t Boxmoor, has been assigned to "the
latest period of true Anglo-Saxon art". A gold ornament, resembling an
armlet, was found at the village of Park Street, near St. Albans; it is
thought to date from A.D. 700-1000.

5. _Churches._--These will be separately mentioned in due order,
especially St. Albans Abbey, the unique meeting ground of all Styles;
but a few sentences touching the predominant periods may be permissible
here:--

_Norman_ work is found in many places; Anstey, Bengeo, Barley, East
Barnet, Graveley, Hemel Hempstead, Little Hormead, and Ickleford are
largely of this period, and Norman features are mingled with later work
at Abbots Langley, Baldock, Weston, Great Munden, Great Wymondley,
Knebworth, Redbourn, Sarratt, and the churches of SS. Michael and
Stephen at St. Albans. There are Norman fonts at Broxbourne, Bishop's
Stortford (found beneath the flooring in 1869) Anstey, Buckland,
Harpenden, Great Wymondley and Standon.

_Early English_ churches are at Ashwell, Brent Pelham, Digswell,
Furneaux Pelham, Great Munden (Norman doorway), Knebworth, Royston,
Stevenage and Wheathampstead. Some of these, _e.g._, Digswell and
Knebworth, are pleasantly situated and others contain features of great
interest, but on the whole they can hardly boast of much architectural
beauty.

_Decorated_ churches are rarely found without prominent transitional
features, the purest structures dating from that period being those at
Flamstead, Hatfield, North Mimms, Standon, and Ware. Early Decorated
portions are noticeable among Norman surroundings at Hemel Hempstead,
and among Early English at Wheathampstead; Late Decorated is found with
Perpendicular at Hitchin. Standon is the only W. porch in the county.
Flamstead and Wheathampstead are the only churches in the county that
have retained their original vestries, N. of the chancel.

_Perpendicular_ churches are fairly numerous in Hertfordshire. Almost
purely Perpendicular structures are those at Bishop's Stortford,
Bennington, Broxbourne, Clothall, Hunsdon, King's Langley, Sandon, St.
Peters (St. Albans), Tring and Watford. Churches later than
Perpendicular cannot be mentioned as antiquities.

A characteristic feature of Hertfordshire churches--rare elsewhere--is
the narrow tapering _fleche_, or leaded spire; a feature almost wholly
absent is the apse, which is, I believe, present only at Bengeo, Great
Wymondley, and Amwell.

X. CELEBRATED MEN

Comparatively few really