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JUNE 10th, 1911. 



Field Meeting at St, Albans. 



Conductor: A. E. Gibbs, F.L.S., F.E.S. 



Advantage was taken of the meeting of the Congress of the 

 South-Eastern Union of Scientific Societies at St. Albans in June 

 last to hold a field meeting in that neighbourhood. An invitation 

 was extended by the local committee to our members, as well as 

 to those of the Hertfordshire Natural History Society, to participate 

 in the excursion to Gorhambury on June 10th, the last day of the 

 Congress, and a party numbering about 100 assembled at the Town 

 Hall of the ancient borough at three o'clock, whence they were 

 conveyed in motor omnibuses to Gorhambury, the seat of the Earl 

 of Verulam, between two and three miles to the west of the town, 

 where they were welcomed by the Earl and Countess, who very 

 kindly permitted an inspection of the valuable pictures and other 

 treasures with which the house abounds. Gorhambury takes its 

 name from the de Gorham family, two members of which, in the 

 12th century, were Abbots of St. Albans. The first of the four 

 mansions, which have stood on different sites in the park, was 

 built by Robert de Gorham, who ruled over the rich and powerful 

 monastery from 1151 to 1167. In the 16th century Gorhambury 

 was in the possession of Sir Nicholas Bacon, Elizabeth's great 

 Lord Keeper, who on more than one occasion entertained the Virgin 

 Queen in lavish style during her " progresses " through the 

 country. He built the second mansion, some ruins of which still 

 remain. It is recorded that when Her Majesty first visited him at 

 Gorhambury she exclaimed, " My lord, what a little house you have 

 gotten 1 " to which the Lord Keeper wittily replied, " Madam, my 

 house is well, but it is you that have made me too great for my 

 house." A third mansion was erected by Sir Nicholas' still more 

 illustrious son, the great Sir Francis Bacon, Baron Verulam, 

 Viscount St. Albans. 



" The great deliverer, he who from the gloom 

 Of cloistered monks and jargon-teaching schools, 

 Let forth the true philosophy." 



The present residence dates only from the last quarter of the 

 18th century. After viewing the pictures and the Elizabethian 

 and Baconian relics, and having thanked the noble hosts for their 

 kindness, the party assembled on the steps at the front of the 

 house, and grouping round the Earl and Countess and the Mayor 



