ASHWELL is a village of considerable size on the Cambridgeshire border.  The village is 21/2 miles N.W. from Ashwell Station, G.N.R.  The parish is very ancient, and is believed to have been the site of a British settlement and of a Roman station.  The former theory is considered proved by the existing entrenchments, S.W. from the village, called Arbury Banks; the latter theory is supported by the fact that very many Roman relics, especially coins, have been discovered in the neighbourhood.  That it was formerly a place of importance has been mentioned in the Introduction (Section V.); it was a town in Norman times, and held four fairs each year.  The Rhee, a tributary of the Cam, rises in this village, at a spot surrounded by ash trees, and to this fact the parish is thought to owe its name.  When Sir H. Rider Haggard was at Ashwell recently he was unable to say much for its agricultural prosperity and outlook; but in Chauncy’s day the district produced “all sorts of excellent Grain, especially Barley, which has greatly encouraged the trade of Malting in this Borrough”.  The same writer mentions the stone quarry, from which he tells as that several neighbouring churches had been built or repaired.  The Church of St. Mary the Virgin is mostly E.E. and is conspicuous for its spire-topped western tower, 176 feet high, being equal to the length of the church.  Note (1) the large ambry in the S. aisle, once the lady-chapel, where is also a fragmentary reredos; (2) the curious inscriptions on the inner side of the tower walls, mostly undecipherable, one of which refers to the plague that attacked the town in the fourteenth century; (3) the really fine oaken pulpit, dating from the year 1627.  There was formerly a small monastic house in the town, a cell to Westminster Abbey.  From the village it is an open, breezy walk N. to Ashwell Common or S.E. to Ashwell Field, between the village and the station.

ASPENDEN (1 mile S.W. from Buntingford Station, G.E.R.) may be reached from the Old North Road by turning to the left before entering Buntingford.  It is a small, quiet, unimportant village; but much of it is picturesque and interesting.  Readers will remember that Macaulay was at school here, and that it was the birthplace of Seth Ward, mathematician and bishop, a contemporary and antagonist of Thomas Hobbes.  The church is a flint structure,—­a conglomeration of many styles.  Notable features are the Easter sepulchre in the N. wall of chancel, the Norman window close to it, the piscina, ambry and credence table, discovered during the restoration of the church by Sir A. W. Blomfield in 1873.  There are also memorial windows to members of the Lushington family, and an altar tomb, under a canopy of marble, to “Sir Robert Clyfford” (d. 1508), who built the church porch in 1500, and to his wife Elizabeth.  The tomb bears brass effigies of these worthies, which were once in the Church of St. Michael, Cornhill, but were brought to Aspenden at the time of the fire of London.  The aisle (S.) was built by Sir Ralph Jocelyn in 1478.  This Sir Ralph was lord of the manor; he is remembered in history for his sally against Thomas Nevill, when that adventurer attempted to rescue Henry VI. from the Tower.  He was twice Lord Mayor of London (1464 and 1476).  He died in 1478 and was buried at Sawbridgeworth.