CALLY
Abbreviations of architectural terms:--
E.E. = Early English.
Dec. = Decorated.
Perp. = Perpendicular.
ABBOTS LANGLEY (11/2 mile S.E. of King's Langley Station) is a village on
prettily wooded high ground near the river Gade. It is famous as the
birthplace of Nicholas Breakspeare, who, having vainly endeavoured to be
admitted as a monk in the great Benedictine monastery at St. Albans,
studied at Paris and eventually became Pope Adrian IV. He died in 1158
at Anagni; tradition states that he was choked with a fly whilst
drinking. The village probably owes its name, first, to its length,
"Langley" signifying a long land; second, to the fact that in the days
of Edward the Confessor it was given to the Abbots of St. Albans by
Egelwine the Black and Wincelfled[f] his wife. An entry in _Domesday_
records that there were two mills on this manor, yielding 30s. rent
yearly, and wood to feed 300 hogs. The Church of St. Lawrence has nave,
aisles and clerestory; a chancel with S. aisle, and square embattled
tower. The windows are mostly Perp., but those of the S. aisle are Dec.
Note (1) the monument to Lord Chief Justice Raymond, died 1732; (2) the
brasses in nave to Thos. Cogdell and his two wives, 1607, and to Ralph
Horwode and family, 1478. Late in the reign of Henry VIII. the vicarage
was rated at L10 per annum. An inscription in the chancel, copied in
Chauncy, reads "Here lieth Robert Nevil and Elizabeth his wife, which
Robert deceased the 28th of April in the year of our Lord God 1475. This
World is but a Vanity, to Day a man, to Morrow none." Prince Charles
held a Court at Abbots Langley during the Reign of James I.
ALBURY (31/2 miles E. of Braughing Station) is a village near the river
Ash. The church, dedicated to St. Mary, dates from the fourteenth
century; it was recently restored. There was an earlier structure so far
back as the days of Stephen, in whose reign Robert de Sigillo gave the
profits of the church at _Eldeberei_ to Geoffery, first Treasurer of St.
Paul's Church, London. An interesting will, dated 4th November, 1589,
records that Marmaduke Bickerdy, Vicar of Aldebury, gave an acre of land
in the neighbourhood to provide a sum for distribution among the poor on
every Good Friday. In the chancel the mutilated effigies of a man and
woman are said to represent Sir Walter de la Lee and his wife. Sir
Walter sat in nine Parliaments in the interests of the county--at
Westminster, Northampton and
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