osed by the walls of Verulamium, and Sir Gilbert Scott
conjectured that it was originally the Basilica of the Roman city
altered for Christian worship; but probably, though it may stand on the
same site, it is of more recent date, though still of great age. Like
the cathedral, its walls are built of Roman brick and flint. The plan is
irregular: there is a nave and chancel, a large south aisle, or rather
chantry, the eastern gable of which is of half-timber construction,
below which are two tall round-headed windows far apart, with a small
circular opening between them; the western gable has an opening with
louvre boards. The tower projects from the north aisle, its western wall
being flush with the west end of the nave; on the outside in the south
wall of the chancel is a canopied niche over a flat slab a few inches
above the level of the ground. The south door, within a porch, has a
pointed top beneath a wide, round-headed arch springing from imposts.
The arcading of the nave was formed by cutting arches through what
probably were at one time the outside walls of the church; two of these
on the south side open into the chapel. The carved oak pulpit of early
seventeenth-century work, with its sounding-board and iron frame for the
hour-glass, demands attention; but the chief attraction of the church
for many is the alabaster statue of Francis Bacon, which is placed in a
niche in the north wall of the chancel. He wished to be buried in this
church, as his mother was already buried there, and moreover it was the
parish church of his house at Gorhambury, and the only Christian church
within the walls of ancient Verulam, from which he took one of his
titles.

[Illustration: MONUMENT OF LORD BACON. "_Sic sedebat._"]

#St. Stephen's Church.#--There are two ways of getting to this church:
either by following the road that runs south from St. Michael's, and
after reaching the top of the hill turning sharply to the left; or by
going from the centre of the city down Holywell Hill and straight on,
past the London and North-Western Railway Station, up St. Stephen's
Hill. The church spire is a conspicuous landmark. The churchyard is
exceedingly pretty, and the church most interesting. It was originally
built in the tenth century by Abbot Ulsinus, rebuilt in the time of
Henry I., restored in the fifteenth, and again by Sir Gilbert Scott in
the nineteenth century. The south porch is of timber; under it is a
square-headed doorway; to t