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 famous men have been born in Hertfordshire, but very many have resided in the county, or have at least been associated with it sufficiently to justify the mention of their names here.

1. Men of Letters.—­Chaucer was clerk of the works at Berkhampstead Castle in the time of Richard II.; Matthew Paris, the chronicler, lived and wrote in the great Benedictine monastery at St. Albans; Sir John Maundeville, once called the “father of English prose,” was, according to his own narrative, born at St. Albans and, if we may trust an old inscription, was buried in the abbey;[2] Dr. Cotton, the poet, lived and died in the same town, where the poet Cowper lodged with him at the “Collegium Insanorum”.  Bacon lived at Gorhambury and was buried in the neighbouring church of St. Michael.  Bulwer Lytton lived and wrote at Knebworth, where