118 
painting; what remains appears to repre- 
fent God the Father, with the mimbus 
round the head, and at a diftance from it 
the femi-arc of the rainbow ; and below, 
apparently, the figure of an abbot, with 
another which we could not underftand. 
Over one of the arches, by the north 
tranfept, is the portrait of King Offa 
upon the wall; but not older than three 
hundred years. What, in fome of the 
Plans, is called the old font, in the choir, 
is nothing more than a pifcina, intended 
to carry off whatever might remain of the 
confecrated elements; and which, no 
doubt, indicates the fite of an ancient 
altar. A {mall room at the upper end of 
the fouth tranfept has a number of very 
curious femicircular arches—probably the 
chapter-room. The choir, with St. Al- 
ban’s chapel behind it, the north and 
fouth tranfepts, and part of the nave, as 
_ far as the fcreen, were, I believe, built 
by Paul, the fourteenth abbot, in 1076, 
with red bricks, which made the whole 
appear of fo rude a workmanfhip. When 
thefe materials failed, ftone was intro- 
duced, and the ftyle improved ; till in 
rirs, the church was completely built, 
and confecrated. Warinus, the twentieth 
abbot, left an hundred marks to rebuild 
the weft end of the abbey. And the 
fcreen of the chapel and altar of St. Cuth- 
bert, acrofs the nave, were built by Abbot 
Richard, between 1097 and 1119; al- 
though, throughout the “interior, a judi- 
cious eye wil] difcover an hundred im- 
provements fubfequent to the general 
building. 
Nigh the weft end of the nave, ftands 
the ancient gate-houfe, for the abbey’sde- 
fence, now the only remains of the monai- 
tery, the figns of whofe foundations are 
clearly feen in the field between the abbey 
and Old Verulam. 
Having croffed to the mill upon the 
Colne, we pafled on the agger, which Dr. 
Stukely fays. was made from the ruins of 
the ancient town, to the north-eaft point 
of Verulam, where the fineft fragment of 
the wall till remains, with a triple courfe 
of Roman bricks among the flints that 
compofe it. Upon the field direétly in 
front of this wall, ftoud the chapel of St. 
Mary Magdalen, built by Abbot Ulfinus. 
We now traced the fragmenrs of the wall, 
in many places very large, along the ea(t. 
ern fide of the old town, accompanied by 
avery fine and perfect fofs ; which, at 
the turn to the fouthern fide, is, for fome - 
doubled. The outermoft 
hundred yards, 
fuppofed by Dre Stuke- 
of thele jaf was 
Excurfion to St. Albans. 
{March ‘, 
ley to have been the only fence of the fire 
city, which Boadicea dettroved before the 
walls were built; and thefe reduced the 
whole into a {quarer form. The fols be- 
comes again fingle upon the fpot where the 
Watling-ftreet falls into the Hempftead 
road. Along the fouthern fide the re- 
mains of the wall are crowned by an hedge, 
but the whole has-in one or two places 
yielded to the plough. On thefe {pots, 
by the affiftance of a fhower of rainy 
which fell the overnight, we picked up 
many little fragments of pottery, evidently - 
Roman, which appeared {cattered over 
the ploughed land in great abundance. - 
The particular {pot where thefe remains 
feemed moft numerous was the field on 
the ealt fide of the road to Hempftead. 
Leaving the Watling-{treet, we pufhed 
forward in the fofs, every now and then 
obferving the Roman wall within the 
hedge, till we came to a large and bold 
unfheltered fragment, called by the coun- 
try people, from its vicinity to Gorham- 
bury, Gorham. block ; this, likewife, ex~- 
hibits the triple courfe ef Roman bricks. 
Here the fortifications of Verulam, form~ 
ing three fides of a figure nearly {quares 
feemed to end. Dr. Stukeley’s map, made 
in the year 172%, and publifhed by the An- 
tiquary Society, gives a line where the an- 
cient wall may be fuppofed to have con- 
tinued through the meadows on the oppo- 
fite fide of the Gorhambury road ; and: 
here it is but juftice to own, that we mcé& 
with more than one workman, who affured 
us that in the meadows juit mentioned they 
had feveral times difcovered the founca- 
tions of the wall in its continuance from 
Gorham-bloeck. Henge extending our 
walk by the ancient boundaries, we left _ 
St. Michael’s church to our right, till we 
had paffed the fpot where once flood St. 
Germain’s chapel, a little beyond which 
we again met with the fine fragment of 
the wall we had fet out from, Above 
where the chapel of St. Germain ftoods 
are, one beyond the other, the remains of 
two Roman roads or ftreets ; the dorfum 
of each of which may be traeed by the 
gravel and materials. The Vefligia and 
Gavitas, mentioned by Dr. Stukeley, near 
the fouth-eaft extremity of Verulam, are 
till remaining, though they probably re- - 
ceive continual injury from the plough. 
In our return from Gorham-block, jut 
below St. Michaels, we faw, to our left, 
Kingfbury, which, as Mr. Gough fays, 
in Camden; fhews confiderable earth- 
works on the north and eaft fide, the latter 
double-trenched. Beyond Kingfbury ae 
