SELBORNE SOCIETY NOTICES 
199 
quently removed to Windsor. It is possible that in the outlying churches such 
as Laleham, Egham, Chobham and Thorpe, which all belong to Chertsey Abbey, 
some records may yet be found, but at present we have something like a lost page 
of history in the nine hundred years that the Abbey stood on this site. Children 
were born around it, baptised in its church, became its monks or its labourers, 
or its scriveners or its tenants ; lived their lives, married, died and were buried 
under its floors or in its churchyard, but no more record remains of the great 
building and the princes, for they were princes, who ruled over it, than of the life 
of the homeless labourer who drew his few groats a week from the revenues of 
the Abbey.” 
A hearty vote of thanks to Mr. and Mrs. Jennings for their kindness and 
hospitality concluded the proceedings. 
fitly 25. — A city with such interesting monuments of the past as St. Albans 
possesses, was sure to attract a large number of Selbornians, and a party of 
twenty-five assembled under the guidance of Mr. W. I’ercival Westell. The first 
point of interest was St. Peter’s Church, where the guide read a short account of 
its history. The next halt was made at the site of the battlefield, where two 
battles, the first in 1455, and the second some six years later, were fought. A 
peaceful spot it looks now in the shade of trees, covered with low’ bushes and 
green sward, with quaint, irregularly-built houses on either side. Then the party 
went on by the market-stalls, with reminiscences of Charles Dickens, through 
French Row, stopping to admire the old clock-tow'er dating from the fifteenth 
century. The cathedral was accorded a prolonged visit. After viewing the 
exterior, with its massive Norman tower in the centre, the Lady chapel, and the 
nave, in length only second to Winchester in the United Kingdom, the Selbornians 
passed inside. The high altar, with the coloured representation still unfinished of 
St. Peter and the fishes, some fine brasses on the floor, the chantrey of Abbot 
Ramrygge, adorned with carved rams, their collars showing the letters r.y.g., 
the old oak watching-gallery, sharing with that of Christchurch, Oxford, the 
distinction of being the only two existing in England, the Lady chapel, the 
chantrey' of Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, and the shrine of St. Alban, on the 
site, it is said, of his martyrdom, some sixteen hundred years ago, were visited in 
turn. From the lime of Saxon Offa downwards, this shrine seems to have been 
the centre of veneration for kings and subjects. Soon after the Conquest 
the great Norman walls began to close in the holy shrine. Henry I., in 1 1 1 5, 
witnessed the dedication of the Abbey Church, and among other noble names 
associated with its history are those of Cardinal Wolsey, Duke Humphrey, 
Sir John Mandeville and Matthew Paris. Valuable jewels adorned the shrine 
and the fairest work of the period was expended on it. Now it is pillarless, 
of bare and defaced aspect, fragments of coloured tiles, carefully joined together, 
conveying only the faintest notion of what its beauty once was. From Henry 
VIII. ’s time the Abbey Church decayed and the day of ruin seemed not far 
distant, when an Englishman stepped forward to restore it to the nation from his 
own private purse. Lord Grimthorpe alone has given over ,£150,000 to repair 
and renovate the structure. We are free to criticise the work, but we cannot be 
ungrateful lor the munificence that has done so much for this relic of the past. 
After the Abbey Church the party proceeded to the Gatehouse, the only other 
existing part of the old Abbey. Here one of Caxton’s printing presses was early 
set up. In more modern times it acted as a gaol. Its roof, with some fine 
groining, was much admired. After this, tea at the “ Fighting Cocks,” an old 
hostelry on the banks of the Ver, broke the round of archaeological records. Here, 
in a pleasant little speech from Mr. Avenell, Chairman of the Council, the guide, 
Mr. Westell, was heartily thanked for the great trouble he had taken in preparing 
the ramble, and for the very successful way in which it was being carried out. 
Then the party proceeded to the Verulam woods, and a large circular sweep 
of arable and grass land was pointed out as the site of the ancient city of Verulam, 
of which only fragments of the old wall remain. In early times it was probably 
a British stronghold associated with Cassivelaunus and Boadicea. Then came 
the all-conquering Roman and, seeing the advantages of the site, erected his city 
there, the Saint’s shrine being then in a wood on the top of the gently rising 
promontory opposite. In succeeding years, as the Abbey Church arose, the 
people clustered round it, leaving the grass to grow and the birds to inhabit old 
Verulam, till its semblance to a town was wholly lost. Meanwhile the city on 
