Hertfordshire

“ At the time of the Civil War the malting industry was largely carried on, and saltpetre was produced in the county. In the 17th century Hertfordshire was famous for its horses, and the 18th century saw the introduction of several minor industries, such as straw-plaiting, paper-making and silk weaving.
In 1290 Hertfordshire returned two members to parliament, and in 1298 the borough of Hertford was represented. St Albans, Bishop Stortford and Berkhampstead acquired representation in the 14th century, but from 1375 to 1553 no returns were made for the boroughs. ”

“ As regards boundaries, Hertfordshire is bordered on the east by Essex, by Middlesex on the south, by Buckinghamshire on the south-west, by Bedfordshire on the north-west, and, to a small extent, by Cambridgeshire on the north. From a short distance below the Rye House to Waltham Abbey the boundary between Hertfordshire and Essex is a natural one, formed by the rivers Stort and Lea; but the other boundaries of our county are, for the most part at any rate, purely artificial. ”

“ Hertfordshire has always been an agricultural county, with few manufactures, and at the time of the Domesday Survey its wealth was derived almost entirely from its rural manors, with their water meadows, woodlands, fisheries paying rent in eels, and water-mills, the shire on its eastern side being noticeably free from waste land. ”

“ In evidence of the Roman occupation of Britain Hertfordshire is unusually rich, although limitations of space prevent anything like justice being done to this part of the subject. The county is, in the first place, traversed94 from south to north by three main Roman roads, the Watling Street, running through St Albans and Markyate, the Ermine Street, passing through Hertford, and the Icknield Way, traversing Hatfield and Baldock ”

“ You go to Hertfordshire and settle yourself. Make it comfortable, but no extravagance.”
“Couldn’t we take a flat in town?” asked Julia.
“Town? Not I. There’s good shootin’ and huntin’ in Hertfordshire, and that’s all I’ve got left. Hate town. Thank heaven, I can chuck politics. That’s my only comfort.”
“But you love society; at least, your position in it.”
“What’s the good without a fortune? Besides, we’re not an hour from town at White Lodge, and there’s good enough society in the county. ”

“ Hertfordshire was formerly a part of Mercia and of Essex. Its share in what is usually called “History” can hardly be called great; but many interesting details of its story are recorded in the histories of Chauncy, Salmon, Clutterbuck, and Cussans. Among smaller works the following will be found useful: Cobb’s Berkhampstead; Gibbs’ Historical Records of St. Albans; Nicholson’s Abbey of St. Albans; Bishop’s Hitchin and Neighbourhood, and Bygone Hertfordshire by various writers. ”

“ Hertfordshire or Herts (220) , an inland county of England, occupying a central position between Buckingham and Bedford on the W. and Essex on the E.; the surface is undulating and much covered with wood; the Lea and the Colne are the chief rivers; large crops of barley, wheat, and hay are raised; straw-plaiting and the manufacture of paper, silk, and chemicals are carried on extensively, while Ware is the centre of the English malting trade ”

“ As a shire Hertfordshire is of purely military origin, being the district assigned to the fortress which Edward the Elder erected at Hertford. It is first mentioned in the Saxon Chronicle in 1011. At the time of the Domesday Survey the boundaries were approximately those of the present day, but part of Meppershall in Bedfordshire formed a detached portion of the shire and is still assessed for land and income tax in Hertfordshire. ”

“ Albans, Charteris and Ramsey.
To go as far back as the Heptarchy, we find [Pg 25] the land mostly owned by Mercians, East Saxons and by the Kings of Kent, and thus there gradually sprang up that “Middle English” population which for so long formed a large proportion of the inhabitants of Hertfordshire, Middlesex and Essex. How thoroughly such persons separated into small communities and settled down in every part of the county may be ascertained by the many “buries” found at a little distance from the town or village—Redbourn-bury, Ardeley-bury, Bayford-bury, Langley-bury, Harpenden-bury, etc. ”

