VIA ST. ALBANS 171 



Shrewsbury. The vestrymen met withm the church 

 to consider the matter, and called him in for an 

 opinion. His advice was that they should first and 

 without loss of time move elsewhere for deliberation, 

 as at any moment the church might fall on their 

 heads ; and that they should next lower the bells 

 and take down the tower. How^ever, his audience 

 thought otherwise, and Telford left them, on which 

 they gave orders to workmen to cut away a part of 

 the pillar and repair it. Two mornmgs later, as St. 

 Chad's clock was striking four, down came tower 

 and bells, smashing m the nave and wrecking the 

 church. 



On March 22, 1426, the monks of St. Albans Abbey 

 marched in solemn procession to Bar net. The peck 

 of March dust, which blew from the east over Glads- 

 muir Heath and the open ground w^here Hadley 

 Church now stands, plentifully besprinkled the caval- 

 cade, yet it was a splendid sight for the villagers. 

 At the head of the column rode the Duke of Gloucester ; 

 after him, his retinue ; at his right side, perhaps 

 princes of the Church ; at his bridle hand, the secular 

 power. Behind came the monks, chanting a service 

 as they approached the dwellings of men, the 

 trappings of the horse and the lance-heads of the 

 spearmen flashing back the rays of the westering sun 

 as it sank over the wooded ridge of Dyrham Park and 

 Elstree in the Vale. 



Nearly fifty years after Gloucester's march, with 

 footsore devotees, dusty and wayworn, lengthening 



