Layston was a village in Saxon times, but nothing now remains save the ruins of the church, still almost intact, at the meeting of two lanes, 1 mile N.E. from Buntingford.  It is a flint structure, E.E. and Perp.  The S. porch is in part demolished.  There are monuments to the Crowch family of seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.

LEA, river. (See Introduction, Section II.)

LEAVESDEN (about 21/2 miles N. from Watford) is a village in the pretty district between Grove Park and Bricket Wood.  The ecclesiastical parish was formed seventy years ago from the parishes of Watford and St. Albans.  The huge brick building on high ground a little N. is the Metropolitan District Asylum for Idiots; it was erected in 1869.  The church dates only from the formation of the parish and is situated at Garston, 1 mile E. It was designed by Sir Gilbert Scott and is E.E. The Grove, a large mansion of red brick, was erected in 1760 by one of the Villiers family, but has been restored and altered.  The house contains a part of the pictures collected by Clarendon; comprising portraits by Vandyck, Lely, C. Janssens, Zucchero, Van Somer, Kneller, Hogarth, etc.  The park is extensive and beautiful.

LEMSFORD is another modern ecclesiastical parish, formed sixty years ago.  It is nearly 3 miles N. from Hatfield, on the S.E. side of Brocket Hall Park.  It is widely known for its large mill on the river Lea.  The church, erected in 1859 as a memorial to the sixth Earl Cowper, is E.E. and Dec., with a good E. window, also to the memory of the earl.  The tower (W.) is lofty and embattled.

Letchmore Heath (11/2 mile S.W. from Radlett Station, M.R.) is a small village.

Letchworth (2 miles N.E. from Hitchin) has a small Perp. church, containing a curious old brass to Thomas Wyrley, an early Rector (d. 1475).  The effigy represents him with a heart in his hands.  Another brass, much defaced, dates from circa 1400; it is to William Overbury and Isabel his wife.  The village, which almost adjoins that of Willian (q.v.), is ancient, and was once the property of Robert Gernon, a Norman warrior who fought at Hastings.  There was a church at Leceworth at least as early as temp. Henry I., for during the reign of that monarch it was given “with all its appurtenances and twelve acres of land” to the monastery at St. Albans. Letchworth Hall, now a manor house containing some good carved oak, was built by Sir William Lytton (circa 1620), and still bears on the S. front the arms of that family.

Letty Green is close to Cole Green Station, G.N.R.

Levens Green (1 mile S. from Great Munden) has a tiny chapel-of-ease erected in 1893.  The nearest station is Standon, G.E.R., 21/2 miles E., between which and the hamlet lies the Old North Road.

LEVERSTOCK GREEN (11/2 mile S.E. from Hemel Hempstead Station, M.R.) is in a pleasantly diversified district, at the junction of the roads from St. Albans and Abbot’s Langley.  It has a modern church, Gothic in style, erected just before the district was constituted an ecclesiastical parish in 1850.