Many noble or illustrious families have resided in Hertfordshire.  Some of the owners of old manors are mentioned in the Gazetteer; but a few prominent families may be here named.  The Cecils have been Lords of Hatfield since James I. gave the manor to the first Earl of Salisbury in exchange for that at Theobalds.  The Cowpers have resided at Panshanger since the erection of their castellated mansion in the Park a century ago by the fifth earl.  The Egertons, Dukes and Earls of Bridgewater, lived at Ashridge; one of them, Francis, third duke, is known in history as “the father of British inland navigation,” and another was the projector of the famous Bridgewater Treatises.  The Capells, Earls of Essex, have owned the beautiful estate at Cassiobury Park since the father of the first earl obtained it by marriage during the reign of Charles I. The Rothschild family have an estate at Tring; Lord Ebury is the owner of Moor Park; Lord Lytton still owns the grand old house of the great novelist at Knebworth, founded nearly 350 years ago.  The Earl of Cavan has a house at Wheathampstead; Viscount Hampden at Kimpton Hoo; Earl Strathmore at St. Paul’s Walden Bury; the Earl of Clarenden (Lord Lieut. of Herts) at the Grove, Leavesden; Lord Grimthorpe lived at St. Albans.  Gorhambury, near St. Albans, is the home of the Earl of Verulam.  Mgr.  Robert Hugh Benson lived and wrote many novels at Hare Street House, near Buntingford.

DESCRIPTION OF PLACES IN HERTFORDSHIRE ARRANGED ALPHABETICALLY

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.