WELWYN, a small town in the Maran Valley, can show little of interest beyond many quaint cottages, and the church, famous as that in which Dr. Edward Young, author of Night Thoughts, officiated from 1730 to 1765.  He was buried in the church; the mural memorial to him was erected by his son.  The church is Dec., with E.E. portions; the piscina in the chancel is ancient, the sedilia is modern.  An inventory of the church furniture, taken in 1541, shows that there were formerly three altars in it.  The avenue of limes in the rectory grounds was planted by Young; there is a Latin inscription to the poet on a pedestal at its upper end.  His son was visited here by Dr. Johnson and James Boswell.

The walk S.E. to the station (11/4 mile) commands a fine view of the Great Northern viaduct of forty arches over the deeper portion of the Maran Valley.  On the opposite (left) side of the road is Locksleys, a good mansion by the river side, surrounded by charming grounds.  One mile S. is The Frythe, long the residence of the Wilshere family; at a rather less distance N. is Danesbury, a prettily designed mansion in a small park.

“King Etheldred ... willing to relieve his people from the barbarous usuage and the inhuman actions of the insulting Danes ... sent instructions to the Governors of all cities, boroughs and towns in his dominions, commanding, that at a certain hour upon the feast of St. Brice, all the Danes should be massacred; and common fame tells us that this massacre began at a little town called Welwine in Hertfordshire, within twenty-four miles of London, in the year 1012, from which Act, ’tis said this Vill received the name of Welwine, because the Weal of this county (as it was then thought) was there first won; but the Saxons long before called this town Welnes, from the many springs which rise in this Vill; for in old time Wells in their language were term’d Welnes.”

One of the springs in the neighbourhood, now disused, was famous in Young’s day for its chalybeate waters.

West End is a hamlet 2 miles S.W. from Cole Green Station, G.N.R.  It lies close to the N.W. corner of Bedwell Park, with the river Lea 1 mile N.

West Hyde, in the extreme S.W. of the county, near the river Colne, has a modern cruciform church, Italian in style.

WESTMILL, a church and picturesque cluster of cottages in a hollow a little W. from the Buntingford Road, is 11/2 mile S. from that town.  The river Rib runs between the church and the station (G.E.R.).  The manor is ancient; it was given by William I. to Robert de Olgi.  Nathanial Salmon, author of a History of Hertfordshire published in 1728, was once curate here.

The church very probably dates from the end of the thirteenth century, and is an E.E. flint structure.  There are some old slabs in the chancel to the Bellenden family, and one on the nave floor bearing an inscription to one Thomas de Leukenor (?).