in a humble house. Shakespeare refers to this in 

 the first part of Henry VI., Act v., Scene ii. : 



Rich. So, lie them there ; 



For underneath an alehouse' paltry sign, 



The Castle in Saint Alban's, Somerset 



Hath made the wizard famous in his death. . . . 



It was, then, in this broad thoroughfare of St Peter's Street that 

 the famous battlefields of 1455 and 1461 were situate, and I 

 remember how, as a youngster, I used to think about all these 

 incidents when I went to a farm early each morning to fetch a 

 can of milk. The Borough Gate end of the thoroughfare is 

 crowned with the Church of Saint Peter ; this, as with Saint 

 -Michael's and Saint Stephen's at the other extremities of the 

 town, having originally been built by Abbot Ulsinus in 948. The 

 Roman Forum was close to St Michael's, and there is a fine 

 tomb to the imperishable memory of Francis Bacon, who died 

 in 1626. He lived for many years at Gorhambury, the seat of 

 his successor, the present Earl of Verulam, and there wrote his 

 famous Essays. Reading one of these recently I came across 

 these appropriate words : 



" I hold every man a debtor to his profession, from the which, 

 as men do, of course, seek to receive countenance and profit, so 

 ought they of duty to endeavour themselves, by way of amends, 

 to be a help and an ornament thereunto." 



There is also a Crusader's tomb of about the fourteenth century 

 at St Michael's, and several other items of interest. 



At my old school I gained a great deal of local information 

 as a result of Mr Ashdown's personal influence. He was in those 

 days a new-comer to St Albans, but has long since proved 

 its loving historian. I cannot stay to mention the long line 

 of illustrious scholars who were educated there, but may refer 

 to a few pre- Reformation worthies, such as Alexander Nequam, 

 foster-brother to Richard Coeur de Lion, who became a Master 

 there, and was buried in the Abbey in 1217 ; Matthew Paris, to 

 whom, as an historiographer, the Monastery owes a great deal ; 

 Sir John Mandeville, the famous traveller ; and Nicholas Break- 

 spear, who, as Adrian IV., was the only Englishman to become 

 Pope of Rome. It is worthy of notice that, on completing his 

 studies at the old school, Breakspear sought, but was refused, 

 admission to the Monastery on the ground of insufficiency of 

 learning. 