“ Hertfordshire was closely associated with Essex from the time of its first settlement, and the counties paid a joint fee-farm and were united under one sheriff until 1565, the shire-court being held at Hertford. The hundred of St Albans was at an early date constituted a separate liberty, with independent courts and coroners under the control of the abbot; it preserved a separate commission of the peace until 1874, when by act of parliament the county was arranged in two divisions, the eastern division 400 being named Hertford, and the western the liberty of St Albans. ”

“ The woods of Hertfordshire form indeed its sweetest attraction in the eyes of many. The districts of Rickmansworth, Radlett, Wheathampstead and Breachwood Green, among others, [Pg 3] are dotted with coppices of ideal loveliness, and larger woods such as Batch Wood near St. Albans and Bricket Wood near Watford are carpeted with flowers in their season, interspersed with glades, and haunted by jays and doves, by ringlets and brimstones. Hazel woods abound, and parties of village children busily “a-nutting” in the autumn are one of the commonest sights of the county. ”

“ It is not strange that Hertfordshire is favored by the artists, especially those whose success has been such as to enable them to maintain country homes. I had the pleasure of calling on another successful young painter in the adjacent village of Harpenden and on inquiring for his studio we were given the unique direction to “follow the road along the common until you come to a new house that looks like an old one.” ”

“ It seems curious to me sometimes—almost a man without a country. But when I said nothing had happened in this big place we are sitting in—it feels like sitting in the centre of a circle thousands of miles in diameter—I was thinking of one of our little English counties, Hertfordshire, for example, where, in any village you choose, you'll find half the world has happened. ”

“ A Hertfordshire Farm near Rickmansworth
Every year the Board of Agriculture publishes a return in which the number of acres in each county devoted to each particular kind of crop is duly recorded, the classification adopted being as follows, viz.: corn crops; green crops; clover, sainfoin, and grasses for hay; grass not for hay; flax; hops; small fruits; and orchards.65 Such land as produces none of these crops is classed as bare fallow, of which Hertfordshire in 1905 possessed 14,275 acres. ”

“ The Rye House, it may be added, is situated in the south-eastern border of the county, a short distance north-east of Hoddesdon.
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15. Antiquities—Prehistoric, Roman, Saxon.
The earliest evidence of the presence of man in Hertfordshire is afforded, as elsewhere in this country, not by written or sculptured records, but by stone implements of various shapes and types. The very earliest of these implements, at any rate, belong to a time when the mammoth inhabited this country, which was then united to the continent ”

“ According to the Census of 1861, the number of landed proprietors in Hertfordshire was only 245. The noble Marquess, however, doubted the accuracy of this statement, and after taking the trouble to investigate the matter for himself, he found that the number of landed proprietors in the county of Hertford at that time, according to the rate-book, was 8,833. ”

“ Hertfordshire is not a great horse-breeding county, and in 1905 the number of these animals was only 15,070. Cattle numbered 38,636, and pigs 25,338. Shorthorns are the favourite breed of cattle among the farmers; and although in the chalk districts the soil is not specially well suited for dairy purposes, farms near the main railways despatch a considerable amount of milk to London. ”

“ The necessities of the war made enormous demands upon the able-bodied males of the population. The Parliamentary army was recruited from the men above the age of sixteen and below the age of sixty. An attempt has been made to make a rough estimate of the proportion of Hertfordshire men drawn away by the war. If in 1642 the population of Hertfordshire was about one-sixth of that of the present time it would amount to about 36,000 men, women and children, and this would mean about 9,000 men of an age fit for active service. ”

“ The moisture-laden clouds, driven by the prevalent winds across the Atlantic, precipitate their contents on reaching the land, more especially if the land be high, and in consequence the country beyond is less wet. Hertfordshire occupies a middle position between the heavy averages of Wales and S.W. England and the minimum of Essex and the neighbourhood of the Wash, as we should expect. The difference between the average of the various stations in our country is remarkable. ”

