[Illustration: MONUMENT OF LORD BACON. "_Sic sedebat._"]
#St. Stephen's Church.#--There are two ways of getting to this church: either by following the road that runs south from St. Michael's, and after reaching the top of the hill turning sharply to the left; or by going from the centre of the city down Holywell Hill and straight on, past the London and North-Western Railway Station, up St. Stephen's Hill. The church spire is a conspicuous landmark. The churchyard is exceedingly pretty, and the church most interesting. It was originally built in the tenth century by Abbot Ulsinus, rebuilt in the time of Henry I., restored in the fifteenth, and again by Sir Gilbert Scott in the nineteenth century. The south porch is of timber; under it is a square-headed doorway; to the east of it is a chapel once called "the Leper's Chapel," but probably a chantry, now used as a vestry. There is a small aisle on the south side. The spire is a broach and stands at the west end. On the north side of the nave is a wide, blocked-up, round-headed arch; through the blocking wall a pointed doorway was cut, but this is also now blocked up. There is a door of Perpendicular style, with a square-headed label terminated by heads much weathered, in the west wall of the tower. The walls of this church are of the usual materials, flint and Roman brick.
The lectern is of brass, and bears round its foot the inscription "Georgius Creichtoun Episcopus Dunkeldensis." There were two Scotch bishops of this name; both lived in the sixteenth century. How the lectern reached St. Albans no one knows for certain, but it may possibly have been part of the plunder carried off by Sir Richard Lee from Scotland. It was hidden for safety in a grave at the time of the civil wars, but was found again in 1748 when the vault was opened.
[Illustration: THE OLD ROUND HOUSE, "THE FIGHTING COCKS."]
#The Clock Tower.#--This is a most conspicuous object in the city, standing near the market-place, almost due north of the Lady Chapel. It was built at the beginning of the fifteenth century in order that the curfew bell might be hung in it. This had been cast some seventy years before the building of the tower, and had hung in the central tower of the Abbey Church; it weighs about a ton. It bears the inscription: "Missi de coelis, habeo nomen Gabrielis." The tower was restored under the direction of Sir Gilbert Scott in 1865, and in the process has lost most of the interest it possessed.