Mercia, are still standing. The body of the Duke himself was discovered in the year 1703 in the vault below. "It was lying in pickle in a leaden coffin, carefully enclosed in another of wood. Since that period the skeleton has been rudely handled, bone after bone having been purloined by the curious, till very few remain. On the east end of the wall of the vault was painted on a tablet a crucifix, with four chalices to receive the blood which drops down from its wounds, while a hand from the left corner touches a scroll or label inscribed, 'Blessy'd Lord, have mercy on me.'" The access to this vault is secured by a trap door. Against the wall at the east end of the south aisle is an inscription in Latin, to the Duke's memory, recording his good deeds, both at Oxford and elsewhere, and his fall by the wiles of a woman.
The abbey is very rich in other monuments of a singular description. The most remarkable are those which commemorate Abbots Wheathamsted and Ramryge, both of which are enriched with heraldic devices, which, if they were not so ancient, would be set down as punning on their venerable names in a very vulgar way—being profuse in ears of corn and heads of rams, intermixed with dragon's heads, the abbey arms, and a representation of the martyrdom of Amphibalus. But in order to do justice to these relics of the past, we ought to have brought down with us one of the Kings of Arms, or a Pursuivant from Heralds' College at the least.
Among the other celebrated persons who are said to have been buried here is Sir John Mandeville, a learned physician, who was one of the earliest of English travellers in foreign parts, and one of the first writers of English prose. He is said to have spent no less than thirty-four years in his tours abroad, and to have visited not only Africa, but also the eastern and northern parts of Asia; a vast exploit, it must be remembered, for a man who died in 1371, nearly five hundred years ago, and whose results, therefore, it would be scarcely fair to compare with those of the Belzonis, the Spekes, the Livingstones, the Barths, and the Burtons of more recent ages.
In different parts of the church some fine specimens of mural painting have been discovered, or rather uncovered, from time to time, on removing coats of plaster from the walls. A narrow staircase leads up to the large central tower, from the top of which an extensive view is obtained, but the ascent is neither agreeable, nor advantageous to ladies' dresses.
It ought to be mentioned here that, if many of the monasteries in England were haunts of indolence, the Benedictine fathers and brothers of St. Alban's would seem to have been a marked exception. Their Scriptorium or Writing Room was in those days to the neighbourhood very much what the new Reading Room at the British Museum is to Londoners of our own day. It is well known that within the walls of the abbey some of the earliest books in this and other languages were printed, including the celebrated "Boke of St. Albans," Dame Juliana Berners' "Treatise on Hunting and Hawking."
Closely adjoining the west end of the nave stands the heavy and gloomy gateway of the old abbey, in all the original massiveness of the reign of Richard II. It is still used, as it was before the Reformation, as a prison for the Liberty and Borough of St. Alban's. The great gateway is surmounted by an early pointed arch, and its roof is groined and otherwise ornamented. The large extent of the courtyard belonging to the abbey may be traced from the scattered fragments of walls which once stood round the inclosure. Just before the abbey gateway is a triangular plot of ground now used as a cemetery, which is traditionally called Romeland, on account of having been, in August, 1555, the scene of the martyrdom of George Tankerfield at the stake, by order of Mary's ministers, for reading the scriptures and publicly expounding them. Inside the gateway, at the bottom of what is now called the Abbey Field, but was probably the convent garden, stands a very singular and picturesque octangular building, close by the water side. In the olden time, no doubt, it served as the boat-house or a part of the mill of the monastery; but it now is profanely turned into a public-house. It is from a spot close by this building that our sketch of the abbey above is taken.
Before bringing his "summer day's ramble" to a close, we would recommend the tourist to pay a visit to the Old Clock House in the town, to Sopwell Priory ruins, to the walls of Old Verulam, and to St. Michael's Church. In the latter is the "sic sedebat" monument of Lord Bacon, of which, and of the adjoining park of Gorhambury, we have given a full account in these columns.[1] The Clock Tower is described in one of the local guide-books as follows:—
"The origin and purpose of this very ancient tower are now quite unknown; and the various traditional accounts of it have probably arisen merely from conjecture, but it is generally thought that such a building existed prior to the ruins of Verulam. The- ↑ See vol. vii., p. 275.