“ The most important special cultivation in Hertfordshire is undoubtedly watercress, which is very extensively grown in the river-valleys over a broad belt of country extending from the Welwyn district, through the parishes of Harpenden, Wheathampstead and Redbourn, and thence to Amersham and Rickmansworth, as well as to the Vale of Aylesbury in Buckinghamshire ”

“ Roads.—Hertfordshire, as one of the home-counties, is crossed by many fine roads from the N.E., E. and N.W., as they gradually converge towards their common goal—London. Among them may be mentioned the Old North Road, from Royston through Buntingford and Ware to Waltham Cross; the Great North Road from Baldock through Stevenage, Welwyn and Hatfield to Barnet; and the Dunstable Road through Market Street, Redbourn and St. Albans, which meets the last-mentioned road at Barnet. ”

“ To the south of the Elstree range of chalk hills the scenery suddenly changes, and on emerging into Middlesex from the tunnel through these hills on the Midland Railway we enter an extensive grassy plain, characterised by its abundance of oak trees, the scarcity of elms, and the total absence of ash. Parts of this plain, which is continued through Middlesex to London, form the great grass-growing and hay-producing district of Eastern Hertfordshire. ”

“ Fordham had already received the thanks of Lord Verulam, Lord Lieutenant of Hertfordshire, and was placed on the Commission of the Peace as a magistrate for Hertfordshire, the first Nonconformist to be made a county magistrate for Herts. By the time the new Central Workhouse at Royston was built, the worst forms of popular discontent would have subsided but for the action of one or two individuals of note upon whom it is fitting that a few words should here be bestowed. ”

“ Earthworks of great but unknown antiquity are by no means uncommon in Hertfordshire; one of the most important being Grimes-ditch, or Grimm’s Dyke, traces of which remain on Berkhampstead common, as well as on the opposite side of the Bulbourne valley, while a deep ditch runs in a bold sweep from near Great Berkhampstead through Northchurch and Wiggington to the north of Cholesbury camp, and thence into Buckinghamshire. ”

“ If London is in Middlesex [702] , it is Middlesex’s one borough. In Hertfordshire is Hertford. In Buckinghamshire is Buckingham, but no aid can be expected from it. In Oxfordshire is Oxford. In Gloucestershire is Gloucester, but Winchcombe also asserts its burghal rank. In Worcestershire is Worcester, while Droitwich appears occasionally with a small gift. Hereford is the one borough of Herefordshire. Turning to the third zone, we pass rapidly through Cambridgeshire, Huntingdonshire, Bedfordshire and Northamptonshire; each has its borough. ”

“ The hundreds all over the country have not altered their boundaries to any great extent until quite recently. In Hampshire to-day there are thirty-seven hundreds; in Hertfordshire there are only eight; and Middlesex has now the same six hundreds which it had twelve centuries ago when a good part of the county was forest land. ”

“ 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 [Pg 40] 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. ”

“ ONE of the facts concerning the colour of the hair and eyes of the people in different counties of England at the present time, brought to light by scientific observations, is that there is a higher percentage of people of a mixed brown type living in Hertfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Wiltshire, and Dorset, than in most other counties. ”

“ Hertfordshire was originally divided between the dioceses of London and Lincoln. In 1291 that part included in the Lincoln diocese formed part of the archdeaconry of Huntingdom and comprised the deaneries of Berkhampstead, Hitchin, Hertford and Baldock, and the archdeaconry and deanery of St Albans; while that part within the London diocese formed the deanery of Braughing within the archdeaconry of Middlesex. In 1535 the jurisdiction of St Albans had been transferred to the London diocese, the division being otherwise unchanged. ”

“ There are three great Roman roads traversing Hertfordshire—Watling Street, the Icknield Way, and Ermine Street. Watling Street starts from Dover, and after passing through London, enters the county to the south of Elstree, whence it is continued through Colney Street, Park Street and St Stephens to St Albans, and thence on through Redbourn and Markyate Street, and so to Dunstable whence it eventually reached Chester and Holyhead. Although frequently miscalled the North Road, the modern representative of Watling Street is known as the Chester and Holyhead road. ”