VIA ST. ALBANS 169 



building ground rose to a premium ; the Eavenscroft 

 bequest of April 28, 1679, which hitherto had realized 

 only forty pounds a year, suddenly blossomed into an 

 annual income of fourteen hundred. On the security 

 of this accession of wealth, twelve thousand pounds 

 have been raised and spent on a new church, whose 

 embattled tower may be seen from Hampstead Heath, 

 jutting up into the sky line, and the venerable 

 grammar - school of Queen Elizabeth's foundation 

 has been further endowed, remodelled, and enlarged. 



To lecture in this school-house, I remember, came, 

 early in the forties, a remarkable figure — that of the 

 intrepid missionary and traveller. Dr. Wolff. He had 

 just returned from Bokhara, after ascertaining the 

 tragical but heroic end of two English officers. 

 Colonel Stothard and Captain Connolly. In pene- 

 trating the country, Wolff had disdained, perhaps 

 from policy, all disguise, and, writes Layard in his 

 ' Early Adventures,' ' entered the city of Bokhara, 

 dressed in his robes as a Doctor of Divinity, and 

 holding open in his hands a large Bible, out of which 

 he read or chanted aloud certain passages.' Deemed 

 to be insane, he escaped molestation. 



A broad and level thoroughfare for the most part 

 carried the stream of man and beast through the old 

 town, though here and there it was dangerously 

 narrow. Even now, where the High Street passes 

 the north-eastern corner of the north aisle of the 

 church, there are barely twenty-six feet to the wall of 

 the opposite house. 



